Recently we’ve been dealing more and more with questions of cross browser compatability.

Ensuring that our web sites and applications operate well in various web browsers is an essential aspect of good web design. However, web browsers change regularly with updated versions often introducing new features which differ significantly from those of earlier versions. Added to this is the fact that browser popularity is ever-evolving; witness the demise of Netscape and the progressive increase in the use of Firefox.

While we have always ensured that our web sites and applications work across a range of browsers it is timely to establish a more formal series of standards applying to browser compatability.

The key principle is that we will test and optimise our websites and applications at the time of launch for the current release versions of the most popular browsers used worldwide. As at May 2008 (source:  Wikipedia, Usage share of web browsers), these are:

  • Internet Explorer version 6
  • Internet Explorer version 7
  • Mozilla Firefox version 2.0.0.14
  • Apple Safari version 3.1.1

We’ve also had to establish some principles for dealing with older browsers and the BETA versions of browser updates.  These are all listed here.