I love simple and extremely valuable services like this!
Google’s released a very simple tool called Browser Size to help you visually see who you’re missing in terms of your visitors and audience:
Google Browser Size is a visualization of browser window sizes for people who visit Google. For example, the “90%” contour means that 90% of people visiting Google have their browser window open to at least this size or larger.
This is useful for ensuring that important parts of a page’s user interface are visible by a wide audience.
I love how on the example page they have an obvious use-case for why you want to design your sites well:
On the example page that you see when you first visit this site, there is a “donate now” button which falls within the 80% contour, meaning that 20% of users cannot see this button when they first visit the page. 20% is a significant number; knowing this fact would encourage the designer to move the button much higher in the page so it can be seen without scrolling.
Check it out for yourself!
bondChristian says
Definitely going to check this out. This is a problem I've noticed on quit a few sites. I visit from a mobile device or on my small Dell "netbook," and the site is completely messed up. And I mean "unusable" messed up. At least, though, It's a constant reminder for me to keep in check with what I'm doing.
I claim to be a google fan, but they're continually rolling out new benefits that I'm unaware of. Thanks for continuing to update me.
-Marshall Jones Jr.
human3rror says
sure thing! share the love!
@purecommunity says
We generally try to test out our sites on 1024×768 as a median size and still looks decent on the bigger resolutions.
human3rror says
cool.
@mtacreative says
Unfortunately, this won't work for liquid or hybrid layouts, only fixed position layouts.
Would like the ability to use vertical only or input size ratios.
Steven Rossi says
Thanks for the tip. Looks like a pretty helpful tool. Keeps me from having to use Web Developer Toolbar to resize the window a zillion times.
DavidCookie says
It's honestly kinda broken. It only works on sites that are aligned left unless you resize your browser. The vertical info bar is somewhat helpful, though the idea of people not scrolling is somewhat of a myth nowadays.
Anyone looking to design a website really ought to be using something like http://960.gs/ .. a grid system makes a huge difference and it's already set to 960px, which is what 90% of people can see.
human3rror says
yeah, we had a post about 960.gs a little while back. love it and i use it for my projects.