Browser specific sites
FunnelBrain looked fun when I saw it on Jane’s E-learning Pick of the Day.
Alas, the site only works with MSIE 7+ and Firefox 3+. That cuts out Apple users, which is getting on for 20% of the 19-25 market in the US, and about one in 10 here. It also means we can’t use the site in the drop in IT centres at my college (XP/MSIE6), and we can’t use it in any of the Art/Media/Design areas (Apple).
If you want to design a collaborative site for use by students and teachers, you need to understand that teachers will not select technologies that exclude the one or two students in their class who do not have modern computers, or who can only access the Internet in public access facilities (which tend to have older operating systems and Web browsers).
You also need to understand popular Linux distributions if you want any users in Africa or large parts of South America. I’m on Debian with Iceweasel and the site can’t even work out that Iceweasel is Firefox!