Cross- Browser Compatibility: Choosing your frame of referrence

In a wonderful world the topic of browser compatibility wouldn’t exist  all would adhere to the same standard. But unfortunately all web based browsers were not created equal. The best method for choosing what browser to build to is to check your user base and build to accommodate that user base.

Browser break down

If 75% of your user base uses Internet Explorer 6 & 7, then guess what  you should be ensuring that your site renders properly in IE6 and 7 (whether you like it or not).

Okay, so there might be a bit more to it than that; but not much more. You need a base browser to build off of  one whose default rendering is as close to perfection as possible. This is a debatable topic in of itself; because all browsers have their flaws. However, the Mozilla based browsers (ex: Firefox) have been deemed the closest to perfection at present time  again, this is debatable but they get my vote. So, you build to ensure your mark-up is correct first  this means if you agree with the Mozilla browser, you make sure it works there first and then correct for the other (more flawed) browsers.

So, if 75% of your user base is on IE6 and IE7  this does not mean that you build on IE6; it simply means you build your website correctly and then account for the flaws in IE6. You can use conditional comments to correct the flaws.

The objective is to produce perfect code  as flexible and as extensible as possible. Then, check your site statistics and determine which other browsers are worth the time and effort.

It is for you, the site owner, to determine what % of your user base constitutes enough to warrant spending the additional time/resources on correcting for older more deprecated browsers. At the end of the day, it all comes down to opportunity cost. My brother loves this principal, the opportunity cost of any given choice is the most valuable forgone alternative that is, the second best alternative. Accounting for IE7 typically doesn’t require much work  while accounting for IE5.2 on the Mac requires an extreme amount of attention to detail. So if 10% of your user base is using IE7, I would recommend accounting for that user base; because the time/cost is worth not alienating that percentage. However, if 10% of your user base is using IE5.2 on the Mac then I may advise you to not account for that user base  the time/cost might not be worth satisfying that user bases’ user-experience to perfection. The reality is that anyone browsing the modern web on something as archaic as IE5.2 is probably use to a broken web experience in general. But, that is a decision to be made on a case-by-case basis after an extensive review of the site analytics.

If you are a new website with no past analytics? Well, like with all thing business  do your research. Know your demographic and their web behaviors  check the competition. In general though  always check against the Mozilla based browsers, Opera, Safari as well as IE6 and IE7 (yes, I know there are more) but, these are the big guns.

To my fellow front-end developers out there - just have pride in your work. Strive to create perfect code and in that many of your browser compatibility issues vanish. OCD is a great quality. Demand that your code is going to render correctly to the pixel in all modern browsers for no other reason than because it makes you smile!