[Web4lib] Getting Rid of IE 6

[Chris Gray]

Users are not lazy or obstinate.  They didn't buy computers to become 
system administrators.  They bought them to send email, browse the Web, 
listen to music, watch videos, play games, and maybe get some useful 
work done.  Any attempt to force them to become system administrators is 
doomed to failure and, in my view, is insulting to the users.

The only thing you should ever do (especially if you don't have 
unlimited resources) is code your Web site to standards in a way that 
degrades gracefully in any browser that has JavaScript and CSS turned 
off.  See http://www.anybrowser.org/campaign/ and don't just read it; 
study the source code for their pages, look at their pages with CSS and 
JavaScript turned off, and look at their pages in Lynx.

Your users have sent you a strong message by ignoring your attempt to 
get in their faces with browser version issues.  If you listen to them, 
you will stop.  It's not their job to get your Web site to work; that's 
your job.

Chris

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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>
>
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