Graded Browser Support
I have to confess that Yahoo is not one of my usual haunts so I missed this excellent article the first time around – Graded Browser Support. It’s a very clear articulation & formalisation of something that many of us have been thinking about & trying to implement.
Essentially the idea is that you have (at least) 3 grades of web browser:
- an identified list of browsers (+ operating system) that will take full advantage of the capabilities of modern browsers and will be tested thoroughly (grade A)
- an identified list of browsers that will be able to access core functionality & content, but will only have a representative sample tested (grade C)
- the rest that will either take conform to current web standards like the grade A browsers or be able to function at the minimum level of the grade C, however there is no testing and no support (grade X)
Which browser gets put into which grade is going to depend on their market share for your audience (or the audience you desire). So in Yahoo’s case it’s approximately 96% in A, 3% in C & 1% in X.
It also takes up the idea of progressive enhancement of web pages rather than the more established idea of graceful degradation – i.e. that the first concern is about presenting the core content & functionality and then building on that, rather than putting in the bells & whistles and then trying to ensure older browsers didn’t trip up.
I must admit that each time I wrote ‘gracefully degrade’ in a proposal or documentation it felt like I was writing the next verse in a Tom Waits’ song (“We’re decomposing as we go”). So not only does the change in perspective make sense, but it will also make me feel better if I have to think about it on a Monday morning.
graded browser support, Quality assurance, website management