Improved Interface

IE9 has improved it’s interface, putting more focus on getting work done and surfing the web. Below is a screenshot of the default layout, which keeps familiar aspects of IE8 while still keeping us with current trends.

As you can see, it’s a really nice improvement. But there is a load more changes under the bonnet which are worth looking at.

One of the big features I really like, is the ability to drop and drop links onto the taskbar, even though this can be achieved for other browsers (In Chrome: Tools > Create Application Shortcuts) I really like how institutive it is to do. Though the method they used to allow website owners to add jump lists for parts of their website is a little controversial.

However the interface isn’t perfect. One of the my big annoyances with windows is the ability for users to change the window colour, which on paper is really cool but in my experience leads to iffy UI which can be a little difficult to read. As you can see in the screenshot above, the dark lettering with the dark background makes the tab titles a little hard to read, but I’m nitpicking at best overall it’s really easy to use.

Rendering & Performance

I was impressed a few months ago when Microsoft released a preview version of IE9 and I’m still a happy bunny. Websites load quickly, and more to the point they render correctly. IE9 betas support for html5 and CSS3 is really fantastic. While comparing the various browsers side by side it’s really hard to find any big differences.

Here is IE9 overlaying Chrome rendering the BBC news homepage.

Seriously, the difference is tiny.

Performance wise, IE9 is really competitive! Compared to Firefox, Safari and Chrome in a real-world benchmark IE9 Beta 1 sits nicely in the “Damn Fast” crowd.

Developer tools

Hats off to the people who develop IE. Seriously. While I’m still a little new to developing websites using IE, it looks like they have gone out and asked web developers/designers what they really need and just hit the nail on the head.

I really like that the developer tools allow you to render your website in IE7, IE8 and Quirks mode. I think you can currently do this in IE8, but it’s still pretty awesome.

Game Changer?

In all honesty, I don’t think IE9 will be a big game changer. People who have already converted to another browser will be hard to win back. What it will do however, will make IE a good platform for developing and surfing the web on.

Having said that, I will give IE it’s icon a place on my desktop again.

To add Zebra Strips to a list, all you need to do is adding the following pseudo-class to the end of the CSS element you wish to edit:

ul#example_list li:nth-child(odd) {
 background-color:#FFF;
}

In this example, I’ve used an unordered list element. The data in the brackets refers to the “nth” number to affect, for example putting “(even)” will affect every even <li>. You can also put number in, for example “(3)” would affect every 3rd <li>.

Below is a link to a working example of the code in action (Feel free to copy & share).

If you want to read a bit more about the nth-child pseudo-class I recommend the sitepoint CSS reference.