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One of the websites I work on has an IE6 user base of 35%. Stop what you’re doing, put your pen down and read that again.

Yep. 35% of the visitors to this site are using version 6 (yes, six) of Internet Explorer.

Now, this is a pain; not so much because I can’t use exciting CSS when creating pages for it (I’m really not that bothered by text-shadow and @font-face) but because it means that page and element appearance can be unpredictable. I know a few “tricks” that will help me avoid layout problems, but there’s not much I can do about how, for example, IE6 renders Highslide navigation bars (or rather, how it renders three navigation bars instead of one).

Anger (from http://joefelso.wordpress.com/2007/10/03/the-other-me/)

Accessible web design

Accessible has quite a simple meaning in the context of web design: We should make web pages that people can access regardless of many different factors, including:

• physical impairment (visual, motor etc.)
• the type of browser they’re using (and whether they can use such things as Flash and javascript)
• the device they’re using
• technological limitations (screen size, internet connection etc.)
• to allow freedom of choice (so Firefox and Safari users aren’t penalised for choosing a particular browser)

Making things accessible is a good thing in and of itself (and there’s a fine tradition of democracy & accessibility in computing) and we’re convinced that people shouldn’t suffer simply because they have a physical impairment or don’t have access to a high–spec computer.

Except for people who have to use Microsoft’s old browser

These are all high minded ideas, but for some reason design folk lose their reason when it comes to IE6 and go all Philippe Starck hopeful. Now, I’m a big fan of Manuel Martensen, and he was kind enough to give me some good advice via Twitter today. His attitude is far from atypical:

There are only two kinds of ppl still using IE6, so why bother: Those who don’t care and those you shall not care about. Twitter status 4992456890

I agree that we should all try our darndest to rid the world of the scourge of Microsoft, but in the interests of accessibility we can’t bar IE6 users from our sites, or discount their requirements (especially when they account for 35% of our audience). All for the very reasons listed above:

• They may work in an environment where they have no choice over the browser they can use (e.g. many UK local government departments are using IE6, and even Windows 2000)
• They may be using an old computer that still has Windows 2000 on it because they can’t buy a newer computer
• They may not know how to install a different browser. They may not care about browsers.
• They may even like IE6.

In other words: We can’t lose our ideals just because it’s a Microsoft problem. That’s shooting the messenger.

1. Don’t confuse your and you’re
2. Begin new sentences with a capital letter
3. Don’t encourage people to use new! and exciting! to make their writing seem new and exciting
4. Don’t fear (semi)colons
5. Read your article before publication
6. Get someone else to read your article before publication
7. Don’t confuse lose and loose
8. Learn that whereas is one word
9. Whereas sometime is two (see under Be Concise)
10. Learn the difference between the present and past tense
11. Ensure pronouns are paired with nouns so we know who they are, man
12. Avoid random capitalisation

Because of this oddity.

CMSs are clunky, complicated things, especially if you simply want to edit a bit of text on a web page. They also pose a technical problem: What if, for example, you’re making a site for a client using WordPress and they want to edit something in the footer?

This can be difficult when you’re showing someone their shiny new site and they point to the text and ask (quite reasonably) “How do I change that?”

You could add another field to the Settings → Miscellaneous menu, but that also means adding stuff to functions.php and explaining it to a client, on top of all the other stuff they need to remember. To change a simple bit of text we’d be adding an abstract layer to their mental model of the website. Oh, and they’ll probably pay more for this solution.

Far better then to use an on page editor, such as Unify. Obviously, complex sites will need some sort of database mangement system, but for smaller businesses we should be looking at keeping things as simple as possible. A CMS should only be used when absolutely necessary, as a sort of last resort.

The ever insightful Jonathan Christopher recently posted an excellent article on the usability problems with Lightbox, to which I added a response. I did in fact go ahead with some quick usability testing in my office. Here’s what I observed about thumbnail galleries and Lightbox:

• My average user (i.e. one that has very little interest in computers but uses one at work) took a long time to figure out what to do when presented with a thumbnail gallery. More technically inclined users (in this case those active on Facebook and/or Twitter) understood that they were meant to click on a thumbnail in order to see a larger image
• Only one of my five guinea pigs understood that they could move on to the next larger image in the gallery by clicking on the right hand side of the image (Lightbox doesn’t show pagination links until the user hovers over the image)
• All users understood (or guessed very quickly) that clicking outside of the image would return them to the thumbnail page
• No one attempted to use the back button to return to the thumbnail page
• Everyone was impressed with the slideshow feature (even the Facebook and Twitter users who had seen it before: to them it was conventional)

Obviously unscientific, but useful nonetheless. I’m not doubting Jonathon’s findings: I didn’t have much time to do the testing and I probably jumped in a bit early.

There are some pretty big usability problems with javascript slideshows, regardless of the HTML they spit out and the degree to which they do(n’t) degrade gracefully.

Here’s how I altered the page design:

• I added some explanatory text above the thumbnail gallery
• I added a hover state to the thumbnail links
• I used a Lightbox variation that displayed pagination links by default

Second round of testing tomorrow.

Guy de Maupassant (Google–hosted image from Life)

She made an effort to recover herself; but every time she was on the point of speaking, her laughter bubbled up in her throat and burst out; she checked it quickly, but it always got the better of her, breaking out again and again, like the effervescence of an uncorked bottle of champagne, whose froth must overflow. — Guy de Maupassant, His Confession

Laurine d’Estelle’s reaction to her dour husband’s confession of adultery.