Northwest Web Development Agency, Mando Group highlight emerging browser trends - thinking ahead

LIVERPOOL, U.K. - May 2, 2013 - PRLog -- The landscape

As any seasoned web professional will tell you it’s just not possible to build an online solution (http://www.mandogroup.com/services/design-build/) which will last beyond a few years without having to create new style sheets or make amendments for new browsers and how solutions display in different devices.

Browser providers release new versions of browsers periodically,but the impact on most online solutions can be slow and incremental. If left unmonitored these small updates can result in an online solution not displaying or functioning correctly in a browser or platform that it was not created to work with, but which has become mainstream for many users.

The impact

A lot of the time users may not even notice what they are not seeing,but from a provider perspective your visitors/users may be missing important information you are wanting to communicate; they may have trouble signing up to web forms; logging into a members’ area; or simply viewing an important message.

Unfortunately, most web users aren’t aware of the mechanics behind making online solutions work perfectly and simply expect solutions to work regardless of which browser they’re using.If sites don’t work, users may consider a site to be broken – somemay report issues,but many may simply navigate away.

The challenge for organisations is that there are dozens of browsers across dozens of different devices and an ever growing bombardment of new browser versions.Most web solutions are developed to work with the web browsers holding the largest market share at the time of build, but this list can quickly become out-of-date. They change month on month, and obtaining accurate figures can be complicated as they’re calculated differently by online sources such as StatCounter, W3Counter, WikiMedia.

Benefits of new browser versions

New browser releases often provide improved features such as enhanced security, faster page loading times and performance.  

Organisations can enhance their online solutions by taking advantage of newly released browser versions. An example of this is Internet Explorer 10 which supports even more CSS3 and HTML 5 features such as CSS animations and HTML5 Drag and Drop.

Current trends

Mando’s recent browser review has shed light on two key changes:

·         Win8 and IE10 are gaining market share

·         Tablet and mobile are increasing market share

As a result we are recommending all clients consider responsive design enhancements for their existing online solutions as well as new developments, plus we suggest scheduling a review of how online solutions are operating in IE10.

Furthermore, several online sources which regularly assess browser usage are now reporting IE7 to have less than 1% market share in the UK. Therefore organisations who had IE7 as a part of their original browser compatibility makeup should be less concerned with how new developments function in IE7 and more concerned with whether users can use their site in more recent version of Chrome and IE which are by far the most widely used browsers.

Staying ahead of the curve

A general rule of thumb is that web browser (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_browser) usage varies between regions, industries and over time. Most online solutions will work in a new browser version with little or no alteration,but it’s worth being aware of upcoming browser releases, the types of browsers used in your industry, and those used by the demographics you’re targeting. This information can then be incorporated into a browser compatibility assessment as part of your on-going site maintenance.

An additional hurdle exists for organisations with large numbers of staff who may have a policy to restrict the type of browsers their employees can use, thereby reducing the number of issues which may occur from browser differences. The downside of this practice is an inability of organisations to test their online solutions in different browsers, therefore becoming reliant on a 3rd party to assist them in testing their solutions within new browser versions.

Mando encourage our clients to engage with us in understanding the preferred platforms and browsers of their target users, and for these to be taken into account when discussing both development and support (http://www.mandogroup.com/services/managed-services/) of an online solution.Currently, we review our platform / browser recommendation list every 6 months and we recommend clients review browser compatibility at key milestones on at least a 6 monthly basis or at the point of a major development. Possibly the best method to gather an understanding of the browser versions of most importance to your particular online solution is to review theanalytics data for your online solution and to adapt to user trends.