Welcome to 2007. Where we don’t have flying cars, teleportation isn’t possible, the apocalypse hasn’t consumed Earth, and we are still designing for 800 x 600.
While all of the cutting edge websites are designing for 1024 x 768 and above, big industries are still focused on the ugly half-brother (ok, 3/4-brother) for usability. However, even from a usability standpoint, the likelihood of someone running 800 x 600 and having the capability to run their snazzy flash banner is very unlikely. They are probably using IE4 on a Pentium III trying to barrel through their text-only version browsing experience wondering, “Where are all the frames and animated gifs?” They just don’t make the internet like they used to. Instead, we have expandable websites, SVGs, and flash. Scrolling isn’t the problem either since most people expect to scroll in a Web 2.0 environment (more information on, statistics about, and knowledge of a “foldless” internet can be found here)
That’s not to say I don’t understand that resolution is a factor when designing for certain platforms or demographics. Yes, the iPhone is cool, can browse the web, and is tiny. That’s why Apple included the two-finger zoom feature (which is the coolest thing on the phone anyway). I know you’re thinking, “but what about the people who have bad vision?” Enter eyeglasses. Enter resizable fonts. Enter screen readers. Exit bad design. Grandma shouldn’t be on MySpace anyway.
Yes, I love my big font Web 2.0 styles. Yes, I love clean and simple design. Yes, I love standards. But most of all, I love standards and design that evolve to cope with the new generation of their audience and user base. So stop designing for 800 x 600 and start making beautiful websites for those obnoxiously high resolutions of the future.
Now go own the world.-Ravi Vora
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