I’ve never used IE6 for anything other than “making sure something looks OK in it.” Therein lies my point. It’s fine to state “Death to IE6” and I fully support not supporting Internet Explorer 6, but that’s not a realistic option for most of the web designers out there. Myself included. When was the last time someone said, “You know, I don’t really care if my website looks different in other browsers.” It’s never happened to me. Never. And it probably never will, because website owners do not want to risk ostracizing their users. Who can blame them?

Are there alternatives that you can use to ensures that your IE6 users, no matter how few or many, will get a similar experience as the rest of your more standards-based browser users? Yes. Web designers have figured out plenty of options to serve up style sheets for Internet Explorer versions that are less standards-capable. I prefer the conditional comments solution.

In a perfect world could you neglect outdated Internet Explorer versions? Of course. However, the reality is enough users still use the outdated browsers that just completely neglecting them would mean cutting a percentage of traffic that you may not be able to afford to lose. Can you serve up a stripped down version for outdated browsers? Sure. If your website will still function properly for those users, you should not be afraid to give them a simpler design with less ‘bells and whistles’ in place. If the design and site still look and function how they’d expect then they will never know they are missing out unless you tell them.

Continue reading at A List Apart

Like a plus-sized dress on a skinny runway model, Windows just doesn’t fit when it’s loaded on a netbook.

Wired has written an article discussing the direction many operating system developers are taking in creating netbook-specific operating systems. The Windows operating system has never been known for it’s streamlined performance, and when running on a netbook it just can’t deliver.

With a decline in PC sales, consumers are looking for a budget-conscious alternative when all they want is email, Facebook, and Instant Messaging.

Continue reading at Wired.com

Please do not use the fire extinguisher unless there is no water in the toilets.

It is with deep regret that we inform you of certain cost-cutting measures that will be taken in the coming days so that we can remain competitive. But first some good news. We are happy to report that Bring Your Child to Work Day has been renamed Bring Your Child to Do Work Day. We hope you will contribute unstintingly to the Gummy Bears Overtime Fund.

Now for the harsh realities. We will no longer be serving complimentary cold cuts and soda on Cold Cuts and Soda Day. Stairs will go up, but not down. Please do not use the fire extinguisher unless there is no water in the toilets. Anyone wishing to put out a medium-to-large fire must first fill out form X34J (if in stock). Mr. Johnson and Mr. Green, you will be sharing a desk chair, although you may keep separate desks. With regard to our annual retreat, spouses of non-management employees will be considered luggage. The letters “K,” “Q,” and “Z” are costly and should be used sparingly. Anyone who would like to volunteer for the human weather-stripping experiment, contact Nan Newberg. Also, as of next Wednesday, there will be no Wednesdays.

Read More at The New Yorker »

The form was simple. The fields were Email Address and Password. The buttons were Login and Register. The link was Forgot Password.

We may have all seen this sort of form on any number of e-commerce sites. It’s there to help returning customers checkout quicker and direct new customers to sign-up to speed along future purchases. Seems harmless right?

I’m not here to enter into a relationship. I just want to buy something.

New users often resent having to register for your site just to make a purchase. When you enter a brick-and-mortar store they don’t force you to register for their mailing lists before you can complete your transaction. Of course they ask – that’s to be expected.

Later, we did an analysis of the retailer’s database, only to discover 45% of all customers had multiple registrations in the system, some as many as 10. We also analyzed how many people requested passwords, to find out it reached about 160,000 per day. 75% of these people never tried to complete the purchase once requested.

Because many of the returning customers could not remember their email addresses and passwords used when originally signing up they resorted to creating a new account which in turn artificially inflated the database of users. Even many of the customers that requested their passwords did not go on to make a purchase presumably out of frustration with the process.

The Solution?

The designers fixed the problem simply. They took away the Register button. In its place, they put a Continue button with a simple message: “You do not need to create an account to make purchases on our site. Simply click Continue to proceed to checkout. To make your future purchases even faster, you can create an account during checkout.”

Such a simple solution with the added benefit of eliminating a needless button.

And the results

The number of customers purchasing went up by 45%. The extra purchases resulted in an extra $15 million the first month. For the first year, the site saw an additional $300,000,000.

So $300,000,000 from realigning the way your form worked to cause less headache for your users. Are there any places on your site that might be costing you money? Not sure? User testing and asking your customers would be a great way to find out.

Read the whole story

Having been recently featured in an article by Smashing Magazine entitled, “Clear and Effective Communication in Web Design” it was brought to my attention that I had a misspelling in the header of this website. The header. The thing for which I was being recognized. Ack! Always spell check.

In closing, I leave you with a kitten who “checks your spellling spelling…”

Photo by lolhaxors