Heh. Well, will wonders never cease? Turns out old people had a point. Those new-fangled computer thingies were too small and a terrible strain on the eyes. While hand-held gadgets are currently commandeering the majority of attention from the techie press, a silent revolution is taking place on desktops across the world: Big Monitors.
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"I hate to tell you this but if you're still making pages for 1024x768, it's time to step up to the bigness." |
You know me, behind the times - hardware-wise - on purpose. I'm still rocking out to the 15-inch LCD monitor that is part of my ancient IBM NetVista all-in-one. But let me tell you, the switch from a tube monitor to Liquid Crystal Display was so satisfying, I'm still happy. I would totally love to have one of these sweet new 24-inch jobs but I don't. That doesn't mean I'm too stupid to recognize the fact that millions of people possess way better desktop (and laptop) monitors than I do. I may be a stubborn old tightwad but I'm certainly aware that users have gone way past resolutions of 800x600 or, for that matter, 1024x768. Surfers are cruising the net with 20"-24" inch behemoth screens. They're viewing the awesome on double, sometimes triple monitors, sporting resolutions from 1600x1200 to as high as 2048x1536. Netbooks and iPhones are hot but
their tiny appeal isn't stopping folks from upgrading their good old desktops and notebooks with larger displays.
I hate to tell you this but if you're still making pages for 1024x768, it's time to step up to the bigness. Your layout looks squished. Your fonts are too small. Your colors are faded out. The blank space around your design is becoming a problem. You're losing traffic to websites that are keeping up with the trends. Your thumbnails are minuscule. Your video clip windows belong on a cellphone. Your below-the-fold content is encroaching on your above-the-fold genius. Your ad placement is off and not helping you generate sales.
One of my favorite places to gauge user Internet statistics is the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) W3Schools. Mind you, W3Schools's audience leans geek. Yet, considering they're part of a computer language standards body, I believe their stats are reliably authentic and not about the marketing. According to W3schools, 57% of their traffic comes from surfers with monitor resolutions of higher that 1024x768. Thirty six percent are on 1024x768 monitors. 800X600 resolutions are down to 4%. Throw out the W3C nerd factor, assume that your visitors are moderately tech-savvy or complete newbies and surmise that roughly 40%-60% of your target audience is viewing your page with 1024x768 while a decent forty percent are watching your stuff on way bigger screens.
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But why take my silly formulations to heart? If you pay for your hosting and have decent server stats, you can check for yourself. Go to the control panel of your host, log in and see the visitor resolution statistics for yourself. The majority of your surfers are still on 1024x768 resolution but that majority isn't a big majority and it's shrinking.
Your surfers may not be be buying new towers but they're certainly upgrading their monitors. They're buying tiny external monitors that display software control panels and online consoles like IM or game interfaces. Your visitors are not just getting bigger screens, they're freeing up the space on their main windows. Manufacturers are selling keyboards with integrated screens for heaven's sake.
Your size 2, 10-point fonts are starting to blend into the background on today's larger monitors. Your vivid color scheme is tepid. Your ads no longer pop. Your sales are suffering. Your web designs need serious upgrading.
No more 700 pixel max widths. Shoot for 1000px. Up-size those fonts to old people height. Bigger thumbnails. Bigger video players. Bigger everything.
I know that it's going to be a pain in the ass to re-design your adult websites but your future success is at stake. Surfers are going to look at your wee layouts and see nothing but wee efforts. Why would they waste time on bitty pics and petite videos when some other webmaster is happily giving them generously-sized tits, asses and cocks? Why would they prefer your site over one that's bigger, brighter and easier on the eyes? Home computer monitors are bigger and they'll continue to get bigger. Upgrade your designs to larger resolutions now, before your pages disappear from view.