[Web4lib] re: Getting Rid of IE 6

[Robert Malesko]

Hi David,

I'd like to second Lisa's perspective. Firefox's user agent add-on is a direct response to exactly this kind of ostensibly well-intended but overly paternalistic design. Just because you don't support a browser doesn't mean your site might not be at least functional *enough* on that browser for a user's purpose.

While it's doubtful that IE6 users are more skillful than your policy, keep in mind that IE6 is the only IE supported under WINE -- so you might have hits that register as IE6 that are actually Linux or BSD users. (This is probably more likely for your library than most others.) http://appdb.winehq.org/appview.php?versionId=469

Check your logs. I just searched your library's current catalog using lynx (everybody's favorite text-only browser), then I tried IE6 on WINE. 

The lolcat is cute, but your presumption that I need to upgrade is inaccurate. So please don't make it an additional & mandatory hoop! A strong recommendation will be sufficient. "We support the following browsers & here are the links. Use any
other browsers at your own peril, for thar be dragons!!!" is a much better approach than
disallowing unsupported browsers entirely. 


Regards,

-Robert Malesko


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Message: 1
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 2009 10:39:04 -0700
From: "Cloutman, David" <DCloutman at co.marin.ca.us>
Subject: [Web4lib] Getting Rid of IE 6
To: <web4lib at webjunction.org>
Message-ID:
    <402F9AF16E17744BB9AB1AF60D2BF412036FF9A4 at EVSA.co.marin.ca.us>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

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


>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "L Cohn" <lcohn at bplnj.org>
> To: web4lib at webjunction.org
> Sent: Friday, April 10, 2009 6:53:30 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
> Subject: Re: [Web4lib] Getting Rid of IE 6
>
>
>
> I agree with some of the comments in reply to mine. My biggest concern is
> accessibility, but not just to the few folk or are blind or disabled in
> some way.....Here's my point of view.
>
> In my library, I see a very few people using their own laptops on our
> wireless signal, who have good equipment and know how to use it. I'd call
> them the minority.
>
> Most of what I see are some elderly people who wouldn't know how to
> upgrade or even what the word means (a message popping up to tell them to
> upgrade would scare the heck out of them).  Then there are the
> disadvantaged folks who can't afford a new computer and if they tried to
> upgrade on the one they're using, it would just crash (if the popup
> message didn't make it crash).  And, of course, there are the hoards who
> don't own computers and come in to use or crash ours (dumb terminals
> sharing a server in the back - they don't run IE, and can't upgrade or
> download anything and half the time the system blocks what they are trying
> to do in any case, legitimate or otherwise - don't get me started).
>
> But, I've learned in web designing and in providing IT assistance to our
> computers and the general public, is to keep everything as simple as
> possible.  My coding is rather primitive according to most standards, I'm
> sure. It's not so much keeping it backwards compatible when what you and
> most of your clientele are working with IS backwards.... <wry smile>.
>
> But my point is still, when a great many people have trouble searching
> your catalog and just getting online, why start throwing up messages and
> making them upgrade.  Put a note somewhere not to intrusive that says,
> "Website best viewed in IE8, click here to download..." and let the people
> download it who want to.  Then people who can't or won't can ignore it and
> go about what they were doing....
>
> Lisa
>
> ------------------------------------
> Lisa Cohn, ILL, WebMaster,  Reference
> Bloomfield Public Library,  bplnj.org
> 90 Broad Street, Bloomfield, NJ 07003
>   973-566-6200x217, lcohn at bplnj.org
> ------------------------------------