Sharpe's Opinion
Tuesday, 21st Apr, 2009
ie6update is a script which can be added to websites to fool visitors into downloading an update to IE which will fix niggling browser compatibility issues that web designers have. Matt Hill of Frisk Design took issue with this approach and has written an excellent explanation of why you should make your sites work properly in IE6, and not resort to playing cheap tricks on your site’s visitors.
By current standards, IE6 is a poor browser. As a web designer I would love to ignore it. But what I wish for as a web designer is secondary to what’s right for my clients and my client’s users.
It’s not my place to tell people what browser they should use and even if I could encourage them to ditch IE6, many are unable to. The largest sector of IE6 users are those in organisations where a company wide browser upgrade is restricted by cost, complexity and lack of business benefit (perceived or real). What company is going to spend money on an upgrade that does not offer a return on investment?
I’ve complained about IE6 before – and on this blog I don’t test against it1, but I feel suitably admonished now. It’s true – if you’re making a website which you want people to see, you should make it so that everyone can see it.
- This is actually for a demographic reason – the vast majority of people reading this blog use modern browsers, and since I’m not selling anything I can afford to ignore that very tiny percentage who don’t. [↩]
Comments
Indeed – Frisk Design’s host has gone down. Possibly as a result of posting a very popular blog post… I’m sure he’ll be back up later.
As for Iain, most of the commentors are on the right track – the problem is he has too many moving adverts and images and stuff, which makes peoples browsers go loopy.
Minimalism FTW.
Sorry about my site being down. According to my host “The issues were caused by an apache module corrupting our Apache configuration.” Whatever.
Anyway, cheers Stuart for the acknowledgement and for feeling suitably admonished. I’ll try not to make a habit of it.
…and as if anything more needs to be said, the link to friskdesign.com isn’t working. Servers, eh, who’d have one?
Did you glance at the myriad suggestions to Iain Dale’s Parish Notice: Help a few days ago? Mad dogs and Englishmen.
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ladytizzy
April 21, 2009 at 3:04 pm