Design Principles - Graphic Design and Web Design for Southeastern Massachusetts

Recently a client asked us what we do to test our websites. He had heard from a friend or family member that website testing was important, but didn’t realize that such a thing even existed. What does it entail? How important is it? Do we even DO it?

This is a fair question. In fact, it’s a great question, as it creates an opening for me to talk about something that most people (frankly) wouldn’t be terribly interested in hearing about.

Browser testing a website refers to the process of ensuring that a website’s display and functionality remains intact no matter which web browser or platform (computer “brand”) a visitor is using.

Thanks to some clever television commercials, most folks are aware that there are two major “brands” of computer: those that run Windows and those that run Mac OS X (apologies to Linux fans out there). Fewer people realize that you’re able to choose which web browser you’d prefer to “consume” the Internet with — that you’re not limited only to Internet Explorer on Windows (the blue “e”) or to Safari on the Mac. In fact, according to Wikipedia, there are 25 different browsers available for Internet users to choose from. Twenty-six if you count Internet Explorer 6 as a browser.

Why are there so many different browsers? Because not all browsers are created equal — some are truly better than others. Some browsers, like Mozilla’s Firefox, Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome are truly outstanding browsers. They bring better functionality and fresh ideas to their users, improving their browsing experience. They display web pages in exactly the same way because they all adhere to web standards (read: follow the rules). Some browsers, like Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (depending on the version), can be excreble examples of software literally inflicted on their users. IE (again, depending on the version) regularly flouts web standards and mangles the display of correctly coded web pages.

However, most people do not see anything wrong with their browser because they’ve never been exposed to anything better. Because of this, most folks are going to continue using the same browser they always have, even if it’s The Blue E.

Herein lies the problem: because so many people are using so many different browsers, the way a web page appears to one person can be radically different from another. Trying to view a modern, standards-compliant website in IE6 can get you a stripped-down experience simply because the browser is so old it doesn’t understand half of what’s being delivered to it. A recent version of Firefox or Chrome, on the other hand, gives you the complete web page exactly as the designer intended.

So, barring that we’d suddenly be able to get everyone in your target audience to upgrade to a new, modern browser, we test the way your website looks and functions in each of these browsers:

• Firefox 3.5 on Windows
• Firefox 3.5 on Mac
• Firefox 3.0 on Windows
• Internet Explorer 8 on Windows
• Internet Explorer 7 on Windows
• Internet Explorer 6 on Windows
• Safari 4 on Windows
• Safari 4 on Mac
• Google Chrome on Windows
• Google Chrome on Mac
• Opera 10 on Windows

These web browsers represent 99% of the browsers found in the wild. Your website will experience no loss of functionality if a visitor arrives using any one of these browsers.

The fact that the websites we produce appear the same in IE6 and Safari 4 is of little interest to most of our clients (“Why would they?” a client would ask), but it points to the diligence we exercise on projects like this. Any design firm worth their salt would do the same.

Our clients can rest assured that we’ve got their back — we’re worrying about this stuff so they don’t have to.

But please, if you’re using Internet Explorer 6, consider upgrading to a more recent version or an alternative mentioned above — every time you visit a webpage in IE6, a fairy dies.