Decision: Browser support (desktop)
| Thing | Info |
|---|---|
| Relevant features | Full site |
| Date started | 2021-05-26 |
| Date finished | 2021-05-26 |
| Decision status | Done |
| Summary of outcome | Officially support Chrome, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge. Unofficially, support IE11 and Safari to some degree but not fully. |
We want to support the environments that our users work in.
What browsers and screen resolutions are CMS and State users using?
These stats are from an existing CMCS DSG tool that has a user base similar to our intended eRegs user base. (We’re focusing on CMCS staff for now, but we want a future stage to include State staff.)
1. Chrome
- CMS users: 132 (71%)
- State users: 212 (52%)
2. Firefox
- CMS users: 29 (16%)
- State users: 13 (3%)
3. Edge
- CMS users: 12 (6%)
- State users: 94 (23%)
4. Safari
- CMS users: 9 (5%)
- State users: 2 (0%)
5. Internet Explorer
- CMS users: 4 (2%)
- State users: 88 (22%)
While testing site features and content, we asked users, "What devices do you generally use to look at the regs?" Of the 12+ answers we received, 100% were using desktop screens, generally a laptop + a monitor. Only one user just used a laptop. See full responses in Dovetail (requires login and access).
Users generally have two browsers on their machines and may switch between them.
Medicaid.gov has a slightly different user base, as it's open to the general public as well as CMS users, but their browser stats are still helpful to keep in mind because we hope to eventually integrate with the site.
From March 2021: Site analytics PDF (requires login and access).
The largest user base by far is Windows/Chrome, followed by iOS/Safari, Android/Chrome, and then Windows/Edge.
However, we're primarily supporting desktop users because CMCS users rarely use their mobile devices for research work, which then makes Chrome and Edge on Windows the most relevant browsers in this set of analytics.
Microsoft officially announced that it will end support for IE11 on June 15, 2022. Microsoft 365 support for IE11 ends even earlier, on August 17, 2021.
We decided to officially support Chrome, Edge, and Firefox, as these browsers have the most usage from CMS and State users.
The few users on IE11 and Safari will see a message recommending that they view the site in a supported browser. However, we'll look at the site to make sure it's not broken in those browsers in a major way, and we'll write code that makes supporting IE11 in the future possible (should someone after the pilot year want to support the browser) with minimal pain.
Supporting an 8-year-old browser (IE11) would add significant time, money, and frustration to development. By choosing to not support it, we're crafting eRegulations around modern web standards and features.
As of August 2021: for IE users, the site displays this pop-up message. The reader can dismiss the pop-up on that page. If they visit another page on the site, they get the pop-up again and can dismiss it again. Our goal was to allow people to do their task in IE if they really wanted to, just with an appropriate notice that it would work better in another browser.
