IE6 denial message for Momentile.com
Monday, June 15, 2009I’ve been happily using Momentile since the new year to document my life in pictures on a daily basis (when I don’t forget to upload a picture, that is). I was particularly pleased, then, to hear from the site’s creator, Derek Balmer who asked if I’d be interested in illustrating a cheeky image to greet users visiting the site with the buggy and outdated Internet Explorer 6.
Derek knew just what he wanted—icons of all the major browsers having a party and not inviting IE6. He also suggested a treehouse might be a good idea, and I agreed; the height of the treehouse made for a easy-to-read visual cue that IE6 was not where he wanted to be.
I did a quick doodle in my sketchbook, and though it usually takes me a few tries to find an ideal layout, I knew right away this one was going to work.
So here’s the refined sketch that I showed the client:
And then, the final piece, which you can see at a higher resolution over at Flickr:
It was an incredibly fun job to work on, and having experienced the difficulties firsthand of trying to build a website that renders properly in all browsers, I hope no one ever has to see it.
John Rygielski says:
Fantastic! Found this work through Daring Fireball. The best browser-not-supported screen I’ve ever seen. Well done.
peteremcc says:
Awesome.
You should add in Chrome next time too. I don’t use it myself, but it’ll make IE6 look even worse and you can’t argue against that!
Daniel says:
dude, Hilarious. I found it via Collis’ tweet
<!--ps i hope this form accepts html lol-->
Daniel says:
<style type="text/css">
span{
font-style:italic;
font-family:georgia;
font-size:1em;
color:#111111;
}
</style>
<span>oops.</span> wrong link
<!--well now we know comments don’t work-->
Colby Olson says:
Awesome drawing, I would love to have a link to a larger picture, I think it would make a great background. Please let me know if you do.
Johnny says:
Colby, if you read above, there is indeed a link to a larger version: http://www.flickr.com/photos/robotjohnny/3629069606/sizes/o/
ady sulistrax says:
I like this words: I can’t believe you’re related to that guy IE7. :D
great work!
Brian Parks says:
I absolutely love this. Great work. Now, off to make my “death to IE 6” fan page on Facebook.
Neha says:
Kool Love it...I hate IE6 too I never wanted him to become the part of my team but what to do we have to manage with him : (
Jamie Le Souef says:
Hi John,
Love the design and the angle you’ve used here - humor is a great way to encourage people to take up new things, not bashing them with there own ignorance.
Well done!
Jeremy Nicoll says:
I kicked IE6 out of my club house a long time ago. Freaking awesome. This should be the standard IE6 denial page.
Jason Cypret says:
Totally awesome. Thanks for the link to the larger version. It is now my desktop!
Love all your other work too!
mcometa says:
Awesome and very funny! Haha
David Paulsson says:
Haha, amazing work - I love it!
benni says:
The only thing which would may be improveable is the positions/weightings of the speechballoons… Intentionally I read this from the right to the left (or actually I think I started out with firefox’ words), while it does not make too much sense that way.
However, still a great idea!
Scarf*oo says:
Lovely illustration.
But, aren’t you worried about losing IE6 users that way? Err, wait a moment…
Nicolas says:
Hey, this is brilliant nice way to put how unpopular IE6 is
iynque says:
This makes me sooo happy.
strangera says:
Great one! Love it!
I am missing only Google Chrome
I love Google Chrome 
Jim Cook says:
I WILL buy the t-shirt of this if it ever sees the light of day.
Nikola says:
Hahaha, awesome
Tony says:
Any chance you and/or Momentile would let others use the image for their IE6 warning pages? We’re re-doing our school’s site, and will be implementing a warning page for IE6 users...Can’t seem to find a way to contact anyone at Momentile, though. No contact form or email addy.
bowerbird says:
wah! i’m an old man, with bad eyes…
so i’d have liked the speech-balloons
to have been much bigger and bolder.
-bowerbird
Johnny says:
Bowerbird, it’s shrunk down a bit to fit this blog, but at full size it’s quite legible.
Evert says:
Hi,
This is very cool.. would love to use it!
Would you perhaps be interested in putting this under a creative commons or open source license?
It’s for the greater good
Milo says:
Absolutely great! To be honest, I even like the original text with your sketch even more
UVshah says:
thats cute.. hope that appears every time IE6 browser is opened to the greybeard old-timers
snydez says:
poor IE6 /..
../not :d
swapnet says:
yea, how come nobody ever mentions Google Chrome. It’s one of the coolest browsers around.
Derek says:
Thanks again Johnny! I can’t tell you how happy we all are with your work. Looking forward to the next project ; )
Nules says:
Love it! Thanks for making me laugh John
Kev Adamson says:
That is a wonderful illustration. Your composition and use of colour is really nice
I’m an illustrator also, and I was just wondering: Is the above vector based? Also, do you create your own brushes for the rough edges?
(Tips hat)
Frank Oh says:
This is so funny ~~~
vineetgupta says:
Great art, John, I’m going to subscribe.
Читалище says:
You made my day :D
rouge says:
Great work and a superbe idea!
momo says:
Hilarious! Can’t wait til ie6 can’t find its way to the party.
Josh says:
Brilliant! It’s nice to hear that you had fun creating this. I had fun viewing it
Matt Hill says:
Cool cartoon, lovely illustration. Excellent work!
I hate to be a pooper though. IE6 still has a decent market share and as responsible designers and developers we still have a duty to support our users.
Not letting IE6 play *at all* is a bit extreme.
Iva says:
Curious...were you, at any point, inspired by the Stonecutters episode of The Simpsons and two Homers? Either way, I love it.
Jason Grant says:
This is fun, but supporting IE6 should not be that difficult if one follows the best practices for UI development.
Testui says:
I have a great idea. All those in the web design/dev arena decide on a date when we all stop using ie6. It will be a unified push to get rid of the enemy. I think we have pandered to its oppresive regine far too long, lets stand up for “ie must die day”
Paul says:
Very very nice, but from some weeks we have IE8
Don Gilbert says:
Hey - could I use this as the non-supported browser image for my website? I would like to implement an image map with it that links to each of the browser featured.
Johnny says:
Hi Don,
You bet!
You can get a creative commons version here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/robotjohnny/3629069606/
I only ask that you link back to the original Flickr page or my website.
Mad Tomato says:
haha! so cute. love it!
Isai Gongora says:
hey do you can traslate to spanish,,,?
jajaj
The words will be,,,
IE6:Hey ustedes muchachos, ¿Cómo pueden no volver a utilizarme?
Safari:Vete a casa IE6
Opera: Si, siempre hechas a perder nuestros mejores juegos
Mozilla Firefox: No puedo creer que estes relacionado con ese tipo, IE7
IE7: Ni me lo recuerdes…
PLeasee,,,
Rohan says:
To all you people saying “IE6 still has market share” , “supporting it isn’t hard” I have something to tell you: You’re holding the Internet back. You’re holding everyone back. Sure, supporting IE6 isn’t hard if you want to make sites that look like they’re from the 90s, but this is 2009, and the web has the potential to move so much further, so much faster. Do you know how much time, money and resources are constantly wasted on providing IE6 support?
Unless you sit behind some kind of local intranet that uses IE6 for internal admin purposes, or work in a corporate cubicle (you shouldn’t’ be visiting sites like momentile then anyway) there is NO reason you should be using IE6, and if you are, then it is our responsibility as web developers to tell you to get another browser. You wouldn’t support using rickshaws in New York City would you? Didn’t think so.
Rohan says:
by the way this picture is completely awesome.
Farid says:
it’s great!!