Why IE6 Update is a Terrible Idea ∞
Posted at 9:49 AM on May 13th, 2009
By now, you’ve probably seen IE6 Update, which is a javascript file you can include on your site that provides IE6 users with a message that appears to be a system or browser toolbar that provides users with critical information and a link to a required update (really it is just a link to download the latest IE browser). Recently Paul Boag recorded a short rant on AudioBoo which was very politely disagreed with by a user named Japh who believes the tactic is perfectly acceptable.
My Official Position on IE6
As for my official position on IE6, I hate it and agree with my bud Rogie, who coined the phrase “IE6 is a bag of smashed buttholes.” I hate having to fix or disable functionality for the sake of “making it work in IE6″ and I definitely would rather spend that time playing SimCity for iPhone (which rocks, by the way).
However, for certain websites with certain audiences, it is entirely necessary to make fixes for IE6. Some have taken the approach of cursing at and verbally assaulting users of IE6 and some make use of the ever-popular “display: none” stylesheet targeted at IE6 with conditional comments.
What’s wrong with IE6Update?
For starters, using IE6 Update violates your user’s trust. By presenting what appears to be a security information box that looks just like a standard browser message, you are trying to trick your users into thinking there is a mandatory system update or immediate security risk (which truly can be said of any user running IE6, but that’s not something this post will cover).
In addition, most IE6 users are well aware their browser is completely incapable, sad, and pathetic. They don’t need you, a pretentious browser elitist, pushing a standards-compliant browser like Firefox or Safari down their throats. For the most part, they know IE6 sucks. In most cases, they literally have no other option due to being a corporate user with a locked down PC or laptop provided to them by their company.
The Right Approach
For some, developing for IE6 doesn’t make a lot sense. If your audience is mainly tech-savvy folks who own multiple computers, own an iPhone, and drink Starbucks twice a day, odds are you can ignore IE6 and focus on providing the best possible web product to the users who make up your target audience (which you should be doing anyway, even with IE6 thrown into the mix).
However, I think anyone who ignores analytics data and says “screw IE6″ without even considering the potential impact on metrics and user experience is an idiot.
That being said, I very strongly feel IE6 Update violates your users’ trust, dangles the inability to update to a newer browser in the faces of corporate users, and generally takes the focus away from the content of your website and the purpose of the user’s visit. This is a branding issue more than anything. As a consumer, my question would be this: “If your company/website is willing to deceive me for the sake of a more functional web page, what are you willing to do to make money?”
22 comments so far
Oops. I dribbbled.
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I designed this for a big announcement on the UpThemes blog.
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Working on revisions to a logo we were commissioned to design.
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Client requested some color changes.
Steal this design. See if I care.
Hand-crafted in the year of the tiger.
I agree with you on the IE6 Update matter. Good point.
Cheers!
I agree that we shouldn’t try to fool IE6 users into upgrading but I disagree that we as web designers are obligated to support IE6.
I didn’t actually say you should always “support IE6.” Quite the opposite rather, avoid it when analytics data allows you to.
I avoid styling for IE6 no matter what my analytics data tells me.
The primary reason internet users visit websites is to find certain information relating to what they need – be it whether they need to buy a product or a service, they need to research something, or for entertainment purposes etc. As long as IE6 users can actually obtain that information, then that is fine. If they want all the bells and whistles (eye candy etc) then as far as I’m concerned they must upgrade to a modern browser such as Opera, Safari, Firefox, IE8 or Chrome.
I wouldn’t use IE6 Update because as you correctly pointed out, it violates the user’s trust, but I would either omit the CSS, or use very basic CSS and then use something like Push Up: Pushing Up The Web.
I think my real beef here is that you haven’t mentioned other alternatives to IE6 Update.
And I disagree with this part:
Actually, it’s a pathetic excuse. I’m very sure that a lot of corporate users have mobile phones that are capable of browsing the internet. They’re likely to have their own personal laptops or desktop PCs they can use in their own time. So saying that most people are stuck with IE6 because they happen to be corporate users is a lame cop-out. They usually do have other alternatives.
There is nothing elitist about persuading folks to start using standard compliant browsers.
Fair enough, I agree, nothing elitist about that. But it is pretty elitist to deem yourself the browser upgrade police.
True if said browser-police was forcing the user to either leave or to upgrade. Something like Push Up: Pushing Up The Web doesn’t do that. So when I use Push Up, am I being elitist? I think not. Same goes for anyone who uses something like Push Up.
If anyone should be accused of being elitist, it should be web designers who insist that in order to be considered a good web designer, you must support IE5, IE.5.5 and IE6, no matter what. They do exist. Take a look on the SitePoint forums.
I didn’t respond to this part in my previous reply, but I definitely love the Pushing Up The Web concept. That is MUCH MORE appropriate. It’s not pretending to be from Microsoft or even pushing you to a specific browser/version combo, but instead is a gentle nudge toward the current version of the browser you are using.
I hope the use of this approach won’t be too far widespread. While I think it might be a good idea, in some cases… it’s just not going to be an effective method for getting people to upgrade. Some people simply don’t care. They’re content with how their computer is. They like how IE6 works. And in some cases, upgrading to IE7 or higher may have slowed down older hardware. While designers and developers might want the general public running the latest and greatest browsers, the fact is we need to accommodate the audiences we’re aiming for with projects.
For personal projects, I could care less about IE6.
While I agree with not “deceiving” people into upgrading… I personally have taken a stance of NOT making my sites specifically compatible with IE6, unless I have too. To me, I spend way too much time in making something work in an antiquated browser, time that could be better spent doing something far better.
There’s nothing wrong with that at all. I actually like the approach of delivering unstyled content to IE6 users if you can get away with it.
On a clients site i will normaly not bother with ie6 and add a little notice somewhere recommending them.
I don’t really have the fool bit
Good read BTW!!
I’ve been through this a few times with clients. Most of the time they have no idea what browser they’re using, but they do know the website looks broken. In cases like that, it’s my job to fix it.
One other thing you should consider is if the website is there to make money (or create leads), not only are you being a pretentious browser elitist you’re also costing your client sales.
I agree with you about violating user’s trust. But I can’t wait until the day IE6 is no longer.
Totally agreed about IE6 update Chris. Good read too. If we expect users to click on this update to perform an update, do we want them to also click on the ones that are viruses? What is the way around that? Humbly educate. How would I talk to a person in real life? I value them and respect them. I humbly offer my expertise on the subject, if I have any. Tell your users what is going on.
Being authentic works almost all the time. It worked with my grandpa who used IE 5.5 and swore he’d never leave. Now he’s using Safari 3. It worked for many of my friends and family who didn’t like their PCs and switched to Mac. I wasn’t elitist. I just told them my preference and why. They made the move if they felt it.
The stuff over at hugs for monsters is ridiculous, joke or not. Its offending, mean and disrespectful.
I agree with some of your points
I would like to address this particular paragraph though:
IE6Update doesn’t try to push a “standards-compliant browser like Firefox or Safari” on to users. I realise you might not have meant that, but that’s how it reads. All it does, is strongly recommend they upgrade, for several reasons including the one you infer in the preceding paragraph regarding security.
Also, I don’t believe it’s accurate to say that most users are aware that they’re using an out-of-date version of IE. The kind of user this sort of thing targets is the kind of user who often isn’t certain about the difference between a browser and the internet, or the difference between “Microsoft Windows” and “Microsoft Office”.
I do agree though, that the wording, colouring, and the particular choice of icon are a little on the deceptive side, which is part of what inspired me to make a WordPress plugin for IE6Update. This way the various options that IE6Update has are more readily exposed for customisation. I myself have changed the wording and colouring on my own website.
I explain a little further on The Web Squeeze forum my exact thoughts on IE6Update in a thread titled “Is It Right To Trick People Into Upgrading Their Browser?” (I’m not the OP).
Anyway, great post, and thanks for mentioning my AudioBoo
I thought your argument was very tastefully and respectfully presented. You were very careful not to back up your points with circumstantial or non-existent evidence.
However, IE6 Update does not at any point “strongly recommend they upgrade” because that would actually involve some level of informing the user what is wrong with IE6, why they should upgrade, and providing them with the appropriate actions to complete the upgrade painlessly. Instead, what appears to be a “security message” pops down, informing them, “Internet Explorer is missing updates required to view this site.” I don’t think it’s the right approach and honestly, a slight change in the presentation of this message would make a world of difference in my opinion.
I fully agree and I definitely don’t want to give too much credit to the complete tech “morons” out there. There are plenty of people who, as you say, don’t know “the difference between ‘Microsoft Windows’ and ‘Microsoft Office’.” However, on the flip side, there are plenty of users who are in corporate environments where the only PC they have access to is the one they use at work (which is ironically still on IE6). A large population of these users are in countries like India and of course the US. These are the users I am mainly referring to, but I agree, I think “most users” was not the correct portion to select.
Again, like I said before, the Pushing Up the Web concept is 100% acceptable in my opinion because it isn’t deceptive in the slightest but still gets the point across. Also, it works across all old browsers like Firefox 2 and Safari 2, which is great.
Thanks for stopping by Japh, I definitely enjoyed your rant.
[...] Why IE6 Update is a Terrible Idea [...]
I wholeheartedly disagree that mostIE6 users know their browser sucks. Most IE6 users don’t know what a browser is.
I always feel that pushing your choice of browser at users, or telling them they need to update is, as stated, browser elitist behaviour. If a paying client says he wants a web site, do you tell him that 20% of potential visitors will see a broken site or a very plain site, because you believe that the world should stop using IE6 now (I believe the world should stop using IE6 now, of course)? Will he/she be happy to know that some of his site’s visitors may leave with the wrong impression of his site? Or should pretentious gits stop designing for themselves and design for the visitors instead? I think the latter.
Even if it’s a personal site made for adsense, you should help the poor demented ie6 user (or you will get less clicks on the ads!)
Comment posted from firefox, of course.
(In a couple of years IE6 will be dead, but for now, we should support it, even if we hate it.)
Hmm, good points!
This doesn’t make me feel any more sympathetic for IE6 though , considering when it was first launched, IE6 is by far the most outdated browser still “in the mix”. I guess that’s the sad reality of IE being bundled with Windows. Perhaps when 7 launches and businesses switch to Windows 7 powered systems, we’ll be able to squeeze away those last 15% reluctant IE6 users. In the meantime, we can blame Vista for IE6 troubles, since business don’t like Vista, which comes with IE7 (Which isn’t all that much better in the first place.)
Cheers,
Qiming
i think so ,that is terrible at the first period……..
I agree with you Chris, no matter how lame IE6 is you gotta cater for those cavemen using it. And a pop up download latest versions isn’t a bad thing, it does give the caveman the option of seeing what life is like with the wheel!