First of all you need to know who are your target audience are. Are they tech savvy or are they regular every day folks, etc?
If I’m making a site related to video gaming or site relate to technology, I would definitely use a higher resolution setting.
Because the majority of the users browsing such sites use the high power or newer technology than some who is looking for cooking recipes online.
Audience Demographic
If all your visitors coming from US or Europe, and you need a maximum exposure, it’s best to design your site on or above 800×600 pixels. An ideal resolutions would be 1024×768 or 1280×720. If your target user base is coming from Asia-Pacific, stay around 800×600 or some times lower to 640×480. These figures are basic statistics, and no way apply to all you designers out there.
Statistic And Analytical Applications
The best and correct way to find out the right setting is to monitor your website statistic and demographic software logs. Every web host offer powerful applications such as AWStats or similar ones free of charge to you.
Google’s Analytics is another powerful yet simple web app that get the same job done. I personally use Google Analytics here on Project Web Design for demographic purposes.
These web applications report all the valuable information about your website including the resolutions of all your visitors. After a careful examination, you can easily choose which setting best fit your target audience.
