Browser Support Matrix for UC Davis Web Content Providers

Browser Support Matrix for UC Davis Web Content Providers

The following matrix lists web browsers and operating systems a UCD web site or application should support. By "support", it means that you should test your site/application against these browsers to make sure it provides equivalent functionalities on all of them. This is about making your content accessible to all users. By the way, if you cannot test your site/application on all of the operating systems, at least make sure you don't make any operating specific design assumptions (e.g. different OS's deal with file paths and names differently).

The amount of testing depends on your user base. As a general rule, the more diverse your user base, the more you need to test.

Testing for browser compatibility isn't as bad as it sounds. As long as you develop your site/application to conform to web standards, your site/application should work fine across these browsers.

End users and system administrators: As long as you use one of the supported browsers, UCD web content should work fine on your computer. You do not need to install/support all these browsers.

* Any relatively modern distribution of Linux capable of running Firefox should work.

Where is Opera?

Opera is a popular web browser among web designers because of its aggresive adoption of the latest HTML/CSS standards. If you develop for the browsers named above, chances are your application will work just fine in Opera. By all means, support Opera. However, make sure your site works on these more commonly used browsers as well.

Where is Internet Explorer 6?

IE 6 is buggy. IE 6 is full of security holes. IE 6 is a nightmare to work with when developing standards compliant web content. Major web content providers and government agencies around the world no longer support IE 6. Neither will UCD.

Web Content Providers: You do not need to support IE 6.

System Administrators: If you cannot upgrade Internet Explorer to a more current version on your machines, please make sure to install another supported web browser so that your users can access UCD web content.

Beyond "Browser Support"

There is a lot more to making sure a web application works on a user's computer than supporting a particular version of a web browser. Design choices such as using plugins and designing for accessibility can make a significant difference on whether your application deploys successfully to your users. To better understand these issues, read Browser Related Recommendations for Developing and Procuring Web Services at UC Davis.

What about Mobile Device Support?

Mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets are quickly becoming popular choices for accessing web content. It is inevitable that mobile devices will become a significant platform for web access in the next one to two years. If you are deploying a new application, you should carefully evaluate the application's support for mobile browsers against the application's particular user base.

In addition to the conforming to UCD's web standards, supporting mobile devices requires special considerations such as dealing with a smaller screen and a touch-driven navigation. SSWG is considering launching a follow up project to study and recommend strategies to support mobile devices across the UC.