Usability and W3C Validation

Today's topic covers the areas of design, accessibility, usability, and validation. A comprehensive list of do's and don'ts would be quite lengthy. Also, some of these issues overlap into more than one area. This hand serves as an overview, with links to other resources.

Design

Let me not re-invent what has already been done. Here is a link to my earlier references concerning proper designing for web pages: http://www.cofc.edu/~cmoore/effectivewebtips.htm

Usability and Accessibility

Compliance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act is of growing importance:

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act requires that when Federal agencies develop, procure, maintain, or use electronic and information technology, they shall ensure that this technology allows employees and individuals with disabilities have access to information equally. http://www.section508.gov
In web design, this refers to the capability of a web site to be used by everyone. Issues include interface and navigation, content layout, accessibility and compatibility issues.

Summary of Section 508 technical standards (more details)

Software Applications and Operating Systems
Web-based Intranet and Internet Information and Applications
Telecommunications Products
Videos or Multimedia Products
Self Contained, Closed Products
Desktop and Portable Computers

I referred to another useful website and decided to summarize some information found on it. This is just my rather cryptic explanation of some that apply to the kinds of features we use in web pages. You can get further information from: http://www.accessibilityforum.org/paper_tool.html

Use text labels (ALT attribute) as descriptors for graphics
Use captioning or video descriptors on multimedia. Or you can sync the rendering of the multimedia with text.
Out of concern for color blindness and other issues, make sure that all information is discernable. It may be that the person is color blind, uses a monochrome monitor, or prints in b/w.
Make sure that information is readable with or without stylesheets. It doesn’t have to look the same; it just has to be readable.
Use <th> for data tables, not for layout tables though. The reason is that it makes it easier to scan with a magnifier or screen reader.
Make sure that frames are titled with text that facilitates navigation. I think they are also recommending use of NO FRAMES attribute for the same reasons.
Provide links to plug-ins. Whether it is the Acrobat Reader, Shockwave, or any other plug-in.

More on Usability and Accessibility

Jakob Neilsen absolutely believes in keeping it simple. He is the authority on the subject, and has been writing about usability and accessibility for about 10 years. Most of his points have already been addressed in this document, but I would be remiss not to include a direct link to one of his current pages. http://www.useit.com/alertbox/designmistakes.html

Validation

Many services will validate your website for errors. Some of them are free, including the authoritative World Wide Web Consortium.

You can check a URL and have the results emailed to you in 5 minutes. It is quite detailed. http://www.usablenet.com/

This is the World Wide Web Consortium.
http://validator.w3.org/

Certain kinds of errors are reported in this trial teaser.
http://www.netmechanic.com/ then click "Try it"

Browser Compatibility

Making sure that your website can be viewed in the popular browsers is another overlapping topic. One resource is to refer to "browser compatibility tables." You can find them on sites such as about.com. In my opinion, it's almost impossible to make them comprehensive. The checklists show, for instance, what element is supported, but they don't discuss the extent to which they're supported. This article is also a good resource because it talks about some of the subtle issues of browser compatibility.

http://www.newarchitectmag.com/archives/2000/05/kunicki/