Browser / Screen Resolution

One of the constant questions facing website designers is what width to design the webpages for. In many ways it's a religious discussion and one that will never reach a commonly accepted resolution. Personally, I like to design webpages that expand to fill the available space. If a table width must be specified, I don't like to go over 750 pixels.

In the interest of gathering more information to back up these gut feelings, we've created some JavaScript measurements that track the screen resolution and browser window size of the users visiting our website. For example, your screen resolution and browser size is:

• Your screen resolution is: pixels.
• Your browser window size (inner dimensions) is: pixels.

Before taking these figures as gospel though, you should also consider our typical user. We provide programming consulting services, so visitors to this site tend to be of the higher technical capabilities, which ought to imply higher end computers.

Screen Resolutions observed over the past 30 days

Screen Resolution	Percentage		Hits

Browser widths observed over the past 30 days

Knowing the screen resolution is not enough however. The main reason for buying a larger monitor is to display more windows at once. So the question then becomes, "What width is the users browser set to?" This next chart displays the percentage of users visiting the site who will be able to view a table of width X without scrolling sideways.

Browser Width	Percentage of users able to view a particular table width
600		0.0%
620		0.0%
640		0.0%
660		0.0%
680		0.0%
700		0.0%
720		0.0%
740		0.0%
760		0.0%
780		0.0%
800		0.0%
820		0.0%
840		0.0%
860		0.0%
880		0.0%
900		0.0%
920		0.0%
940		0.0%
960		0.0%
980		0.0%
1000		0.0%
1020		0.0%
1040		0.0%
1060		0.0%
1080		0.0%
1100		0.0%
1120		0.0%
1140		0.0%
1160		0.0%
1180		0.0%
1200		0.0%
1220		0.0%
1240		0.0%
1260		0.0%
1280		0.0%

Browser heights observed over the past 30 days

While users are more willing to scroll vertically than horizontally, having all of the important information in the top screenful of the page can cause signifigant improvements in your sales conversion rates. The further down the page your important information is, the fewer people that will have the patience to read that far.

Browser Height	Percentage of users able to view table this wide
300		0.0%
320		0.0%
340		0.0%
360		0.0%
380		0.0%
400		0.0%
420		0.0%
440		0.0%
460		0.0%
480		0.0%
500		0.0%
520		0.0%
540		0.0%
560		0.0%
580		0.0%
600		0.0%
620		0.0%
640		0.0%
660		0.0%
680		0.0%
700		0.0%
720		0.0%
740		0.0%
760		0.0%
780		0.0%
800		0.0%
820		0.0%
840		0.0%
860		0.0%
880		0.0%
900		0.0%
920		0.0%
940		0.0%
960		0.0%
980		0.0%
1000		0.0%
1020		0.0%
1040		0.0%
1060		0.0%
1080		0.0%
1100		0.0%