Auditing your website –user-friendly webpages

Photos should have Alternate Text:
i.e., caterpillar on leaf

Here is an interesting piece of Ontario legislation from 2005. It applies to businesses with a webpage and more than 50 employees.

I make numerous complaints to the newspapers to which I subscribe. Most I do not access on paper, most I pay for a subscription online, and most have crazy webpages with flashing images. There are too many with pop-up ads, which drive us all nuts.

These pages are totally user and disabled-unfriendly. As our financial advisor says: there is much mice-type on many pages. Also, many pages with images that are simply too large and take up too much time to upload.
Those with text-to-speech computers need to have information on graphics, alternate text that explains the image.

The complete regulation can be found
on the Ontario Government site.

When I am sent a newsletter from an organization, whether a link, or an email, I don't want to wade through enormous images, or content embedded in a graphic. Perhaps a small thumbnail, but not those large images that require me to scroll down forever to find the actual information.
This is true, too, for those with visual impairments. The mice-type should be convertible to a larger font, right on the header.

I have found many websites, created by amateurs, who fail to meet basic standards of webpage design. This means that potential customers will leave the site, rather than facing the frustration of navigating it, trying to find that crucial piece of information that eludes them.
[ Does Your Website Provide Easy Access To Your Best Content? video]

Principles of webpage design

I've done a lot of work in this field, back when I started teaching webpage design for my students. They loved the bells and whistles: huge graphics, music, animated gifs, too many colours and fonts, but these are not user-friendly for adults. Most of us want to get to the message right away, and find out the information we want immediately, perhaps printing it for later reference.

User options

I created a Mind Map, which illustrated the Principles of Design, for my workshops.

You want the right font for your readers (professional and crisp or casual). You want the right font for titles (sans serif), while using serif fonts for text to encourage the reader to move to the next word, and so that the TITLE will stand out. You want to repeat the font, having consistency, limit the number of colours, and have a standard header for each subpage.

Here is a good video to help
Also this one

Integrated Accessibility Standards Regulation - PeopleAccess

A free PDF Guide on compliance with the Integrated Accessibility StandardsRegulation: the impact on your organization, how to comply and by when.

Websites and Web Content

• All Large and Public Sector organizations are required to make their Internet and intranet websites and web content conform to the World Wide Web Consortium Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0.
• Government of Ontario and Legislative Assembly must conform to WCAG 2.0 Level AA while public sector and large organizations are able to first conform to Level A and increase to Level AA in accordance to the schedule set out in the Regulation.

Want to know if your Website Measures Up?

www.accessibilityconsultants.ca

Accessible websites are easier for everyone to use, 
and are favored by the major search engines. 
Learn how to build websites to WCAG 2.0 AA standards

What I found amusing is that this website: Accessible Website Audit and Design - PeopleAccess, violates a number of basic principles.

It has a header that displays two separate headers, both very large and fairly meaningless, with one photo that looks like the generic iStock photos that are far too ubiquitous.

A voice-to-text computer
will not be able to read this

 

Usability, Writing, and Design Issues on blogs

Simplicity

This post was prompted by Dave Bonta, who has posted the latest in his “blogs and blogging” series. It is about readability. I find his double sidebar too much, too. I have a 17" laptop in order to put as much on the screen in one go as possible! Too much, like embedded music, turns me off, as it increases load time, and distracts me. I choose my own music, and really do not want to listen to yours!

I like to let my photos speak for themselves, but use graphics to organize, e.g., pushpin gifs to show a list.

Add-ons:backgrounds, slide shows, music
I find chaotic, flowery background GIFs too much, too. Keep it simple, fresh, clean and purposeful. Many of my young students (I taught web design to all of my elementary students!) were keen on max motion. It distracts the reader and confuses the purpose. Flashing images, slideshows, and crazy stuff. I like to use casual graphics, as well as photos. I am not a professional, and do not purport to be. I have fun on my non-profit blogs, I do not ask for nor make money off of my blogs, and I do not seek advertising, nor do I want bore readers with Google ads!

Wise Use of Fonts
It is important to differentiate between different fonts, whether you are aiming for a professional look, or a fun look, a more casual font will make you stand out. The big difference is between fonts is whether it is serif (with 'feet' —e.g., Times) or sans serif (e.g., Arial, or Helvetica).
Whether you repeat a design, or not, gives the reader a sense of familiarity. I hesitate to change headers, but love to show photos of various favourite animal, vegetable and minerals!

Wise Use of Colour
  One must keep in mind colour blind and colour deficient readers, as well as the disabled, with voice readers for useability issues. All images should be given alternate text, to encourage ease of use.

My generation developed technology and learned how to integrate it into our work and play. As it evolves, we have adapted well.
This is how I set up my classroom web page. Notice the casual 'classroom' font!

Content, Style and Language: Purdue OWL

For more extensive resources

In dailyblogs.com there are 10 tips for blogging.

Adding Emphasis in Writing - This handout provides information on visual and textual devices for adding emphasis to student writing including textual formatting, punctuation, sentence structure, and the arrangement of words.
Conciseness - This resource explains the concept of concise writing and provides examples of how to ensure clear prose.
Paramedic Method: A Lesson in Writing Concisely - This handout provides steps and exercises to eliminate wordiness at the sentence level.
Sentence Variety - This resource presents methods for adding sentence variety and complexity to writing that may sound repetitive or boring. Sections are divided into general tips for varying structure, a discussion of sentence types, and specific parts of speech which can aid in sentence variety.
Using Appropriate Language - This section covers some of the major issues with appropriate language use: levels of language formality, deceitful language and Euphemisms, slang and idiomatic expressions; using group-specific jargon; and biased/stereotypical language.
Punctuation - This resource will help clarify when and how to use various marks of punctuation. When speaking, we can pause or change the tone of our voices to indicate emphasis. When writing, we must use punctuation to indicate these places of emphasis.
Proofreading Your Writing - This section provides information on proofreading, finding and fixing common errors.
Commas - This resource offers a number of pages about comma use.