The Other
Blokes Blog

So you have your new shiny automobile. You’re about to take it for a test drive. As you open the door, you notice a small sticker by the handle.

This is somewhat surprising. So you get inside and see another sticker on the glove compartment. Your obligatory sunglasses are to be found inside. So how do you feel about this? May this be slightly hazardous? Well don’t worry, there’s no automobile that’s dared to dictate to customers like that.

However something similar happens with websites all the time. I went to check out a new interactive website today for a public company that deals in security products. My default browser is Mozilla Firefox and unfortunately this new website breaks in a variety of ways in Firefox. It looks no better in Opera. Then I noticed in incredibly tiny print at the bottom left of the screen:

I searched for my Internet Explorer and the website then was fairly impressive. They had obviously spent a great deal of money on this.

So perhaps 80% – 90% of their website visitors will never have a problem. The rest of us, and we’re a growing minority, may well be somewhat turned off by this. Here is a company that deals in security-related products but forces us to use Internet Explorer, which is less secure than other browsers. Of course a good web designer should be aware of such issues. It doesn’t take too much extra work to do it right. However far too many website owners don’t ask their web designer the right questions before engaging them.

Tags: web design, Internet Explorer, Firefox.