When will we evolve to larger than 800 pixels wide designs?
Way back in mid 2003 (eons in web terms), 40% of web visitors used 800x600 (SVGA) resolutions, 40% used 1024x768 (XGA) with the rest using other sizes.
LevelTen has always recommended designing sites to be viewed in 800 wide browsers. In the last few months our designers and a few clients have been asking if we should evolve to the now dominant XGA standard of 1024x768.
We just completed our first website, Gwinn & Roby, LLC that goes wider then 800. However, just to be sure, we put JavaScript width detection that changes the style sheet to fit SVGA monitors. (I know I was being an*al, but we have to look out for the small monitor guy.) Try it, it's fun. Go to the about us page, change your browser window widths and hit refresh. Watch the magic moving trivial box, cool.
I was reviewing the lattest stats and now 52% are XGA, only 14% SVGA, and 14.5% UXGA (1280x1024). BTW someone in our LevelTen Hit Counter reports had a 3840x1024 monitor, what the heck is that? (once our designers find out such a thing exists I am sure they will find a good price for two on each desk).
I was viewing the Hit Counter reports on my XGA laptop with Pluck RSS reader open. For those who don't know, Pluck creates a left hand column in IE, just like the left hand favorites view. I don't know why I hadn't thought of this before, but these left hand column tools were taking my XGA monitor to an SVGA usable width.
Actually, there are a lot of tools that want that precious left hand column space. Looks like it will be a bit longer before we recommend moving to 800+ wide sites.
P.S. When was the last time anyone used the term SVGA? I not only feel like a geek, but an old geek.