

Ask HN:Firefox only design? - bgnm2000

I've been redesigning different aspects of my site, and keep having issues with IE 6. I hate it so much.<p>How many people think its a huge mistake to suggest to users to view the site in FF before entering (if they have IE)?
======
TallGuyShort
I 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.

------
satyajit
I 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).

~~~
bgnm2000
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

------
psweatte
Two 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.

------
aaroneous
I 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.

------
thexa4
Telling users to use a different browser is pretty anoying. When designing
websites I try to get the design as close as possible in IE6. If you really
want to tell people to upgrade, I'd suggest Pushup:
<http://www.pushuptheweb.com/>

------
noodle
i 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

~~~
Devils-Avacado
progressive enhancement > graceful degradation

------
bgnm2000
anyone know if there are any lightbox type scripts that appear with a warning
if the browser is IE6?

~~~
kierank
Please don't use lightboxes. In my opinion they break the natural flow of web
browsing.

~~~
edave
Please do use lightboxes _if_ your site will not work on that browser. A
perfect example of when you want to interrupt the the natural flow! I've found
ie6-upgrade-warning works well- <http://code.google.com/p/ie6-upgrade-
warning/> for what you might be trying to do.

Most importantly, look at how many of your users are using IE6, or anything
other than FF. Will the better experience for your FF (or simply IE6+) users
outweigh losing almost all of your IE6 users? Keep in mind that many people
who use IE6 now simply can't upgrade because of hardware or administrative
constraints.

