Steven Ventimiglia

Creative Technologist & Sr. Front-End Developer

Aug 27, 2017

After reading the other answers...

Don't forget about the medical industry. Especially the billion dollar one called Telemedicine. Folks 60+ and older are still using Vista, can't leave their homes and need to have a video conference. This is why, whether current browsers love it or not, Flash is a necessity.

Also, X-Ray software that hasn't been updated for over a decade - and is needed to run antiquated devices - are running on Windows 98 PCs.

Unfortunately, we'll all be there. Running a quad-core i7 4ghz CPU, with 32 gigs of RAM and a 2 TB SSD in 20 years, may not allow you to update to the new version of Chrome - with Super-Duper's Vidirama GoWoah 2.6 - until the hardware is upgraded too. And, if at that point, you're living on social security... good luck with that one.

So, accessibility and backwards-compatibility is much more important than people give them credit for.

Also, don't forget about vendor prefixes. If I were to attempt predicting a "trend gone hog wild" - it will be the requirement of something like Modernizr to become native in the future, because Moore's law is basically explaining to us why we update 36 apps on our phones and wake up the next morning to update 48. Everyone loves to go their own route, without paying attention to how much of an incompatibility issue they're creating within the standards that will eventually evolve even more.

However, I'm a fan of the horse and buggy... and don't mind creating artwork on paper as well as socializing with my neighbors over a barbecue.

Alex Harrison

Aug 28, 2017

These are specific cases that definitely warrant backward compatibility. However, they are much too niche to justify dictating standard practice rules imo. I mean you're probably not doing your internet shopping or using social media apps with the same computer as you use to run your old x-ray machine. Also the specific crowd you mention is also quite niche and doesn't really fit into the realistic predictable user base for most industries that are designing an interface. These are definitely very interesting cases and ones that I was not familiar with so thank you for bringing them up.

Oh yeah, it's a niche, but a billion dollar one at that. Also, software - or web-based/in-house apps - have been made to fill a void sometimes. So, if it's general purpose, then my opinion is that, "In a year if your browser don't support CSS grids... sorry dude." lol

Then again, if you want to create an app that will run on an old system - for the seed you'd need to make it public - you may hit a nice 100k mark that helps fund the rest of the process, as well as being the only solution for other systems that depend on software that hasn't been updated in quite a while.

There's that "golden niche", ignored by every million dollar agency out there - like creating a website so you can get laid by the other girls in college. And, eventually that can become Facebook. ;)

Now, think "medical" and "education". Those are the big two in terms of smaller apps with a huge payday, and more dependent on old-school, outdated tech more than you'd think.

Search Hashnode