No, no. You didn’t get me straight. I hate debugging perfectly working websites in Internet Explorer 6 as much as the next web designer, but I can’t help but comment on the recent trend of not-IE6 pride.
As web designers, we shouldn’t be proud to exclude a portion (however small) of visitors from our websites. We shouldn’t just use conditional comments to show a big fat “GET A PROPER BROWSER N00B” at IE6 users. We shouldn’t wear our non-IE6 compliancy as a banner, beaming at ourselves. Even big games like Google and 37Signals didn’t do that.
We should try to use the above conditional comments to show a proper, however limited, version of the site to our visitors. Inform them subtly that they use an outdated browser and point them to all the good directions to replace it. Finally, say sorry if they’re not able to change their browser, but they’ll have to cope with a light-edition version of the service.
Then be proud. No need at all to confuse and annoy users just because they use an outdated browser.
And that comes from me, a well filled with user-related rantings and complaints.
13 comments on this post
nikan #1
19.Jan.09
I hear you but the issue is that most IE6s reside within corporate firewalls that are insensitive to conditional comments to users. Banners of no IE support might invite IT personnel and pass some awareness upwards
Titanas #2
19.Jan.09
Very true but very hard and not cost effective at all to support. You choose between a smaller user base and time/costs.
Plus, this whole kill-IE6 thing is getting bigger and bigger now that IE6 stats are dying slowly
Dimitris Giotas #3
19.Jan.09
I’ll say again what I said on similar post on another blog.
As long as big companies and organisations (like most EU organisations) have and need support for IE6, we should try and support it.
On personal project, it’s up to each and everyone. But on professional projects it’s an obligation to the customer to support it.
Gerasimos #4
19.Jan.09
As long as this page http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/ie6/downloads/default.mspx exists we do have to support it.
John Tsevdos #5
19.Jan.09
hehe nice post and comments… Let’s hope that IE8 will make some users to upgrade (at least to IE7)….
gterez #6
19.Jan.09
Corporate users or not, n00bs or not, users want the content and the services we provide and most times they have made no conscious choice of browser before visiting our site. So we shouldn’t be blaming them or pointing out their negligence or ignorance.
Often those users are actually *clients* helping create (direct or indirect) revenue streams to us. And businesses that laugh at their clients don’t go a long way.
I do loathe putting in the extra effort for IE6, and what I’ve come to hate more than its bugs is its lack of full CSS 2.1 selector support. It often prevents us from achieving leaner, more semantically correct and forward-compatible HTML code.
chrisbergr #7
19.Jan.09
Finally there’s someone out there with this right opinion!
And if you are building professional websites, you should build it up from frameworks like 960grid (CSS) and jQuery (JS). So you won’t have any problems and after an adaptation phase you will be quicker and more cost-effective than ever! (@Titanas)
Sugar #8
19.Jan.09
@Titanas
When you’re building a service for the mainstream greek crowd, you have absolutely *no* choice than to work with IE6. At least.
In Pathfinder.gr, we also get many IE5.5 and Netscape users. Try to work with that.
lexx #9
19.Jan.09
Amazing!! This is my ie6 strategy from now on. LOL
konya web tasarım #10
19.Jan.09
Corporate users or not, n00bs or not, users want the content and the services we provide and most times they have made no conscious choice of browser before visiting our site. So we shouldn’t be blaming them or pointing out their negligence or ignorance.
Pellepim #11
19.Jan.09
Browsers should to as little extent as possible be the user’s head ache. If you provide an online service – taking full responsibility to provide a rich experience for all user’s is paramount.
Stopping support of IE6 could mean as little as informing your user base that “IE6 is holding back our innovation speed. Feel free to use the service as best you can, it will probably work well enough. But feel free to switch browser or nag your sysop to upgrade.”
Gandy Labs #12
19.Jan.09
Actually, Google DID do this. You should verify your statements first.
http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/40785/140/
Sugar #13
19.Jan.09
@Gandy Labs
Google added a button that promotes alternative browsers to IE6 user interface. Just that.
Oh, and provided valid reasons for it.
In this post, I’m referring to the people that make fun of IE6 users. Not at those who drop support for IE6.
Don’t be so hasty in pointing fingers and preaching.