A Closer Look at Screen Resolution

screen resolution 2012-04
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As web developers, we’re always trying to focus on the moving targets regarding user habits and computing environments. We celebrate victory when users upgrade to modern browsers and computer hardware capable of supporting new features and better responsiveness… That’s why we’re excited to see this new report from StatCounter Global Stats that “for the first time 1366×768 has become the most popular screen resolution worldwide, having overtaken 1024×768.”

“The data reflects a continuing trend of users moving to larger screen resolution sizes,” commented Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter. “The screen resolution size people are using is a critical factor for developers when it comes to web design, particularly in the case of fixed width web pages.”

Our user base is moving in the same direction. We’re 17% 1024×768, 14% 1366×768, 10% 1280×800, then mostly larger! We will continue to target the 768px vertical target in our designs as we also rely more increasingly on responsive web design techniques to adapt site content to fit various desktop and mobile devices.  While this information is interesting, please don’t fall for the myth that your content shouldn’t be taller than the screen, users expect to, and do scroll!