What screen size do you use?

When you shop for ancient coins or visit CoinTalk, what size screen do you use? I use a Mac with a 15" display. I wonder how many of you utilize phones or other small screens and need to increase the sizes of the images to see them well.

Part of the reason I am asking is I write web pages on ancient coins and I wonder if the flow of a web page is difficult to grasp because readers can see only a small part at once. I am not a small-screen user so I don't know the problems they cause and the solutions users have devised. If you use a small screen and are willing to comment on how it works for CoinTalk, coin shopping, and web pages, I'd like to know.

 

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Can't you resize your browser to the size of a smartphone and tablet and see what your web pages look like in that format?

 

I use the phone while out, at home I have my comp hooked p to my tv (32 inch). On my phone, I lose out of a lot of features like drop down menus and info bars.

 

Mostly, I check out CoinTalk at work... I have a 32" LED.

 

I have a 27" monitor connected to my desktop. I can't stand using a phone, tablet, or laptop - my fingers are too large and clumsy.

 

On the go I use a smartphone. At home a 22" LED monitor with my desktop or a 15" laptop screen. I prefer the desktop.

 

My macbook pro is 13.3inch at 2560x1600.

I rarely visit websites on a smartphone.

 

Phones zoom in and out with the touch of a finger, so generally not an issue on simple static html pages. If there are multiple scrolling fixed sized areas it is better to build a page that is easier for a phone user. That's why sites like eBay have a .mobile site for small screens because they render easy. If you are ever questioning what a site looks like then use an online emulator which will mimic almost any phone on the planet. Here is what that looks like.

 

I do a surprising amount of my coin buying, researching and CoinTalking on my Pixel XL phone and it works very well. At home I either use a laptop with a 14" screen or my desktop with dual 27" monitors, one of which is vertical which is great when reading large amounts of text. The vertical is mostly used for programming but works great when reading papers or longer websites as well.


As far as how your website looks on a small screen, this is a screenshot of one of your pages on my smartphone. It's perfectly usable for me:

 

24" Led

 

My computer is hooked up to a 42" smart TV/Monitor.

 

@David@PCC, your post about emulators was helpful. I searched the web and found emulators. Although I write web pages I am not a computer whiz and there is a lot I don't know about the problems people might have viewing them.

 

I forgot to mention there are emulators for browsers too. A big problem on more complex pages are out of date browsers like IE9 ect.

 

MacBook Pro 15", 2880 x 1800

I'm glad you're looking into this, Warren. It is extremely difficult to create a site that looks good and functions well across all devices but using emulators can give you a better idea.

Here is a screenshot from my computer (image reduced so that it wouldn't take a long time to load), same page shown by RedSpork. I did not include the url bar and tabs in this shot so there is a small amount of screen above this shot.


I prefer paragraphs to be slightly less wide. When paragraphs stretch across the full width of a laptop's screen it is difficult for the eye to track across that long horizontal stretch.

 

It really just depends! I do a lot of browsing and buying on my phone and iPad, depending on where I am. But right now I'm on a 27 inch iMac, which is where I do all of my organizing and photo editing.

 

I used to do all my own programing for my website but technology advanced very quickly and I fell behind. However, there is a distinct division of users out there. The older you are the more likely you are to be using a desktop with a monitor large enough for any website. The younger you are the more likely to be using a phone (yes, even tablets are for us 'old people'!). Thus it becomes more important to address who your target audience might be. I am generalizing of course, but this holds true for the average. If you are worried about how the site looks on a phone you might look into how its done, or even pay someone else to do it.

 

I'm definitely an exception in my love for desktops in my age group. I will always prefer a big screen over a laptop. It's what I started out on, and to me nothing beats what you can do with that big a canvas.

 

Sticking it your pocket and going off with it?

 

That's why I have both. But when it comes to actually getting things done, bigger is better for me.

 

There was a time I worried about how my site looked on different size screens and with different browsers but I soon came t a point that I decided the content was more important than making it look best on every possible permutation. Now I will not be updating my site any more since its host recently made my old FTP worthless and I am not starting over. I have no use for those canned software programs that write bad code and no intent of changing my 1997 pages to make them look modern. Those who are too good to view material on 2000 year old coins because the pages look 20 years old can seek their information elsewhere.

I really do not see how you can expect to see what needs to be seen to buy coins from a 2" screen but I do know I'd like my phone better if the phone part worked as well as the 'smart' part.