MrQwest is the alias of Anthony Killeen, a London based freelance web design & development chap who enjoys building accessible & elegant websites. Let's talk!
Adding some texture to your site
The Great Big HDMI Cable Rip Off
A retrospect of the last decade
Using Gmail on your iPod Touch
I’ve just listened to the latest ExplicitWeb podcast where John O’Nolan & Hannah debate whether IE6 should be killed or not; or whether we should still be supporting the browser, and I thoroughly enjoyed both sides of the argument. So much so, I decided to weigh in with my thoughts on the subject.
I completely agree with John’s stance on this. IE6 has terrible rendering issues, hundreds of security flaws, is incredibly buggy and is now a 9 years old piece of software. If we — as designers — can’t build websites to our full potential because IE6 can’t handle it, then we are retarding the internet. We’re holding back because a percentage of users out there (this site is approx 3% of visitors) still use IE6 and who want’s to cut out visitors?
And this is where Hannah’s point comes in. Any visitor to your website is a potential customer & nobody want’s to turn away custom. If your client want’s IE6 support, then so be it.
However, some designers say that you shouldn’t support IE6 because it’s a waste of time, it’s buggy & it’s holding back the web. The idea being that if the website doesn’t work in IE6, they’ll upgrade their browser.
But will this work? If a visitor to your website is using IE6, and the website doesn’t display properly, will their first instinct be that the browser needs updating? Will they think “hmm, this isn’t displaying correctly – perhaps I need a new browser?”.
Unlikely.
They’re more than likely going to think that the designer / developer done a bad job and the website doesn’t work. They’ll then move on & find a website that will work.
Personally, I tend to serve a rudimentary style sheet to IE6 users of websites I build. I try to ensure that the website’s main functionality works – and let the design take a back seat… after all your website serves a purpose, how many visitors are coming to your website to look at the design?
On top of the basic IE6 stylesheet, I add a some script that’ll add a box to the top of the page saying that they are viewing a stripped down version of the website & upgrading their browser will allow them to experience the website as intended.
Ultimately though, who are we to force these changes upon users? It’s down to the user to choose to upgrade. If they want to stick with IE6, let them. Just serve a basic stylesheet with a message advising an upgrade. Something like this should do…
<!--[if IE 6]><br/>
<p>Hey, you're using IE6 - a 10 yr old piece of software. Why not improve your browsing experience by upgrading your internet browser. Try Google Chrome, FireFox or Safari.</p><br/>
<![endif]-->
There is no reason that your website should look identical in every browser going.
Honestly, take a listen to the podcast & let me know your thoughts on the subject!
Early last week, a few tweets appeared in my Twitter stream regarding a new book called Tapworthy – Designing Great iPhone Apps. An O’Reilly book written by Josh Clark (@globalmoxie).
The book is on sale for $40 in print form, or $32 in PDF / electronic format. Which isn’t a bad price for a reference book relating to iPhone design. The Apple App Store has seen incredible success thanks to the iPhone, iPod & iPad and i’m sure there are loads of designers / developers out there who see the App Store as lucrative. For that point alone, a well written book like this is most definitely worth the money.
The reason I’m writing this though is that there was a discount code roaming around the internets that reduces the electronic format cost from $32 to $10. Thats a pretty substantial reduction.
Which got me thinking. I doubt I would have purchased the book if it was $32 as iPhone design isn’t my forte (but an avenue i’d like to pursue), but at $10 it’s certainly worth having. I’m sure i’m not the only person who thinks like this.
Could a substantial discount code (like this example) actually sell more copies & make more money for those involved than if the discount wasn’t available?
I’d be interested to find out the stats on the sale of the book, but lets do some quick sums.
O’Reilly would need to sell 3.2 copies at the discounted rate to achieve the cost they originally had if they sold 1 copy without the discount. I’d hazard a guess that the discount probably got 2 or 3 times more people to purchase the book; possibly even more. Then on top of that, you’ve got future sales of books written by Josh Clark based on the quality of Tapworthy. And of course, some people may purchase the e-book and enjoy it so much, they’d buy the print copy for reference (I much prefer hard copies of books to e-books anyway)!
I’m pretty sure – in a round-about way – that O’Reilly have sold more copies & made more money using the discount code route.
To end this little post, I think what O’Reilly have done with this ebook discount has got them more sales than they would have originally, it would have also given the book & author more exposure and introduced more people to the world of designing for the iPhone.
I wish more authors & publishers would do the same. I truly believe a lower price point for e-books would bring more sales & ultimately, more money to the authors over a long time period.
What do you think?
This post is to say a goodbye to two old friends. Two family pets that unfortunately had to be put down last week.
Sheeba was my mother-in-law’s Belgian Shepherd dog. She was about 12 years old and was from the RSPCA. An absolutely love dog (although big) with some quirky ways. She loved her own space, but also loved being around people.
Sheeba, you’ll be missed.
The day after Sheeba passed, my mum phoned to say she was taking Copper to the vet as he was unwell too. Copper was a ginger cat who was about 17 yrs old. He did have a twin but he was killed 12 years ago by a car. Copper was the most docile cat you’d ever meet. He’d love being groomed and would sit on your lap & pur for hours. Unfortunately, in the end he had trouble with his kidneys & lungs so it was best to have him put down.
Goodbye Copper.
I’m also saying good bye to 2 other faithful friends; however these aren’t living, breathing people or animals.
The first is my Canon 50mm prime lens. I pulled my camera out of the bag (a proper padded camera bag) a week or so ago and found the 50mm lens had caved in somehow. The focus part had been pushed inside the actual lens and it didn’t look too good. I only had to touch it and the thing fell into two pieces.
I loved my 50mm lens. It took such pin sharp photos and was incredible in low light situations. So much so, the moment I got home; I jumped onto Amazon & ordered a new one.
The second goodbye is to my faithful XBox 360. Originally a birthday present back in 2006, it’s lasted me well. I’ve spent many hours playing many games & having a hell of a lot of fun.
In 2007, it RROD‘d on me. As it was in warranty, it went back to Microsoft who replaced the motherboard. A week after receiving my XBox back, it RROD’d again. This time, sent back to Microsoft for a new DVD drive & a new motherboard.
It worked fine for 3 years and 3 days until I switched it on on Tuesday and it again produced the RROD. It was out of warranty & Microsoft wanted £100 to repair. So instead, I’ve ordered a new New XBox 360. Fingers crossed I’ll have it on launch.
Goodbye old friend’s. You’ll be missed!
I wrote about ProjectBubble a few months ago and said how I really liked the idea & simplicity behind it. My main use behind it though was the invoicing.
Since I wrote about ProjectBubble, it’s gone from a free app (it was in beta) to a paid app where you can buy at different levels. The more you pay, the more features you get. There is a free option where you can try it for 30 days, after that, it’s now $7 bucks a month, or in the UK, approximately £4.
The team behind ProjectBubble released a ‘sister’ tool called InvoiceBubble and they have now made this free to use. The only caveat is that there’s a “powered by” link along the bottom which isn’t really an issue. You can upgrade to a premium version which removes the link should it bother you that much.
Again, InvoiceBubble is quite a handy tool and one I’ll be using in future!
Many moons ago, those lovely chaps @hicksdesign & @notxonhoj started the Rissington Podcast, a popular (and funny) podcast – Think of it as a web-geek version of Gardeners Question Time!
The podcast ran for 21 episodes and each one was well worth a listen. Unfortunately, the last episode became available at the end of Feb 2009 and there have been none since.
Now there are many many podcasts centred around the web industry, some are very good and some not so. I’ve tried many but none really had the banter that the Rissington Podcast had. I need that banter to keep me interested. As an analogy, Im a big petrol head. I love cars. Fifth Gear vs Top Gear. Its always going to be Top Gear because that’s hugely more entertaining & the banter between the 3 hosts is fantastic… even if the program is less about cars than Fifth Gear.
I’ve strayed somewhat.
ExplicitWeb is a regularly recorded podcast all about the front lines of website design and development. These typical half-hour shows are made up of hosts Rob, Hannah and John discussing the finer points of the industry, as well as sharing helpful tips and information for the savvy web professional.
ExplicitWeb has been running now for about 3 months now and have seen many tweets regarding each show from the presenters (@robhawkes, @erisds & @johnonolan) but have yet to listen in.
That changed yesterday as I grabbed the latest episode (episode 7 if you’re interested) and listened in on the way home. It was a very amusing episode and touched on some subjects which interest me. In fact, I had an interest in all 4 ‘sections’… ya’see, the podcast is split into 3 or 4 topics each lasting a maximum of 10 minutes. So bite-size chunks of web discussion!
I’ve subscribed now and will be listening to each episode when they become available. Do yourself a favour, and subscribe via iTunes!
© Copyright 2007-10 Anthony Killeen, MrQwest