How best to convince people to upgrade IE?

Question

I recently asked a question that got shot down for being too strongly worded. I'm having another go today because it's something I really am concerned about and I really do want feedback and ideas from the smart people on SO.

IE6 isn't quite the bane of my existence, but it's close. I'm a web-developer and spend too much time fixing things for IE6. Considering its age and relative quality, I'm shocked so many people are still using it.

I understand that some companies still use it for legacy internal webapp support but I've found two companies now that haven't upgraded solely because XP's automatic updates doesn't offer it by default (you have to go through the browser-based Windows Update to install IE7/8).

So forgetting those that need it, how would you convince an individual or organisation to upgrade to a newer version of IE?

Do warning banners work? I've considered skipping doing the IE6-fixing before and putting a "This site works best in..." statement up but surely having a poorly-rendered site makes me and/or my client look bad, not IE6.

There are also people who don't need to keep IE6 but cannot upgrade because they're in a controlled environment. What is the best way to influence them enough to get their admins to do something about the problem?

Note: As I said last time, I don't care about moving these people to another browser. I don't mind giving them the option but this certainly isn't supposed to be a Firefox/FOSS uber-alles thread.

I'm also not looking for a fight, just constructive ideas on making business types aware of browser technologies in the least damaging way.

Edit: There are a couple of "you can't force it" answers. I agree, but I feel I could influence it. I tell people when I see IE6 but I'm not sitting behind every IE6 user that accesses a site I've made.

Consider health warnings on cigarettes. They don't force people to stop smoking but they do educate in a succinct and (nowadays) fairly brutal way. There's no doubt that educating people has had a massive effect on the numbers of smokers.

IE6 is a lot less addictive than smoking so, yeah, pushing the education idea seems like it might be able to influence the right people to do the right thing.

Answer 1

The best way I can think of getting people to upgrade awayfrom IE6 is to buy a new computer or upgrade their operating systems.

People don't keep IE6 because they like it. They keep it because their IT department requires it. This can be either because they have in house software which they cannot upgrade or because their IT department doesn't want to be bothered, but the former is more likely.

However, I believe XP is the last OS that you could get with IE6. Vista and Win7 don't support it so users and IT departments have no choice.

Answer 2

The only way that you will be able to "force" upgrades is to create a must-have application for enterprise that requires the latest version of Internet Exploder to function.

Chances of that, however, are slim.

A far better option is to actually develop your web application with your target market in mind. If you are developing a product for enterprise where legacy browsers are the norm, then develop to cater for that.

You can only go so far in holding your visitors hand. If they are not willing to change their behaviour with browser choice then it really is not your problem.

At the end of the day, if we decided that we absolutely must cater for everyone, then you can forget all about any of the advancements that have been made in browser technology over the last 15 years and have (close on) 100% coverage. But thats just ridiculous.

Basically - develop for your target market using cross-browser compatible technologies and degrade functionality/styling as neccessary - and realise that you can't please everybody all the time

Answer 3

I think the best you can hope for is hacking the CSS, but using a banner.

A Note to Everyone: Friends don't let friends use IE6.

Answer 4

You'd think that tabbed browsing would be enough of a selling point.

Answer 5

I think for now the best thing is to deal with it. I'd try to make your site fully compatible with IE6 & up. But, you could still include browser detection in the site that tells the user that they're using a browser that may not work properly for your site.

I've seen sites do this before. Bank of America's online banking comes to mind. In the past they'd put up a message to this affect when you ran Google Chrome. You can have a warning message stating that the site may not work properly with your browser, even though it does for the most part. This is one way to encourage the user to upgrade. But it's a fine line. If you overdo it you'll inevitably scare off some users who are unwilling or unable (think public libraries, schools, etc) to upgrade their browser.

Answer 6

Ignoring installations where IE6 is mandated, consider segmenting your application, with basic (though non-buggy and usable) functionality available to IE6 users, and advanced functionality available only to newer browsers. Draw users to newer browsers with the promise of cool stuff.