How visible are the main areas on your website?
March 31, 2010If you want to know how visible the main areas on a website page are to readers, head on over to Google’s Browser Size Labs to find out.
Google Browser Size (http://browsersize.googlelabs.com/) 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.
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.
[Links last checked March 2010]
A useful tool. I produced a desktop background image with gridlines showing different screen resolutions so that I can always check that my documents and designs work with several common screen resolutions without adjusting my monitor settings. I think that with the increase in netbook, iPhone and now iPad usage, the trend for ever-increasing screen resolutions has reversed somewhat.