The answer to this question is always changing, but the W3C keep up to date information on their website regarding internet screen resolution statistics of their visitors.
Their latest published results indicate that 99% of site visitors have a screen resolution of 1024×768 pixels or higher:
| DATE | OTHER HIGH | 1920X1080 | 1366X768 | 1280X1024 | 1280X800 | 1024X768 | 800X600 | LOWER |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 2014 | 34% | 13% | 31% | 8% | 7% | 6% | 0.5% | 0.5% |
| January 2013 | 36% | 11% | 25% | 10% | 8% | 9% | 0.5% | 0.5% |
| January 2012 | 35% | 8% | 19% | 12% | 11% | 13% | 1% | 1% |
| January 2011 | 50% | 6% | 15% | 14% | 14% | 0% | 1% | |
| January 2010 | 39% | 2% | 18% | 17% | 20% | 1% | 3% |
While visitors to the W3C site are possibly more tech-savvy than the average web user, and visitor data will vary from site to site, these browser display statistics offer a very useful indication of trends in monitor sizes and resolutions.
At Orion Creative, we make sure we design our sites to look great on a wide array of screens, but as there are such a wide variety of monitor sizes/resolutions, some of your customers will see less (or more) of the website than you.
What are the latest stats on browser use?
Other interesting trends evident in the W3C stats includes shifting preferences in browser use. In the two years between January 2012 and January 2014, the stats show a drop in the use of both Firefox and Internet Explorer by 10%, with Chrome picking up an extra 20% of web users.
One potential point of difference between the W3C data and those for many other sites however seems to be the percentage of mobile visits to the site, with an incredibly tiny 4% of site visitors using their mobiles. But, when you consider that it’s a site designed for the learning of code, it’s probably a neat fit for a desktop user with an ample keyboard.
Having said that though, the site is not made responsive and is a joyless experience on a mobile, so it becomes a Catch 22. Surely it’s possible users may enjoy learning code on the go?
By comparison, 15% of visitors to our Orion site are doing so on a mobile device. For some of our clients, though, we’ve found that number to be as high as 70%, depending on the nature of their business.
It’s impossible to give everyone the ultimate experience (especially those who don’t consider it necessary to update their browser from time to time), but if you can aim to deliver a great website to most of your audience, then these stats will hopefully help you do just that.
