A pragmatic browser support strategy

April 9, 2025

Today, I wanted to talk about my approach to browser support. The tl;dr version…

Basic functionality should work on any device that can access the web.

Extras and flourishes are treated as progressive enhancements for modern devices.

The UI can look different and even clunky on older devices and browsers, as long as it doesn’t break rule #1.

Let’s unpack this a bit…

Source: A pragmatic browser support strategy | Go Make Things

Since just about the arrival of the second browser, web web developers have debated this question–how do we handle the differences in support for browser features.

Do we revert to the lowest common denominator?
Do we build with the latest technologies and slap a “best viewed in” badge on the site (this was a surprisingly common strategy for a long time, though with its many other flaws, it makes no sense in an age of webkit only iOS browsers).
The strategy of ‘graceful degradation‘ which morphed into progressive enhancement has become, for those who care about such things, the best practice approach.

But that still leaves a lot of specifics to be considered. As Chris Ferdinandi does here.

Related videos