stop designing for IE6

Posted by redrolica on Jul 13, 2010 in slider, web design |

Now before you go off on one, read the title again. I’m suggesting that web designers stop “designing” for IE6 – not stop “developing” for IE6. I’m talking Visually designing.

Unfortunately I, like so many designers out there, still try our best to display our latest creations correctly in IE6 as well as all the other major players obviously. It’s the hugest pain in the ass that web designers have to deal with. (except possibly clients themselves ) There is no doubt about that. I’m delighted though, that it is slowly but surely, disappearing from existence but, here is a wee fact you just cant get away from in my opinion – If your client has a product to sell….. at all……. you need to still be developing for IE6 too. Why?

Well, what do we know about IE6 in 2010?

iedead We know that IE6 is to web standards, what Raoul Moat is to gyms and steroids but, more importantly, we know that the majority of IE6 users are corporate workers. Corporate businesses’ update cycles are notoriously long but, who can blame them when a simple upgrade for every PC in their building and new licenses for all can really add up to massive costs when the fact is – IE6 still works…….kinda.

So, what can we surmise from the fact that they are corporate users? Well, quite simply, they have a job, they have a salary, most probably have money to spend and THEY are exactly the demographic that your product selling client wants on their site – So, we best make sure they can read it correctly, or at the very least, have it function correctly huh? Yep, I would definitely say so.

Drastic measures

Some designers have already said – “that’s it! I’m finished bowing down to IE6 and it’s truly awful, nonsense quirks” and that is surely fine and absolutely understandable, I hate it with a passion too however, I believe this luxury is only for those fortunate enough to know that their clients’, or their own, visitors will not be primarily made up of these corporate users that we talked about above.

Some even have “Kill IE6” scripts that just point-blank refuse to even display the web page to you if you are using IE6! Like I say, if you have that luxury, that is fine but, you better be sure of your target audience first. Research is the key.

So what should we do?

…and what was the title of this post all about? Well, here is my take on it. Instead of refusing to develop your latest sites for IE6 or worse, ignoring all IE6 considerations in your design process altogether, why not just let the visitors see what they are missing whilst at the same time, ensuring they can at least browse your site correctly?

Let me give you an example: I have just finished designing a lava blob navigation for a site.

Here is what it looks like in Firefox, Safari, Chrome etc:

nav_ff lava blob with shadows and effects in Firefox and other modern browsers

and here is what it looks like in IE8:

nav_ie lava blob in IE8 – fair enough

So let’s see it – here is IE6:

nav_ie6 lava blob in IE6 – ummmm, where?

I wont kid you, to get the navigation even looking like that in IE6, took a bit of extra work but, for me, it’s working, it’s fully functional, still highlights your current place and for all intents and purposes – performs all of it’s function and it will serve all those corporate and general IE6 users well.

As you can see though, they are missing out in some nice little effects. They are missing the lava blob completely on page load. (although it comes up on mouseover) Missing rounded corners, nifty drop shadows and gradient backgrounds (all done in the above instance with CSS3 by the way) I eventually added a gradient image to the blob for IE only so that IE7 and IE8 users at least get some of the effect but, on page load, IE6 shows nothing. Do I worry about it? No, I don’t care what it LOOKS like for IE6 visitors – as long as it still works!

Do they know what they are missing?

Here is my thoughts on this…. I truly believe that most of our IE6 corporate, business hours users also have Internet at home. For the majority, stats would also suggest that at home, they will use a modern browser too. This can only mean that if they visit your site whilst surfing at home with a decent browser, they will see for themselves, the difference in quality. Hopefully, if in a position to do so, they may also expedite the upgrade of IE6 at work if your site is important enough to their business and they can see how much better it performs with a modern browser.

Here is where I think the KILL IE6 scripts could be put to better use too:

killIE6 ie6 blocker in action

Instead of completely blocking your IE6 visitors, (yeah, sounds crazy when you say it out loud eh? Blocking visitors from a web site, what?) Why not use the IE6 detection script to show your visitors what they are missing? How about a small header message stating that you have detected they are using IE6 with a link to a popup screenshot of what your site looks like in a properly secure, modern browser. If they are just sitting surfing at home, they may just wonder about what else they are missing all over the net and upgrade their own browser.

I guess my point is – don’t totally alienate IE6 users, some of them do not have a choice whilst at work. Instead, offer education and display the visual benefits of an upgrade as well as education about browser security if your own site has the room to do so.

I can guarantee you this – If you ask any sales manager, anywhere in the world….. “do we really want to sell to these people?” – No matter WHO “these people” are, the answer is YES! That, I’m afraid, includes IE6 users.

So, stop visually designing for IE6 by all means. Encourage visitors to upgrade at every opportunity you can but, even today, I think it is still important that you do not stop developing for IE6 – even just for proper functionality at least. Don’t lose out in potential sales or clients. Make sure your new site ‘functions at the very least’ in the truly awful IE6.

Hang in there fellow designers – It’s dying a death more every day.

I guess this post wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t offer some links to upgrade your browser lol! So here we go:

Get Firefox
Get Chrome
Get Safari
Get Opera (only if you are allergic to the 3 above – their Opera form elements are awful for designers too!)

There are obviously more available but, ummmm, how can I put this? eh, I don’t care about them for usage – only designing! The top 3 will give you everything you will ever need to enjoy the web and see it the way it is meant to be seen today.