May 29 2009 at 10:25pm
Universal IE6 CSS and memories of NS4
There was been a lot of controversy last week over Andy Clarke’s proposed Universal IE6 CSS. Most of the arguments against it seem to revolve around the level of IE 6 usage and clients’ needs to maintain their brand image. Valid points, in many cases.
However, as Zeldman notes:
No hammer fits all nails, and no solution, however elegant, will work for every situation. But if we’re open minded, Andy’s proposal may work in more situations than we at first suspect.
Remember NS4?
This technique is very similar to what we used to do for Netscape 4 users when use of that browser started to tail off. We would serve our CSS using @import, knowing that Netscape would ignore that command and either get no CSS at all or a simpler stylesheet served with <link>.The Universal stylesheet for IE6 is a slight variation on the same technique.
As in the NS4 days, if and when to go this route depends on the situation. Of course you’re not going to do something like that if 30% of your visitors are using that browser. But what if it’s 6%? Or 4%? You wouldn’t choose this approach if branding an image were an important part of your site, but if the content is the focus (as Andy suggests), then maybe this is an appropriate option to consider.
Is IE6 worse than NS4?
Does anyone remember how much agony we went through in the last days of Netscape 4? I’m starting to think that IE6 is dragging along longer than Netscape 4 did, and is harder to get rid of. With Netscape 4 there seemed to be fewer stubborn and pervasive obstacles to upgrading.
They at least need to know
I strongly believe that users of older browsers, where possible, should at least be informed that they are using an outdated browser. This situation is never going to change if users don’t even know that there’s a problem (since, you know, Microsoft is doing such a great job of explaining that). Even if their only recourse is to go to their IT department and complain.
This, again, is a matter of appropriateness. Of course I’m not going to put a message on the UW home page telling IE6 users to upgrade. But on the web development site? That would be appropriate.
Web Site Re Design July 1st, 2009 at 1:57 am
This, again, is a matter of appropriateness.
DC Recruiters July 14th, 2009 at 8:52 pm
I’ve come to the conclusion that my site’s will never look perfect to all my viewers. So I’ve decided to just aim my design efforts based on the demographics of my site.
I target the browsers that are used to visit my site most often.
Hamming July 21st, 2009 at 2:10 am
My site behave strangely when viewing with Firefox. I try many ways to solve that annoying problem, but I couldn’t find one. So, I just let it be.
cisqua July 30th, 2009 at 7:43 pm
Well some days ago i read on a local newspaper that Youtube and digg will not support any longer IE6. That maked me soo happy =) probably with this people will change browsers!
I hate IE6. Specially because in Peru almost all people use this explorer. And to make the css work for this is so hard -__-
Motti January 17th, 2010 at 10:23 pm
Yes, i agree with everything that is said in this post. sadly still a large amount of people are using ie6 and ie in general… we as web designers and developers must accommodate most if not all of the most popular browsers and IE6 still count as a major one.