Poll Results: HTML5 on New Projects

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Chris Coyier on (Updated on )

Several folks pointed out that this last poll question was worded a bit strangely:

Would you start a new web project today and not use HTML5?

I worded it that way to elicit comments on why a person or organization would not opt to use HTML. However, that meant you needed to answer Yes if you would not use HTML5 and No if you would, so, possibly a bit confusing, but whattagonnado? The results show that the majority of people would not use HTML5:

I also wanted people to come to their own conclusion on what “use HTML5” meant. Some folks asked if they just used the doctype and nothing else, is that using HTML5? Yes, I’d say.

I think the results are pretty disappointing. The comments were full of people claiming HTML5 is not yet ready to be used on “real” sites. I disagree. I know that many of you still need to support really old browsers. Even that doesn’t exclude you from using HTML5, as there are shims, polyfills, fallbacks, etc you can implement to make sure those browsers have a good web experience and newer browsers have an even better one (just like CSS3 progressive enhancement).

It’s simply not the case that you need to wait until all browsers fully support every aspect of it to use it. As designers, we’ve never done that before. We’ve always pressed forward while not leaving anyone behind. Let’s keep doing that.

For those people who have and are deploying HTML5 sites, this new poll is for you.

What features of HTML5 have you used on production sites?

Poll is in the sidebar of the site.