[Web4lib] Getting Rid of IE 6

[Thomas Dowling]

You're describing a group of users who have put off, or avoided, or remained
oblivious of browser upgrades for over two years.  Or who have been prevented
from upgrading by non-responsive IT shops.  Or whose operating systems don't
run later versions.  It's a little optimistic to hope they'll all upgrade this
week because you tell them to.  Especially since you're really saying, "Please
stop what you're doing, download 16MB of setup program from Microsoft, let it
churn for a while, and be prepared to reboot once or twice."  :-)

I think it will still be a while before you can write off IE6, and you still
need to do the ol' Graceful Degradation Tango.


Thomas Dowling
tdowling at ohiolink.edu


On 04/10/2009 01:39 PM, Cloutman, David wrote:
> 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 
> 
> Email Disclaimer: http://www.co.marin.ca.us/nav/misc/EmailDisclaimer.cfm
> 
> 
> 
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