[thelist] Browser Stats

aardvark roselli at earthlink.net
Wed Aug 28 23:48:01 CDT 2002


> From: "Melissa Walker and Jason Million" <magellan at gci.net>
>
> I would have to agree upon not making sites compliant with the
> minority of 4 - 5% of web viewers...

this is an old discussion that gets brought up every now and then,
and  it's worth noting that catering to that last 4-5% does not
require an ugly site or major design trade-offs... if you think they
do, you probably need to brush up on your skills...

i'll remind everyone that the evolt.org site is designed to degrade
gracefully across a crapload of browsers:

Inside the evolt.org Rebuild: The HTML and CSS
http://evolt.org/evolt_Rebuild_HTML_CSS

> If someone really wanted to see what it out there they would get new
> OS and or computers... Many times just a new browser is needed.

oh, is that all?  a new browser, of course, is usually beyond the
technical ability of your novice user to find, download, install, and
use... not to mention the older systems that can't run it...

but wait!  you mean i only need to shell out $1000 to see your site
on a brand new computer?  hell, count me in!

can you believe there are entire sectors of the government and
private industry that can't or won't upgrade?  and no matter how
vehemently you insist your design will look better, they'll just
think you can't design...

Developing for the K-12 Audience
http://evolt.org/Developing_for_K12

> Plus - text only sites look bad.

to who?  you mean sites that can be read by screen readers look bad?
considering that some of that audience is blind, i think they're much
more concerned with just being able to get the content...

or are you suggesting that pages of content as text look worse than
images... text which is accessible, can be indexed and searched, and
is easy to maintaint... looks bad?  no CSS handy?

or are you saying sites without graphics look bad?  why would you
build a site without design elements?  we all know how to make a site
degrade and how to keep essential content accessible, right?

or are you saying i can't surf it on my cellphone because you don't
think it will be pretty?

that last statement confuses me, because it belies a lack of
perspective on the topic at hand and certain trend to discount
anything if it doesn't look as you wish...

--
Read the evolt.org case study
Usability: The Site Speaks for Itself
http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1904151035/evoltorg02-20
ISBN: 1904151035





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