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1.4. Knowing Your Audience

As with most design challenges, making appropriate decisions regarding which browsers to support and which new technologies to adopt largely depends on knowing your audience. Before designing a new site, be sure to spend plenty of time up front researching the likely platforms, browsers, technical savvy, and connection speeds of the users you are targeting. If you are redesigning an existing site, spend time with the server logs to analyze past site usage.

There are no browser-support guidelines that can anticipate every design situation; however, the following scenarios should start you thinking:

For most multipurpose web sites, stick with the safer "splitting the difference" approach to design, or if you have the resources, create multiple versions and serve them appropriately.



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