Number 11 in a series

I Can Dance - But You Can't

The newest versions of the major browsers are feature-rich. They support nifty things like style sheets, applets, scripts, and so on. You can really make a web page dance in them. Unfortunately for you as a site designer, not everyone is using a dancing browser.

You could choose to support only your favorite browser, and never mind what anyone else is using. The problem with that is that you are cutting out a significant portion of your potential market, no matter which browser you choose. You could also design for the Lynx user (Lynx is a text-only browser). But that means you're going to have a web site for which the politest word would be BORING, and on which you're not going to be able to do much, because Lynx doesn't support much.

But there's a third alternative. This is called 'graceful degradation', or GD, and it means that you design your page so that missing features don't adversely affect the utility and interest of the page. (Remember, Content Is King.) Some of the techniques that you use in GD have already been mentioned; they'll still be described here, along with others that we haven't already discussed.

• Use ALT text for captions for graphics. This will prevent display of the tag [IMAGE] for Lynx users, and anonymous broken-graphic icons for graphic browser users. Also, it's required in HTML4.
• Have text links that correspond to imagemap links. This is also for the benefit of non-graphic browsers, plus for those low-capability graphic browsers that don't support imagemaps.
• If you use stylesheets or tables, make sure that the information is presented in a sensible order when viewed on a browser that doesn't support either. Usually, this means 'row-major' order - if you label the table like an Excel worksheet, it will show the contents of cell A1, B1, C1... A2, B2, C2....
• Don't make your site dependent on the existence of specific fonts. The same information should be imparted with any font, all the way down to 3x5 ugly pixellated characters on an old CRT, or even Braille on a one-line-at-a-time display.
• Don't make your site dependent on scripts or java applets or OCX/ActiveX controls or plugins (such as Flash or Shockwave). They don't work on all browsers, and may be turned off for security reasons. VBScript and OCX/ActiveX controls aren't supported on any browser except Internet Explorer. Provide alternatives wherever possible. CGIs and Active Server Pages aren't problematical in this respect; the processing is done on the server (which must have support for ASP and/or CGI) rather than the browser. But make sure that what eventually gets served to the browser will degrade gracefully.
• In addition to forms, which aren't supported by all browsers, provide mailto: links or some other method of accomplishing the same goals.
• Never, ever, use resized single-pixel transparent GIFs to adjust spacing. There is absolutely no way that this can look acceptable when graphics are either unavailable or turned off.
• If you use frames, have provisions for users who don't have frame-supporting browsers.