No more pixel perfectionism in IE 6
The other day Robert Nyman asked web developers to Stop Developing For Internet Explorer 6. I fully agree with what he’s saying about making a site work and look perfectly in IE 6 eating up lots of time that would be better spent on other things.
IE 6 has given me far too many headaches and gray hairs over the years, so I would love to say enough is enough and stop worrying about it.
However, and I believe this is Robert’s point as well, we should not actively block IE 6 users or completely disregard what happens when an IE 6 user comes along. What we should do is spend less and less time working around IE 6 bugs unless they seriously affect functionality or accessibility—only fix the showstoppers.
As long as we make sure to use progressive enhancement, content and base functionality will still be there, like for all other antiquated browsers.
Depending on who your clients are and what kinds of sites or applications you build, you may already be doing this. Or you may be required—for business reasons—to continue wasting time getting pixel perfect display and full functionality in an obsolete and insanely buggy browser for years.
But if you are in the position to do so, start letting go of achieving perfectionism in IE 6. The sooner the organisations that lock their users into IE 6 realise that it’s time to upgrade, the better.
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