[cam]

I'm not doubting you there Bill, but do you have a source for those stats?

[smallbeer]

Originally Posted by i_am_cam

I'm not doubting you there Bill, but do you have a source for those stats?

try here - http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

[cam]

Thanks smallbeer!

[Bill Posters]

Caveat:
Whilst no 3rd party stats can be guaranteed to accurately reflect general usage, W3Schools claim to cross-check with other sources to ensure that the stats that they present are broadly reflective of the general audience.

The highest authority should always be the actual stats for your own site and its target audience, but for general purpose stats, the W3Schools is typical of the best you're likely to get without paying for global reports.

…and that's good enough for me.

[tomson]

I tend to go by site specific stats rather than general stats as they're usually far more accurate. There maybe X% of web users set to 800x600 but if 90% of your intended audience are set 1024x768 then it makes sense to use the extra pixels.

[Bill Posters]

Totally agree, but often (but not always) you're caught in a catch-22 situation.
You won't have any site specific stats until you build the site.
You don't know which resolution to build the site for until you have some stats.
Doing stat projections isn't always possible beyond an educated guess (educated only if you know the target audience well).

It's for this reason that most designers still default to 800x600-friendly designs, - or go fluid.

[tomson]

Originally Posted by Bill Posters

You won't have any site specific stats until you build the site.
You don't know which resolution to build the site for until you have some stats.
.

More and more work that comes my way is redesigns for companies with an already established online presence so quite often very detailed stats exist. Which is nice.
But like you say, if no stats exist and the client has limited funds then an educated guess or a safe bet of 8x6 is usually the way to go.

Personally thought if a client doesn't know their own target audience then i'd start to worry.

[Bill Posters]

Personally thought if a client doesn't know their own target audience then i'd start to worry

I can appreciate that a company's understanding of its target audience may not extend to knowing the resolution of their monitors or other similarly deep data.
Of course, in an ideal world we'd be working with pre-existing data which has ideally been compiled from proper marketing research.
Unfortunately, too often we (general) are expected to plug the gaps with our 'insider knowledge'.
That can be a recipe for disaster, particularly given the general lack of proper understanding of the web even amongst 'web professionals'.

[lucidcreations]

i do all proofs at 760x420 (800 x 600 browser minus menu bars etc.) then extend down the page as the page evolves