I have a 15″ laptop and a 22″ external monitor (and most of the time I use them at the same time!). I also have a 4.5″ iphone that I browse the web on when away from my computer. But screen size is not the most important element for how your web page looks. The most important is resolution.

On your computer, you can choose what resolution to use. The higher the resolution, the more viewing space on your screen (and the smaller things appear). Here are the options for my two screens – and you can see they are both set to the highest resolution available (to maximise my screen space):

Screen resolution on my MacBook pro

Very interesting, but what does this have to do with my website?

It is relevant because your website will appear differently at different resolution settings. At Webcare, we design most of our affordable websites to suit the minimum screen resolution that the vast majority of people re using (the lowest common denominator if you like) – 1024 x 768. So most people will see all the width (if not length) of the website without having to scroll.  Of course, if you are viewing the site on a netbook (with a 7″ screen) or an iphone (with a 4.5″ screen) you will have to scroll both vertically and horizontally.

How do I know what my website looks like at different resolutions? There is a very cool and simple tool that will let you do that in just a few clicks. Go to ViewLike.us and enter your website address in the top bar. Then simply click on the various buttons to see how your site appears at each different resolution. Too easy!