Browse Happy and sites designed for evertying BUT IE

The more time you spend poking around the blogging community, the more you’ll run into the fervent argument for using any browser BUT Internet Explorer. Lots of Spread Firefox buttons and all that, but lately I’ve seen more of the Browse Happy argument – literally, use anything but IE, be it Opera, Firefox, or Safari.

I’m also seeing more blog sites that purposely design for FF or Safari, and just break in IE – generally not business-oriented sites, who want to appeal to the broadest audience possible, but more the design and blog engine sites.

Before the blogging world flames the hell out of me, I know IE gets slammed on the Web standards front. I know Firefox gets lots of love on the same. I use FF constantly in addition to IE. I’m just pointing out that deliberatelty alienating 90%+ of your potential audience – for a business site – is an odd strategy choice. Read on.

Try reading this post over at BinaryBonsai (the creator of the excellent K2 Wordpress mod that runs this blog).

First open it in Firefox. Now try it in IE. Beyond breaking horribly in IE, Michael Heilemann injects a sweet little note for IE users:

Binary Bonsai does not support Internet Explorer. Life is simply too short. Browse Happy.

That’s fine – Bonsai is a pure Web design site, and those tend to the FF loyal anyway, so in that case Michael probably gains credibility and acceptance by taking such a stand. But take a look at the subject of Michael’s post, the new CMS Symphony. Open that link in IE, and you get this:

Please use a standards compliant browser

We have detected that you are not using a standards compliant browser. Symphony requires that you use a fully standards compliant browser such as Firefox for the PC or Safari for the Mac, because Symphony makes full use the features only available to standards compliant browsers to enhance your user experience with web publishing.

You cannot proceed to purchase Symphony without fulling this requirement.

Again, I’m all for promoting alternatives, and I swap between Firefox and IE7 on a regular basis even at work. IE is the workhorse browser for me, but I use Firefox for wandering, del.icio.us bookmarking, and playing with Web design. So I have a sense for both sides of the debate.

Thing is, I’m not the norm among business-types. Most folks out there are one-browser only, if for nothing more than keeping life simple. Jumping to a whole new browser involves some switching costs (time and learning curve, if nothing else). For a Web design guru, like Michael at BinaryBonsai, designing a site that breaks for IE users may be fine – likely the majority of your site visitors are on other browsers anyway and what the hell, push for what you believe in. But for a company like Symphony – which I agree with Michael, comes across as waaaay too pretentious in any case – to deliberately break for the majority of your likely customers just seems arrogant. They are presumably trying to market their application to business customers.

Symphony’s message to them, by my take, is that they are n00bs. They are part of the uninformed, the “uncool” kids. Why start out a potential business relationship by making your customer feel dumb? Is condescension the basis for a trusting relationship?