What do I need to know about Browser Support?
Overall browsers have come a long way since the browser wars days of Netscape vs. Internet Explorer. However, there are still a significant number of users, particularly corporate users, out there using old browsers like Internet Explorer 6. It's important that your site works and looks professional to your potential customers. At Station Four our expertise and coding practices make sure it does.
What is graceful degradation and progressive enhancement?
With so many different browsers and devices out there now that are able to surf the web, it isn't feasible to ensure every visitor to your site has the same experience. This is where the principles of graceful degradation and progressive enhancement come into play - allowing those with newer browsers to experience a fluid and modern design while still allowing people on other devices to fully use it.
Though there are nuances of meaning, when applied to web design they both mean essentially the same thing: making sure that when you use techniques and software not universally supported that the core content of the site is still accessible.
This usually applies to making sure that when you use advanced javascript and flash behaviors and interactive experiences that the core or the content is still accessible when users have these things disabled. For JavaScript this usually means proper coding technique that use 'hooks' into your code instead of using inline scripts or other less refined methods. That tend to clutter your code and break when a browser that doesn't support a feature views your page.