On a day to day basis, I deal with W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) standards. However, there are certainly sets of standards (or guidelines) outside of the W3C which are good to be aware of. Thanks to Kim Krause Berg, I’m now aware of another document: Research-Based Web Design and Usability Guidelines, courtesy of the United States Government. One of the keys which makes this worth noting is those two first little words: “Research-Based”. There’s nothing better than research (and […]
Continue reading “Different Standards” »Category: Usability
Describing a Semantic Calendar
Part of building an accessible website is making meaningful choices in the code you use to markup your content. In some cases, this is a very easy decision: <p> descrbes a paragraph, <blockquote> describes a blocked quote, and <acronym> describes an acronym. No problems. But some issues are more complex: take the calendar. What is the logical structure of a calendar? Is it tabular data? Is it an ordered list? Is it a definition list? All of these are completely […]
Continue reading “Describing a Semantic Calendar” »Trying to Define Web Accessibility
Numerous articles in the last few days have suggested serious problems in either defining web accessibility or in the way it’s handled. Trenton Moss considers the future of accessibility. Alastair Campbell follows up with his own opinions. Gez Lemon and Mike Cherim co-published an article outlining two supposedly opposing views of accessibility at Accessites. Roger Johansson chimed in with his reasoning for universality. And, to cap if off, Mike Davies wrote an excellent (if possibly inflammatory) four-part series declaring Accessibility […]
Continue reading “Trying to Define Web Accessibility” »Fixing your width: what’s the optimal size for a site?
Just in the last few days I’ve been struggling with a design which just wouldn’t quite work the way I wanted. A somewhat unusual layout – four columns, fluid. The problem has been in finding proportions which are successful across the whole spectrum of widths – from 800 pixels to my own 1600 pixel monster. Imagine my good cheer when Cameron Moll writes up two successive posts which directly relate to my problem! Thanks, Cameron! In fact, believe it or […]
Continue reading “Fixing your width: what’s the optimal size for a site?” »Keep it Simple, Stupid
One of the biggest annoyances I ever see in a website’s source code is layers upon layers of complexity. 20 nested <table>s, 30 nested <div>s – what’s the difference? Building a consistent and semantic website isn’t just an issue of whether or not you’re using valid code or mistreating a poor table by filling it with non-tabular data – it’s a question of whether you’re using logic to decide what element should be used to represent your content. How deeply […]
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