Heads up! To view this whole video, sign in with your Courses Plus account or enroll in your free 7-day trial. Sign In Enroll
Preview
Start a free Courses trial
to watch this video
Is it ok to redirect IE users to a proper browser?
3:01 with TreehouseThe Treehouse team answers a difficult question about ie, "I've seen that some websites redirects IE users to a sub site with a message telling them that if they want to visit their website, they have to pick another, more proper, browser, such as Safari, Firefox, Chrome, etc. Is it OK for a web designer to do this?" This question comes from Anton Moritz from the Facebook group.
[Treehouse - Teacher Q & A]
0:00
[Question: Is it Ok for a web designer to redirect IE users and ask them to pick
0:05
another, more appropriate browser, such as Safari, Firefox, Chrome, etc.?]
0:07
[Jim Hoskins] Is it okay? It's really annoying.
0:09
I guess it's all right, but I don't see a really good reason for that
0:11
unless there's a really extenuating circumstance.
0:16
I think it's just bad form.
0:20
Unless there's like a really good reason like this feature is so important,
0:22
and it's just impossible to make it work or anything in IE.
0:28
I just can't even think of a real example of that.
0:31
It's kind of just laziness, I think.
0:35
[Nick Pettit] I don't think you should redirect people to a separate webpage
0:37
and not allow them to see your page.
0:42
I think you should just give them some kind of gentle warning,
0:46
telling them that, hey, your browser's pretty out of date.
0:49
Maybe it's time to upgrade.
0:53
If they're just using Internet Explorer, that's not really reason enough
0:55
to present this kind of message.
1:00
But if they're using an out-of-date browser,
1:02
really from any browser vendor, then, yeah, I think it's sensible to present them
1:05
with a message that tells them they might have a better experience
1:11
if they upgrade to a better browser, and that should be the case.
1:15
You shouldn't just be telling people to upgrade their browser for your website
1:19
just because they need to upgrade their browser.
1:24
You should tell them that if it's legitimately going to give them a better experience
1:27
or especially if there's certain functionality that's not going to work at all
1:32
if they don't upgrade.
1:37
[Allison Grayce] No, I don't think so. At all.
1:40
Because it's kind of like saying you're too lazy or incompetent
1:42
to kind of like solve the problems with IE.
1:46
I think the happy middle ground is to just maybe provide them with a prompt that says, "
1:49
To get the full effect of our website, download the newest browser.
1:56
Otherwise, here is this version of your website."
2:03
It's kind of giving them that hint without preventing them from viewing the content.
2:06
[Amit Bijani] No, not if you just want to be lazy about it.
2:13
I mean, that's just really being lazy where you're saying,
2:16
"Hey, you know what? You are using this browser, and I'm going to penalize you for doing that."
2:18
I don't think you should be doing that.
2:23
Unless the person is using IE 6. You know who you are.
2:25
So, then you should probably do that. Yes. I agree.
2:29
[Jason Seifer] I don't see why not.
2:34
I mean, you're coming to my website. You've got to play by my rules.
2:36
My rules include using a real browser.
2:40
No, I don't think that's actually acceptable at all.
2:42
Unless there's a business use-case for not wanting
2:45
half a browser market to not be able to use your website,
2:49
I don't really think that's acceptable.
2:53
[treehouse]
2:56
You need to sign up for Treehouse in order to download course files.
Sign up