how browser use statistic relate to design

[Proglearner]

I found an article online published in October 2012 that says only 20% of web users rely on IE9, while a huge 38% rely on older versions of IE. Old IE6 is even gaining market share. Does this mean that html5 tools such as SVG graphics should be avoided for the time being?

I also note that w3schools report that only about 15% of their visitors use any version of IE, much as only about 30% of servers out there run Microsoft Exchange (although the latter is not something w3schools themselves say). Should I draw the obvious inferences from these statistics with regard to the relative software choices of knowledgeable computer users as opposed to non-knowledgeable computer users?

What I'm really focusing on is whether a website visitor who might, for example, have a Ph.D. in reptile brain anatomy but have trouble finding the power switch on her computer (a description that applies to nearly every potential website visitor) is going to be frustrated and discouraged by the use of things such as SVG graphics in a website I develop. I'm hoping people can give me some input.

Progz

[JorgeM]

So when sites post their stats online about their users', you have to consider what type of site they have. You have to think about the fact that visitors that access W3Schools, may be more inclined to have different browsers since these visitors are more likely to know about web technologies and be more interested in developing web pages, testing with different browsers etc...

For example, if you had a website about Unix, I would tend to beleive that you may see less visitors using IE than other browsers.

I'm confident that typical sites like msn.com, yahoo.com probably see that most of their visitors are visiting using IE8-9 since XP and Win 7 operating systems are everywhere. Lately more and more people are installing other browsers like Firefox, Chrome and of Course we see quite a bit of Safari out there now.

When developing sites, I try to include only those elements that are supported by majority of browsers that visit my site. If I want to encourage IE users that have older browsers, I may include IE conditinal statements and provide them with a message on the screen letting them know that if they want a better experience on my site, they should use a different browser.

With regard to "Old IE6 is even gaining market share" I dont see how that is possible, sounds unlikely. This would indicate that people are installing Win XP and not updating their browsers...

[Proglearner]

Jorge, would your conditional statements just be text redirections or would you, for example, include both a main SVG graphic for IE9 users and an alternative non-scalable graphic for IE8 users?

The thing I don't know is how quickly IE8 users are upgrading to IE9. If nearly all of them will be using IE9 or another browser, such as Chrome, in a matter of a few months from now, then it's a non-issue; but if people will continue using IE8 for many years, then it's definitely an issue.

Progz

[JorgeM]

I suspect that IE 8 wil continue to hold a good market share for quite some time. How long? We would need to collect data and plot it to see the trend. IE8 can run on XP, Vista, and 7 from the Windows workstation class not to mention the server OSs. The share may not be huge, but probably large enough to be problematic. For example, on my site during the last 30 days, 12% of the visits were from users running IE 8. In my case, Chrome happens to be the #1 browser barely ahead of IE.

I get so little IE 6 traffic that i don't worry about the user experience. However, for some projects that i have done, i had to incorporate IE conditional statements/JavaScript to either to show alternate content or simply to notify the user.

The path you take depends on how important it is to show SVG elements to those browsers that can support it. If its not worth the effort at this time, just incorporate it at a later time, unless your site's success depends on it.