Sometimes when we build our websites we forget that not everybody has their browser configured exactly as ours. While they may have a different browser type and operating system, they may also have different settings in their browser. Here are the 13 forgotten browser compatibility issues you may need to test in order to insure that your websites will be viewable to your visitors.
JavaScript Dependent
There are a lot of different scripting languages that now depend on JavaScript to display properly. There are others but these are the core that will be affected when JavaScript is disabled. These can be solved easily with the <noscript> tag added to the end of your JavaScript code.
1. JavaScript
2. Ajax (more info on degradable Ajax)
3. DHTML
Plugins
Plugins will typically need to be installed and updated by your visitor. If you use any of these plugins in your website design, you will want to make sure at the very least there is an alternative that will be displayed. Most of the solutions include JavaScript to detect if the correct plugin is installed and display alternative content if needed.
4. Flash
5. Shockwave
6. Java
7. ActiveX
Media Players
Media players are another element that needs to be installed and updated by your visitor. You probably do not embed video directly into your website design or theme, but rather display videos in your content. What you want to consider is the errors that may be displayed to your users if they do not have them installed and how to offer them solutions and a way to understand what they need to do to get it to work correctly.
8. QuickTime
9. Real Player
10. Windows Media Player
Browser Settings
The following browser settings can be controlled by your visitors browser. With text size I am always mostly concerned when the text size gets really large as this pushes elements all over the page. Images and the page style usually do not affect your web page visibility, but it is a good idea to verify that your website is viewable with the elements disabled.
11. Text
12. Images
13. Page Style
Maximize Your Websites Browser Compatibility Series
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If you make an alternative of let’s say a movie clip will it get penazlied by Google since it is in fact duplicated content just of different format?
I think that Google can’t tell if it is video format if you provide 2 different versions. It can only tell with text if it is a duplicate. If you provide alternative text or images in your <noscript> area I do believe that Google understands that is an alternative to your intended content.
Javascript is a thing to worry about less and less over time though with by far the majority having it enabled, pretty much around 95% these days and depending on the type of site it can go even higher to around 99%. If you’d compare that to those which would have quicktime, flash, shockwave, java the effect is a lot greater there.
Javascript! Windows maximally tries to interfere with it! did you notice?
The only thing that concerns me with JavaScript is the new plugin released for moz browsers. Basically it looks like people can set only “approved” sites to view javascript. I’m not sure how many people actually use that setting. I’ve not had any trouble with JS causing issues so I’ve got it always enabled.
Great article. I have seen few blogs where I was not able to see the contents as I had to install some plugins and flash player. Its necessary to have proper compatibility over all browsers. Stumbled.
So many different hoops to jump through these days it’s hard to keep up with all the cross functionality and features for different browsers if you ask me. One of my biggest challenges is looking over the analytics of a site and consistently finding 85%+ Firefox users and then having to backwards check to make sure that the small minority on IE are having the same experience.
Uhm, is “Page Styles” a problem? (assume it’s CSS)
@Nirmal: It has become a lot more difficult thats for sure. It is quite a challenge if you have a very complex design. I am in favor of simple, makes it easier to work on multiple browsers :c). Thanks for the stumble!
@Jerard: My stats show that I have 89% FireFox so I’m falling in that same range that you have, but some others might be split down the middle or even more on IE side so they’ll have to work on different optimizations.
@Felix: Yes, in FireFox it is called Page Style so I’ve just left it worded that way, but your right that it is just CSS.
check this ..http://www.essentiabct.com (automated browser compatibility testing tool) - good one!
I think this is one of the best way to take care of your readers, adding for non-java users. I never thought of that, will have to work in that direction.
Thanks for sharing!
I’d say the most big problem about different browsers not settings, plugins and browsers. Even if you have two or three browsers identically configured with the same plug-ins and stuff, you could never say if the page will look exactly the same in these browsers!
I think it is enough to check site in 3 browser only. It’s Opera, IE, FireFox
Yes it is always a good idea to implement a non-javascript version to take care of all the visitors but I think nowadays there is only about 5% of users having no javascript. So If you don’t want to lose those 5% then you can implement non-javascript version
It’s really a very very valuable points for a quality design and really very helpful. I have make it my checkpoints and noted in a must point list for my designer.
Thanks Sarah !!