The Daily Dose

Resources & Inspiration for the Graphic Design Community

Who Are You Building Your Websites For?

Posted by Dark Rising Grafx On October - 23 - 2009

Research Shows That IE Still Holds The Majority of The Browser Marketshare

If you are a web designer, programmer or both, you are well aware that Internet Explorer is the least favorable browser to build websites for. Pages render differently from one version to the next. Functions work in IE7 that may not work in IE8 and IE6 is an overall nightmare. Firefox has gained in popularity over the years and it seems to handle most functions across websites very well. It renders graphics very similar to that of Safari’s browsers. Keeping all of this in mind, ALL BROWSERS have their own set of bugs and the fact remains that some folks (a lot) do not keep current with browser updates. This means that you must cross check all of your builds across several browsers to ensure that all users get the most from the browsing experience you intend them to have. Anything less may result in lack of revenue or loss of a potential sale/client.

So how do you cross check your build without bogging down your computer by downloading all 24 browsers? We have found two effective services to do just that, and the best part is… IT’S WEB BASED. That’s right, load your files to your server, open the service online, type in the url and allow them to do the rest. Both services we are going to introduce you to offer free subscriptions. However, to get the most effective experience with each service, asubscription is recommended. Subscriptions offer better support and more detailed reports.

Let’s take a look at the two services // Litmusapp.com & Browsera.com

Litmussapp.com

Litmus is lightning-fast, reliable and affordable. It’s relied upon by thousands of smart freelancers and switched-on agencies; as well as big companies like Yahoo!, Facebook and eBay.Litmus shows you exactly how your designs look on every platform, across every popular web browser. (And the not-so-popular ones.)

Once you’ve finished testing, one click publishes a full compatibility report ready for review by your client or boss. It’s pretty neat.

Browsera.com

Browsera is a testing tool, not a screenshot tool, and works at the site-level instead of the page level. Browsershots, BrowserLab, and SuperPreview provide multiple screenshots of a single page, and leave the rest up to you. Browsera will crawl the pages on your site and actually test them for layout inconsistencies and scripting errors. Instead of spending time identifying all of your URLs and reviewing each screenshot for each page, you can simply view a consolidated Browsera report listing the specific pages and browsers that have problems.

After choosing a service that suits your needs, you can supplement your research using www.statcounter.com which offers an in depth look at who visits your site on a daily, weekly, monthly basis. Provides information such as IP Address, country, state, region and city, length of visit, screen resolution and browser version your visitors are using among many others. Best of all, it’s free!

One Response to “Who Are You Building Your Websites For?”

Massery Webdesign says:

October 24, 2009 at 7:36 am

Great article. We published a short note on the 13th of October, about those statistics (http://www.massery.fr/blog/2009/10/quel-navigateur-utilisez-vous/) and we came to the same conclusion: IE still rules the web! Even IE6 il used a lot. This is really disappointing…

Litmussapp.com is excellent, way faster than browsershots. I didn’t know about browsera.com, but I’ll sure give it a try, thanks!