Please talk me off the ledge.

[nixnerd]

I hate all Internet Explorer versions. Please, save your breath telling me they are great because they surely are not.

The problem is, every chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Because IE REFUSES to support some of the coolest features of the web, I am unable to make anything for this browser that remotely resembles innovation. Everything looks 5 years old.

I’m considering NOT supporting IE at all for my portfolio site. Big mistake?

You will probably say it is but I see supporting it as a BIG waste of time. It’s taking me weeks to figure out all the quirks of IE and I flat out don’t have time for it.

What should I do?

[Paulie_D]

What should I do?

Get over it.

[Senff]

I hate all Internet Explorer versions. Please, save your breath telling me they are great because they surely are not.

Correct. Everything up to IE9 is not that great. IE10 however, and IE11 especially…

The problem is, every chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Because IE REFUSES to support some of the coolest features of the web, I am unable to make anything for this browser that remotely resembles innovation. Everything looks 5 years old.

That’s not particularly true. The problem is not that IE doesn’t support cool features, the problem is that a lot of people use older versions of IE that don’t support those features.

I’m considering NOT supporting IE at all for my portfolio site. Big mistake?

Oh yes. Unless you really want to exclude a significantly large group of people who still use IE, or have those people think your portfolio is a waste of THEIR time.

You will probably say it is but I see supporting it as a BIG waste of time. It’s taking me weeks to figure out all the quirks of IE and I flat out don’t have time for it.

Nah, it really doesn’t take that long. Sure, IE has its quirks and sure, there are some things you have to keep in mind if you want to make sure your site doesn’t break in older versions of IE, but it’s really not that hard to code properly.

What should I do?

Paulie said it! :)

[TheDoc]

It’s really simple: design for modern browsers and make sure IE8 and 9 get appropriate fallbacks. It really isn’t that hard. IE8 won’t get rounded corners, shadows, etc – that should be fine.

IE support has actually significantly dropped for me as I’ve gotten older. My code is cleaner and I have the experience to know right off the bat if something is or isn’t going to work in < IE10 and plan accordingly (like putting in fallbacks right away).

[chrisburton]

Get over it. — @Paulie_D

Very helpful, Paulie.

@Joe_Temp

Don’t jump!

All kidding aside, when it comes to your portfolio site or any site really, you should always check the analytics to determine what you should be supporting. On my site, I have IE versions all the way down to IE 7. I also noticed majority of those were actually from me. So be sure to check locations as well.

IE 10 actually has pretty good support therefore, I wouldn’t say all IE versions are horrible. In my personal opinion, unless your analytics show you need to support IE 8 and lower, I would just support IE 9 and up.

[chrisburton]

I wouldn’t scrap your idea just because one browser does not support the features. Make a conditional stylesheet if you need to.

[TheDoc]

We use CSS3 transitions and animations on a bunch of stuff. We know that in < IE10 that those elements will just snap into place and think that’s perfectly acceptable.

I will use some kind of hack to render a static version on IE. It’s my only option and it is what it is.

Why would you need a hack? If the form doesn’t display normally in IE then you haven’t coded it properly – it’s really as simple as that. You can beat up the browser all you want, but at the end of the day we’re the ones that write the code.

Hell, TriDiv doesn’t even support Firefox.

This isn’t a fair comparison at all.

[Alen]

http://bradfrostweb.com/blog/mobile/support-vs-optimization/

[Senff]

The one thing I will bring up is that, at least in my experience, very clean code with best practices (no ‘hacks’ in other words) has very rarely resulted in a totally messed up website in IE. I can’t remember the last time I pulled up a site in IE 7, 8 or 9 after it was done and had major problems in the layout.

+1

[Yann]

one word: modernizr

Consider yourself lucky… Back in the days, it was a REAL challenge to get sites to look the same in IE6.

IE8 is really a piece of cake to deal with in comparison.

[Senff]

@Joe_Temp : nope! Good old classic Heineken :)

[__]

Usually, if I see a client using IE, I’ll talk to them about it when we do the site launch.

I’d highly recommend trying to catch it sooner. I actively engage this issue, and talk about browser support (specifically, what it means, not simply which browsers I will support) before I even give an estimate.

My initial conversation goes something like …

I understand where you’re coming from, but I can really see that conversation backfiring. IE users might have a lower “browser ed level,” but that doesn’t mean they think that anything could possibly be better.

The truth is IE is a bad choice for a browser.

Older versions, yes. 9 is so-so. 10 is very good (not that I like it, but it is very good). A better approach to the conversation would be “you should upgrade.” For those on IE8 -who cannot upgrade- it becomes a discussion about how this is ten years old, and simply cannot do what modern browsers can. In this case, I would actively suggest switching browsers.

[__]

You typically can’t have a “come to Jesus discussion” with someone you first meet to begin with :)

True. I meant to differentiate between that and a (much less touchy) discussion about the differences in what to expect.

“You’re using IE8? Okay. You want to see nifty-thing-x? You can see it in IE10, or Chrome, or Firefox…”

As with any subject, if you have a good enough relationship with your client and believe that they will respond well, go for the “jesus talk.” Just be aware that many of these same people fall into the “but that’s the button to the Internet” and “making it work is your job” categories.

How many people still use XP? Freakin’ tons! It’s ridiculous. Some users can’t even upgrade to 10.

Right; I agreed with you in that case.

[Senff]

But just converting the client to stop using IE doesn’t mean much if most of the actual visitors of the site still use IE to begin with.

[__]

But just converting the client to stop using IE doesn’t mean much if most of the actual visitors of the site still use IE to begin with.

Which is something the “You want to see nifty-thing-x?” conversation at least helps prepare for.

In the end, however, 9 out of 10 of my clients only care what it looks like in the browser they use …unless you take the time to point it out.

[Author]

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