New screen resolution data was released by OneStat on June 25, and it shows that 800×600 screen resolution use has decreased significantly since last year.
The global averages are:
| 1. | 1024 x 768 | 56.15% |
| 2. | 1280 x 1024 | 15.79% |
| 3. | 800 x 600 | 12.04% |
| 4. | 1280 x 800 | 4.09% |
| 5. | 1152 x 864 | 3.90% |
These are the top screen resolutions in the United States:
| 1. | 1024 x 768 | 52.22% |
| 2. | 800 x 600 | 13.81% |
| 3. | 1280 x 1024 | 16.91% |
| 4. | 1280 x 800 | 5.05% |
| 5. | 1152 x 864 | 3.63% |
If you’d like to see screen resolution data for the rest of the world, visit OneStat’s web site.
Some clients have asked me about designing for larger screen sizes. In the U.S., people are still widely using the 800 x 600 screen resolution, so I recommend designing for that. It will probably be a year or two before web designers can safely design for 1024 x 768. The risk you take when designing for 1024 x 768 is that if your web site content is too large for users’ monitors, they will have to scroll horizontally to see it, and usability tests have shown that this is a big “no-no” and can be a source of frustration for users.
