USEworthy July 2003
The monthly Newsletter from The Usability Company
Welcome to July's edition of USEworthy. In this
issue, we focus on quality and best practice. As mentioned in last
month's newsletter, The Office of the e-Envoy launches its
"Quality Frameworks for UK Government Website Design" in the coming weeks. Catriona Campbell,
Chairman and Co-founder of The
Usability Company was one of the two usability specialists consulted by the Office of the e-Envoy to assist in
developing the document. In support of this framework, we present
our short and snappy overview of fundamental considerations for a
usable and accessible website that can be applied to all websites.
Tobias Misera, our newly appointed
Head of User Centered Design discusses the benefits of
involving User Centered Design at the beginning of the
development process. In addition, we provide an
accessibility news update in two parts. We bring you news of the
first legal case brought against companies over the failure to
make their sites accessible to people with visual impairments by
the RNIB and we discuss the new Euro Accessibility Group
comprising of twenty-four European organisations and the W3C/WAI
for the creation of a Euro accessibility project.
Company News
June was a busy and successful month at The
Usability Company. We are pleased to announce that we have been
awarded the contract to provide Bradford and Bingley with
User Centered Design and User Centered Design services for the
Market Place website redevelopment project. In addition to
providing User Centered Design services The Usability Company will also use WebIQ, a
unique technology that identifies visitor intent and associated
success, carry out lab based usability testing and provide
Accessibility Audits.
The Usability Company is also delighted to announce some
changes to our team. Tobias Misera has now become Head of
User Centered Design at The Usability Company. Tobias has been
active in developing frameworks for organising digital information
for over eight years. With a strong track record working in
digital design, Tobias has provided consultancy to numerous
blue-chip clients including KLM, BT Cellnet, Victor Chandler and
Tesco.
Carl Kim has joined our Usability Practice team as a Usability
Specialist. He not only lends an international dimension to the
team by bringing many years' experience in usability in Australia
but he also brings client side and agency usability
experience. Carl has held usability roles at Westpac, the leading
online bank in Australia and AMP Henderson Global Investors,
Australia's largest fund manager.
And Finally...
Last month, The Usability Company sponsored the
usability supplement in the June 19 issue of The New Media Age.
The supplement serves as a comprehensive guide to usability and
accessibility issues. It includes an introduction to usability and
provides a good overview of usability and accessibility issues.
Please contact us, if you would like a free copy of this very
useful supplement by emailing info@theusabilitycompany.com
with your request and we shall send you a copy. We have both
electronic and hard copies, so please indicate which format you
would like to receive and provide the relevant details.
Fundamental
Considerations for a Usable and Accessible Website
Marty Carroll, Director of Usability Practice, The
Usability Company
Below is a list of key issues and considerations for usability
and accessibility that are applicable to all websites.
Images and Animations:
Accessibility: Alt tags - the descriptive text attached to
graphics, which allows screen-readers to articulate them - should
accompany every image, even blank spaces comprised by gifs.
Animations should be kept to a minimum and should include an
option to switch them off
Usability: Alt tags help those without sight problems because they
provide useful information about the images that may not be clear
from their appearance. In addition, for those on slower Internet
connections, alt tags provide information on downloading images
allowing the user to decide whether they want to wait for the
download or not
Image Maps:
Accessibility: If an image is a link then it should have alt
tags, which say what the image links to
Usability: It does not suffice to simply have a description of the
image in the alt tag if the image is a link. The alt tag should
always provide information on where it is linking to in the same
way as a text link
Multimedia:
Accessibility: A website should provide captioning and
transcripts of audio material and descriptions of video
Usability: While much has been made of multimedia, many Internet
users in the UK do not have the bandwidth to support multimedia.
Alternative presentation of multimedia (such as text) should
always be provided to accommodate these users and for those whose
environment (busy office, quiet train coach, etc) precludes their
use of multimedia
Hypertext Links:
Accessibility: Use text that makes sense when read out of
context. For example, avoid repetitive use of "click
here" and "more"
Usability: Use words that describe the feature or the function of
the destination page because this allows users to make informed
decisions on whether they wish to use the links. Research shows
that people often scan a page for links rather than reading all of
the text available so descriptive links are paramount
Page Organization:
Accessibility: Where possible, use style sheets to keep content
data separate from the data governing that content's presentation
Usability: Style sheets allow for consistency in the presentation
of information and consistency is the hallmark of usability. Good
use of style sheets mean that people learn to use sites
effectively much more quickly
Graphs and Charts: Accessibility: Use 'Longdesc tags' with
graphs and charts because these tags provide in-depth textual
descriptions of contents
Usability: The provision of 'Longdesc tags' can help with
communicating the meaning of complicated graphs and charts. Using
'Longdesc tags' to convey this information can save valuable
screen space
Scripts, Applets, and Plug-ins:
Accessibility: Provide alternative content in case active
features are inaccessible or unsupported
Usability: The security setting on a user's PC or the presence of
a company firewall often means that features may be unavailable to
a large part of the population. Many of the new Internet users
feel intimidated using the Internet and will not install plug-ins
on their PC's
Frames:
Accessibility: Provide a "no frames" option and if
frames are used; make sure the titles attached to them are
meaningful
Usability: The use of frames means that it is difficult to
bookmark pages of a site. If someone wants to send a web address
to a friend via email for reference purposes then copying the URL
from the browser will not work if frames are used because the URL
refers to the frameset rather than the page the user is viewing
Tables:
Accessibility: Rows and columns need to relate to one another
so that information in each cell can be understood in context
Usability: N/A
Check your work:
Accessibility: Look out for simple spelling mistakes and check
that the accessibility elements added meet W3C's guidelines at http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG
Usability: Of course, the presence of simple spelling mistakes
conveys the impression that the site is shoddy and will
consequently lead to a lack of trust. Conformance to accessibility
guidelines does not necessarily equate to good accessibility - how
people with various disabilities actually use the site needs to be
taken into account. For example, while software may indicate that
alt tags are present these alt tags may not be very useful
Why
User Centered Design (User Centered Design) should be involved from the start of
the website development process
Tobias Misera, Head of User Centered Design, The Usability
Company
A few years ago, many clients were not aware of the importance
of User Centered Design (User Centered Design) in website development. The focus
was solely on having a web presence at all costs in order to
compete in the new market. There was a general lack of
understanding of the complexities involved in designing a website.
When designing websites, designers had many new considerations.
For example, in addition to creating a visual style and layout of
an individual page, designers now had to focus on the aggregate
collection of information and design a web site structure and
navigation system, which are both elements of User Centered Design. These functions,
although completely new to designers had become requirements to
the web development process. In addition to this, design was at
the end of the development process and designers were given tight
deadlines and budgets. As a result User Centered Design elements were neglected
because designers generally concentrated on visuals, which were
ultimately easier to sell.
Most websites at this time looked arguably fantastic and had
highly creative design but performed poorly. Users got lost within
the sites, did not find relevant information and could not perform
the relevant tasks. Many organisations were losing visitors,
revenue and brand equity due to these issues with their websites.
Even if User Centered Design was considered in this era, it was considered at the
design stage of the project, which is just before the production
stage. There is generally neither enough time nor budget for
possible change at this stage, which can often limit the effects
and the ability to implement User Centered Design recommendations as User Centered Design can require
a complete rethink of the project. The same is true for
programmers and developers who were now faced with the task of
implementing beautiful designs in a structure-less product or
environment. If there wasn't a structure in place at this stage it
was up to the developers and programmers to consider the
organisation of information and navigation while producing the
site.
Today, websites are increasingly complex and rich in
information. This combined with the maturation of the industry
resulted in a more complex development process involving more
specialists such as new media project managers, digital
strategists, E-marketers, usability experts and User Centered Designs.
Interestingly, the bulk of new media jobs has shifted from
creating new web sites to re-designing and/or re-structuring
existing web sites. It's usually the usability experts and web
statistics that point the clients towards User Centered Design.
User Centered Design is not graphic design, software development or usability
engineering but it does touch on all of these and many other
areas. User Centered Design takes a holistic view of websites by simultaneously
concentrating on users, content and context. The complexities of
website development now mean that it requires a phased approach
for success. User Centered Design comes before the design and development process
and should start at the beginning of the project with the
planning, marketing and branding phases.
The Information Architect translates the business requirements
and balances them with the users' needs. By using card sorting
exercises to define the structure, creating wireframes to develop
and test navigation systems and drawing sitemaps and process
diagrams to document the website, User Centered Designs ensure that the content
structure and navigation of a website is built to enable the user
to achieve their objectives thus enabling clients to achieve their
business goals.
All of these components are passed on to the design team who in
turn use them as blueprints for their designs. In this way, the User Centered Design
speeds up the design process significantly by allowing the
designers to focus on what they're best at; design!
Getting a thorough understanding of User Centered Design and usability
implications before the building process commences can
considerably reduce development costs and timelines because the
User Centered Design's recommendations are tested by real users at the beginning of
the process hence avoiding over development and wasted investment
during the project.
Accessibility
Update Part One: RNIB Brings UK's First website accessibility
legal case
The RNIB has confirmed that it is supporting a number of
individuals in cases against companies failing to make their
websites accessible for people with visual impairments.
The RNIB has openly stated for a long time that it would
support any individuals wishing to bring such cases against
organisations failing to comply with accessibility requirements
under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. Although these are
the first cases to be brought in the UK there have been a number
of successful prosecutions abroad, the most famous of which was
against the Sydney Olympic Committee in 2000.
Although the RNIB
cannot release details of its actions, digital development officer
Julie Howell confirmed its supporting several individuals in
discrimination claims against a number of companies.
The RNIB’s
procedures for tackling issues brought to its
attention do not necessarily result in legal action but the DDA
has harmed the RNIB with the power to support individuals in
taking such action.
2003 is the European Year of Disability and
this move by the RNIB is a watershed in the development of online
services in the UK.
As mentioned in May’s newsletter, the
Disability Rights Commission announced that it would be
investigating 1,000 sites for their ability to be accessed by
Britain's 8.5 million disabled people in their first Formal
Investigation. The DRC last year published a code of practice that
made explicit reference to online services, saying that site
operators failing to take disabled users into account would be in
breach of the DDA.
Accessibility
Update Part Two: Twenty-four European Organisations Launch Effort
for a More Accessible Web
Twenty-Four European Organisations from twelve countries working
in the field of Web Accessibility, together with the W3C/WAI (Web
Accessibility Initiative) have signed a Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) for the creation of a Euro Accessibility
Project.
The MoU sets out governing principles for their co-operation
towards the goal of establishing a harmonised set of support
services over Europe, which would include a common evaluation
methodology, technical assistance, and a European certification
authority for Web accessibility.
All the signatories of the MoU consider that equal access to
Web is a key factor in the inclusion of people with disabilities
in the society.
In setting up this project, the signatories expect to
contribute to reinforce the European co-operation toward the full
accessibility of e-services based on the W3C/WAI guidelines, to
avoid the risks of fragmentation of the WAI outcomes, and finally
to significantly increase the number of accessible Web sites.
Their main goals include establishing a certification of authority
for web accessibility, addressing the lack of a harmonised
methodology for the application of the W3C/WAI guidelines and to
consider the provision of an "eAccessibility Mark" for
goods and services which comply with relevant standards for
eAccessibility.
The 24 European organisations are:
AbilityNet Ltd (UK),
Accessibility Foundation (Netherlands), Accessinmind Ltd (UK),
ASPHI (Association for the Development of ITC Projects for people
with disabilities, Italy), Blindensorg Licht en Liefde (Belgium),
ONA (Belgium), BrailleNet (France), Cellule Wall-On-Line
(Belgium), AEGEAN (The Department of Product and Systems Design
Engineering of the University, Greece), European Blind Union, FIT
(The Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology,
Germany), France Telecom R&D (France), IBM Europe, Linz
University (Austria), Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium),
KFKI Research Institute for Particle and Nuclear Physics
(Hungary), Palo Alto (Belgium), RINCE (Ireland), RNIB (Royal
National Institute for the Blind, UK), RNID (Royal National
Institute for Deaf People, UK), Fundación Sidar - Acceso
Universal (Spain), Fundosa Teleservicios S.A (Spain), Videncenter
for Synshandicap (Visual Impairment Knowledge Centre, Denmark),
Web for All (Germany).
To learn more about the group, please visit www.euroaccessibility.org
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