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Ask HN:Firefox only design?

3 points by bgnm2000 ↗ HN
I've been redesigning different aspects of my site, and keep having issues with IE 6. I hate it so much.

How many people think its a huge mistake to suggest to users to view the site in FF before entering (if they have IE)?

12 comments

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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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.
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/