The new age information sources are not books or newspapers but different gadgets available in the hands of users. This variability is also in browsers and operating systems. The combination of locations, devices, software, and count of users makes website designing and development a difficult task. No web developer can claim to have all the resources to simulate these countless combinations and create a visibly consistent website. As a first step toward a good design, web designers and developers must take care of browser incompatibility. It is one of the major limitations of a well-received website design.
What is browser incompatibility and why does it happen?
The behavior of a website that may look perfect on one web browser but totally disarrayed on another is called browser incompatibility. The most common reason for such behavior is the lack of support of a browser for specific HTML tags. Another reason is that the browser fails to decode deprecated tags or the CSS or JavaScript code is incorrectly written. Another reason can be non-conformation to W3C standards by the developer company.
Tips to handle browser incompatibility
Design smartly to tackle different resolutions
As you know resolution is the reason to let the screen show the data. Screen varies between 800X600 to 1024X768 and more. With differences in the resolution of screens across the world, your website may appear expanded or shrunk. If the images get even slightly distorted it may not go well with your visitors.
There is a clever solution to this problem. The crucial content of your web pages must be placed in the middle and other towards the outer sections according to reduce importance. A higher resolution screen will do justice to your pages but the lesser resolution screens keep the important content within sight and attention of the user.
JavaScript compatible browsers
Some of the browsers that fail our websites may have not been designed according to W3C web standards which are essential for the accurate rendering of web pages. You cannot control the browser designing process so, it becomes imperative for you to include JavaScript code in your HTML code to detect the browser. This will render the correct look of the page with the help of a cross-browser function that identifies elements by IDs. This is a good thing to do in case of an unknown or new browser.
Override the CSS style used by the browser
The browsers that we get have their own default CSS style. It is the reason for browser incompatibility and subsequent inconsistencies in line heights, margins and font sizes of headings, etc.
You must always create a master stylesheet for your website that is just like a global reference document. Your web pages will use this master stylesheet by overriding the default CSS style of the browser. This is an extremely important and practical solution to make cross-browser web design work perfectly.
Final Words
No web browser should be able to stop you from making your content reach every corner of the web world. By following the above-discussed tips to handle browser incompatibility you have every reason to offer a smooth and consistent experience to visitors on any platform they like.
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