I have as much dispute with IE6 as the next guy - there's no denying that it's holding us back and we'd be better off without it - and I fully support non-disruptive evangelism efforts that encourage IE6 users to upgrade to a modern and more secure browser. It's in their best interest after all.

But the notion that IE6 support should be discontinued, or that its users should be blocked, is dangerously misguided and missing the point. IE6 isn't your problem, and you shouldn't even maintain a list of supported browsers in the first place. If you think I'm talking to you, continue reading.

Via Inclusive Web Design For the Future (by Steven Champeon & Nick Finck):

The goal of Web design is not merely to dazzle, but to deliver information to the widest audience possible. Compromise is possible and desirable, but such compromise should not come at the expense of the user, but rather in terms of the native capabilities of the user's choice of device.

As someone that designs and develops online, one of my primary responsibilities is to deliver an accessible user experience. To my users, and not their choice of access. Their media device, operating system, browser, screen resolution or viewport - there's no denying that these factors should be considered when planning a new project, but they shouldn't ever be treated as constraints that place limitations on the interface or experience. They are merely variables that come together in any number of ways for any number of users. And although you can trend and analyse them today, they will undoubtedly change tomorrow, and next week, and month, and year... you get the picture.

If you think IE6 is today's problem, how will you deal with IE7, Firefox 2, Safari 3 or similar browser generations a year from now when they fail at rendering your standards-compliant CSS3? Cry foul like a stuck record from a bygone era and demand that your users upgrade once again to meet your standards? No, I didn't think so.

Then what's the alternative?

So glad you asked - progressive enhancement of course!

Before you point fingers, I'll be the first to admit that I'm not exactly a PE poster boy candidate. Using this site as a quick example - I built it with best intentions just under a year ago, and despite saying then that I'd adopted a PE strategy, there are so many things that I'd do differently today. But in my defence, that's the very nature of designing for the web: a continuous cycle of learning, adapting and growing.

So PE isn't new to me, but adopting it's methodologies into my workflow has taken longer than I'd like, only because it demands changing a system that I've spent a long time refining, and these changes demand free time that I generally don't have. But with every new project, I take another step closer towards PE utopia. I'd say I'm currently bordering on a solid progressive enhancement strategy, while some thinking around the defunct graceful degradation approach still remains.

See Understanding Progressive Enhancement by Aaron Gustafson for an overview of the subtle differences between the two concepts.

Both graceful degradation and progressive enhancement consider how well a site works in a variety of browsers on a variety of devices. The key is where they place their focus and how this affects workflow.

Although I don't appreciate the sweetness offered by the M&M anology, the article does a good job of introducing the two important follow-ups: Progressive Enhancement with CSS and Progressive Enhancement with JavaScript. Definitive reading!

Ultimately, you will need to take the basic principles and adapt them as best you can into your workflow, all within context of course (if you exclusively develop intranets for IE6 then don't bother). For example, the biggest changes that I've made include:

• Adopting a JavaScript library - together with behavioural separation, jQuery provides me with powerful, unobtrusive and accessible methods for manipulating style and content. I swear by it, but I'm careful to not rely on it.
• Resetting my CSS: see Eric Meyer's Reset Reloaded (and Again) as a starting point, or A Killer Collection of Global CSS Reset Styles if you have the time.
• Sizing my layouts and typography using ems - How to Size Text in CSS (by Richard Rutter) is invaluable.
• Using conditional comments to target IE6 and IE7-specific CSS for style compatibility. Familiarise yourself with IE's hasLayout too - adding one simple rule to your conditional CSS will save you a lot of trouble and time.
• DD_belatedPNG - Medicine for your IE6/PNG headache! - the holy grail of PNG support in IE6
• Being comfortable with the idea that despite the above points, my interface designs are secondary to the content that they deliver. They will never render consistently for all users - but then, they won't know the difference anyway.

And there you have it! No more reason to blame IE6 for your laziness or reluctance to adapt. If you're not convinced, have your say in a comment. I'd also love to hear if and how you're using PE in your own work, or any experiences worth sharing.

More reading:

• Pragmatic progressive enhancement  - why you should bother with it (by Christian Heilmann)
• Creating gracefully degrading javascript and enabling progressive enhancement (via Mark Story)
• Progressive enhancement in action (via Nvision)