Ensure your project works in every browser and for every user

I have a backlog of draft articles in my favourite writing app. If I have an idea for a blog post I open a new document and scribble my thoughts down; I’ll then pick it back up again when I’m in writing mode. Going through my backlog of ideas, I spotted a link and a quote from a WebKit blog about the Interop project I’d read last February.

It’s your job as a web developer to ensure your project works in every browser and for every user — and that can be hard to do.

Yep, yep, and yep.

It’s been part of every web-based project’s workflow for a couple of decades to test across multiple browsers and operating systems. I still shudder when I remember wrestling with Internet Explorer 6 quirks; nowadays (thanks to projects like Interop itself and the https://www.webstandards.org before it) it’s much less time consuming to find and fix cross-browser bugs.

As for the and for every user part, that’s what really caught my attention. It’s my job as an accessibility specialist to make sure that the many products in my remit work, or are on their way to working, for all users.

“All users” includes disabled people, so I do a lot of educating and training to ensure designers, developers, testers, user researchers, project owners, etc., etc., are delivering work that’s as accessible as possible. As Jen Simmons says in the Interop article, it’s hard work.

It’s hard work because it means a change in mindset for product delivery teams, it’s hard work because it means change for existing users of products. But it’s worth it.