Have you thought about cutting edge design? 12 thoughts on browser specific design
Friday May 4, 2007
It can be very tempting to use the most modern effects on your Web site - both because they're fun to build and they allow you to show off your skills and knowledge.
Image courtesy J Kyrnin
But often when you're building with the most cutting edge techniques you're limiting your audience. After all, if the DHTML that you're using only works in IE 7 or the CSS that styles your page only works in Opera or Firefox, anyone using other browsers or browser versions won't be able to view the page as you intended.
Image courtesy J Kyrnin
Poll: What's your favorite Web browser?
- Designing Cutting Edge Web Sites
- Browser Specific Web Designs
- Tags for One Browser
- Cross-Browser DHTML
- Netscape Layers
- IE Background Sound
- IE Marquees
- WebTV Blackface
- WebTV Audioscope
- Deprecated Elements
- How to Avoid Deprecated HTML
- Definition of Deprecated
Comments
There are VERY few things that are browser-specific in modern browsers. I’m not talking IE5/Mac - I’m talking IE6/7, Firefox, Opera, etc. Nowadays, there’s no excuse not to build semantic, compatible, and accessible websites.
I’ve seen a lot of code that isn’t compatible, but it’s not for lack of support - it’s for lack of understanding in how to build cross-browser CSS and Javascript.
Sometimes it’s just a lack of effort. I roll my eyes every time I see a comment (sometimes here on this site) where someone claims that they only need to build for IE. The folks out there that are still using tables, building for IE, or ignore web standards are irrelevant - they’re coding themselves into extinction. /rant
You are right about using old methods Chas and that is why I am in a re-education mode.
Websites are advertising and marketing and if you build something that someone cannot see or use properly; you have lost a customer.
Good graphic design - MARKETING - outweighs cutting edge technology that few recognize when visiting a site. Form follows function, and poor function cannot be covered up with good looks. This is two places many sites fail, which is what I believe Jen is trying to help with in this article.
Looking through that list of deprecated tags it takes me back to when those were the norm. Remember putting vlink?!
Besides design, I know my company is constantly trying to please multiple browsers when coding in Web 2.0. Luckily a lot of the messy work that we
used to haveto do ourselves is being resolved by frameworks such as script.aculo.us and Ruby on Rails.Just some information, C2 Global Technologies codes first for Firefox then the others. Firefox is the future.
We can talk about tables all day long. But I still feel, that using CSS position for most layout is the best way to go; however, when specific content get very extensive (like time schedules and calendars, etc..) and you’re on an extreme time frame to get the project done…. I’m absolutely going to use tables until there’s better CSS support for it. As long as it’s cross-browser compatible, xHTML compliant, and works well for the client/users.