>> it may be best if Peter (a list member) confirms or denies this. Peter?
well, hello there :)
re >> "received heaps of feedback"
"heaps" is a stretch. if i said it, i was exaggerating & apologise. but dont sigh & curse yet! theres a better story behind it :)
While its true when we redesigned http://www.smh.com.au/ and http://theage.com.au/ in.... 2003 (?) the helpdesk received some (like a handful) of emails along the lines of "I've found your website now looks very plain on my old computer at home compared to my work computer, which is good, its much faster to load now, good job". I stress it was a few, and I dont have records of these (I've since moved onto a new company). In saying that, I found some much, much, more interesting stats recently (in the last 3 months) that showed that of the 5 or so million (thats a rough figure, not exaggerated, growing month on month, dont quote it) user visits
smh.com.au gets per month, 25000 (Twenty five thousand) are still Netscape 4 users. How excellent is that! They get a totally unstyled page and they are still coming back for their news fix. True, its sad they are stuck with an old browser - but to me, this is a clear example of why web standards are the way forward. Those sites have seen real, tangible benefits for the move to css layouts which enabled a richer experience for users of the latest browsers - while managing to not completely alienate the old browser crew. And those sites are getting a bit old in the tooth now (ie: theres problems with them - dont think I'm preaching they are perfect :). Any site that Fairfax Digital does now improves on the last, and leaving the content unstyled for old browsers like Netscape 4 is just the norm now for them - and certainly anything i design here on in.
Hope this helps, its kinda weird quoting stuff from an old job. While we're talking about big picture issues I dont think I'll get into trouble. hopefully ;-)
cheers,
pete
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Peter Ottery ~ Creative Director
Daemon Pty Ltd
17 Roslyn Gardens
Elizabeth Bay NSW 2011
www.daemon.com.au/
Peter Ottery ~ Creative Director
Daemon Pty Ltd
17 Roslyn Gardens
Elizabeth Bay NSW 2011
www.daemon.com.au/
