If this is what you’re thinking, chances are you are using Internet Explorer (or, IE for short).
If you don’t know what IE is, then there is an even better chance that you are using it.

Microsoft Internet Explorer is the default browser on all Windows computers.
If you’ll spend 5 minutes looking around some of the discussions about it over the internets, you’ll soon find out that it is - for lack of a better word - crap.

But it’s Microsoft, aren’t they like… good?

Eh. Not really. It’s just hard to avoid them. But thats another story.

The real problem is that one of the most popular browsers used is IE6, which is almost a decade old. There has been 2 versions released since then and Microsoft is currently working on IE9 right now.

IE6 is a horrible browser. As simple as that. It doesn’t follow web standards and is as unsecure.

But people don’t upgrade because:

• they don’t know how;
• for whatever reason, they aren’t able to;
• they dont see the point. The internet works for them so why bother changing anything, right?

Okay, it’s a bad browser. So just get over it?

Well, in a way - I am over it. As are many others. Many people are choosing to drop support for Internet Explorer 6 as well as only partially support the newer versions. For a browser that is almost 10 years old and has been superseded twice, it is crazy to support it.

The web is moving forward and there are a bunch of new techniques and tools where websites are concerned. The ideas of progressive enhancement and graceful degration are things I’m happy to work by.

What would usually happen is the website is created up to a point where all browsers would see its basic format. Then with progressive enhancement, things than modern browsers can handle will be added. So if you have a modern browser, you will see these features. For example, rounded corners, gradients and other visual things people could deal without.

Graceful degradation is essentially the opposite. Making sure older browsers (like IE6), or browsers with JavaScript turned off can see what may not be as pretty, but at least it works.

Fine, but your site still looks crap.

This site has been created using the all the latest cool stuff. HTML5 and CSS3. These two languages are the future of the web and of course, anything new will not be supported by Microsoft.

I’ve also used custom fonts, which doesn’t appear very clear on PC with the type of font rendering it uses. Again, this site is just about me demonstrating the latest web-things.

If you want to see how this site is supposed to look, you should use one of these browsers:

• Google Chrome
• Safari
• Mozilla Firefox

Are all the sites you make broken like this?

No, you can have a look at my portfolio for sites that work I’ve made sure work in all browsers. Even IE6.