Rowland's COMP 3092 Blog

Where are you with your assignment?

2005-12-05T09:11:00.000Z

Please outline how far you are with your assignment so far.

For example you might answer the following questions:

Who are your identified "audiences"?

What are the characteristics of these that make "their site" different?

What technologies do you intend using in your assignment and why?

These are only examples and you can say what you like as long as you give an update.

P. S. You might also refer back to previous messages on the blog.

Using the XSLT Workbook

2005-11-28T12:01:00.000Z

Hi everybody

I am interested in what you think of using XSLT on web pages.

Please comment on this blog to tell me:

How you got on with the workbook
How you see XSLT working with your assignment (or not!)

best wishes

Rowland

Session 08 - feedback

2005-11-21T13:37:00.000Z

Please comment on this post to say what you have learned as a consequence of doing the three activities this session.

Activity 1: how you might apply CSS to XML to format your material as a viable XHTML web page.

Activity 2: investigate how simple links can be coded in XML

Activity 3: apply different style sheets to the same XML data so that the XHTML pages produced have significantly different appearances.

Sorting out the problems in session 07 activity 2

2005-11-15T10:06:00.000Z

Hi everybody

If you remember we had a problem with the example of attaching a CSS style sheet to an XML page. To see this now working go to the activity 2 page, click on activity resources and then choose using CSS with XML.

I don't know why it would not work on the server but in the end I changed all the file names and then it worked OK. Perhaps some of the files on the server are cached so I was looking at old ones but I really have no idea. Sometimes these things happen and you have to work round them.

Rowland

Session 07: Information about XML

2005-11-14T14:24:00.000Z

Please add a comment to this post if you have:

some information to discuss about using the XML workbook
found some useful information about XML on the web [ in this case please give the URL]
anything else to say about XML

You should also give me some information about how far you have got with the XML workbook by the end of the weekend ending Sunday 20th November.

Rowland

Session 07: Making CSS lists

2005-11-14T14:12:00.000Z

Here are the details of the first activity in Session 7:

Go to Lisatamatics web site;

Take a look at the lists that are shown there and choose one that interests you;

Make that list work on your own web page by putting the CSS in the header
[Take a look at the activity resources for an example of this];

Modify the CSS and while doing so annotate it with comments to explain how it works
[Here you might have to modify the CSS to get the same result as on the web site or if it works straight away make some modifications of your own and explain them];

Post your page into your WebCT presentation area and modify your home page to link to it.

Comment on this post to say what you have done and how you have done attaching a URL to your web page;

best of luck

Rowland

Ideas for your assignment

2005-11-07T12:26:00.000Z

Hi everybody

Please comment on this post by giving:

a description of the three "audiences" you are going to have for your web site;
the characteristics of these audiences that will affect the design of your site;
an outline of the three different designs that you will need and explain why they must be designed that way;

thanks

Rowland

Thanks for the feedback

2005-10-28T14:47:00.000Z

Hi everybody

I have taken a look at the feedback and it seems that in general we need a consolidation week to give you more practice at some of the more recent ideas.

To help with this I have moved all of the sessions back one place and fitted in a session to do this. This has not produced a problem because there was a "spare" session built into the scheme later on. We can use the blog posts from session 05 to report on what we have done.

Hopefully we will be able to clear up the difficulties you may have so far and those people who have done the activities already can have a go at activity 2.

It would be helpful if all of us did activity 3, either in session 06 or before session 07.

best of luck

Rowland

Feedback so far in the module

2005-10-24T15:14:00.000Z

Hi everybody

Please give me some feedback about the module by commenting on this post giving me:

your name;
up to three things that you have learnt so far in the module;
up to three things that you still find unclear or need more work;

thanks

Rowland

Session 5: Activity 2

2005-10-24T15:07:00.000Z

You are asked to design a home page for your site using CSS columns to define the layout.

rough out a design using a storyboard;
work out the CSS for your columns;
write the html and the CSS and put them together;
publish your home page in the presentation area of WebCT for others to see and explain how you produced your design;
report on my blog describing and discussing your pages(s). Add a link to the examples in the presentation area.

Session 5: Activity 1

2005-10-24T15:04:00.000Z

Take another look at the notes about types of positioning using CSS.

Try out these methods for yourself by:

making sure that you know how to code them and can produce your own pages using them;
adapting the code to do something else;

Investigate column layouts for yourself by:

making sure that you know how to code them and can produce your own pages using them;
adapting the code to do something else;
trying new code such as three columns with a banner at the top;

Put your examples into the presentation area of WebCT and link to them from your top page.

Report on this blog describing what adaptations you have made and how you might use CSS positioning, including use of columns, in your own work. Add a link to the examples in the presentation area.

Reflections on Session 04

2005-10-19T15:51:00.000Z

Hi all

Just a quick note, which I may add to later, to reflect on this weeks session.

I thought that the exercise on usability and accessibility was a useful one for most people and it is certainly something you will need to consider in your assignment. However I thought that I did not make it completely clear what was wanted from activity 1. However this not not stop you making your own, quite valid, interpretations of what was wanted and to get a lot of useful ideas out of the exercise.

I will be interested to see how many people manage to get their web page up onto the Presentation area of WebCT by next week.

that's all for now

Rowland

Assessing the Abingdon and Witney College website.

2005-10-17T19:20:00.000Z

The website that is being assessed is the abingdon and witney college web site situated at:
http://www.abingdon-witney.ac.uk/index.asp

Colors used
The colors used are very sharp. Could do with being less sharp and a little softer.

Site layout (e.g. use of tables, frames, etc).
Frames are used in the main body of the page to show the relevant information.

Fonts used
Font style used is clear, but the size of the font is too small and not consistent in the body of the texts. Also the use of italics within the body of the text make for difficult reading.

Images used
Images used within the site are fairly clear, although the use of one color, e.g. the yellow in the course information page does not look clear.

Navigation controls
Navigation appears to be clear at first. All navigation is situated to the left of the page. This is made not clear by the non standard layout of navigation links. This is highlighted by the fact that the home link is also called Abingdon and Witney College.

Hyperlinks
The hyperlinks used throughout the site are confusing and are not apparent at first site. None are underlined and are all different colors. They can only be identified if the cursor is run over the words to highlight them gray. Overall not very clear.

Use of language
Use of language is clear and consistent

Overall ease of use.
Navigation is confusing and makes finding information a bit of a grind.
The overall 'look and feel' of the website , although clearly laid out at first site is confusing and dificult to navigate. Obtaining information from this site does take some patients.

By Chris Harrold

BBC - Accessibility

2005-10-17T18:57:00.000Z

BBC Website – Accessibility

The language was specified in the source code.

All of the pages are clearly titled stating exactly what each page is about which makes it very easy to see where you are.

There are various clearly displayed links which make it easy to find your way around.

The home page has a clear list of content and includes all of the information included in the site.

The colour is good; it uses light backgrounds and dark text. The font is easy to read and a good size. I don’t think anyone would have a problem viewing the information.

It does not use java links so all of the links are accessible. Also all of the links open in the same page so you do not use track of where you have been and can always use the back function to get back to where you have been.

As far as I can see it does not use any keyboard shortcuts.

It uses alt text for all of the images so if you cannot see the images you would still know what they were of and why they were relevant to the information.

There is a search function so you can easily search and find anything you want to that is included in the site.

There is no accessibility statement.

Overall I think that the BBC website is very accessible and is only missing a few features such as keyboard shortcuts and an accessibility statement. I would give it 9/10

David Reid

Website design usability Vs accessibilty

2005-10-17T18:56:00.000Z

“Accessibility: A site (and all the information contained within) is
available to all groups, regardless of how they access / interact with the information.

Usability: General usability of a site and its information, including ease of use and intelligibility.” http://www.wd4a.co.uk/AccVsUse.htm

Looking at the two web developer sites:

A List Apart Articles: http://www.alistapart.com/articles/eatcake

Accessibility in Web Design: http://www.wd4a.co.uk/AccVsUse.htm

Both sites are written advising web developers how to build sites with good accessibility and usability. The sites both have issues that may however be considered poor qualities. Both sites are written in small font sizes, which on high resolution browsers is not easy to read. This is compensated however by the option of text resizing availability. On A List Apart the line height spacing is greater than 100% which also helps to compensate the small font.

Neither web site uses the full width of the screen, horizontal scrolling is not required. However, A List Apart is a long article requiring a great deal of vertical scrolling. It may be this time of night but I was bored before I reach the bottom!

Usability and Accessibility

2005-10-17T18:16:00.000Z

Accessibility

Definition: The fast adoption of Information Technology has made access to information easier and cheaper especially through the Internet. As more and more information and services are delivered to the public through the Internet, we certainly do not want to exclude people with special needs from enjoying the services. Not only does an "accessible" web site improve service to people with disability, it also caters for readers with slow modems, and less sophisticated browsers.http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=X&start=6&oi=define&q=http://www.infosec.gov.hk/english/general/glossary.htm

Usability

Definition: Usability is the measure of a product's potential to accomplish the goals of the user. In information technology, the term is often used in relation to software applications and Web sites. Some factors used in determining product usability are ease-of-use, visual consistency, and a clear, defined process for evolution.http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=X&start=15&oi=define&q=http://www.cesa8.k12.wi.us/media/digital_dictionary.htm

This means making a website accessible and useable to as large an audience as possible without excluding certain users. When designing web pages there are key things that need to be thought of they are:

Colours, this can be from the colour of the background to the colour of the text, normally one should be light and the other will be dark. For example this dark text on the light background.
Text, this concerns the font of the text, the size of the text and whether the text should be serif or sans serif. A too large text can be very off putting and put users off, but a too small text can be very difficult to read and understand. There are many users in the UK with sight problems so this must be thought of.
Layout and Structure, this must be quite simple, the layout of text and the way it is shown is very important.
Images, they must be relevant images, but also they must not be imperative to the site as those with poor site miss out. When the images are scrolled over it should explain what the images are.
Multimedia, not all users have these plug-ins so again the use of them on the site must not be imperative. Such things as flash can help certain users with web site navigation etc.
Navigation, the user must be able to access all the pages and be told where they are, could be by use of breadcrumbs. The navigation buttons should be clear.
Linearisation, this is how the text is displayed and spaced out between lines.

Evaluating Website with Usability and Accessibility in mind

http://www.worc.ac.uk/

Using the above criteria, the Worcester site has a very good colour scheme with aesthetically pleasing quite pale blue and certain relevant images. There are lots of different colour schemes for the text such as white on blue, black on blue, blue on blue, blue on white and black on white. This could very confusing to users as certain links appear different colours depending on the background they are on.
The text is very small, it looks like 10pt. It should be at least 14pt to be accessible to a larger audience. Some of the colour schemes would be very difficult to read for some users, especially colour blind.
The layout and structure is very good, but only for the first page, unfortunately it isn’t very consistent.
The navigation links all work, but you could get easily lost on the site it’s a very big site and it’s almost impossible to get back to where you want. You need to click about 5 or 6 times to get to certain pages.
The linear structure is good but more gap between the line above and below the text would be useful.

By Mitchel Evans.

Accessibilty for Waitrose.com

2005-10-17T18:14:00.001Z

I looked at the website for waitrose, http://www.waitrose.com/

The sites homepage shows all the links on the left hand side of the page as is standard with most web pages.

When I clicked on the ‘About Waitrose’ link in the navigation bar, it opened up a sub list within the navigation bar. I thought this was a good idea as the uses attention will already be focused on that part of the page.

I selected the ‘Accessibility’ link within this menu, and it displayed all the information about how Waitrose make their site accessible for all users.

I thought that this site used a few very good usability functions, like the same navigation on all pages, using style sheets to make the layout conform to RNIB See It Right standards, and also using Access Key functionality to make it easier to navigate without using a mouse.

By Pete Youds

Web Site Usability Checklist - Tim Green

2005-10-17T18:14:00.000Z

Here's a few things to bear in mind while designing a website. The full text can be viewed here http://www.netmechanic.com/news/vol7/design_no4.htm

Keep it consistent. The navigation system should be in the same place on every page and have the same format. Visitors will get confused and frustrated if links appear and disappear unpredictably. Consider using Server Side Includes for your main navigation system to make certain the navigation system stays consistent.

Use appropriate text inside links. Don't make your visitors guess where a link is going to take them. Visitors should be able to anticipate a link's destination by reading the text in the link or on the navigation button. This isn't the time to be cute or obscure - visitors don't have the time or patience for it. If there's any question about a link's destination, clarify the issue with a TITLE attribute that explains exactly where the link goes.

Use CSS to emphasize text links. Some designers dislike underlined text links inside page content - although visitors expect to be able to click on underlined text. If you decide to remove this important visual navigation clue, style your links with CSS to replace underlining with another, consistent visual technique like a background color, different font, or text color that indicates a hyperlink.

Always include text links. You can create some great looking menus using JavaScript or other scripting language, but never rely completely on a dynamic menu system. Some users may have problems using a mouse to navigate through the menu and others may be listening to the page using a screen reader. Every page should have basic text links that link to all major sections of the site.

2005-10-17T18:11:00.000Z

Design a clear and simple navigation system. According to Web usability expert, Jakob Nielsen, a good navigation system should answer three questions:

Where am I?
Where have I been?
Where can I go?

Your site's navigation system will answer all three questions if you're careful to include these basic elements:

Keep it consistent. The navigation system should be in the same place on every page and have the same format. Visitors will get confused and frustrated if links appear and disappear unpredictably. Consider using Server Side Includes for your main navigation system to make certain the navigation system stays consistent.
Use appropriate text inside links. Don't make your visitors guess where a link is going to take them. Visitors should be able to anticipate a link's destination by reading the text in the link or on the navigation button. This isn't the time to be cute or obscure - visitors don't have the time or patience for it. If there's any question about a link's destination, clarify the issue with a TITLE attribute that explains exactly where the link goes.
Use CSS to emphasize text links. Some designers dislike underlined text links inside page content - although visitors expect to be able to click on underlined text. If you decide to remove this important visual navigation clue, style your links with CSS to replace underlining with another, consistent visual technique like a background color, different font, or text color that indicates a hyperlink.
Always include text links. You can create some great looking menus using JavaScript or other scripting language, but never rely completely on a dynamic menu system. Some users may have problems using a mouse to navigate through the menu and others may be listening to the page using a screen reader. Every page should have basic text links that link to all major sections of the site.
Add a text-based site map. Large or complex sites should always have a text-based site map in addition to text links. Every page should contain a text link to the site map. Lost visitors will use it to find their way, while search engines spiders will have reliable access to all your pages.
Include a home page link inside your main navigation system. Visitors may enter your site via an internal page, but hopefully they'll want to head for the home page next.
Site logo links to home page. Most sites include their logo somewhere at the top of every page - generally in the top, left-hand corner. Visitors expect this logo to be a link to your site's home page. They'll often go there before looking for the home link in the navigation system.
Include a site search box. A robust site search feature helps visitors quickly locate the information they want. Make the search box prominent and be sure that it searches all of your site - and only your site. We've run across far too many Web sites that include a "Search the Web" search box on their home page. The result? Visitors hardly get to the site before the search function sends them to another site!
Keep the content clear and simple. You may attract visitors with an eye-catching design, but content is what keeps them at the site and encourages them to return. Content is also the best way to boost your site in search engine rankings. Always keep search engines in mind when you write content, but remember that your ultimate audience is human visitors. Present your content with humans in mind.
Don't save the best for last. Place your most important content high on the page. Think of a newspaper: the top story is always prominently displayed above the fold. Check your page display at in a number of different screen resolutions to make sure that your most important content is visible when the page loads.
Make page content easy to scan. You'll spend hours - maybe days - writing your page content and it's really annoying to think that visitors may read less than half of it. Format your content so that it's easy to scan. Emphasize important points (or product characteristics) with a combination of header tags, bold type, color, or lists.
Avoid using text inside images whenever possible. Text in images is invisible to search engine spiders and to visitors who may have images turned off in their browsers or who use assistive technologies like screen readers.
Add ALT and TITLE attributes to all images. Each image should have a descriptive ALT attribute and TITLE attribute associated with it - particularly images that are also links to other pages. That way, they can quickly jump to the page they're interested in without having to wait for the entire page to load.
Contrast, contrast, contrast! Be careful with background images and colors because they can obscure the text content on the page. Make sure you have a good reason to deviate from the successful dark text on a light background model. Visitors can't buy your products if they can't read the content.
Support your brand. A good brand creates or reinforces a user's impression of the site. When your site is strongly branded, that means that visitors will think of you first when they go shopping for your product or service. Branding on a Web site takes time, effort, and close attention to page design and layout.
Keep colors and typefaces consistent. Visitors should never click on an internal link in your site and wonder if they've left your Web site. Choose your colors and fonts carefully and use them consistently throughout the site.
Keep page layout consistent. Use a Web site template to enforce a uniform page structure. Visitors should be able to predict the location of important page elements after visiting just one page in your site.
Custom error page. Create a useful custom error page that helps visitors if they should click on a broken internal link or type a URL incorrectly. The custom error page should reflect the site's overall color, type, and layout structure as much as possible and provide useful links to help visitors find what they're looking for.
Create a good tagline and use it on every page. A good tagline clearly and concisely explains your "value proposition" or what makes your site stand out from competing sites. It should be memorable and reinforce your brand in one quick phrase.
Provide for visitor feedback. Forms are critical to the success of ecommerce sites. Without forms, you can't have a shopping cart. But any site usually needs at least one form to allow for user feedback. A form helps you hide from email spiders and also helps you control how user feedback is formatted and sent.
Keep feedback forms short and clearly note which information is required to successfully submit the form. Take care to design accessible forms that all visitors can use.
Remember your international users and don't require information they may not have - like area codes or ZIP codes.
Present complete contact information including your business phone number and postal address. A street address is preferred, but you may want to use a PO box if yours is a home-based business. Visitors will probably prefer to contact you using email or a form, but they feel more comfortable with a site that allows other contact methods.
Test the site on real users. Remember that you're the designer so of course you effortlessly use the navigation system, love the content, and understand the value proposition. But now it's time to get user feedback - before your online users start sending it in. Usability testing helps you replicate the experience of the average Web site user and correct problems before online visitors find them. It also gives you valuable answers to other questions:
Do visitors enjoy using the site? If so, they'll stay longer and read more content.
Do they understand the purpose of the site? If not, there's no compelling reason to return.
Is there any incentive to return after the first visit? Your site should try to be the ultimate authority on the Web for your topic. A site with depth and breadth encourages visitors to bookmark it and refer friends interested in the same topic.
Can they recover from errors? Usability testing is the best way to test how well your site search, site map, forms, and custom error pages function. They should all work together to guide a visitor through the site and help him get where he's going. Frustrated visitors aren't likely to return - ever.

Web usability means designing for your visitors instead of for yourself or your client. A site that conforms to user expectations makes visitors more comfortable and more apt to visit again and recommend the site to their friends. Good usability is critical to your site's success.

Source: http://www.netmechanic.com/news/vol7/design_no4.htm

Accessibility

2005-10-17T18:10:00.000Z

Designing websites to WSC standard
“An accessible Web is essential for equal opportunities for people with disabilities”
http://www.w3.org/WAI/

People with poor eyesight normally have text set to larger in their preferred browser so making a website compatible so the website will not look odd when the user increases the text size is a must

Every web page should have a meaningful title so the user can see what the page is about in the search engine; remember most traffic comes from a search engine.

Rowland's COMP 3092 Blog

2005-10-17T18:09:00.000Z

Color Blindness Any time you use color to convey information in the interface, you should also use clear, secondary cues to convey the information to those who won't be experiencing any color coding today.
Most people have color displays nowadays, but they are not universal. In addition, approximately 10% of human males, along with a rare sprinkling of females, have some form of color blindness.

The cones in the eye are the source of color vision. We have cones separately sensitive to red, green, and blue. If the red ones are not functioning that is called protanopia. If the green are not functioning, that is called deuteranopia. Absence of blue, extremely rare, is called tritanopia.

Protanopia and deuteranopia are the most popular forms of color blindness, collectively called red/green blindness. (There are, in fact, significant differences in their effects, but those differences have no real effect on interaction design.) While tritanopia is far more rare, it nonetheless rules out dependence on yellow-blue differentiation without secondary cues.

Secondary cues can consist of anything from the subtlety of gray scale differentiation to having a different graphic or different text label associated with each color presented.

By Andrew King

Usability and Accessibility

2005-10-17T18:08:00.000Z

Some suggested starting points for a reader-friendliness checklist include:

Clarity of Communication - Does the site convey a clear sense of its intended audience? Does it use language in a way that is familiar to and comfortable for its readers? Is it conversational in its tone?
Accessibility - Is load time appropriate to content, even on a slow dial-in connection? Is it accessible to readers with physical impairments? Is there an easily discoverable means of communicating with the author or administrator?
Consistency - Does the site have a consistent, clearly recognizable "look-&-feel"? Does it make effective use of repeating visual themes to unify the site? Is it visually consistent even without graphics?
Navigation - Does the site use (approximately) standard link colors? Are the links obvious in their intent and destination? Is there a convenient, obvious way to maneuver among related pages, and between different sections?
Design & maintenance - Does the site make effective use of hyperlinks to tie related items together? Are there dead links? Broken CGI scripts? Functionless forms? Is page length appropriate to site content?
Visual Presentation - Is the site moderate in its use of color? Does it avoid juxtaposing text and animations? Does it provide feedback whenever possible? (for example, through the use of an easily recognizable ALINK color, or a "reply" screen for forms-based pages)

http://www.pantos.org/atw/35317.html

By integrating accessibility into your web design and development process you can efficiently create web sites and web applications that work effectively for more people in more situations.

http://aware.hwg.org/why/

Michelle Ridgway

Website Accessibility

2005-10-17T18:06:00.001Z

Web accessibility refers to the practice of making pages on the Internet accessible to all users, especially those with disabilities.

For example, graphics-intensive pages may be virtually useless to those without high-speed Internet connections. Deaf people, meanwhile, may have difficulty fully understanding pages with audio components, and images without explanatory captions may make web pages difficult for visually impaired users to understand.When Tim Berners-Lee created the groundwork for the World Wide Web, he expected it to become a community with access for all persons from all levels and parts of society.

However, disabled web users still face significant challenges in accessing general-audience web sites. In response to this, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has specified three tiers of guidelines for creating accessible sites: Level A (the most basic accessibility), Level AA, and Level AAA.

Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Website_accessibility

You can also test websites for accessibility on this website: - http://webxact.watchfire.com/

Regards,
Ian

Rowland's COMP 3092 Blog

2005-10-17T18:06:00.000Z

Usability
The link below gives a list of questions to be asked about a website when assessing the usability. These relate to the site content, site design and the links it incorporates. When the questions have been asked and research gathered a report is generated (this is a 4/5 page summary about the sites usability).

http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/640000/633476/p307-spool.pdf?key1=633476&key2=0090759211&coll=GUIDE&dl=ACM&CFID=57720446&CFTOKEN=84373101

Claire Weyman

Usability or Accessibility of a Website

http://www.bbc.co.uk/

This website is easily accessible and usable. The main links to areas of the site are posted down the left hand side. When you select the main overall title of the topic e.g. business, entertainment, health a new navigation menu opens over this with links to areas within this section. You can easily get back to the main page by using the breadcrumb links.

Usability Checklist

2005-10-17T18:05:00.001Z

Found this very useful reference on usability

I suggest you have a look at this usability example

Eddy Smyth

Usability

2005-10-17T18:05:00.000Z

I decided to concentrate on usability (and in the end, accessibility somewhat) by using this website called Usability First - or more specifically here, as this website gives the user much useful information about good, accessible web design.

The website clearly follows it's own guidelines as I find it to be a very simple website to get around. Everything is clear to read and headings are a different size and colour. All links appeared to go to where they were supposed to and the website is kept up to date, meaning information is reliable. There was a "Do's and Don'ts" section of the website which sums up information given above it.

Mike Ponsford

usability & accessibility

2005-10-17T18:03:00.000Z

some good info and facts on why accessability is so important,
NOTE: these statistics are only for the UK!

Website accessibility WHY?
8.6 million registered disabled people in the UK - 14% of the population
One in 12 men and one in 200 women have some form of colour blindness - 9% of the UK population
Two million UK residents have a sight problem - 4% of the population
There are 12 million people aged 60 or over - 21% of the UK population
Users on slow connections regularly turn images off to enable a quicker download time. Some browsers, such as the text-only Lynx browser do not display images at all.
Not every user has downloaded the latest Flash program that's needed to access your site.
JavaScript is unsupported by about 5% of web users, either because they have turned it off to prevent pop-up adverts or because their browser doesn't support it
PDAs, mobile phones and WebTV have limited support for large images, Flash and JavaScript.
source
http://www.webcredible.co.uk/user-friendly-resources/web-accessibility/benefits-of-accessible-websites-1.shtml

by Sakander

Accessibility

2005-10-17T17:59:00.000Z

Accessibility

You need to specify your language. This will improve search results. Google says that 50% of users search in a language other than English.

Always include relevant page titles and include the name of your site in the title. People may stop looking at your site for a few minutes, come back later and forget where they are. A useful page title ill help remind them.

Use extra navigation links such as home page, next page, and previous page. This enables faster browsing.

Always use your main content first, this stops people from having to do excessive scrolling to find what they want and also lists it higher in Google.

Use colour wisely so your site is viewable by everyone.

Use real links and not java links as 11% of web users do not use javascript, therefore they cannot access your links. You should also always use a relevant title for your links so that users know where they are going.

You can specific keyboard shortcuts so that users can jump to specific pages such as the home page, this can make navigation a whole lot easier for users.

You should not use links that link to pages in your site that open in a new window as this will prevent people from using the back button if they want to return to a page they have previously visited.

You should always provide text equivalents for any images you use as some people may have a browser that does not display images and may not understand the information in the site without them.

Always make everything in your site searchable. If you create a search function on your site then people can find what they want quickly and easily.

You should make an accessibility statement on your site which lists all of the features it uses. This will help users navigate it easier and be aware of the features such as keyboard shortcuts. It will also enable other web designers to learn from you.

David Reid (Website used - http://diveintoaccessibility.org/table_of_contents.html)

Sebastian

2005-10-17T17:54:00.000Z

Criteria for optimal web design (designing for usability)
· Very succinct
· Include only one key idea per paragraph
· Use highlighted keyword or phrases, and
· Use bulleted lists when possible
Positioning on the page:
· Internal web links were expected to be located on the upper left side of the browser window.
· External web links were expected to be located on the right side or lower left side of the browser window.
· The "back to home" link was expected to be located at the top-left corner and the bottom-center of the browser window.
· The internal search engine was expected to be located at the top-center of the screen.
· Advertisement banners were expected to be located at the top of the browser window.
· The login/register button was expected to be located at the upper-left corner of a web page.
· The shopping cart (basket) was expected to be located at the top-right corner of a web page.
· The help button was expected to be located at the upper-right side.
· Links to specific merchandise items were expected to be located at the left upper-center of a web page, and
· The account/order button was expected to be located at the upper-right of a web page.

More detail: Optimal Web Design

Testing to see if we can link directly to WebCT

2005-10-17T17:17:00.000Z

I am going to see if I can link to the presentation area of WebCT from here. It will be very useful if we can do this.

Here is an attempted link which seems to work.

However you need to be logged into WebCT otherwise you are taken to the WebCT login page and when you log in you go on to the linked page.

It may be easier to use this blog to make posts and comments and WebCT to upload our presentations which we can link to from here.

How usable is this site?

2005-10-17T11:17:00.001Z

This is an example of the second part of Session04 Activity 1 where you are asked to rate a web site for usability.

The site I have chosen is Dr Dobb's Journal which is an on-line journal for professionals in Computing

I am rating it against the following criteria:
1 Colours used
In general I found the colours gave good contrast and were easy to read and there was a consistency about the colour scheme which helped readability.
2 Site layout (e.g. use of tables, frames, etc).
I thought that there was too much on the page as it needed a lot of scrolling to get to the bottom. The use of percentage widths for tables ment that in general it scaled well to different screen sizes. (But see images below)
3 Fonts used
I found that the fonts were a little on the small side but they scaled nicely when I raised the font size. They were also a clear san-serif font.
4 Images used
The images were generally of a sensible size and added to the information given on the site but some of them used up a lot of room. I could not detect and "alt" or "title" tags for the images so they may be inaccessible to some users. The large width of some of the images meant that the user had to scroll sideways with smaller screen sizes.
5 Navigation controls
Navigation was generally sound provided the browser supported the appropriate technologies. For example I switched off Javascript and on reload the navigation bar near the top of the page dissapeared.
6 Hyperlinks
Linked to the above I found the different formats for hyperlinks a little confusing at first. Some were underlined some were not.
7 Use of language
Totally appropriate for the audience
8 Use of scripts (e.g. unsupported javascript)
See navigation above.
9 Use of plug-ins
I did not notice any
10 Overall ease of use.
11 Overall 'look and feel'
Putting these last two together I felt that the web site was generally appropriately designed for the user that it had in mind. A number of my "problems" would not be an issue for IT professionals with hight end computers and access to up to date technology.

Please use the comments facility to add your comments about this site.

Rowland

PS You should be able to add your own post to this site to evaluate your web site.

Looking at Usability

2005-10-17T08:50:00.000Z

The first part of actvity 1 for Session 4 is about finding out about usability.

The instructions for the activity say:
"# using a search engine of your choice locate information about usability or accessibility [or if you find difficulty use the resources given];
# decide what are the important aspects of usability or accessibility that each site has to say and make some notes about them;
# publish your notes on my blog by commenting on one of my posts and give the URL of the site from which you have obtained the information;"

I have decided to look at usability and have found the site Usable Web at http://www.usableweb.com/

The first thing I noticed was that the pages were no longer being maintained though they did have a final date of 2004 so it is likely that they may still be useful.

I found the format easy to navigate in the sense that I could see where all the links were but I did not find the information about what was accessed through the links very helpful.

I decided to try the "Bad Design" link in the "Design Tips" section and this took me through to a number of sources including "How not to make your site accessible" which gave an interesting account of what not to do which, of course, was a good pointer to good design.

Overall I am sure that there are some excellent links to sites about usability from "Usable Web" but it is not easy to find them as there is so much information available. The other thing that struck me was that it is quite difficult to separate out usability and accessibility as the two ideas overlap with one another.

Please make your own post to evaluate a usability/accessibility web site or use the comments facility to comment on my evaluation of this one.

best of luck

Rowland

Reflections on Session 03

2005-10-11T11:58:00.000Z

Hi everybody

This was an interesting session where we took a first look at Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and hopefully you have all got some idea of what they are about.

After working through the workbook it would be useful if you produce your own web pages and upload them to your presentation area in WebCT. Please note that to do this you will need to be logged on with your own identity so if this is a problem please go to ILS in the Peirson Building for help. Also remember that the system picks up the file called index.html so you first page must have this name.

If you have any problems with adding your pages then please contact me for help. I look forward to seeing your web sites.

In the session some people found that it was quite difficult to concentrate for a length of time in an evening session after working during the day. If this is an issue for you, or not, perhaps you would like to add a comment to this post to give your views.

Finally can I remind people that it would be useful if you had your own Blogger identity so that you can be joined to the blogs a individuals.

[Additional comment on monday 17th]
Taking a look at the presentation area of WebCT on Monday 17th shows that we will need to spend a little time in the next session making sure that we can all use this area as it will be needed for presentation of the web pages we build.

I look forward to seeing you all next week

best wishes

Rowland

Reflections on Session 02

2005-10-04T10:49:00.000Z

Hi everybody

I have taken a look at some of the work posted onto WebCT and there are some interesting ideas there about web design process. Generally you, as a group, are getting the idea of explaining why you have made particular design decisions. This is a skill that we need to develop over the course of the module. Take a look at other peoples posts and comment on their ideas.

I was pleased to see that one of the groups have already published material on their blog and I have made some comments about the posts. I hope that Group 2 find these comments helpful.

Remember that it is a good idea for you to join Blogger as yourself so that you can be joined to these blogs. Once you have successfully joined Blogger if you send me an email from the mail address you have used I will join you to this blog so that you can interact individually if you so wish. Don't forget that you can also log onto this blog using your group name but if you do so it would be useful if you say who you are.

If you need any help with any of this please drop me an email and I will do what I can to help.

hope that this all makes sense

Rowland

An example of what you might do on the Group 1 blog

2005-10-03T11:01:00.000Z

The question being addressed is "What are the basic web design principles and how do we put them into practice?"

The first thing I did was to do a Google search for “web design principles”
My first hit was the Harvard Web Style Guide

I then took a look at the guide to see what it had to say about “good web design” and I found the following statements on the chunking part of the web site about the merits of “chunking” and made some preliminary comments about them

“Few Web users spend time reading long passages of text on-screen. Most users either save long documents to disk or print them for more comfortable reading.”
My comments:
This seems like a good argument for not having huge passages of text on the screen but the question remains as to whether it is better to put large amounts of information on the web or to link to a document in another format. Currently it is still quite difficult to read on screen but as screens get bigger and better this may go away.

“Chunking can help organize and present information in a uniform format. This allows users not only to apply past experience with a site to future searches and explorations but also to predict how an unfamiliar section of a Web site will be organized.”
My comments:
This is an important point as it is difficult for a user to orient themselves in a web site if the organisation is not consistent.

Session 1 reflections

2005-09-27T16:11:00.000Z

Hi everybody

Thanks for coming along to the module. I enjoyed the session and I hope you did also.

It was interesting to read people's reasons for taking part in the module and also your feedback about the first activity. You might like to know that all but one person responded that the activity made them a little more confident about using a blog. The other person was already confident. This is a pleasing result as the intention was to give you an easy introduction to using a blog.

It will be interesting to see how you tackle your group tasks on the group blogs.

I look forward to seeing you next week.

best wishes

Rowland

PS
Please feel free to comment on this post or anything else to do with the module but please remember to say who you are.

Please Introduce yourself [An example of an activity request ]

2005-09-26T13:05:00.000Z

This is a copy of a previous post for use in the first session.

The first task to do on this blog is to enter some details about yourself by commenting on this post.

Try saying who you are, why you want to do this module and what you expect to get out of it.

Then go and have a look at what other people have said. You might want to make further comments to respond to their comments perhaps if you have similar ideas and agree with their comments.

When you have finished this activity please go back to the activity web page and give some feedback about this activity.

If you click on the comments link below this message you can see an example comment that I have put there. Please note that at the moment comments cannot be edited, though they can be deleted by the author, so check before you post.

Posting as Comp3092 Group 1

2005-09-23T12:57:00.000Z

This is a post which I am writing after logging in as COMP3092 Group1 to check that this group can post on this blog. I think I have set it so that all the groups and myself can post.

Rowland

PS
I have noticed that as I posted this as Group 1 then I can directly edit it when I am logged on as this user. (This PS is the edit)

I can also edit this post as the blog owner. Notice that the contributor is not shown for blog posts but it is for comments.

Finally found some time

2005-09-13T15:16:00.000Z

After spending some time at two conferences, one in York and the other at Imperial College in London, I have found some time to write a few words on this blog.

After I have finished teaching on two staff development courses at the end of this week I will be setting up COMP3092 for the new cohort and setting up a number of blogs for students to use.

If you are one of these students and have found this blog please drop me an email to let me know.

Have to go now

Rowland

Everything is upside down

2005-08-08T13:57:00.000Z

I have been busy moving offices over the last few days and at the moment everything is in chaos. We have managed to get our computers online, hence me being able to write this online. As I am supposed to be on holiday this month I shall be making only the occasional post during August.

I have been working on some examples of how design layouts in CSS. I will be putting these on my web site within the next month and when I do I will put the URL on this blog.

I have been away

2005-08-01T19:02:00.000Z

I have not had time to put any information on this blog since last week as I have been on a summer school in Oxford. At the Summer School I have been updating my understanding of XSL by looking at "Basic XSLT", "Advanced XSLT", "XSLT-FO", XQUERY, and "XSLT 2.0".

This has given me some interesting ideas on how to use XSLT in the module and has answered some of the questions I had about linking together the different presentation technologies.

Over the next few days I will be trying out some of those ideas and seeing how well they work.

First of all I am going to look at how the same (similar) web pages may be created with XHTML and CSS, XML and CSS, XSLT, XML and CSS. Then I will look at the advantages and disadvantages of each method.

To help I have a home edition of XMLSpy, although I am hoping that much of the basic work can be done with simpler free software.

How we use this blog

2005-07-25T09:36:00.000Z

I have been thinking about how we use this blog to support the taught sessions and I am wondering whether we need separate blogs for each session.
At the moment I think the blog might be used for:

members of the module to make general observations about how the module is going or ideas that they have to make it better. [A bit like this post];

for me to present activity feedback opportunities so that the comment facility can be used to give feedback;

for me to request specific feedback about the learning taking place in the module;

I am inclined to try it and see. We can always create new blogs later if we need them.

Please Introduce yourself [An example of an activity request ]

2005-07-23T15:37:00.000Z

The first task to do on this blog is to enter some details about yourself by commenting on this post.

Try saying who you are, why you want to do this module and what you expect to get out of it.

Then go and have a look at what other people have said. You might want to make further comments to respond to their comments perhaps if you have similar ideas and agree with their comments.

When you have finished this activity please go back to the activity web page and give some feedback about this activity.

If you click on the comments link below this message you can see an example comment that I have put there. Please note that at the moment comments cannot be edited, though they can be deleted by the author, so check before you post.

Problems with access at home

2005-07-23T15:26:00.000Z

I have been trying to access this blog from home but I cannot log onto my Tiscali account with my work password as the Tiscali software will not recognise the WORC domain.

To get round this I have had to log on as a local user but this has meant that I cannot access my work files as they are in "My documents". Temporary solution is to transfer the files onto my USB key and work from there. This key can be seen from both accounts so I can use it both at home and work. I need to remember to synchronise it with files on the C drive to ensure a backup in case there are problems with the key.

I can now set up some blog help files for students and give them direct links to Blogger from the module web pages.

Some thinking about the course

2005-07-22T13:59:00.000Z

I have been giving some thought to what software might be useful for this course, apart from using Dreamweaver.

As an alternative to Dreamweaver you could use HTML - Kit a free download from Chami.com. The advantage of this is that you can have a copy on your own computer.

For CSS then the obvious choice is Topstyle Lite from Bradbury Software. This is a subset of Topstyle Pro but is in itself an excellent free CSS editor.

For XML you might try XMLPad from WMHelp.com

Setting up additional members

2005-07-21T13:56:00.000Z

I have finally made the system add some other members to the blog. I have to be careful to log out after sending the request otherwise it does not work.

Additionally I have modified the member profile so that it still has my details and does not list all of the members. To do this I had to check out the template help files.

On reflection I think it would be a good idea to set up a blog for each group and also allow the group identities to access this blog as members. At the moment there are sixteen students on the module and this might break down into four groups of four. They can tackle the more general (straight forward) question leaving those on XML and XSL for later in the module.

I will need to ask the class whether they would like individual access to the blogs.

Adding blogs to the course

2005-07-20T15:42:00.000Z

I have now added a blog section to the course which can be accessed via the main menu. At the moment there is only one blog set up. The one for Group 1. I am still considering whether to set up the other blogs in advance or to wait until I have had a chance to discuss things with the group.

I have also put together a feedback form which can be used to give quick feedback about the activites and how well the students think that they are learning. This is an adaptation of a cgi script which uses the College server and emails the results to me. It has the advantage that it can be directly linked to a web page and does not require any log in. I an debating whether to put it behind a simple JavaScript password to ensure that only the group use it.

Making notes on how to create a blog

2005-07-18T15:27:00.000Z

I have prepared a series of notes on the steps needed to create a blog on blogger. However I am wondering whether I should create a blog for each of the groups with user names Group1 .. 2 etc

Each group would become "experts" in a different topic.

Possible topics are:

what are the basic web design principles and how do we put them into practice?

what is "Extensible HyperText Markup Language XHTML, how and why should we use it?"

how can we style web pages using cascading style sheets (CSS) and what are the reasons for doing so?

how can we set up web pages using "extensible markup language" (XML) and should we bother?

how can we use "Extensible Stylesheet Language" (XSL) to style web pages and what advantages and disadvantages does it have?

what are the advantages and disadvantages of separating design from content?

How to add links to your blog page

2005-07-07T09:15:00.000Z

At the moment I am experimenting with this blog to see how it can be used in the session. If we are all going to have a blog then we need to work out how to add links to one another's blogs in the link section.

At the moment I am doing it by seeting up a links section in the right of the page and adding in absolute URLs

I am not sure if this is the best way. It has the disadvantage that if I want to use another template I lose all the links.

What this blog is for

2004-12-24T13:29:00.000Z

The idea of this blog is for me to make reflective comments on each of the sessions as we go through the module.

Generally I will try to say what we tried to to do in the session, how well I thought it went, what I learnt as a consequence of doing the session and how I would change things for next time.

Students on the module are welcome to join in with this and make their comments about what I have said.