Jan

22

DDTC ♥ Microsoft Internet Explorer

Posted by at 6:07 pm on January 22, 2008
Category: DDTC

The Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (“DDTC”) has revamped its web site and says it hopes “the new format enhances your experience at this Web site.” It also hopes that all visitors to the new site only use Microsoft’s Internet Explorer because the new site is broken if viewed in Firefox. Firefox, currently used by almost 40% of people browsing the Internet, is Internet Explorer’s chief competitor and is available as a free download.

Here’s what you see at the new DDTC site if you’re using IE6:

IE6 View

And here’s what a Firefox user will see:

Firefox View

Notice that in Firefox the blue menu on the left covers up the beginning of each line of text on the right, making the page unreadable, hardly the “enhanced experience” that DDTC was hoping for. It is somewhat disheartening when an agency that is in charge of guarding critical technology stumbles when it comes to something as simple as cross-browser compatibility.

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Copyright © 2008 Clif Burns. All Rights Reserved.
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4 Comments:

Yeah, this is a bit disconcerting. I’m using IE and still get a distorted picture. For instance the home page is broken into skewed pieces. When I click a link there is a distortion and the overlap you describe.

Comment by LM on January 22nd, 2008 @ 6:43 pm

It’s not just Firefox; IE 7.0 has the same issue. But keep in mind this is the same USG Agency that is just now catching up to other E-Filing USG Agencies.

Comment by Frank on January 23rd, 2008 @ 8:48 am

The DDTC site looked fine to me on my copy of IE7, but I have a fairly recent copy of IE7 and I’ve heard that later releases removed some the Web-compliant standards that had been put in IE7 to make it work more like the non-compliant IE6.

Comment by Clif Burns on January 23rd, 2008 @ 9:26 am

I’ve been working with the DDTC – D Trade IT Response Team on my issues. They’re the group who is tasked with resolving the issues. My understanding from them is that others have reported the same issue.

Comment by LM on January 29th, 2008 @ 3:59 pm