Released in 2001, Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) is a dinosaur in the browser world and it’s causing problems for users and web developers alike. Not surprising, then, that there is a growing campaign by some in the Internet community to get rid of it.

At eight years old, IE6 has problems adjusting to new Web programming languages and practices. For example, IE6 doesn’t support advanced CSS and XHTML, key tools of today’s Web developer. Designers and programmers who see their pages display beautifully in more modern browsers (IE7 & IE8, Firefox, Safari, Chrome and Opera) often have to spend hours programming hacks so that the pages also display correctly in IE6. “It’s like having to build a special rail track for older, out-of-date rail cars that are still in service,” says Quicksilver developer Lakshmi Jayaraman.

We know that IE6 will be phased out eventually – and because it restricts innovation in terms of layouts, display and interactivity, major players like Google, Facebook and YouTube are pushing for that to happen sooner rather than later. For example:

    •    Facebook provides a decidedly lesser experience for people using IE6, and also offers links to download more modern browsers

    •    IE6 doesn’t work well with Google Mail, and fails to run at all with some other Google products

    •    YouTube is gearing up to limit support for IE6.

As an aside, YouTube already demonstrated its clout by requiring Flash Player 9 for viewing all video content; this contributed heavily to users worldwide upgrading their computers to Flash Player 9 from older versions. Could a boycott of IE6 by leading technology companies lead to a similar scenario? We can certainly expect to see entities such as email providers, news sites, and development companies ending support for this browser before too long.

If this browser has so many limitations, why does it keep hanging on? There are a number of factors, including:

    •    15-20 percent of Internet users worldwide still use this browser as their primary window to the Web.

    •    Windows 2000 is not capable of running anything newer than IE6, and some businesses have not upgraded their computers to a newer operating system.

    •    There are businesses that have invested in custom applications that require IE6.

Despite these factors, the way to move IE6 towards the exit lies in the democratic nature of the Web – the fact that if enough people make similar choices, then the environment as a whole evolves in that direction. It’s likely that a lot of IE6 users don’t really think about upgrading their browser, and are not aware that their online experience could improve if they did. In fact, I saw a vox populi report on television recently where people on the street were asked, “What is a browser?” Fully 50 percent of those interviewed couldn’t answer the question.

All the more reason to push the alternatives – provide links to downloads of better browsers. We must get rid of the expectation that the Web experience should be the same for IE6 users as it is for those viewing the Web with better software.

However, if a site really must cater to IE6 because of who its audience is (and an analytics program perusing your web site logs can tell you what percentage of your visitors is using IE6), then you have a couple of choices:

    •    Accept the browser’s limitations, understanding which design elements and functionality will not display or work correctly. And communicate those limitations to your visitors. Provide them with links for upgrading, and tell them about the better experience that awaits.

    •    Plan to spend a little extra for programming hacks. 

Note that while some people can upgrade, a Digg survey found that 77% of the sample simply had no upgrade option. Of course, those with administrator rights to their PC's could always download Firefox or Chrome and do an A/B comparison test – which can be quite revealing!

If you think you can influence the remaining 23% in the Digg survey, then you may find this page useful – paste the code into your own site page to provide a visual link to downloads for four modern browsers. Or follow these links to upgrade to a modern browser:

Firefox
Internet Explorer 8
Safari
Google Chrome

The evolution of Flash and Actionscript have completely changed the landscape for developing interactive training, whether the training is online or installed on a local machine.

Designers and developers now turn to Flash for a wide variety of uses–from animations, presentations, and banner ads to websites and games. Training is a natural addition to the list. Designers have embraced Flash because it enables them to make training much more visually appealing–the design possibilities are virtually limitless. Developers like the dynamic Flash/Actionscript duo for training applications because it enables them to program and unleash powerful, event-based, user-driven scenarios–something that originally required a medium-level programming language like C++.

All that users need to access the training product is the ubiquitous Flash Player. In mature markets like the United States, 99 percent of Internet-enabled computers have Flash Player installed. Flash Player has the advantage of being very ‘lightweight’–meaning that rich media content requires little effort from your pc to manage and display. Typical users no longer see their devices struggle to handle animations and video files–and based on their exposure to the Web and to interactive games, they are increasingly likely to expect these media types to be used for training.

Actionscript is the programming language for Flash. It is related to Javascript, which is commonly used by Web developers to program access to objects within other applications. Actionscript is object-oriented as well, which helps when you are developing a training curriculum that reuses common elements. By communicating through a middleman like XML or PHP, for example, Actionscript can converse with databases, applications, and other Flash files. As a result, it is now possible in Flash to track a trainee’s actions (i.e., their clickstream), trigger an event (e.g., pass data to a training database or display new graphics in response to trainee choices), or make calculations (e.g., assign a score to a trainee for a specific action).

That’s why Flash is now in wide use to create interactive, scenario-based training–because it combines visually rich animations and graphics with computations, transactions and the ability to generate reports.

Bill Talsma is a Designer and Flash Animator with Quicksilver Associates and was the lead Flash designer for RSC Equipment Rental's interactive training.