Browser design woes

I need to spend more time at A List Apart I think as there are a variety of issues I need to address for many browsers.

When I started the re-design I did consider other browsers, but after getting nowhere fast for a long time I decided that, as 90-odd% of visitors to my site use IE 5.5/6 then I would aim at them first and get things sorted for other people later. In publishing the re-design I am breaking one of the first rules I learnt (the hard way) about designing websites, namely that ‘under construction’ sites are a bit pointless (the ones with a link to a page that says… “sorry, nothing here yet”… if that’s the case don’t flippin link to it! … ahem… sorry bit of a bug-bear that one). However with most modern browsers supporting CSS and allowing the content to be viewed, even if it looks like a dog’s dinner, then essentially the design of the site becomes a secondary consideration*.

Anyway, my point is this. I will continue to tweak the site so it looks OK in Opera (for Lyle), Mozilla/Netscape 7, Mozilla Firebird, and maybe a few others (although I doubt it).

For anyone interested, here’s a snapshot of what the site looks like in I.E. 5.5 (allowing for some bleeding in the compressed JPG).

And thank you for all the compliments, you are all too kind (or the bribes got there faster than I thought they would….)

* Design is NEVER a secondary consideration in site design, but it can become that if you approach the overall site from a different viewpoint, namely that content alone is enough.