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By ijoselito | March 27, 2008
As a web developer every time I face a new job is a new challenge for me. I only started making website a year ago, it was for coincidence really that I got into this business. I am currently finishing my second year studying computer games development. This course is a foundation degree course (2 years here in the UK) that could lead to to a bachelor degree if I complete a third year. In my first year we had a assignment on website design, just the basics of it. We reviewed issues concerning usability, user centred design, accessibility and standards. No one of my class mates handed a standard compliant design, that maybe have something to do with the fact that the only browsers installed in our machines at college are Internet Explorer 6 and Mozilla 1.5. How were they suppose to create a standard website if they can’t even installed Firefox 2 in their machines? (it’s against college rules).
Now I have been doing websites for almost a year. I manage to meet a few clients in my spare time and it seems that this could be a company in the next few months, if not weeks. So I’d like to think that I am almost a pro, inexperienced and not so good, but a pro at least.
At the moment, my major single problem I can point out as web developer is Internet Explorer 6. If you have ever developed a website using CSS and complying with the standards of the WCC you know what I am saying.
Let’s have a look to the statistics on how web browser versions are used in the net, the following graphic displays the percentage of the most used browsers out there:
data obtained from www.netapplications.com
The graphic shows how IE6 is receding against IE7, a logic updating process since Microsoft automatic updates are included in most Windows installations. Anyone with a little knowledge of strategy could tell you that this graphic shows something else.
Even if the sum of this two versions of IE still account for almost an 80 percent of all browsers, this is the lowest rate for IE in years. There is a window of hope for all the other major browsers, name them Firefox, Safari and Opera. Now the main reason that IE6 is still there is us, developers. Every time I modify a CSS stylesheet to be compatible with the weird rendering of IE6 I am helping old Bill to get more dollars in his pocket, also I am perpetuating the martyrdom of every developer by supporting this platform.
The thing is that we are supposed to be the experts yet we are manipulated in a way that we have to do it to satisfy our customers. I believe there is a chance here to tell the people to stop supporting IE6 as soon as possible. I already started so why you can’t.
Why? Well if we stop developing for IE by politely telling our customers (which supposedly came to us to ask for advice) that the platform is insecure, unsafe, unstable and that MS itself won’t be supporting for long time, we may have a chance that they will listen.
I was recently developing a website for a Pizza Restaurant here in Brighton. I follow my normal steps:
- My designer handed me Photoshop design with the website look.
- I created a temporary page (XHTML and CSS) with the look suggested by the designer. (just a background and a polite message to future users really).
- I code the home page layout, using appropriate semantics and XHTML with BBedit.
- I started a CSS stylesheet (BBedit again).
- I opened Firefox 2 (my testing browser) to start testing my CSS styles.
- I used the Firefox Developer Bar to test the XHTML and CSS. I tested with the W3C standards.
- Once I was happy with the home page design I showed to the client in a private testing server. I kept the temporary page as intro page, suggesting the client to use Firefox as browser for testing purposes, I even added a link to Firefox and clear instructions on how to download and install it.
- After the approval from my client I proceeded to complete the website adding other pages and the required styles for the new pages.
- I used the W3C (XHTML and CSS) testing facilities thorough, as well as other tests like accessibility (WAI and Section 508)
- I tested the complete website browser compatibility using Firefox, Safari and Opera.
All I had from this ten steps is joy and satisfaction, I really like being a web developer in these terms. The website requirements were very simple so this is an easy example, no complicated scripting or internet applications for this Pizza website, just a simple static website.
After having the site working, complying with standards and displaying beautifully over 20 percent of the world browsers I knew that this wasn’t finished. My personal hell of each project had just started. Now I had to adapt my design to Internet Explorer.
When I tried to load this website in IE6 I just wanted to cry, it was rendered completely different to the other browsers, anyway as expected. I noticed that IE7 doesn’t create as many problems as IE6. Creating an alternative IE7 stylesheet was not a problem, a few extra lines in an external CSS and a conditional comment was enough to fix the problem. But IE6 is another beast on its own. I tried to add extra lines to an external IE6 stylesheet but I wasn’t going anywhere. The site was just rendered too different in IE6 and to straighten it up I would have had to redesign entirely the main stylesheet, crazy non-sense, anyway why would want to use IE6? It’s full of bugs, unsafe, and outdated.
My solution for this site, I used the same conditional comments to create a page exclusively for IE6. Now every time a user tries to load the Pizza site with IE6 will receive a message like this one:
“Webmaster Important MessageOur website doesn’t support Internet Explorer 6 (IE6), our strong advice is to download the latest version of Firefox (link) to see the website. You could see the website with the last version of Internet Explorer (IE7).If you want to enjoy the experience of surfing the web have a look at this two other browsers, Safari (link) and Opera (link). If you decide to keep using IE6 is our duty to tell you that you may putting all your information in risk. … ”
I am getting away with this one because I installed myself Firefox in my client’s computer and also because he trusted me, but nevertheless, he came to me asking for advice, what should I have done?Most customers will demand IE6 support but I believe we are not paid the extra bucks that represent supporting IE6 in our designs and since the trend shows that users will upgrade to a newer version sooner or later why don’t we experts push up a little so this users stop using IE and start using something else.
The browser market will be healthier, we will have better products (browsers, and websites too), and the most important thing for us developers, we’ll work a lot less for the same money.
There are many alternatives to Internet Explorer but I will name only the top 3, Firefox, Safari and Opera. Each one of these browsers are proved to be more effective, more secure, faster and complete than any current version (and maybe future versions too) of IE.
Firefox stands out of these three. If there is a direct competitor to IE dominance currently is Firefox. In some statistics it shows up to a 20% of total users in the web using Firefox as main browser. Firefox is part of the Mozilla Foundation, one of the world leaders in Open Source development. Firefox is here definitely to stay, so trying to switch IE users to Firefox is a good bet for the future of web development, it’s good for all of us as users and developers.
Safari will have its time, maybe is not ready yet but it will definitely come to it. Apple is growing at amazing rates despite the recessing period that the industry is going through. Apple legendary user centred approach captivates users with their sleek interfaces and easy of use. I love Safari and it my personal choice of browser. Safari used with Apple OS X is unbeatable in usability and elegance. Now we have Safari in the iPhone and it’s been a revolution so far. We’ll see how long it takes Safari to reach bigger share figures in the browser market.
Opera is like the best sport player who has never won anything. It’s a fantastic browser, probably the fastest out there. In usability terms it could well beat Firefox and challenge Safari, definitely a very well thought and design internet browser, but with a very tiny little share of the market.
My point is that we should be the ones who educate our clients and customers, show them what it’s good for them. Microsoft has its time and personally I think they blew it. This thing could (and should) go only one way: good bye IE, welcome something else better!!!
Jose Blas
Web Director
None Interaction Projects
PD: What do you think? Do you have any positive or negative experience regarding this issue? Please let us know, make a comment!!
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