IE6 helps you see your true colors
Tuesday, October 13th, 2009There is much truth in what martinibuster says about designing for IE6 in this Webmaster World discussion:
In my experience, when a site layout was blowing up, it usually took my site designer about an hour or two to fix the error and make the site display well for IE6.
So I am still not convinced that spending an hour, two hours, or even a single day is such a hardship, and less convinced that the minimal time typically required, about the time it takes to eat a sandwich, is going to impact sales to those who use more modern browsers. How could an hour or two spent upgrading a site for IE6 take away from sales? Is that a legitimate reason to throw away 10-15% of web traffic?
As far as the assumption that those who use IE6 don’t have money and correlate to trailer parks, I think there is absolutely no basis for that conclusion. Equally, I believe there is no foundation for believing that those who use modern browsers are more technically savvy.
The question should not be, Do you still design for IE6? The question should be, Why are you throwing away traffic by not designing for IE6?
This got me thinking about some of the assumptions that I’ve made over time. For example, I picture most IE users as grandmothers feebly trying to read the text on their screens. But would you be confident that your VP or CEO would not be the same?
I know of the pain and hardship that Internet Explorer 6 causes. I’m there often. But he has a really good point. Don’t get me wrong. I still look forward to the day that we can bid IE6 adieu.
