You remember that first brand spanking new computer you purchased for $5,995 with it’s text based user interface and it’s 640 pixel resolution?!? Yeah baby — you dig it the most!

You guessed it — times are a-changing my friends. What do you think today’s resolutions are running on, with the advent of all these flat screen HD monitors you see, draping everyones desks from the classroom to the coffee shops?

800 rez? That’s so early 1990’s.

1024 rez? Getting closer but still several years behind now.

If you’re on one of those lower resolutions — you are sadly part of the 15% that needs to upgrade.

Today’s fun filled browsing is mostly done on monitors sporting resolutions of 1280 and higher. I’ve even got references to back up my bold claim:W3C Schools and ScreenResolution.org. Just checked and yup — I’m sporting some 1440×900 on my MacBook 14”.

 

So what does this tell us and what am I even writing about?

 

We designers live in an ever changing world. Not only are screens and resolutions getting bigger BUT they’re also getting smaller, much smaller. Mobile devices are everywhere and they’re steadily taking over our choices of what electronic medium to turn to first. Knowing this information greatly helps to design and develop the best end user experience using the device of their choice.

To make our lives a bit easier, something known as Responsive Design hit the scene recently and has steadily been taking traction. Sounds cool doesn’t it — “responsive design”.

In short: Responsive design allows designers and developers to produce websites that look great on all screens — regardless of their size and resolution. You can learn all about the hip new method all over the intertubes, my story was to draw attention to the fact that we can now stop designing for 1024px any day now.

So let’s take that authority and kill the minority.