On offending Mac users
A few days ago I was listening to someone talk about web design and I thought they were pretty smart until they said this:
We designed our website to be viewed at 1024×768 or higher resolutions. About 5% of our visitors use 800×600 - they’re probably all Mac users since 5% of our traffic is from Mac users.
That’s quite an assumption. I’m using an Apple computer and my resolution is 1900×1200. The standard resolution on the MacBook is 1280×800. The smallest monitor Apple sells is a 20″ widescreen. I think assuming Apple users are the source of smaller screen resolutions is idiotic, to say the least.
Be careful what you say and assume in front of groups. Be careful what you infer about web analytics. And, of course, be careful about offending Apple fans.
15 responses so far ↓
13 May 2007 at 12:50 pm
But Ben, 5%=5%, so therefore 800×600=Mac users!
I wonder where these people learned how to use statistics…
13 May 2007 at 1:16 pm
Yeah, it is pretty scary that someone would make that assumption. I’m guessing their site doesn’t work very well in Safari
13 May 2007 at 7:49 pm
As I’m sure you know there are three types of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics. They’re all pretty powerful until you run into someone who has truth.
13 May 2007 at 11:09 pm
If my memory serves right, the last Mac that was sold with 800×600 as its included display is barely able to run OS X (iBook G3 clamshell), and I don’t think many people are still keeping older machines like that around for intensive Internet use. That said, I’m not going to assume anything, but 1024×768 is even getting cramped these days.
What I don’t get is why web designers feel the need to have really wide web pages - are Mac users the only ones who like to not have their browser take up the whole window?
14 May 2007 at 7:55 am
Is this where I throw in some IE statistics?
10 Aug 2007 at 9:05 pm
My eyesight is going, so, I live in the 800X600 world for most of my computer life………
So, please don’t be so quick to judge that resolution.
11 Aug 2007 at 8:19 pm
I am not an active Apple’s Mac user but I know that its rare that Mac has screen resolution around 800X600. I totally agree with you. That guy made fool of himself as web designer with that assumption! I think that he/she just have issues with Mac…
18 Aug 2007 at 11:24 am
I’m just starting to research blogging and this is one of the first sites I’ve looked at. What’s amazing and amusing to me already is what people choose to be offended about. After reading all these posts, I’m left with the thought, “SO F@&*ING WHAT!!”
18 Aug 2007 at 12:43 pm
Danny: No one is actually offended, we are more amused by the fact that she has no understanding of statistics…
19 Aug 2007 at 9:18 pm
I cannot help laughing at how they came up with that assumption. It’s not that easy. I remember using 800×600 years ago. I was on Windows at the time. I use Mac’s now, mainly a 17″ MacBook Pro.
22 Oct 2007 at 2:18 pm
If my memory serves right, the last Mac that was sold with 800×600 as its included display is barely able to run OS X (iBook G3 clamshell)…
So can we safely say that clamshell ibook users account for 5% of all internet users?
31 Oct 2007 at 3:39 pm
This is pretty typical of what windoze users assume. And we all know what assume spells.
11 Nov 2007 at 11:10 am
not designing for 800×600 is arrogant and people who do it deserve a slap.
i design and build websites full time for employment and know literally hundreds of people who are visually impaired and NEED 800×600. Cutting out people with visual problems, even if they are a tiny percentage is discrimination.
14 Dec 2007 at 12:40 pm
Even if the statistic made sense, why would someone would ignore 5% of their customer base.
Worse go on record and let them know that they are ignoring their needs.
Mac users should boycott that site. Let’s see if they care then.
10 Feb 2008 at 1:14 pm
Priceless. I cannot believe someone actually said that, it’s caused me much hilarity. And indeed, never offend apple users… because we like to fight back.
Also, I love “I hate Internet Explorer but Windows is okay.”, very nice. Though I’m not entirely sure I can agree with you on windows… I still think Mac out-does it ten fold.
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