tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53840221862254608752011-07-08T02:00:48.919+01:00web design, accessibility, usability and all that jazzJameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16388952176874945551noreply@blogger.comBlogger331100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384022186225460875.post-16738037946872878822009-01-26T07:10:00.000Z2009-01-26T10:12:51.425Z

I've now moved this blog to a self-hosted WordPress site. You can find it at www.prettysimple.co.uk/blog. I won't be updating this one anymore, so please update your bookmarks and RSS feeds now.

Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16388952176874945551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384022186225460875.post-1267817569830745512009-01-14T19:54:00.001Z2009-01-14T19:54:00.175Z

One of my more regular haunts, Accessify Forum, is currently being redesigned. You can see the requirements for the new system, as well as contribute to the process.For those that don't know, Accessify Forum is an invaluable forum for discussing accessibility. It has over 7,000 members with over 60,ooo posts in the past 5 years. It is an essential starting place for web designers and developers

Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16388952176874945551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384022186225460875.post-54768118688230765692009-01-10T11:33:00.003Z2009-01-26T10:13:59.253Z

I've arranged the hosting, got my hands on Wordpress v2.7, read up on the various pitfalls of migrating blogs, and am now working on the initial designs which will eventually see this blog moving to a customised Wordpress platform later this year. Hopefully all will go smoothly, but I'll post details of how I get on, along with lessons learned, for anyone else considering such a move.Wish me luck

Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16388952176874945551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384022186225460875.post-2927672391773652712009-01-07T19:37:00.003Z2009-01-08T12:45:51.703Z

OK, not so much resolutions as a list of to-dos. These are areas which I'll be looking more into during 2009. If you've got similar goals, or think I should be looking at other things too, do leave a comment!Upgrade my hostMy main website is currently hosted for free at Awardspace. They have been fantastic - only a bit of downtime and lots of features. However, it's time to upgrade to something a

Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16388952176874945551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384022186225460875.post-37728107836181720482008-12-31T12:26:00.006Z2008-12-31T14:14:35.446Z

As the year draws to a close, here's a few retrospectives looking at the highlights of 2008 on the web, as well as looking forward to 2009. Let me know if you've spotted any others worth including here.Looking back...The BBC's list of technology we have loved in 2008From dongles to netbooks and services to applications, the BBC News technology team talk through what they have loved in the world

Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16388952176874945551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384022186225460875.post-33850382472301545772008-12-30T12:29:00.005Z2008-12-30T12:33:48.871Z

I've had cause to think about this subject recently when we had a bit of a palaver over the public deadline for our online school enrolment forms. Released in mid-November, the deadline was set at December 24th. A bit tight, I thought, but it's not my position to question such things. Christmas came and went, and I asked if it was appropriate to now remove the forms, given that the deadline had

Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16388952176874945551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384022186225460875.post-38833788581173860322008-12-20T12:19:00.002Z2008-12-20T12:19:01.132Z

WebAIM are conducting a survey of the preferences of Screen Reader users."If you are a full-time, part-time, or even occasional screen reader user, please take a few minutes to complete the survey and provide us with a few details on your screen reader usage and preferences.... The results of the survey will be made public in a few months. We believe the results will be very useful to those who

Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16388952176874945551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384022186225460875.post-63011845844049817382008-12-18T18:52:00.007Z2008-12-18T18:52:01.088Z

I've been using Survey Monkey within my organisation for two months now (see my original post about its accessibility, which I'm still looking into). I must say I've been very impressed by the customer service - I've had a few questions which the (generally excellent) help section has been unable to help me with (mainly because contact with a person was necessary), and they've always been quick

Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16388952176874945551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384022186225460875.post-70970983956388624792008-12-16T16:34:00.000Z2008-12-16T16:34:00.921Z

I've just been looking at a wiki of current initiatives for Goverment 2.0 - that is, government's use of social media.At the moment it has a heavy leaning towards US and Canadian initiatives, although there is a smattering of international efforts too. There are some great examples, including:Wikis to improve internal collaborationGeo-tagged images on FlickrPodcasts to reach new audiencesLots of

Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16388952176874945551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384022186225460875.post-14336928425160424902008-12-15T13:19:00.002Z2008-12-16T12:47:15.607Z

I've recently started using Google Alerts:Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic. Some handy uses of Google Alerts include: monitoring a developing news story keeping current on a competitor or industry getting the latest on a celebrity or event keeping tabs on your favorite sports

Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16388952176874945551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384022186225460875.post-26867489818108185582008-12-11T23:30:00.009Z2008-12-12T00:04:49.441Z

Some exciting news...Today W3C announced a new standard that will help Web designers and developers create sites that better meet the needs of users with disabilities and older users. Drawing on extensive experience and community feedback, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 improve upon W3C's groundbreaking initial standard for accessible Web content, apply to more advanced

Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16388952176874945551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384022186225460875.post-67815560088673710772008-12-05T13:19:00.005Z2008-12-05T13:19:01.073Z

When I hear people in my organisation talk about starting an official blog, I am split in two. Half of me is excited by the prospect, whilst the other half cringes at the risks.Headstar's E-Government Bulletin has an interesting report on the recent E-Democracy 2008 conference, addressing the issue of blogging and digital dialogues. This got me thinking about the subject (you'll see my initial

Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16388952176874945551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384022186225460875.post-92026712508833076692008-12-02T07:13:00.005Z2008-12-02T14:38:07.893Z

The British Standards Institution (BSI) have released the first draft of the new British Standard for Web Accessibility - BS 8878 - for public consultation until 1st Feb 2009.BS 8878 will suggest a practical process for ensuring that the private and public sectors successfully produce digital design that is inclusive of as many of the user population as possible. While disabled people are

Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16388952176874945551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384022186225460875.post-27215219302255962072008-12-01T13:21:00.006Z2008-12-05T13:44:38.227Z

I'll shortly be publishing an article on blogs in the public sector (edit: now available), but for now here's a link to an interesting article on Wordpress and accessibility. As author Mike Cherim points out, one of the sites named in the WCAG 2.0 implementation (and indeed reaching triple-A standard) was based on Wordpress, suggesting that the platform can produce very accessible results. There

Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16388952176874945551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384022186225460875.post-55791998891879003442008-11-24T12:37:00.003Z2008-11-24T13:42:02.200Z

The Register has recently reported on the potential security vulnerability of using Google Analytics, and as we use this for various sites I thought it worth exploring a little further, especially as there are wider implications around linking to any third party javascript code.The essence of the Register's article, Google Analytics - Yes, it is a security risk, is that any third party javascript

Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16388952176874945551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384022186225460875.post-4868224704987243602008-11-21T19:25:00.002Z2008-11-25T10:15:30.657Z

Our organisation has been in the news a fair bit recently. Well, actually, being a local authority we're always in the local news and the coverage is rarely positive (and often inaccurate too). But what I've been increasingly concerned about recently is the fact that the local media keep getting there first - reporting on stories hours, sometimes days, before our own website publishes the

Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16388952176874945551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384022186225460875.post-64799856569391849372008-11-19T13:10:00.004Z2008-11-20T12:20:28.957Z

The hot debate surrounding the BBC licence fee is about the get even more complicated with the BBC's announcement that yet more channels are set to be broadcast live online.An item on the BBC website today reported:BBC shows including EastEnders, Heroes and Never Mind The Buzzcocks will be available to watch live online from next week, the BBC has announced.BBC One and BBC Two will be streamed

Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16388952176874945551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384022186225460875.post-36805629516593711002008-11-17T21:18:00.001Z2008-11-18T17:59:24.336Z

Anyone wanting to claim conformance to the nascent WCAG 2.0 will have to provide a specific conformance claim on their site, according to the documentation found at www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20:Required components of a conformance claimConformance claims are not required. Authors can conform to WCAG 2.0 without making a claim. However, if a conformance claim is made, then the conformance claim must

Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16388952176874945551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384022186225460875.post-29242285470113045472008-11-13T19:05:00.007Z2008-12-16T11:22:59.208Z

Today was World Usability Day. As the website puts it:It's about "Making Life Easy" and user friendly. Technology today is too hard to use. A cell phone should be as easy to access as a doorknob. In order to humanize a world that uses technology as an infrastructure for education, healthcare, transportation, government, communication, entertainment, work and other areas, we must develop these

Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16388952176874945551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384022186225460875.post-45930890593175188192008-11-12T12:55:00.005Z2008-11-21T11:38:51.503Z

In June 2008 Central Office of Information (COI) produced the Delivering Inclusive Websites guidance:These guidelines are for public sector website owners and digital media project managers wishing to deliver inclusive, accessible websites. This document sets out the minimum standard of accessibility for public sector web content and web authoring tools. It recommends a user-centred approach to

Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16388952176874945551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384022186225460875.post-70579768500429741112008-11-07T19:42:00.001Z2008-11-25T10:17:47.531Z

I recently wanted to pull in the news items from our main corporate site onto a partner site, on an existing 'news' page which already pulls in RSS Feeds from other major content providers such as the BBC, Learning Teaching Scotland and the Scottish Government. The trouble is, our corporate site does not generate such feeds, so until now I've had to manually input each new press release.However,

Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16388952176874945551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384022186225460875.post-5468979405844209272008-11-06T21:30:00.000Z2008-11-24T14:12:29.842Z

At the recent Scotweb2 Unconference, James Munro presented Patient Opinion, a website allowing users of the NHS to post feedback on their experiences - very similar to rateMDs.com, which operates in the US. It could be described as 'Trip Advisor for the NHS', in that you can check out a hospital or practice before visiting.Munro stated that this process was about change, not choice. The aim is to

Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16388952176874945551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384022186225460875.post-60286922551724980892008-11-04T08:15:00.002Z2008-11-04T10:28:36.060Z

The WCAG 2.0 Proposed Recommendation has now been published by W3C. It contains revisions made as part of the Candidate Recommendation stage. I provided an implementation experience report as part of this and I'm pleased to say that I've been named as a contributor, so hopefully my experiences proved useful to the process.

Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16388952176874945551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384022186225460875.post-47316097155245731602008-11-03T17:11:00.005Z2008-11-03T17:53:16.702Z

I'll soon be writing more specifically about some of the topics discussed at last Friday's Scotweb2 Unconference, but wanted to start with a brief summary of the day and some key messages I took from it.All in all, the day was very uplifting and provided some real food for thought. It succeeded wonderfully in bringing together a small but committed number of Web 2.0 enthusiasts, mostly from the

Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16388952176874945551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384022186225460875.post-16539359639966775972008-10-27T13:00:00.001Z2008-11-03T17:53:44.257Z

This Friday I'm off to the Scottish Web 2.0 Unconference in Edinburgh - "an informal, bar camp style event allowing participants to listen, network and share experiences with those who have designed and are managing Web 2 services".To prepare for this I thought I'd have a quick recap of what Web 2.0 means to me.Wikipedia describes Web 2.0 thus:Web 2.0 is a term describing changing trends in the

Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16388952176874945551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384022186225460875.post-33652935273604016572008-10-22T12:15:00.002+01:002008-10-27T14:12:29.729Z

There's an interesting article in the latest e-access bulletin, produced by Headstar. As they haven't yet updated their website with this bulletin, I've reproduced the article below. For more information about the bulletin see www.headstar.com/eab.Global Standards Giant Gears Up For Battleby Dan Jellinek.With the long-awaited appearance of version 2 of the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Content

Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16388952176874945551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384022186225460875.post-75803819727624169592008-10-22T07:30:00.003+01:002008-10-22T11:14:40.037+01:00

A UK taskforce of charities and associations has launched a survey to find out about ICT Accessibility awareness and practices.The initial aim is to produce an ICT Accessibility Business Case with case studies and implementation plan, followed by other potential tools and information, to help companies plan and incorporate ICT accessibility. The business case is expected to be published in March

Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16388952176874945551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384022186225460875.post-33336808737345098052008-10-21T12:10:00.005+01:002008-10-21T16:29:15.569+01:00

Never over-estimate your users' abilities...Through user feedback on our Intranet we've picked up that not all of our staff are computer-literate enough to know how to properly handle document downloads. It appears many are opening forms online, filling them in within the browser, and then trying to save or e-mail - a technique which doesn't always work.We've also got the added issue that our

Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16388952176874945551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384022186225460875.post-19741807358825872922008-10-20T18:00:00.004+01:002008-10-21T15:08:08.874+01:00

Keep them coming...We launched our new intranet four months ago, and we're already seeing interest start to dip, with people going back to old habits. Used properly, the Intranet has the potential to be the most important channel of communication in the organisation - allowing key messages to reach staff instantly; providing a means of collaboration; and banishing the mental and physical barriers

Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16388952176874945551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384022186225460875.post-74190160688939131062008-10-17T12:30:00.006+01:002008-12-31T12:09:28.393Z

I've been looking into the possibility of getting some of our Council's videos online, following a number of requests. Possible examples include footage of awards ceremonies , interviews with service providers, and content presented in British Sign Language as an alternative to text.Part of the business case that I'm writing involves appraising the options for hosting such videos. Option 1,

Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16388952176874945551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384022186225460875.post-4371313870378633662008-10-16T12:46:00.017+01:002008-10-21T15:09:09.535+01:00

I've been approached to take on some responsibilities for my organisation's Survey Monkey account. Survey Monkey claims that it has a single purpose: "to enable anyone to create professional online surveys quickly and easily". We use it for internal and external consultations, as a 3rd party alternative to the clunky CMS which is currently running our corporate sites.The first thing I was keen to

Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16388952176874945551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384022186225460875.post-30125831941041994812008-10-14T17:44:00.010+01:002008-11-28T12:44:28.812Z

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are a collection of guidelines intended to make web content accessible to all users (regardless of technology, disability etc). They were first published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in 1999. Over the past few years there has been an effort to update these guidelines with a second version - WCAG 2.0. WCAG 2.0 Candidate Recommendation

Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16388952176874945551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5384022186225460875.post-79405298883542270382008-10-01T18:00:00.009+01:002008-11-26T11:50:13.624Z

In September 2008 Aberdeenshire Council's web team set up a blog in order to communicate with the public and their own staff during the redesign of their corporate website. They asked for comments on the Public Sector Forum and I gave the following feedback:This is a very interesting approach to gathering user feedback, and also interesting that you have used just one platform for both staff and

Jameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16388952176874945551noreply@blogger.com0