[thelist] Design Resolutions

[aardvark]

> From: "aphelan (Andrea Phelan)" 
<aphelan at confederationc.on.ca>
>
> I'm not sure I understand what you mean? User's to my sites in general, or
> users to each site in question?

each site in question, ideally... users in general are, well, too 
general of a data set... unless you are building a site with an 
unknown audience, then general is good...

> In the case of users to my sites in general, can't it be assumed that a
> generalistic view of the wide variety of sites each designer is monitoring
> has generally the same user behavior as the next? In this case, I'm asking
> for that general behavior. I have researched this on my own sites the vast
> majority of users are running 800x600 or higher, so I'm looking for a
> broader viewpoint.

yes, it can be assumed, but that doesn't mean it will always be 
right...  if i you look back at the stats for algonquinstudios.com at 
http://www.evolt.org/article/evolt/20/2297/index.html (and i'm sorry 
to keep trotting that link out), you'll see 39.9% of my users are at 
800x600...  40.8% are at 1024x768, and 5.7% are at 640x480...

but you shouldn't use my stats without knowing who my audience 
is, and if it is the same as your audience... if anything, it does 
satisfy that sweeping generalization about 800x600 users, though...

> In the case of each site individually, I can't very well predetermine my
> audience and poll them. The site needs to be created and in place before I

yes, you can... 

> can start establishing who's using what configuration. In which case I need
> some kind of standard to base my site on. Thats what I'm looking for.

then use the 800x600... but more importantly, who's the site 
targetting?  what's it doing?  what do you know about the users 
you *want* to attract... if you don't know the answers to those 
questions, why are you building the site?

take all those answers and draw up some profiles... after all, if it's 
an ecommerce site, i would say to design for 640x480, maybe less 
if you want to sell to WebTV users...  if it's a site for gamers, who 
cares about 640x480?  except me...

> There must be some kind of standard to this. Are we still catering to the
> 640x480 users, and are they worth the catering?

there is no standard...

many of us are catering to 640x480 users, by *not* exluding them 
(liquid designs, for example)...

and i damn well believe they are worth catering to... other than 
making it easy on me, which is a poor excuse for developers, i see 
no reason to shut them out...

i get the impression you don't want to handle 640x480 users... it's 
up to you to make that decision... the general numbers say they 
are a small group, but again, it's your choice, but you should make 
it based on the audience you are trying to get...

as more information for you:

640 x 480 Isn't Dead Just Yet
http://www.evolt.org/article/evolt/22/275/index.html

the comments may help you...