[Web4lib] Getting Rid of IE 6

[Cloutman, David]

Hi Everyone,

My library is looking to launch our new Web site last month (hurray).
Early in the development process, about 6 months ago, I had to make a
decision about what browsers the new site would support in terms of HTML
/ CSS. My goal was at least 95% support of what was being used. At that
time, I looked at the numbers, and decided that IE6 would be going away,
and that over the life of the site, it wouldn't be an issue. (I figure a
typical site keeps a template for about 3 years.) The problem is that
the IE 6 market share has only gone down marginally since I made that
decision, and I'm looking at about 90% - 93% browser support at launch
time. It's not the end of the world, but in order to mitigate the issue,
I have posted a browser detecting JavaScript routine that looks for
versions if IE <=6, and then displays a message telling them to upgrade.
The technology works great. I'm tracking all the IE 6 hits through
images that load in the message. I'm also tracking click-throughs to the
IE Upgrade page and the Firefox page. (I wanted to give people options.)
The problem is that after a week I'm still getting a lot of hits, but
diminishing numbers of click-throughs. Part of the problem may be that
the IE upgrade page on the Microsoft's site doesn't load flawlessly in
IE 6. (Oops.) The other problem may be that people saw the warning
regarding the pending non-support of their browser, and my rather
technical disclaimer urging them to upgrade, and are now ignoring it.

So here's my question for the list. How do I communicate to users, who
for all I know may not even know the meaning of the word "upgrade", that
they need to visit the Microsoft site, work through the issues, and
install a new piece of software? Also, and this is more fun issue, for
the ones that are really just lazy or obstinate, how do I grab their
attention. I am not above using Lolcats or dancing hamsters. Creative
suggestions are welcome.

Happy Friday,

- David

---
David Cloutman <dcloutman at co.marin.ca.us>
Electronic Services Librarian
Marin County Free Library 

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