Developing for the browser

• Posted: March 11, 2008
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• Author: Paul Rowe
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• Filed under: accessibility, browser, testing, usability, web trends
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• Tags: accessibility, browser, Design, usability

When developing this site, i have to admit that browser compatibility was not my primary objective. Usually when developing a website for a client it is important to make sure that your website will be viewable by the largest number of your clients customers. In other words assessing which browser users will be using and actively targeting, or developing, for that particular browser. In most cases, but not all, this means ensuring that the largest number of internet users can access your website. See the following link for a breakdown of browser statistics. Whilst IE 6 is still the most widely used Firefox is making some ground towards becoming the dominant browser. Whether this has forced IE 7 to increase its compatibility with latest web development trends and web standards in general is another discussion altogether. In the past there was always some sacrifice between design and accessibility in that if you wanted an all bells ringing interactive site you had to sacrifice those users which did not regularly update their web browser. However due to one reason or another (users updating systems more frequently, the competition in the browser marketplace) this is becoming less of the case and developers are able to take a more progressive approach to web design.

For this site, because it was for myself and those who I guessed would have up to date systems, I previewed my pages using the latest version of Firefox throwing in Javascript, Actionscript and any other script i could get my hands on. I knew that eventually i would have to make sure that all of this would work with IE6 (being the dominant browser), but i figured that if the BBC website can target the latest browsers then so can I. Those visiting the BBC website with the latest browsers have greater access to its interactive features whilst those visitors using older browsers will get redirected to a more basic list driven site. This was a similar approach i had hoped to take (at least it will be when if i ever get round to creating multiple versions the site). However from what i can gather from this Sitepoint article on Microsofts future commitments for IE8 Microsoft are moving away from browser version targeting to a broader commitment to interoperbility. This is good news for developers in the long run who want to future proof their sites but surely we will be hacking to satisfy IE6 and IE7 for many years to come before we even get to that point. Oh well, there is no progress without struggle. If you want a more comprehensive look into Doctype, web standards, forward compatibility and IE8 this List Apart article is a good place to start.

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