Car analogy to explain old browser support

Feb 12, 2013 misc-web

This post is more than 18 months old. Since technology changes too rapidly, this content may be out of date (but that's not always the case). Please remember to verify any technical or programming information with the current release.

I constantly look for ways to explain to non-technical people the daily challenges I must face and decisions I make. I like using analogies. One of the biggest ones I face where I work currently is the support of out-dated browsers.

To explain support for older browsers, I use the leaded/unleaded gasoline analogy.

Supporting older out-dated browsers is like a gas station that still has leaded gasoline. True, there may be some cars out there that still use leaded gasoline, but the vast majority of them don’t. If you continue to serve leaded gasoline, you have to use a whole tank to store that. It’s just not fiscally sound to use a whole tank space on your lot to serve that hardly used gas. Instead, most of the demand is coming from the unleaded offering. Focus your effort on serving and enhancing the quality for the higher demand.