Im not sure if this is the right section but it is related to marketing. I was wondering how important is it to have my site in 800x600 format. This is so people with older computers can view it? Because if it isnt a big group of the internet then I would rather just ignore it.. Also my site is hosting related so i doubt people with old computers will be making websites.. Please let me know your thoughts thanks in advance!
its a matter of preference, really. 800x600 is more conducive to a center aligned layout that looks really clean, 1024 allows for more content "above the fold". you can choose either without negative effects.
The majority is moving towards 1024x768 but it is still worth well to design for 800x600 px Some stats: http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp
very true. i'd go for 1024x768 if i had to choose between the 2... but my first choice would be a fluid design using percentages.
It depends on your target market, if your site it for avid gamers, I doubt any would be running 800x600, if it was for senior citizens then it would be worth coding it for 800x600. If you can the best option would be a fluid design then it would fit what every screen size the user has.
mine is webhosting related so i guess most seniors or old computer users wont be really browsing my site
I would say my sites get about 20% visits from users with 800x600 screen res, so ideally a fluid design would be best.
if they have 800/600 and your website is 1024, they will scrool right, only 5% of my visitors have 800/600. a higher percent have 1200/800 or something like this, and for sure they will hate those 800/600 designs, most of the page is empty.
I personally design at 90% screen width but let it expand - to a limit (doesnt expand all the way). Or at least the templates I do use this.
Most of my sales pages are designed with 800x600 in mind, so I go for a fixed width of 700-770px. It is well documented that any lines of text should be short enough to allow easy skim reading, so that size of page fits nicely. Actually, that goes for blogs too - I've got one blog that is pushing 800px, but community sites I run (inc. forums) I have as a fluid layout, with a minimum width of 800px.
I make all my sites 800px wide and then center them with CSS by using a <div> with: margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;