Jakob Nielsen now says design for 1024x768! but develop using liquid layouts that adapt to screen sizes from 800x600 up to 1280x1024.
Great but in all honesty I prefer a web-page to be 800x600. I feel no need for a page to be bigger, much like books work well in paperback size rather than hard back and papers in broad sheet format are annoying.
Basically bigger isn't always better, and why should I design for bigger than 800x600 just because I can.
However using liquid layouts and CSS we can give users the option and allow them to choose for themselves, that way everyone is happy!
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/screen_resolution.html
technorati tags:Usability
Blogged with Flock