Last night I finished reading "Get Real" by the 37signals guys. A great read for anyone, in the web development field or otherwise, who specializes in coming up with great ideas but is overwhelmed by execution. Something they said affirmed a long-standing belief I've had about website development...that contrary to popular opinion, you don't need to make sure that your website works for everyone.

In the book, they describe how in developing BaseCamp they intentionally ignored how the service would function (or not) in Internet Explorer 5, even though at the time IE5 was 7% of the browser market. They made the conscious decision that satisfying that extra 7% was not worth their time or investment. They were willing to lose that 7% of business for the ability to focus on delivering an efficient, top notch product to everyone else.

This decision is contrary to conventional wisdom in both web development and brick-and-mortar sales, and that's why I love it. Why would you intentionally alienate 7% of your potential revenue stream? Simple...it's not worth the trouble.
A similar debate rages around an issue known as "degradation" (hence the title of the post). Degradation is the notion that a particular user will not have the latest technology installed or employed on their computer, and the site needs to accommodate those users with backup technology. A common example is Flash. If a user has Flash "turned off" on their computer, will they be able to navigate or interact with your site? Another common example is Javascript, a programming language that powers web functionality from drop-down menus to forms to client login to slideshows. If someone has Javascript "turned off", how will the user see your site?

Here's my response...who cares. And my response to web designers and developers is equally blunt...just stop it. Stop catering to the lowest common denominator. Stop enabling the unwillingness to adopt modern technology. Stop spending time getting your site to work for less than 10% of users and spend that time creating a killer site for the other 90%. Yes, creating a site that "degrades gracefully" is a purer, more robust form of development. But the only people who will care are the less-than-10% who are 5-10 years behind the curve.

You've heard the adage that 80% of your business comes from 20% of your customers. That same adage works in reverse...80% of your headaches will come from 20% of your customers.