A website might look fine in development but it should be remembered that people are going to be using different browsers, monitors and viewing the content through different resolutions. So what is in plain sight to one visitor may be completely obscured to another (unless they scroll downwards).
Thankfully, Google have created a tool called “Browser size”. It’s official description released on Google’s blog is as follows :
“Browser Size is based on a sample of data from visitors to google.com. Special code collects data on the height and width of the browser for a sample of users. For a given point in the browser, the tool will tell you what percentage of users can see it. For example, if an important button is in the 80% region it means that 20% of users have to scroll in order to see it. If you're a web designer, you can use Browser Size to redesign your page to minimize scrolling and make sure that the important parts of the page are always prominent to your audience.”
HOW TO TEST YOUR WEBSITE
You just go to http://browsersize.googlelabs.com/ and enter your website URL into the search field. I entered http://www.supportingtech.blogspot.com/ and received the following overlay.
This tool won’t change your life and it’s not something you will use everyday but it is good for making you think about your audience and how they experience your content.
