I have today personally received 3 complaints in regard to our newly released websites – the common thread was that these sites were broken! – the tabs did not work and the search was unusable. Not good news to any website business. The question I had to ask myself and the rest of the team was – how could it be that we could get these 3 distinct and specific issues when thousands of sessions were being served in the past 24hrs with no issue?
Further investigation revealed the common theme – Internet Explorer 6.
Here comes the brutal truth – our new website architecture does not support and will not support Internet Explorer 6 – sorry!
The constant challenge that faces every web based company is what browser to support. The web has been in operation since the very early 90’s – at that time Netscape was the king of the hill, over the years new and improved web browsers have been released. Each new release bringing enhanced user benefits to speed up and improve the experience of using the web. The challenge in building a website is to be able to ensure the majority of users can enjoy the features and benefits of the website without having to compromise to suit everybody.
There is a very clear and trusted rule which I believe is appropriate to apply in such matters – that rule is “Support to N-1″. This translated means that you build a website which is compatible with the latest version of all available web browsers and also in addition to support the last version. In the case of Microsoft Internet Explorer, the current version is IE8, so we built the new site to run on IE8 and the predecessor IE7. We did not build it to be compatible with IE6.
This rule is consistently applied to other web browsers such as Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Opera etc. The big problem is that the rule of “n-1″ for all other browsers is not a problem as most users of non IE browsers tend to upgrade regularly taking advantage of security enhancements and feature improvements. It is also important to remind people – browsers are free to download. When it comes to IE6 however the problem we and many thousands of web companies across the world face is that IE6 was probably the most widely used web browser, as it was packaged with the hugely successful Microsoft Windows XP and many companies chose not to upgrade to Windows Vista in early 2007 and therefore have not chosen to upgrade to the later version of IE7 or IE8.
I don’t need to labour the point, but if you are using IE6 I would recommend reading this Wikipedia page on IE6 – it states that the IE6 browser is “widely derided for its security issues and lack of support for modern web standards, making frequent appearances in “worst tech products of all time” lists, with some publications labeling it as the “least secure software on the planet.” It is a fact that the French and German governments have advised their citizens not to use IE6. It is also important to remember than IE6 was released in 2001 – it is 9 year old technology which in web years is close to half a century!
So whilst I am sorry if you are experiencing issues in viewing these new websites. My recommendation would be to download IE8 – it only takes a few minutes, but the value to you will be immeasurable not least in knowing that the security of your internet usage will be many hundreds of times better and your enjoyment of the new Realestate.co.nz websites will be enhanced.
Alistair,
People using IE deserve no sympathy LOL
I’ve been using Firefox for years now.
True standard compliant browsers would make a website designers job sooo much easier!
Steve
This is excellent. Congratulations on taking a stand against IE6. You’ve said all that needs saying regarding IE6.
From a technical POV you may want to look into this: http://code.google.com/p/universal-ie6-css/
A simple CSS file you can include for IE6 users.
Hi Alistair – great post and some sage advice. We use IE as our default company browser (and fortunately we are using IE7 (so we’re compliant). ” IE6 was released in 2001 – it is 9 year old technology which in web years is close to half a century!” – If people are still using IE6, they will need to upgrade their web IQ along with their browser. We all have to “move with the times.”
I agree with all of the sentiment behind this post.
The only fly in the ointment is this: some users don’t have a choice.
I do work for three (entirely unrelated) clients, all multinationals, who all use only IE6 in the workplace (to add insult to injury, they also use Lotus Notes as their email client).
There are various reasons for this (some reasonable, some just plain dumb) but it doesn’t change the fact that people who work in these organisations have no choice but to view the web via IE6. All these organisations are planning on changing, but the process is long and slow and involved.
Can you imagine how difficult it is to get web-based material signed off by clients who can only see it on Lotus Notes and IE6? Nightmare!
I used to think the simple answer was for MS to simply force an upgrade, but with so many big companies still tied to it I guess we’ll just have to wait until it dies it’s own death.
Collectively a big thanks for these comments.
Kirsty – I have “lived” in big corporates for many years and your comments ring so true. I was actually involved in IT outsourcing of infrastructure for Fonterra during which time I became so aware of the frustration of our employees in the fact that their home PC’s were more current, more powerful and more useful to them than the piece of hardware on their office desk.
We had at the time an inspirational and far sighted CIO who envisaged one day we might move to a model where given appropriate security we could have employees use their own PC’s (laptops) if they wanted and we paid them allowance. Not such a ridiculous idea given the move to cloud computing
@darren We are putting in a note to IE 6 users in our next release. We may also try and clean up a little bit of the formatting stuff over the next little while but it won’t be a high priority.
@kirsty We fully understand that some big organisations have not upgraded but we can’t hold back on delivering the features that we want to because of these users. We really want to provide a compelling experience to the 90+ percent of people who are using a modern browser.
No, I absolutely agree you can’t and shouldn’t hold back.
Everyone needs to do everything we can to kick the laggers along!
http://ie6funeral.com/
I have just checked on my “Voices’ blog stats and IE6 is the most popular browser at 19%. I know what you are saying that people should upgrade, but a lot of people have the philosophy that if it aint broke don’t fix it.
You will have to do that JavaScript routine that throws up a box saying that your browser is incompatible with this site and have a link to Microsoft’s upgrade page.
[...] Real estate companies are constantly upgrading their websites, so make sure you are running the latest version of your internet browser! So here’s my opinion on which websites to list and sell your home! Click on the links to [...]
good post regarding IE6 but this is just a post, users who are going to these sites who typically use IE6 are going to be scratching their heads or banging them against the screen. There are so many people still using older browsers simply because they are not web savvy and dont stay up to date with the latest technology.
If these sites are broken in IE then you have a problem, you will need to let all your users know what they need to do somewhere on the homepage or somewhere throughout the site. You can imagine someones reaction when things dont work and are broken what they will do as it persists throughout their experience.
- Will be watching to see what you will do.
John
A classic dilemma which you are right to highlight. We have developed the following strategy. We will use a query on the entry point of the site to deliver a slide in modal to highlight that the user of the site is using an “older version” of Microsoft Internet Explorer and as such they may experiences using our site which will result in a poor service. We will direct them to a landing page which has links to all of the alternative browser options as well as the upgrade to IE8.
I think that’s the worst stand any Dev can take even if they think it’s what’s best for a user. Most users using IE6 maybe behind a corporate network that may not want to upgrade their browser. Dealing a tough yard stick to users who don’t have that choice is quite honestly a shame on the part of a dev team. All websites have to be tested for IE6 and discovering that doesn’t work only after launch is quite honestly a huge Dev fail! IE6 or not the Dev team has to test for all browsers before launching.
Ben,
Thanks for your comments. I should explain that the the issue is not whether the site is tested for IE6 comparable, the issue is that so much more functionality is accessible on new browser formats that are in the best interests of the users. However these features cannot run in IE6 – that is the dilemma!
Interesting article on Computerworld today…
Microsoft urges users to dump IE6
http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/microsoft-urges-users-to-dump-ie6
Hi Alistair,
Thanks for addressing my post. I’m a web developer as well and besides a few IE6 CSS issues there’s nothing major that IE6 cannot handle including Ajax calls that the new website was doing for the most part. The tricky part of web development isn’t just doing it, it’s about doing it right and unfortunately browsers whether we like it or now make up a large part of that.