Selling progressive enhancement to conservative clients

Indulge me, if you will, in a little hypothetical. Consider the following scenario: you’re asked to design and develop a website for a big client. It’s a large company, with probably thousands of employees. A bank, for example, or a large pharmaceutical company. Or maybe it’s a government contract, or a big public sector player, like public transport or the electric or gas company.

What all of these clients have in common, is that 9 times out of 10 they’ll all be lorded over by a restrictive and overly protective IT department, who only updates their software and hardware every other decade. Which means the client will be looking at your work through the shit-tinted goggles of IE6. (more…)