Test Your Church Website In Different Web Browsers
ByHeal Your Church Website has one of the best resources I’ve seen on tools to test your church website (or any website for that matter) in different browsers.
Why does this matter?
Not all browsers render the underlying code the same. Meaning … a site could look great in one browser, say Firefox, and totally different (i.e. broken) in another browser, say the dreaded Internet Explorer 6.
Ideally, you want your website guests to see the exact representation of what you want your site to look like no matter what browser they are using.
What are the three most popular browsers:
In my experience and site stats (across maybe 10 different sites), here are the top three browsers in popularity:
- Internet Explorer 6 — seriously, if you have this browser, at least upgrade to Internet Explorer 7.
- Internet Explorer 7 — better than IE6
- Firefox -[subliminal message: Get Firefox]
Anybody got any other tools or resources you use to test your church website on other browsers?
Might want to check your logs a little closer. I know developers ‘love’ FF but it’s not in the top 4 across the Internet. AOL’s numbers are significantly above FF and in a lot of cases Netscape is still above FF. Be realistic with yourself when testing for the Internet. Don’t think with your heart.
God Bless.
KP, hey, I didn’t pick that out of thin air … that’s what my logs say.
I know that’s probably not a great gauge, but that’s what I’ve found (both on my sites and my church website). Thanks for your input.
You bet, Cory. In your defense, you are correct in that you must know your target audience. If your audience (for those sites) are in that range then you must test for that range. We just can’t forget the true metrix across the Internet.
IE6, IE7 and Firefox are not the only browsers out there. Maybe I mostly cater to niche interest (and those being usually Mac and virtualization related) I still see things like Safari and Camino high on the statistics..
Anna, yes, absolutely … I didn’t say “only” browser … I meant most popular.
I’m saying “in my experience” these are the most popular browsers I’m seeing by far.
Safari and Camino though barely pop up on my personal stats radar (less than 5%). And as far as I know, Safari is a great browser … and not prone to all the issues of IE.
Also, I’m by no means an AOL guru … but I thought they used a version of IE??
Quick FYI, I just checked the stats on my church’s website … this is what I gauge a lot of it by because the people accessing our site are not your typical blog readers.
Anyway, here’s what I saw since Aug. 2006 to date …
* Internet Explorer – 80.86% (with IE6 being 77% of that)
* Firefox – 14.42%
* Safari – 3.65%
* A bunch of others less than .65%
Like KP said, it goes back to target audience (if it’s a bunch of Mac users, sure, it’s going to be Safari) … but these are the general figures I’m seeing and thus designing for.
Thanks for the link Cory. I also agree with your analysis, especially where you assert: “Ideally, you want your website guests to see the exact representation of what you want your site to look like no matter what browser they are using.”
Amen!
Though if given my druthers – and had to choose between use case testing and/or browser testing … I’d test use cases as getting things done or inspiring users to do certain things are probably more important than rendering.
Then again, if one doesn’t render correctly then perhaps the user won’t execute correctly …
… great, now I have a catch 22 on my hands. See what you did?!