January 2005

Browser Wars and Color Overload

If you design your own website, there are a few compatibility issues you will want to consider in the process. If not properly addressed these issues can dramatically affect your customer’s experience.

FireFox vs Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer has been the dominant browser for years. Today, however, there are a variety of other options. FireFox has been downloaded over 8 million times in the past months. It is free and becoming very popular. Mozilla, Netscape, Safari, and AOL are also used by your customers. You will want to test your website on those browsers to make sure they look right and work properly. Each browser interprets your HTML differently and can cause all kinds of problems.

Color Overload
The Internet began as a text-based medium. Today it is obviously loaded with images and color. But not every user has the same settings on their computer. To guarantee compatibility, web designers for years have been restricted to designing websites using a limited color palette of 256 colors at a screen resolution of 800 by 600.

Fortunately, we have come a long way in the past few years. Very few people still use only 256 colors. Today there is an accepted palette of 4096 web-smart colors. This will make your design process much simpler. Additionally, at least 60% of users have a screen resolution of 1024 by 768. Only about 30% of your website visitors will still be using 800 by 600.

Designing your website with these limitations in mind assures that your customers will see what you want them to see when they visit your site.

Links to great color tools and additional information about minimizing compatibility issues will be available online at www.NWHorseSource.com/online.