Are Browser Requirements Okay?
It’s Not The 90’s… Browser Requirements Are Not Okay
Every so often we still run into a website that tells us that it is best viewed with a certain browser, such as Internet Explorer. Or worse, the message informs us that we cannot use a service on the site without using a particular browser. While there are a few cases that this may be warranted, such as the most up-to-date version of a browser, generally it’s not poor website practice to tell a website visitor they need a certain browser to use a website. A website should be built for all possible technology.
There Are A Few Reasons Browser Requirements Are Not Okay
1. Lots of Devices
Once upon a time you probably viewed the internet using a PC, or maybe a Mac. Available technology was somewhat limited. You could probably install a given browser if a site required it. However, these days a person may be looking at a site from any number of devices and from one of dozens of browsers. The ‘required browser’ may not be an option to them.
2. Mobile-Friendly
Not only do modern internet users expect a website to work on their own computer and browser of choice, but they fully expect a website to be easily viewed on mobile devices and tablets. If your site is not usable with Firefox or Chrome, the likelihood of its use on a mobile device is greatly reduced. And you want your site mobile-friendly.
3. Technology is Better
In the late ‘90s, we were somewhat limited by both bandwidth and what technology we could use to display websites. Browsers often differed dramatically in how they rendered a given piece of code. While that is still sometimes the case, technology is much improved in all major browsers. Getting them to display similarly is not as much the challenge as it once was.
4. Loss of Customers
Any time you place a barrier between your website and your customer, you’re going to lose people who would otherwise be using the website and your service. Its better to put the programming time into setting up a website to be usable for all devices. If your website does not appear correctly on all devices its time to call in a professional website development company like Appletree MediaWorks to fix your website.
