I've been redesigning different aspects of my site, and keep having issues with IE 6. I hate it so much.
How many people think its a huge mistake to suggest to users to view the site in FF before entering (if they have IE)?
Ask HN:Firefox only design?
1–10 of 13 posts
Re: Ask HN:Firefox only design?
#2i think its a huge mistake to _require_ users to get FF by either forcibly denying them, or by 100% ignoring cross-browser compatibility in such a way that your site is unusable in IE6. not yet, anyway, as IE6 still has a chunk of the market (15-ish%).
for the most part, building a web application that degrades gracefully is a good idea, and you can forcibly degrade it for older browsers.
and making a suggestion is good. there are quite a few sites that will show a message suggesting browser upgrades.
/$0.02
Re: Ask HN:Firefox only design?
#3I think it depends on the site. Most programmers are probably already using FF while they browse - but if your target is the average home user, it might be more of a problem.
Personally, I don't like it when a website tells me I have to use a certain tool. Now granted, most of the problem is that IE chose to be different than everything else, but still - when I'm working, I would rather have a smaller feature-set that runs on everything than a larger feature-set that requires a certain browser. I would rather be told to use FF than IE (my utility company requires IE, and it bothers me because it's all financial transactions - and Microsoft has, on occasion, not even trusted its own product). But still - I would advise against requiring a certain browser.
Re: Ask HN:Firefox only design?
#4I don't think flat out denying entry with an ie6 useragent is the way to go.
I'd suggest throwing a banner across the top that says something like, "Your browser is outdated and some parts of this site may not function correctly. Upgrade here"
The more sites that encourage users off ie6 the better off we'll all be.
Re: Ask HN:Firefox only design?
#5I am on the same boat as you are.
However, you can expect people to upgrade from IE6 to IE7, but not IE to FF or Chrome. Think outside of the geekdom - people are used to and happy with IE and do not want to venture out into anything developed by hackers (for them hacker is still a bad word!).
I am planning to make my app IE7 & IE8 friendly (IE6, forget it! I will live with those users giving up on me).
Re: Ask HN:Firefox only design?
#6anyone know if there are any lightbox type scripts that appear with a warning if the browser is IE6?
Re: Ask HN:Firefox only design?
#7I am on the same boat as you are. However, you can expect people to upgrade from IE6 to IE7, but not IE to FF or Chrome. Think outside of the geekdom - people are used to and happy with IE and do not want to venture out into anything developed by hackers (for them hacker is still a bad word!). I am planning to make my app IE7 & IE8 friendly (IE6, forget it! I will live with those users giving up on me).
I'm wondering if I should just give up on the IE6 crowd too
hopefully they will be non existent within the next year or so
Re: Ask HN:Firefox only design?
#8Two years ago I hated IE6 as well, but then I discovered the wonders of inline-block and stopped using floats on anything but images. Since there's so many JavaScript and Flash only websites, I don't see what makes Firefox only any different. Just test in Safari and give notice that a Standards compliant(CSS3, SVG, Canvas) browser is required.
Re: Ask HN:Firefox only design?
#9anyone know if there are any lightbox type scripts that appear with a warning if the browser is IE6?
conditional comments
Re: Ask HN:Firefox only design?
#10i think its a huge mistake to _require_ users to get FF by either forcibly denying them, or by 100% ignoring cross-browser compatibility in such a way that your site is unusable in IE6. not yet, anyway, as IE6 still has a chunk of the market (15-ish%). for the most part, building a web application that degrades gracefully is a good idea, and you can forcibly degrade it for older browsers. and making a suggestion is g…
progressive enhancement > graceful degradation