IE6 and IE6 Blocker

To what extent should we – as designers and site owners – stop supporting IE6? Pursuing through CSS-Tricks I came across the following software IE 6 Blocker which tells users that particular site doesn’t support IE6 and they must upgrade to a new browser. Now, I understand the frustration, but this is ridiculous . (See a previous post regarding the problems with IE 6.)

The first priority of all site owners and IAs is to make the content available to as many people as possible. If people want to use Lynx – well, let them. It is a basic violation of web conventions to tell the user what browser to use; as bad as accessibility and usability violations. I remember when IE first came out and Microsoft was thought of as a monopolistic entity about to consume the world and many sites put up "Netscape Only" splash screens. It was a bad policy then and is bad policy today.

Additionally IE 6 still constitutes about 20% of the market. What sense does it make to eliminate 20% of your users from accessing your site. IE6 will be a force until corporate and government agencies upgrade to a new platform. Only when large sites which cater to corporate clients, like CNN, stop validating for IE6 can I see smaller sites joining on.

The only way I can see dropping support for IE6 making any sense is if your web app requires scripts not available in old browsers. However this is a business decision that should not be made lightly.

A better idea, should you want to drop IE6 support, is to develop to web standards; then check IE6 for any major breakdowns that prevent people from using your site. After the major issues have been cleared do not allocate any extra development time for minor items. At this point it would make sense to flag IE6 users, put a small banner at the top of the page saying that your site is no longer fully supporting IE 6 and ask people to “Upgrade to IE7 as this site may not function perfectly with older versions of IE.”