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Title
GE-01: Unisys eCommunity
Web Site Should Support Standard Browsers
Background
Unisys is currently providing a set of web-based
online messaging forums to its employees and customers called the Unisys
eCommunity, and is making these forums available on the Unisys eCommunity web
site (http://ecommunity.unisys.com).
These forums have the potential to provide a
significant service to both Unisys and its customers by allowing information and
experiences about Unisys products to be shared online by eCommunity members.
Unfortunately, the current Unisys eCommunity web
site appears to have been designed exclusively for the Microsoft Internet
Explorer web browser, and a significant number of Unisys' customers do not use
this browser as their primary web browser.
Because of this, the Unisys eCommunity site is
either difficult or (in some cases) impossible to use.
This is preventing some customers from being able to view the eCommunity
site and participate in its forums.
UNITE
Requirement
Unisys should ensure that the eCommunity web site
uses standard technologies, and that the main web site functionality (including
the reading and posting of forum messages) can be utilized by all web browsers
which possess basic display and form processing capability.
Technologies such a Javascript may be used to
enhance the web site, but should not be used for required functionality such as
user sign-ons or message posting, since most browsers either do not yet support
Javascript fully or may not have Javascript enabled at all.
Unisys
Response
Unisys
agrees with the requirement to support standard browser technologies on the
eCommunity web site and we believe that we meet this requirement.
Based on usage data for standard browsers (Internet Explorer 85%,
Netscape 10%, AOL 4%, others 1%) we have directed our development group to
actively
test
both IE and Netscape when we implement new site features.
We do not actively test our site access through AOL but we do respond to
any problem reports. We believe
this support strategy is effective because we have a number of messages posted
in our Discussions area that indicate that people are using all of these
standard browsers with no problem.
Although
we do not test other browsers (that constitute the 1%) we make every effort to
not preclude their use. We do this by using standard Internet development
technologies such as BroadVision and HTML to implement the site. As a result, we know that some people use special browsers
such as Opera with no problem. This
fact is also documented in the Discussions area of the eCommunity.
In
summary, we have not designed the eCommunity web site exclusively for the
Microsoft Internet Explorer web browser. We
support the top 3 standard browsers and will attempt to fix any problem that
users report for these products. Also,
we have implemented the site in such a way as to not preclude the use of less
frequently used browser technology.
UNITE
Response
UNITE
accepts the Unisys response.
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