simonong.net|v5

I think in behalf of all the web designers in the world, whether it be freelancing, full-time or hobbyist like me, we all intend to create a website/web page that can be viewed on all existing browsers without any changes in layout, but then again we can’t also get away from the fact that some browsers today seemed to render a website differently, especially that with Internet Explorer.

IE vs all existing browsers has been going toe to toe for years now, mainly because some web designers tend to lean on other browsers like Firefox, simply because it is easier to work on that platform, comparing to IE. I myself have been burning time by just making sure that everything is rendered the same as that on Firefox, Opera, Safari to Internet Explorer.

Growing Trend

The trend was to create a separate stylesheet for Internet Explorer, yes that can make the website rendered all the same. The hassle? More work and more time spent working on it.

Some lean on adding scripts. so that transparent (PNG) images can be used on IE6, since IE6 does not support PNG transparency.

Then there’s the hacks, hacks that are considered invalid and can make your stylesheet fail validation (if you are really that dedicated to have a valid stylesheet).

What I See Now

If I were to decide, I won’t really give more time working on IE just for it to look good, simply because it’s a complete waste of good time just to work on one browser when a site can be viewed perfectly on other browsers, so it’s the majority that I consider the most, but you can’t also blame others who works more because IE is still widely used even if Firefox and Opera, being free, is much better than IE, IMHO.

I recently bumped into Revyver, which was re-designed, and made not to be viewed on IE6, if you were to attempt using IE6, you won’t see the great design by Bryan Veloso, what you can see are just words and a note stating:

This site has chosen to look like this in IE6. It works, obviously. But this is all you get. Don’t blame the site, blame the browser.

I agree.

Others add a section to their website stating that the designer is not responsible for not making the website look good on Internet Explorer, because 4 out of 5 web browsers can render the website perfectly, it’s only on IE where it looks bad, and the message will only be visible to IE viewers. Neat trick!

I think it is better for the browsers to be the one who adjusts to the users, not the other way around. With all the free web browsers popping out on the Internet ready for download, the competition is high and if I were to compare a freeware web browser with all the things I need for web design, and the other IE where I have to work more just to make it look good? I were to lean on Firefox or Opera or Safari or Flock or other browsers.