Should My Website Look the Same in Every Browser?

“Yes, of course it should.” I’m sure that’s what you’re thinking to yourself after posing that question. Well take a deep breath and try not to be offended because I’m about to tell you that you’re wrong. Before we get into the nitty gritty though, let’s make sure we’re all on the same page with what a browser actually is.

“A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web.”
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_browser

The most common browsers are Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. Internet Explorer is the most popular browser used and simultaneously the crappiest.

Why it’s OK that my site looks different in different browsers.

Now when I say “looks different” I don’t mean your site is going to be beautiful in Firefox and just some plain old text in Internet Explorer 6. I’m talking about small differences that save us time when developing your site, and that save you a grip of cash when writing that final check. Throughout our website design process, we're taking a progressive enhancement approach to the development. This allows us to use emerging technologies that aren’t supported in older browsers to enhance your site for users with modern browsers. This approach won’t reduce the experience for users with older browsers. They will still have access to all the same content and the site will still function appropriately for them. It may look a little more simplified, but they’ll be none the wiser as this is all they’re used to.

Wait just a second… what do you mean “simplified”?

Ah, you caught that huh? Well one of the emerging technologies I mentioned before is CSS3. Using a new feature in CSS3 I can easily add things like drop shadows and rounded corners to various elements on a site. For example in Firefox (v3.1+) I could improve the look of a button on a page by giving it some nice curved edges and a slight shadow. Users with modern browsers will be able to see this more visually appealing view of the button. Users of older browsers and Internet Explorer however will simply see the traditional display of the button.

So what you’re really saying is…

Users are coming to your site for a reason, and that reason isn’t because it looks pretty in all browsers (side note: the average user typically sticks to one browser). Your users are primarily interested in the content of your site, not how it looks. They’re coming to your site for a purpose, to gain information, purchase goods and/or services, or to possibly interact with others. So for your sake, focus on the content you’re delivering to your users and the path required to find it. These two things will determine, more than ANYTHING else, whether or not your users come back again and again. And while you’re focusing on that, you can leave the browser discrepancies to us.