Noooooooooooooooo !

My students will tell you this is one of the aspects of web development that annoys me most. It is a marketing/sales DISASTER. It is not neccessary. In business terms it is an act of lunacy. I thought the practice was dying out, but this morning I was looking for a text book for a new module, and came across this:There is NO REASON for this. Design a site that EVERYONE can access (see, the rule of one). Sorry 'web designers', but use the technology that everyone has - there is no need to be 'cutting edge' on this. You are not showing off your abilities to use the latest technology, you are making the site's publishers [your employers] look like IDIOTS.

Here's the issues - designers, read this carefully:

1. I know what this message is all about. I have written books on the subject. My wife on the other hand - who is not stupid - would find this message a mystery. On our laptop at home do you think she has any idea what 'Windows XP Professional SP2' is?. She has no idea what this message is about. She would be alarmed about it [viruses and all that]. She would leave the site at that point. Hello ... you just turned a customer away at the door.
   
2. I use a PC at work. Like most [all?] organizations our IT dept don't give individuals 'administrator' access to their computers. I couldn't download the latest versions of these things if I wanted to.
3. This message goes over the actual content of the web page (see the image below)
4. I'm not an expert on the technology - but a quick scan around the site didn't reveal anything that couldn't be handled by the previous versions of the browsers.
   

And finally, here is the kicker - my computer HAS this technolgy already - I have the latest versions of these browsers - the message isn't for me.