Fewer and fewer pages out there have silly messages like :

Best viewed using Internet Explorer at 1024x768 resolution

Certainly there are good reasons for this but I find it interesting when discussing compatibility issues with website design clients how many of them are unaware of usability issues poor design methodologies can create.

Simple information found in log files with analytics programs define the criteria for web page creation that will be useful and usable for visitors. Each niche has different result sets and I found it enlightening to identify the differences in two websites, one in the technology arena, the other in building materials.

Here are some metrics for a building materials company compared to a technology industry client.

The screen resolution percentages seemed much more consistent comparing these different niche website so the average of each is provided below.

So, even though new monitors are all the rage our study shows that close to 12 of every 100 visitors could be using 800x600 resolution. Is this surprising to you? I expect this will decline rapidly as flat screen costs decrease but vertical scrolling is still a major concern on the web for web usability.

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