Following up on my article about using or not IE6, I’ve selected a few tools to help you test your website on different browsers. Most of them are free and very easy to use.

As a front-end developer, your task is to make a design run smoothly on any kind of platform – In a perfect world maybe!
We know how most devices and softwares have limitations (or the project’s budget) so what we must is to assure we do our best to maintain a good user experience. Also, websites don’t need to look exactly the same in every browser, or do they?

Since we can’t always install all browsers in all their versions we have to rely on third-party solutions to fill this gap. These tools are the ones I often use on my projects, so please feel free to suggest other resources or comment on these ones.

IETester

This software simulates all version of Internet Explorer from 5.5+. The latest version is more stable and is a great resource to compare IE versions.
Pros: Lightweight software, replaces IE in most cases. Multiple IE versions. Since it’s a simulator, allows you to click and browser your site.
Cons: Not much to say here, but I an occasional javascript error and still crashes sometimes.

Browsershots

This website has probably all browsers and platforms you will need. Type your url and their system will use a network of computers to take a screenshot of your website in the spec you requested.
Pros: Huge range of browser types and OS’s.
Cons: Takes time to load all and you have a limit on how many times you can submit your site per day (unless you go premium). Can’t “browse” your site since it’s only a screenshot.

Adobe Browserlabs

Browserlabs was cool when it was free but now it’s part of CS5, although you can still use it as trial version for a few more time. Like Browsershots, it only takes screenshots of your websites but has a lot of extra resources like onion skin option.
Pros: Great interface and easy to use.
Cons: Not free. Only screenshots.

Spoon Browser Sandbox

A plugin that runs on your browser and lets you to simulate several browsers, like IE6+, Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Opera.
Pros: Browsable resource.
Cons: Plugin sometimes takes a while to load.

Hope you enjoy these resources. Please leave a comment below!
Cheers!

Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer, Opera. Developing websites to match all these browsers is no easy job. And don’t even start talking about the different release versions. You can’t force your visitor to use a specific software but your budget is limited and you can’t create a whole new html for each one of them.

Luckily the modern versions of these browsers are relatively compatible, one difference here, another there. Nothing that a separate stylesheet or a reset css can’t solve. One of them, however, take this to the extreme. Yes, I am talking about the evil IE6.

Losing Support?

IE6 is so full of bugs and rendering problems that several websites are not supporting it any more. Digg, Youtube, Orkut and all 37 signals products (Basecamp, Campfire…) just to name a few. Personally I don’t design for IE6 unless the client specifically asks for it.

To Do or Not To Do

It is a tough decision to make, even tougher without the proper information. A good start is to analyse the average visitor of your (or your clients) website. Check their OS, browser software and work from there.

If a significant portion of the visitors have outdated browser then you might have no choice but to design for them. There are some information out there that can help you with the most common issues.

In case you have no traffic data you can check generic worldwide statistics. W3C, StatCounter and ADTECH (Europe) are a few places that display this information online. Be aware that these statistics represent a very wide audience that maybe don’t represent your audience. In this website for instance, less then 1% of my visitors use IE6. Mainly because this website`s targets are developers, designers and general web-savvy people.

Happy End?

According to W3Schools, IE6 dropped 6% from January to September of this year. So lets be positive and one day we won’t have to bother about this particular browser. I mean, even Microsoft launched a campaign to promote browser upgrade. Fingers crossed!