Archive for the ‘Website Standards’ Category
published by Dan in Blogging | SEO | Web Development | Website Analytics | Website Standards | Writing for the Web
While there are various commercial sites where you can generate income from your site, bear in mind that there are also private ones who may want to advertise on your site. The manner of finding you is easy; they found you while searching for potential partners. While it may seem that it is a long shot, the validity of it all is the most important thing.
If you happen to get an email all of a sudden asking you if you wanted to accommodate certain requests as buying ad spots on your site or even certain posts, you will be amazed at how much people would pay you for it. One entry can make a difference and while it may seem low at first, imagine the number of advertisers who would do the same thing? In fact, the more posts you have the better since it would mean that you are offering quite a number of spots that can allow advertisers to choose from.
As far as payment for these ad spots is concerned, it would be wise to seek advance payments. For example, if they want to have a spot all to themselves for a year, payments made online like perhaps Paypal is fair enough. You can specify the size, number of words or even limitations (which is perhaps rare and dependent of the site where they will be advertised). Of course you would want ads that do not disrupt the flow of your content.
Finally, if they find you, it only means one thing. You have done a great job in marketing your site and it is safe to say that your site is optimized on the web after all.
published by Dan in Blogging | Web Development | Web General | Website Standards
When it comes to being among the optimized and top preferences that will come up when it comes to searching for certain topics, people who are planning to put up websites should focus a lot on unique domain names. This makes it more user-friendly and easier find, especially if you want your target visitors to easily find you on the web.
Now this may not necessarily be easy. For one thing, a large part of the preferred names that we have in mind are already taken. The domain name extensions such as .com or .net are rare these days and unless you are able to come up with a unique name to define your site, chances are you will have to consider other domain name extensions. But perhaps the difference between the two is that you may have to pour optimization efforts like content and meta tags so that your website can be counted among the crawled pages on the web.
Some people would use the placement of dashes in between words such as seo-blog to be able to register their ideal domain names. Others use plural words while others come up with changing certain letters like S to Z just to be able to provide a clear definition on what the site is all about. Domain names have a large bearing on what a site is all about and rather than keep them guessing, it would be best to use domain names that bring them exactly to the point.
published by Dan in SEO | Web Development | Web General | Website Design | Website Standards | Writing for the Web
When it comes to designing a website, people normally point at advanced programming such as PHP or CSS for reference. But there are software today that make it easier. There will still be the usual coding and commands that a site developed will have to get used to but generally, if you know logic, you can handle it yourself.
Normally, hiring a professional website designer would be the immediate solution to the problem for most. But getting the proper one will cost a lot, sometimes even more than the site URL and hosting. For most it would not matter since it is a one time thing. But seriously, if you are inclined to learn, you can use the help option or even get simple tutorials online on basic to advanced programming.
It may all sound simple but most of these seasoned website programmers started out the same way. You will be surprised to find that they have not really garnered any specific dedicated studies towards web programming as most of these software are new to them. In fact, you may be surprised that they would know the latest software when in fact they claim to have learned it long before it was introduced on the web.
This is not to discredit what web programmers do these days. But there are people who do that. The thing is, if they can do it then why can’t you? It is all about taking it one step at a time. There will be basic to advanced modes and once you get the hang of it, the pieces of the puzzle will fall into place and you may even pick up a lesson or two when it comes to building good websites.
published by Dan in Web 2.0 | Web Development | Website Design | Website Standards
We all know how important the graphical user interface (GUI) is for all websites. Though a website may have excellent content if the user interface is poorly designed users will have an extremely difficult time extracting the information they need or finishing whatever task they were set out to do on that website. The GUI is a factor that largely affects the user satisfaction and as we all know it is the satisfied customer/user that will come back and maybe even spread the news. Because of this GUI is extremely important.
User interface markup languages are of course used to render a site’s GUI. Most user interface markup languages are actually dialects of XML (which I have already briefly touched on in the general purpose languages but will be discussing in greater depth).
to be continued..
published by Dan in Web Development | Web Technology | Website Design | Website Standards
This is a partial list of markup languages. The links pointed to are the most authoritative links I could find on each particular markup language. Note that I chose only the more popular markup languages for each category in order to give you an idea of the scope of use of markup languages.
General purpose markup languages
Lightweight markup language - Uses very simple syntax since they are designed for very simple text editors.
Content syndication markup languages - We are very familiar with the first two since it is what’s mostly used for web feeds.
published by Dan in Tools & Resources | Web Development | Website Standards
To make sure that you get the most out of the authoring software you use you must first be able to choose the one that best suits your needs. When choosing an authoring software you should consider the following factors:
- Level of competency needed - As mentioned in the previous posts there are automated authoring tools that can be used even by those that do not know anything about programming. For those that do not want a completed automated authoring tool there are others out there that are still pretty easy to learn and use. However, if you are a web/graphics designer you might want to opt for tools that are a bit harder to learn to use but that will provide you more options and leeway to customise things.
- Need for customisation - Lots of easy-to-use authoring software will provide nice enough results but since templates are used you’ll end up with a not too unique product (read: obviously non-professional work). You should base your decision on the amount of customisation you want done especially if you wish to add high-end multi-media simulations and really artistic graphics in your e-learning site.
- Interoperability - Authoring tools follow different set of standards. This is due to the several standards that is existent today. Make sure that the authoring tool you choose can work or interact with other e-learning software produced by other tools that adhere to other standards. If you can not make it interoprable with ALL the existing standards you should at least make sure it can work with the top four standards, which are the:
to be continued…
published by Dan in Accessibility | Tools & Resources | Web Technology | Website Design | Website Standards
Benefits of automated authoring tools:
- Programming-free authoring and publishing - Uses easy to learn and use WYSIWYG editing
- Time saver - Automated processes makes content translation faster and everything else faster, which results in saved money and earlier release of product to the market.
- Cost reduction - The in-house production/development of e-learning materials and websites using such tools can be significantly lower than hiring a development team.
- Quality assurance - Automated editing processes ensures that process steps are taken.
- Easier collaboration - Some automated software allows for real-time multi user collaboration.
- Results in documentation consistency - By automating documentation processes you can be sure that you’ll get more consistent and timely results.
Disadvantages of automated authoring tools:
- Small things that count get overlooked - There’s no denying it a professional web designer will find it easier to spot problems or even just potential problems that someone inexperienced that is just dabbling with an automated authoring software.
- Non-compliance to web standards - This wouldn’t be too bad if it didn’t result in something adverse but since it does affect accessibility then it is a problem that shouldn’t be overlooked. Most affected by accessibility issues are the visually-impaired. While this can be corrected by someone knowledgeable in HTML those using WYSYWIG editors do not even know there’s a problem.
- Debugging woes - Whether a big/critical problem or something as minute as incorrect alignment arises a lot of those using automated authoring tools will find themselves unable to solve the problem that easily, if at all, which then prompts them to either hire a professional web developer or to leave the the end product flawed.
published by Dan in Website Design | Website Standards
Last post I mentioned two signs that your website needs to be redesigned - an outdated look and a design that hurts your site’s SEO. Today I’ll be discussing one more signs - non-adherence to web design standards.
As I have mentioned several times in previous posts you can easily check whether your website adheres to the current web design standards by using the W3C markup validation service. Unless your web designer has come up with a revolutionary web design that makes your website’s usability a whole lot easier and more intuitive then it is usually best to stick with a web design that conforms with the present standards. By conforming to current W3C standards you can be sure that your website will be readable or viewable using almost any browser. This means that more people will be able to access your site, which we know is always a good thing.
If your current website has too many errors when you try to validate it it is time to check with a web design firm to find out what they can do for you. To find a good web designer a good start will be to take a look at their website and see if THEIR site adheres to current standards. You should see a W3C chicklet somewhere on their web page (it is located on the bottom right of this page) to show that the page passed validation. If you can’t find any then just go back to the W3C markup validation service and use it to check the page’s validity. If a web design company cannot create a page that adheres to W3C’s standards then how can they make a better page for you? In the end you are better of hiring a professional web designer that takes into account not only the look but also the cleanliness of their code.
published by Dan in Accessibility | Tools & Resources | Web Technology | Website Design | Website Standards
Last time I posted about the importance of web accessibility. I mentioned how other users, aside from the disabled and partially disabled, could benefit from web accessibility. As a web designer though that is not very familiar with web accessibility you should realize that there is a pretty wide range of disabilities to address including:
- visual impairments - whether full or partial blindness or colour blindness
- motor disabilities - for those with problems with fine muscle control due to certain conditions like Parkinson’s disease, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, etc.
- auditory problems - whether full or partial deafness
- seizures - epilepsy is sometimes triggered when the screen frequency is between 2 to 55Hz
- cognitive/intellectually impairments - users with learning disabilities such as dyslexia, dyscalculia, has poor memory and problem solving skills, etc.
Looking at the list above can be daunting. However, a web design provider really needs to address these issues especially if under the jurisdiction of countries that legally require web accessibility. As mentioned in the previous post though, the Web Accessibility Initiative is a good place to start informing yourself about the issue. There you will find everything from guidelines and techniques to evaluation tools.
As a web designer note though that your job is really only to follow the guidelines set by the W3C. You do not have to worry about the hardware part and other assistive technologies that will help the disabled in web browsing. By following the guidelines you can be assured that the website you have designed can be easily read by assistive technologies such as screen readers. Of course, since technology constantly gives better (or at least newer) solutions then it is important that you keep yourself up-to-date with the latest developments in web accessibility.
published by Dan in Accessibility | Website Design | Website Standards
What is Web Accessibility? It means a design that people with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate and interact with the web in the same way that web users without disabilities do. Web accessibility also helps people with diminished capabilities such as old people.
As a web design service provider, it is important that you have adept knowledge for implementing an accessible website design. There more than enough reasons for some of your clients to specify accessibility as an integral part of the desired web site design. Incorporating web accessibility in web designs lets people with disabilities use your final web site design implementation with ease and convenience. An accessible web site design however, goes beyond disabilities: by making an accessible design, other groups of user also benefit from your design, including, but not limited to the following:
-users accessing the internet other than the computer (mobile devices, web-tv)
-users with low and limited bandwidth
-users with different learning styles
According to statistics, around 20% to 30% of internet users in most counties are disabled. This means that a web design that is accessible opens up your client’s web site to a larger audience and potential market.
For certain types of web sites, such as government sites, the countries or organisations may have policies that sets accessibility as a requirement. You can get more information about accessibility in some countries, you can visit the W3C page on policies relating to web accessibility. For even more information on implementing accessible web designs, you can visit the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI ).
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