Compliance with GDS browser guidelines

[AnnCorp]

Need to provide summary documentation/evidence of how the SDGs tool complies with GDS cross browser and responsive guidelines https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/technology/designing-for-different-browsers-and-devices Raised by our Digitial Publishing team.

• [x] Run browserstack
• [x] IE 8/9 data #615

Need estimate how long this will take?

[AnnCorp]

Think could close #123 and just leave this issue #307 (sorry, didn't see 123...)

[shaneporter]

There are undoubtedly some compliance issues with the current website. I have worked with progressive enhancement in the past, but I think it may take a relatively large amount of work to achieve compliance.

Is there a team that can validate the compliance of the website? I'm looking at the 'browsers to test in' and we don't have access to all of those as far as I know. If you have access to a specialised team, who can raise and test issues, it would be easier for me estimate an overall amount of time - the subject is quite broad, and I wonder whether I will miss things from the estimate.

[AnnCorp]

I'm exploring this with an ONSteam that undertakes some other service assessments.

[AnnCorp]

@shaneporter could you get access to 'Browser Stack' https://www.browserstack.com/ (free trial?). Have just been told this is something that has been used by ONS developers.

[shaneporter]

Yeah, I've used that in the past - the free trial only gives me 30 minutes though.

[AnnCorp]

Well you do work pretty fast! Seriously, is it something that you could obtain in Mango?

[shaneporter]

Thoughts @dougmet?

[AnnCorp]

I'm meeting with one of the senior managers from Digital publishing on Monday so aiming to gauge how far we have to comply with these guidelines at this stage and what if anything could be looked at further in the development. Will report back...

[AnnCorp]

Have split out the content re progressive enhancement into a new issue. Discussed compliance with browser guidelines with Andy Dudfield, head of Digitial Publishing service. Re meeting these standards, Andy would be happy if out tool passes favourably through a test using Browser Stack. If hit any issues then need to document them and could then discuss further with Andy. @dougmet what were your thoughts on getting use of Browser Stack please?

[dougmet]

We can definitely use Browser Stack

[AnnCorp]

Discussed with head of Publishing (Andy). As per the GDS guidelines, need to be compliant with commonly used browsers (see GDS link at top) . Priority is that that are no poss errors in interpretation of data due to any issues around browsers etc. The quick automated test from Digital Accessibility Centre (DAC) raises some compatibility issues, though mostly with older browser versions. We have previously had an isue where y-axis displayed differently between IE and Chrome

[dougmet]

I have a browser stack account. Extremely quick visual report:

Windows XP IE 8-9 the chart doesn't work. IE 10 it does. IE 11 looks good. On IE 8 the metadata tabs are visible but don't concertina. This doesn't greatly impact usability. On IE 8 the menu bar doesn't look great. IE 6 is very bad, but we are not supporting this.

Mac OS Safari 7 (old) looked good. Firefox 5.4 looked good

We're not going to fix the charts in IE 8/9 but it only needs to be "functional" according to guidelines. So if there were minor things we can do for the menu bar that might be enough.

[dougmet]

See #615 for IE 8 / 9 thoughts

[dougmet]

IE 9 is now functional thanks to the poylfill that @shaneporter implemented. IE 8 is as functional as it can be given that it doesn't support canvas elements. We now have good browser coverage.

[AnnCorp]

@dougmet @shaneporter Sounds good re IE9! Re IE 8 please what actually displays when the charts don't work - could you chuck a screen shot in here please so I can show Andy.

[dougmet]

So on IE 8 it looks like this (apologies for resolution) and ou can click the metadata/source tabs

[dougmet]

The strangest thing with IE 8 is the front page, which looks like the mobile site.

[shaneporter]

IE8 doesn't natively support media queries, so no surprise there. There are solutions out there though, which I've used in the past for this.