98% Isn't Much

# 98% isn't very much Source: [https://whynothugo.nl/journal/2026/07/03/98-isnt-very-much/](https://whynothugo.nl/journal/2026/07/03/98-isnt-very-much/) 2026\-07\-03[\#accesibility](https://whynothugo.nl/tags/accesibility)[\#design](https://whynothugo.nl/tags/design)[\#society](https://whynothugo.nl/tags/society)98% sounds like a lot\. If someone wins the lottery 98% of the times they play, they are clearly blessed\. Getting a top mark \(e\.g\.: 10/10\) on exams 98% of the time will likely lead to an honour diploma\. But a restaurant where clients don’t get of food poisoning 98% of time is getting people sick on a monthly \(or even weekly\) basis\. If an employer pays their employees 98% of the times, I definitely wouldn’t want to work there\. If I pay before leaving a restaurant only 98% of the time, I’ll be in trouble\. 98% is great for exceptionally good things, like dramatically increasing someone’s quality of life, but very low for basic expectations, like a baby surviving a babysitter taking care of them\. If a website uses fancy new browser features and works for 98% of the population, that means that it won’t work for ~150 million people\. If a website makes a change and that works for 98% of their visitors, they’re basically kicking out 2% of their audience\. Can you imagine a venue refusing entry to former clients 2% of the time just because they’ve “improved their experience”? 98% of the population might not imply 98% of my audience either: something might work for 98% of the general population out there, but only for 70% of my actual audience\. Just a few months ago the topic of nested CSS came up\. Somebody pointed out that it is standard since 2023 and safe to use online\. I also checked the exact browser distribution of a client’s website \(where I would by happy to trim out the scss pipeline\)\. Over the last year, only ~70% of the visiting browsers supported the new CSS features\. Even thought this feature is “widely supported” in a general audience, for my audience, it left out 30% of the visitors\. You probably know one hundred people\. Picture two of them staring at a broken screen\. The 98% statistic is a lazy shortcut\. Truly robust engineering isn’t about what works for most; it’s about gracefully handling the edge cases\. If a fancy new feature can’t degrade gracefully, then 98% isn’t “widely supported”\. It failed to meet the basic minimum for 2% of the people out there\. Have comments or want to discuss this topic? Send an email to my public inbox:[~whynothugo/public\-inbox@lists\.sr\.ht](mailto:~whynothugo/[email protected]?subject=Re:%2098%25%20isn%27t%20very%20much)\. Reply privately by email:[hugo@whynothugo\.nl](mailto:[email protected]?subject=Re:%2098%25%20isn%27t%20very%20much)\. — § —