I’ve witnessed first-hand websites that look great in one web browser, and look like a train wreck in another. I often wonder if the owners of those websites know they have a major problem on hand, or if they just don’t care. Either way, let’s get those of you who aren’t in the know up to date to which browsers are being used out there and share how you can test to see if your website has any design styling flaws.

Common Browsers Used As of July 2010

By looking at our pie graph, you would think all browsers are relative in today’s web market. True and not true. There is a movement out there by which web designers are taking a stance on designing for Internet Explorer 6 (IE6). We at Jacobito Design can’t blame them one bit either:

  • Internet Explorer 6 is nine years old.
  • It lacks support for modern web standards.
  • IE6 doesn’t support PNG transparencies.
  • Most important of all, IE6 doesn’t fully support CSS version 2.

For all of these reasons, designing for IE6 can be a bit cumbersome, not only with design in mind but also estimating client projects. For the time being, Jacobito Design does support IE6 but starting January 2011, we will discourage our clients from having us design for IE6.

How relative are the other browsers?

The other browsers are very relative. These browsers tend to be updated regularly (except for Internet Explorer 7), they support PNG transparencies and CSS version 2, and most of the time displays websites similarly. There are some exceptions, though. These exceptions tend to correspond with a previous article written Search Engine Friendly Web Sites, in which I explain that some websites are outdated or designed using a dated code and no styling.

Flawed Design Styling Mitigation

Let’s talk about testing for these problems. More often than not flawed design lies within the styling created for a particular web page (if any) – by which your designer should be checking and know how to correct. If you and your designer no longer have a relationship, or you think you might be dealing with someone not in the know, you can always do some easy testing yourself… And it is easy! Simply download the modern browsers I have listed below, load your website up, and in each one of those browsers, navigate through your site to see if there are design flaws.

Modern Browser Links:

Now that you know how many web browsers are out there and how to mitigate a potential design styling flaw, you can now double check your designers work and make sure they’re taking care of everything they should be taken care of.