Recommended website resolution (width and height)? [closed]
Is there any standard on common website resolution?
We are targeting newer monitors, perhaps at least 1280px wide, but the height may varies, and each browser may have different toolbar heights too.
Is there any sort of standard to this?
The advice these days is:
Optimize for 1024x768. For most sites this will cover most visitors. Most logs show that 92-99% of your visits will be over 1024 wide. While 1280 is increasingly common, there are still lots at 1024 and some below that. Optimize for this but don't ignore the others.
1024 = ~960. Accounting for scrollbars, window edges, etc means the real width of a 1024x768 screen is about 960 pixels. Some tools are based on a slightly smaller size, about 940. This is the default container width in twitter bootstrap.
Don't design for one size. Window sizes vary. Don't assume screen size equals windows size. Design for a reasonable minimum, but assume it will adjust.
Use responsive design and liquid layouts. Use layouts that will adjust when the window is resized. People do this a lot, especially on big monitors. This is just good CSS practice. There are several front-end frameworks that support this.
Treat mobile as a first-class citizen. You are getting more traffic from mobile devices all the time. These introduce even more screen sizes. You can still optimize for 960, but using responsive web design techniques means your page will adjust based on the screen size.
Log browser display info. You can get actual numbers about this. I found some numbers here and here and here. You can also rig your site to collect the same data.
User will scroll so don't worry much about height. The old argument was that users wouldn't scroll and anything important should be "above the fold." This was overturned years ago. Users scroll a lot.
More about screen resolutions:
- Screen Resolution and Page Layout
- Best Screen Resolution to Design Websites
- Design for browser size - not screen size
More about responsive design:
- Responsive Web Design (2010, May 25), Ethan Marcotte, A List Apart.
- Responsive Web Design at Wikipedia
- Multi-device layout patterns (2012, Mar 14) Luke Wroblewski. Catalogs the most popular patterns for adaptable multi-device screen layouts.
Tools and front-end frameworks for responsive design and liquid layouts:
- Twitter Bootstrap
- Zurb Foundation
- 50 fantastic tools for responsive web design (2012, April 24) Denise Jacobs & Peter Gasston
Bad idea, I believe. The whole point in separating content from layout was to enable your web page to be displayed on any sort of browser.
Putting in artificial limitations such as a minimum screen size will limit your market.
Having said that, I believe every desktop should be able to display 1024x768. But what about the browsers running on iPhones or other screen-challenged devices, or even those that don't use their entire desktop for the browser?
In answer to your specific question, no, I don't believe there is any standard for a minimum or common display area in browsers.
Forcing your user to scroll horizontally is a serious UI transgression. Unless you are specifically building a web site for a population with a known screen size, you are safest ensuring that your design works with screens as small as 800 pixels wide (about 8% of the web surfing population if memory serves me right). It is wise to make it adapt well to larger screens but not at the cost of the folks still surfing at 800x600.
Here's another thing to consider as well: not everyone runs their browser at full screen (I don't). So the idea that if is Ok to design for a specific (and large) "screen size" really doesn't work for a number of reasons.
Update on 12/15/2010: When I first answered this question, 800 pixels was an appropriate answer. However, at this point, I would recommend 1024 pixels wide (or 960 as someone else points out). Technology marches on...