Sean Rice

I’ve had to do some pretty crazy things with CSS and HTML and Javascript lately. I could go into detail, but suffice it to say that we’ve got one browser that hardly ever behaves properly (I’m looking at you Internet Explorer 6!) and a few more that, while they have better rendering etiquette, still have the occasional disagreement with exactly how to follow the rules.

Now, I don’t intend to beat a dead horse and continue whining with all the other web standards evangelists about why people don’t update their browser or switch to something better.  I want to ask a question – why bother supporting outdated and inferior web browsers?

Think of your users

Consider this: Many of your users are not aware of what a web browser is. These users normally just double-click on the icon on their desktop marked “Internet” and that’s all they know.

I know we’ve all thought about it at one point or another — locking these users out of our brand new web site with a pop up or a snazzy javascript error message. It would be so much easier than actually working to make the new site work for them as well, and besides, who wants some ugly IE6-only code mucking up painstakingly crafted HTML and CSS?

Wheel chair ramps

Brick-and-mortar shops are required by law to have wheelchair accessible entrances so people with disabilities can shop there. This sort of law doesn’t apply to the internet (yet), but we don’t need a law to tell us that we want everyone to be able to get to our sites. If we exclude people who use “handicapped” browsers, we’re looking at lowering the effectiveness (and profitability) of our sites significantly.

Think about it: If Wal-Mart built a door that somehow kept disabled people out, they would reduce their profits by a significant margin. Less people entering means less people buying. The same principle applies to web sites.

Conclusion

We designers should be bending over backwards to make sure that everyone, regardless of their browser of choice, can access and use our sites. I’m getting a little tired of hearing (and occasionally saying) “when can we stop supporting IE6?” The answer is when people stop using it — which may be quite some time away.