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Jose Fremaint
2,885 PointsWhat to do when the CSS of your website is not supported by some Internet Explorer versions ?
I want to know what's the first thing to do when you open your beautiful website in Internet Explorer and you notice that some your CSS is not working and your website is very ugly.
I think every web designer and developer must know how to deal with this.
3 Answers
Kevin Korte
28,149 PointsWell it depends. There is a difference bewtween ugly and broken. If it's something like cosmetic and my box-shadow isn't working on IE8, well that's their problem for using such and old browser. In this case IE8 wouldn't support a shadow, so I might fall back to a border instead to give it some similarity of what I wanted.
If it's broken, it needs to be fixed to some attempt. Depending on what it is that's not working, and what version on IE, you might be able to fall back to a hack, or a Javascript fix. Many problems with older IE's have fairly well documented fixes to them. There are tools out there like Modernizr to help you dynamically determine what is and isnt' support in a users browsers, and adjust accordingly.
You could also throw them a message saying your browser is out of date, and you should update it. At least I'm assuming you are talking about out of date browsers since IE 11 has really done a fair better job of behaving how you'd expect.
James Barnett
39,199 PointsIt's important to remember web pages aren't posters so don't design a poster in Photoshop and then try to bend it to your will using CSS and JavaScript. First get some content, then design a mobile-first site around that content.
So you start mobile-first, then you add in media queries & grids & fluid images next you add in CSS3 stuff like transitions, then you add in some JavaScript. Modernizr can help you with the implementation of some of that.
Jose Fremaint
2,885 PointsWow! Thank You so much for the information to all of you!
Logan R
22,989 PointsLogan R
22,989 PointsWhile I do agree with most of your post, I do not agree with "You could also throw them a message saying your browser is out of date, and you should update it."
A lot of the older browsers are forced to be used by people who work in an office environment because their office is using XP, etc and they are not allowed to install software, such as Chrome or FireFox onto their computers.
Anthony Giello
3,553 PointsAnthony Giello
3,553 PointsAgreed! most of the time people are not going to run into this problem while visiting your site. The versions you are experiencing difficulties with are rarely used except in remote areas of the globe with subpar infrastructure and technology. Add a note to the top of your page acknowledging that the CSS may not look correct and the user should update their browser.
Kevin Korte
28,149 PointsKevin Korte
28,149 PointsLogan R I do agree and understand that many large corporations or government agencies could still be running Windows XP, which would restrict them to using IE8, which is somewhat of a problem child compared to IE 9-11.
A lot of them won't have the privileges to update to a newer browser, and can't update IE. I still don't have a problem putting a small alert around the top of the page, stating their browser is out of date and possibly linking them to http://browsehappy.com/. That statement about their browser being out of date is the truth, and thus their experience might be limited or different on an older browser. Maybe they contact their administrator or manager about fixing it.
With windows XP not even being supported by microsoft anymore, it is in everyone's best interest to move away from XP.
Same idea with all the sites that show you a message if you visit without javascript enabled. Your experience may be limited.