I agree with this article when it comes to the consumer market but when it comes to B2B communication or industrial companies many of these tips just like more web statistics are way off base and can actually be dangerous. There is a tendency for designers to caught up in the latest trends without really thinking of the impact it will have for the market they work in. All these new trends mean more interesting articles and more to write about but they can be misleading to all designers.
I work for a global company and every single one of our gobal staff uses Windows, IE and Outlook. I used to do live web streaming for corporate clients and every single one of them was the same situation.
In the corporate world the golden rules are:
- Assume everybody is using an older IE
- Assume everybody is using Outlook
- Assume maybe at best 2-5% of the company staff are even using mobile devices for work related functions.
- Assume a company employee is actually parked in front of their computer between 8:00 and 5:00 and not even thinking about their mobile device
- Plan for odd firewall issues or methods of IT to block certain kinds of content. Some companies block emails made up of all images or they will block any form of video content to keep their limited bandwidth pipe clear
- Assume a company has very crappy internet speeds, especially when factoring in how many people may be using that tiny stir straw of a pipe.