Tag Archives: passion

Excited about client work

Posted in News on by Paul Boag

I don’t talk much about the client work we produce at Headscape, but I am really excited about our latest site and so wanted to share a few thoughts about it with you.

We won the work at least partly due to the boagworld podcast, which in itself is an encouraging start. It proves that guerilla marketing really works and also, clients we win via the podcast tend to be more switch on to the web and our way of working.

The job was to redesign the Visit Thames website from the ground up. New content management system, IA, content, design… everything. It was a big job and a very tight timescale. In fact the deadline was so tight that we initially turns the project down. This is something that we have often talked about doing on the podcast but is hard to do in real life. However, our strategy of not committing ourselves to the impossible proved correct and the client agreed to move the deadline back just enough to get us onboard.
Despite the new deadline this has always been a very tight project and there is still a lot still to do on the site. However, the initial version is a massive improvement on the old site and I wanted to tell you about a few of the cool things we have done.

AJAX goodness

One thing I like about this site is that it uses AJAX and JavaScript but doesn’t rely too heavily on it. The client side code enhances the user experience rather than being an integral part. You can give feedback or send to a friend without leaving the page you were visiting. You can add items to your itinerary without reloading. You can get ideas for trips without jumping from page to page. In short the site implements the principles of progressive enhancement and HIJAX.

Kick ass content management

There are also loads of content management facilities that unfortunately we cannot show you. We have made significant modifications to our in-house content management code base allowing site administrators to do all kinds of cool stuff. Functionality includes:

  • Permission and workflows
  • Geocoding points of interest using Google Maps (like Google My Map)
  • Building up pages from a huge number of modular elements
  • Building and managing your own forms
  • Comprehensive reports on all site forms
  • Personalized dashboard
  • Powerful image library allowing basic image editing
  • The ability to create your own domain shortcuts to specific pages
  • Content expiry alerts

The list goes on and on. All of this is built on .net, which may not be the trendiest language in the world but certainly proved hugely powerful and flexible for our requirements. Another nice technical aspect is the fact that the majority of data is stored as XML rather than in a rigid database table. This allows huge flexibility in the management and organization of data.

Google Maps on steroids

One of the primary functions of the new site was the ability for users to find points of interest, which they may wish to visit when spending a day on the Thames. In total the client had 15000 points of interest that he wanted to give users access to. Not only did the user need to know basic information on these points, he also needed to know geographically where they were. The obvious conclusion was to plot them on Google maps.

Of course the biggest problem with Google maps is that it isn’t very accessible. We therefore also wanted to show the points as a list in addition to plotting them on a map. Our other concern was that it became obvious very quickly that even plotting a fraction of 15000 points was going to create serious performance problems.

Using a big blob of AJAX goodness we managed to overcome both of these problems. Basically, each time the map loads we grab the boundaries of the map and call back to the server, only loading in points that appear within those boundaries. Every time you drag the map it calls back and gets a new set of points. Users that don’t have JavaScript enabled can still use a traditional search option to return points based on postcode or place name. Try it for yourself and see what I mean.

Now, the system isn’t perfect. There is a delay each time you drag (although to be honest most of the time is spent calling back to Google) and we have had to limit the zoom level to stop too many points being called back. However, we are working on ways to improve this and it is still a pretty unique solution.

Task focused functionality

Right from the outset we wanted to focus on the primary goal of most visitors to the site, which was to discover places to visit. If you are spending a long weekend on the Thames for example you might want to find:

  • Somewhere to stay
  • Places to visit
  • Some nice places to eat out

It quickly became apparent that what users needed to do was build an itinerary of points of interest. What is more they needed to print those out in a nicely formatted way including a map to show where those points are.

By concentrating on this primary objective the site has a nicely focused feel, making it much easier to use.

Microformats to boot

Okay, so the code isn’t the cleanest we have ever produced but making the design fluid and scalable with font resizing proved tricky in places. However, all of the points of interest are marked up as Microformats which will allow us to do some cool stuff in future such as downloading them as vcards or integrating them with other systems.

The future

Of course like any site that you produce, all we can see are the bugs and problems. However, I am excited about this site because it has some really cool features and we have a client who is planning for the future. We have some great new things coming soon, which should improve the user experience even further. Oh yes, and it has Poirot sharing his passion for the Thames. Nice.

Show 72: Neverending Beta

Posted in Classic shows on by Paul Boag

On this week’s show: web stats meet usability testing, Apollo and why it is important, working with corporate colour palettes and how to sell your web design services.

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News and events

This week appears to be the week of never-ending betas however I have managed to squeeze in some pointless fun and an article about accessible content management systems:

Click2Map

There seems to be a growing number of tools out there that make the management of Google Maps easier. One that I have just discovered this week is Click2Map. You can easily and quickly add custom markers by entering an address (even if you are outside of the US). It is still in beta and needs a lot of work (for example you cannot integrate the maps directly into your site) but it is still great for a quick and easy way of linking to locations.

Popuri.us

Another “beta” service I spotted this week is Popuri.us. This site provides SEO reports on your site including rankings on Google, Yahoo, Alexa, Delicious and Technorati. Currently it seems to be suffering from some performance issues; nevertheless it gives a good indication of your online visibility. Of course if you are a Firefox user you may find the SEO add-on more convenient.

Finding an accessible CMS

One of the biggest complaints against content management systems is that they are often not very accessible. Gez Lemon has been kind enough to do an analysis of a whole bunch of them for us and provides a great article on the pros and cons of each from an accessibility point of view. If you are considering implementing a CMS and care about accessibility (which you should do) then check this out.

Arial vs Helvetica

So you think you know your typefaces? Maybe you are even a bit of a typography snob? But, can you tell the difference between Arial and Helvetica? Of course you can, at least that was what I thought until I actually tried.

Selling your web design services

So this week’s client corner is seriously lacking advice for clients (sorry about that). Instead Marcus takes a look at the subject of selling your web design services. Surprisingly for Marcus, he has written fairly comprehensive notes on what we covered so here you go…
You may build the best websites in the world but if you do not know how to sell your services then nobody will hire you. Web design, like nearly everything, is a competitive marketplace and simply being a good designer/developer is not enough. You also need a sales and marketing hat.
That said, it does seem that there is more work out there than agencies to do it.

Cold call?

Don’t buy databases of ‘quality’ contacts in a particular sector. I may be cynical but I reckon the vast majority of these ‘leads’ were tricked into supplying their details. You’re trying to sell solutions to your potential clients’ online problems not pallets of dog food. I my experience, cold calling is a waste of time and effort – the only way you’ll win work is if you’re lucky enough to call someone when they’re about to release a tender.
The only exception to this rule are local businesses where picking up the phone and saying ‘hi, we’re just over the road from you and we’re really good at what we do. If you ever need the services that we provide please do include us in any suppler selection process you intend to go through’. If they’re friendly why not meet up for a beer (see Love Your Clients)…

Focus on a specific market sector

If your only case study is a sewage works site then go after other sewage works sites first. This is common sense: you have a proven ability to produce a website with probably very similar features to the one the other sewage site wants. You have a real, live working example to show them and a client who will (hopefully) say nice things about you.

Tender sites

I get asked about these a lot. They are (I think) better than straight cold calling but not much. Golden rule – don’t do any speculative design work as some may be a scam. I think most of these are simply there because a lot of tenders are required to be competitive but the client already has a preferred agency.  I have generated a ‘nose’ for when we are making up numbers so, if you get that feeling, be brave, walk away…
Of course, try to talk (and I mean talk not email) to the client. Be bold, ask questions about how many others are going for the project, what is the budget (we need to know to be able to provide the most appropriate solution), are the deadlines set in stone etc etc etc… If you’re getting negative feelings… guess what… walk away…
If you do decide to go for something off one of these sites, I recommend the following as a response:

  1. boiler plate ‘Why Us’. You should already have this in another proposal. Up to 10 pages of skills, experience, examples of design work and above all USP.
  2. No more than 2 sides of A4 of ‘your solution’ i.e. a summary.
  3. Tasks by task breakdown of price (inc. payment terms with at least a third up front (‘on delivery’ if you’re really worried about the client!)

The trick here is to start at the bottom. Do the task breakdown first (it may put you way over budget if you know it – if so, walk away) which will lead to an obvious solution summary then tack the ‘aren’t we great’ on the front.
The idea is to put as little effort in as possible without making it look that way.
Much better idea to…

Market, market, market!

There are so many ways to market yourself. For example, you can drive round your local neighbourhood shouting through a loud hailer if you like! Headscape’s marketing effort is focussed virtually solely on Boagworld now. The point is, try to find something that you can do that you feel passionate about and will get people either ringing you directly or, just as good, recommending you to others.

Know when to walk away

It is the hardest thing in the world to do, but it is important that you know when to turn down work. There are times when the clients requirements are unrealistic or the job is simply too big. On other occasions, the chance of winning a job does not justify the investment involved in pitching for it. There is a natural tendency to want to run after every piece of work, but sometimes you just have to say no.
I got the impression listening at SXSW that the agencies I most admire (e.g. Happy Cog) simply wait around for projects that they are interested in and the clients should be damn grateful! Or maybe that was the impression that Mr Z wanted to convey.

Ask an expert: Aral on Apollo

Aral Balkan is one of my favourite speakers and this week in the “ask an expert” section he puts his enthusiasm and humour into an insightful introduction of Apollo. Apollo is a new development platform from Adobe that allows web designers to start developing desktop applications.

Working with corporate colours

This week’s agony uncle question is based on something I found in the boagworld forum. Pecko asked whether we should use Photoshop to convert corporate colours for the web or whether we should do it by hand. A lot of the people on the forum argued that you should allow Photoshop to take the strain but in the show I argue that we should do it by hand. My argument was based on something I had read before and yet I couldn’t for the life of me remember where I had read it. I eventually found it was from a brilliant article by Jason Santa Maria on 24 Ways. I hope he will forgive me for not crediting him on the show.

Review: ClickTale

I was recently asked to beta test ClickTale, a new statistics-tracking tool. Not only does it provide you with all of the basic web stats you would expect, it also allows you to watch recordings of how users interact with your site. You can see their cursor move around the screen, watch them scroll and even move between pages. The product is currently in closed beta but it is definitely worth keeping an eye on because it is extremely powerful and acts as a passable alternative when usability testing is just not an option.

Podcast 58: Community websites Part 1

Posted in Classic shows on by Paul Boag

This week a somewhat jetlagged Paul discusses virtual communities with Marcus. In particular they focus on the tools available to community builders and the business benefits of social participation.

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Well, I am back from the Refresh 06 web conference in Orlando and feeling somewhat jet lagged. As a result this week’s show is far from coherent. However, I do get the opportunity to make Marcus envious so I guess it’s worthwhile.

Actually it’s a pretty good show despite everything. We discuss the benefits of meetups and conferences as well as looking at some of the upcoming events such as a North East Meetup arranged by our very own Dan Cave, and the BBC Backstage Christmas Bash happening in London.  

The more conferences and meetups I attend the more convinced I am of their value. If you fancy getting more involved in these kinds of events I would highly recommend upcoming.org.

Our main subject this week is online community and social participation. It is a subject I have been promising to cover for some time and one I am particularly passionate about. As a result I have too much to share for a single show. That is why this week we focus on the tools at your disposal and the business benefits of communities. Next week we will move on to look at setting up and growing your community as well as motivating and managing your users.

Finally, we also manage to squeeze in a review of Twitter.com and take a quick look at the issue of multi-lingual sites (although this is something I would like to return to in the future).

Podcast 56: To implement or not?

Posted in Classic shows on by Paul Boag

We look at how to decide what techniques and technologies to implement on your site and what should motivate your decision making process.

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Despite the obscure title, this week’s show is very relevant to everybody involved in web design. We look at how to decide what techniques and technologies to implement on your site and what should motivate your decision making process.

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Web design has become incredibly complicated over the last few years. From accessibility to standards and AJAX to Microformats, there are a plethora of techniques and technologies vying for our attention.

With so many things to consider when developing a website how do you decide what to include and what to leave out. Each of us needs to decide where to draw the line in areas like accessibility, usability and standards.

I have written a lot around this subject because it is something that I am particularly passionate about . This week’s show is largely based around these posts so you might want to check them out.

The business of web design

Return on Investment

Success criteria

It is also a subject I will be exploring further at the upcoming Refresh 06 and Web 2 live conferences.

Also in the show…

Also in this week’s show we discuss whether you should give clients the right to reuse your code and whether blogs should have comments enabled or not.

We also cover the swift adoption of IE7, the new Google site search tool and a fascinating article introducing geeks to the world of marketing.

Finally, we encourage everybody to plant a pin in our boagworld map, which shows the location of all our listeners worldwide.

Web standards War – Watch our language

Posted in News on by Paul Boag

The war is over! …… Or is it?

The thing that disturbed me most at this year’s @media conference was the final panel in which it was announced that the “web standards war was won”. I remember saying at the time that this was far from my experience and so was particularly encouraged to read a recent Think Vitamin post.

If we want to seriously increase the take up of standards based design we need to simplify our language and make sure the underlying concepts are accessible to all.

One of my unofficial aims for this podcast and blog has always been to explain the benefits of standards based design. I passionately believe that using CSS for layout, semantic XHTML for content and Javascript for behaviour benefits everybody. Website owners have a site that is easier to update, can adapt to multiple devices and is more search engine friendly. Designers and developers find maintenance a much more pleasurable experience, changes less painful and large builds much quicker.

The idea that web standards were now the norm really shocked me. Certainly, that has not been my experience and I still receive regular emails explaining how my podcast is encouraging people to adopt standards. How could that be the case if everybody is already using them? Here is just one example of an email I have received this week:

I know CSS has been around for quite a few years already – but the whole "web standards" bit is new to a lot of people. My point is basically that you and your podcasts are helping to educate the public and web designers about the importance of web standards in web design.

I think the comment at @media demonstrated an underlying problem. The web design community has fractured. I believe there are two tiers; the “elite” that read the right blogs, attend the right conferences and own the right books. Then there are the rest, those that don’t have the time or money to keep on top of every new trend. So often, the former look down on the latter (something I have written about before) and condemn them for bad practice. However, in many cases they are just struggling to get by and need our encouragement not condemnation. As long as clients are willing to pay for old table based sites, then these designers don’t have the business justification for getting their skills up to speed.

I guess that leads nicely on to the other group that still needs a lot of convincing… the clients. To say the web standards debate has been won among this group is absurd. Most are totally unaware of good practice in development. As long as the site looks okay in their browser then they are happy. We need to continually educate our clients (and prospects) of the need to build, standards based sites.

Spread the word

The think Vitamin article encourages us to spread the word and makes a few suggestions about how we can do that. However, I believe the primary method was missing; we need to change our language. I have been interviewing a number of people recently for the show and have noticed one reoccurring problem; they cannot help but use jargon. In many cases the people I interviewed were unable to get through a conversation without talking about “web standards”, “web 2.0”, “progressive enhancement”, “web services”, “frameworks”… the list could go on. Even though I always explain that my podcast is aimed at a mass audience, they cannot help themselves. We need to learn to stop talking techie! For the majority of web designers out there, these phrases mean nothing. If designers and developers don’t understand them, then how are clients ever going to grasp the concept.

The boagworld.com podcast is often criticised for its lack of technical detail and for “dumming down”. I am often forced to over simplify a concept in order to make it accessible to the audience I am trying to reach. Now although this sometimes makes me less than accurate I believe that this is preferable to using jargon that nobody is going to understand.

If we want to seriously increase the take up of standards based design we need to simplify our language and make sure the underlying concepts are accessible to all.

Come work with us!

Posted in News on by Paul Boag

Headscape’s endless quest for world domination continues as we seek to recruit yet another member of staff. This time we are seeking a designer. He or she can work from home so this job is open to anybody in the UK.

You need to be passionate about all aspects of web design. We want somebody that is obsessed with web standards, fanatical about good usability and with a track record of building accessible sites. You need to be up on the latest trends and techniques, comfortable whether talking about AJAX, semantics or validation.

However, most of all we are looking for somebody whose work can blow us away. If you think you can impress us with your eye for design and have a stunningly good portfolio then we want to hear from you.

You will need experience not only in design but also in website construction. A good grasp of XHTML and CSS are vital. A solid working knowledge of DOM scripting wouldn’t go amiss as would experience in flash.

If you are interested, drop us an email containing a CV and a list of sites you have worked on (including details of how you were involved). However, be warned, if your sites are not built with standards and don’t demonstrate a good grasp of accessibility, usability and semantics then you won’t get very far!

Headscape isn’t a huge company but we like it that way. We are very much a lifestyle business that believes people “work to live” rather than “live to work”. You’ll have flexibility in your working hours (as long as the job gets done), will get to work on sites for household names and we will ensure that you have enough time to keep up with our rapidly evolving industry.

Because you will work primarily from your own home we are accepting applicants from anywhere in the UK. So, if you are good at what you do then get in touch. We would love to hear from you.

Books and Tears of Joy

Posted in Reviews on by Paul Boag

First, let me apologise for the lack of posts recently. However, I do have a couple of good books for you to check out and a post on the IE blog that almost brought tears to my eyes.

As the podcast has grown in popularity, I have found it increasingly hard to strike the balance between my work for Headscape and my passion for boagworld. On one hand, I get to write for various magazines (like .net or Practical Web Design), speak at conferences and contribute to other sites, which is all very exciting. On the other, I could easily become divorced from the day-to-day process of building websites, which would be a real shame. I get concerned about how the more "vocal" and "active" members of the web design community, end talking about design and development more than they actually doing it. That is why for the last few weeks I have been a bit more quiet on boagworld and have been focusing more heavily on client work.

Of course, you don’t care about my personal woes so I will move on to a couple of things that have caught my eye recently.

Books of note

Firstly, I have seen a couple of books you might want to look at. I cannot say I have read either of them personally yet (I am still ploughing my way through "Prioritizing Web Usability" by Jakob Nielsen) but they have both received excellent reviews and I respect the opinions of their respective authors:

Beginning JavaScript with DOM Scripting and Ajax

I really want this one as my DOM Scripting knowledge still has significant room for improvement. Also Chris is an excellent writer and talks a lot of sense.

Web Accessibility: Web Standards and Regulatory Compliance

Sounds dull doesn’t it? However, from what I can gather it is actually a lively read. A number of excellent designers and developers have contributed to this one so it is well worth your attention. If you want to finally nail this accessibility issue once and for all then this is a good place to start.

Tears of joy

On a completely different note, I wanted to draw your attention to a recent post on the IE 7 Blog. This post lists all of the bugs and problems from IE6 that have now been fixed in IE 7. Credit, where credit is due, IE 7 is an excellent browser and I can’t wait until it is officially rolled out.

@media is almost upon us

Posted in News on by Paul Boag

Well I have just received my email from Vivabit giving me all the details about next week’s @media conference and it has finally made me look through the list of sessions. I have to say I feel like a kid in a candy store.

I have been intending to write a post on my hopes and expectations for this years @media conference for the last few weeks. However, it wasn’t until today that I have had a chance to look through the list of speakers and the subjects they will be tackling. And what a list it is!

Last year’s conference was a real turning point for me. I had become weary of web design and lacked inspiration and motivation. Listening to others enthuse really set me on fire again and led to this blog and subsequent podcast. So as you can imagine my expectations for this years conference are unrealistically high. However, the list of sessions did nothing to tame my out of control enthusiasm. It is as if somebody has asked me to list all of the areas I am passionate or concerned about and then made it into a 2 day conference.

Here is the list of sessions that have fuelled the fire of expectation:

Bulletproof Web Design

As somebody that has only recently embraced fluid design (as you can tell from this legacy site) I can’t wait to hear what Dan Cederholm is going to say to help people &#”;let go of pixel precision&#”;. My hope is that Dan can help me deal with some of the frustrating issues that arise from designing with ems and percentages.

The fine art of web design

I have been going through a bit of a stale patch with design for a while now. I feel like I am always having to fight clients to get anything other than the most mundane designs past them. Sometimes it is easier just to churn out the same old mediocre crap when you are faced with a difficult client. However, I am hoping that this session will put some fire back in my belly and make me fight my corner a bit more.

Fine Typography On the Web

Dave Shea’s presentation on typography looks intriguing if nothing else and I cannot wait to hear what he has to say about the state of online typography. Can we really be moving away from Verdana and Arial? Is there really a magic solution I am unaware of?

Mobile Web Design

I am interested to hear what Cameron Moll has to say on the subject of designing for mobile devices, as I have heard so many conflicting messages from &#”;just remove the stylesheet&#”; to &#”;mobile design is to web design what web design is to print&#”;.  It’s an area that I keep meaning to investigate in more depth because I believe clients will soon by requesting this from us as a matter of course.

The New Accessibility Guidelines: WCAG 2.0

Now this is a panel with a lot of potential!  Following Joe Clarks article on the subject I am hoping for a hugely constructive debate… that or a good old moan. I am open to either!

Don’t forget to say hello

To be honest I could have listed pretty much every sessions . How all of this is going to be crammed into two days is beyond me.

Anyway if you are going make sure you come up and introduce yourself. I will also be at the pre-event bash on Wednesday night so it would be great to see you.

Accessibility, a grumpy old man

Posted in Accessibility on by Paul Boag

I am passionate about accessibility but recently I have begun to feel like accessibility issues are holding the whole sector back.

I don’t know if it is just me but the issue of web accessibility is really hacking me off at the moment. From WCAG 2.0 to AJAX and speech browsers, the subject of accessibility seems to be all doom and gloom. It’s beginning to feel like an old man constantly grumbling about the new trendy young kids on the block.

Anybody who reads this blog or listens to the boagworld podcast knows I am passionate about accessibility. I believe that website owners and designers have a moral obligation to make their sites as accessible as possible. However recently I have begun to feel like accessibility issues are holding the whole sector back.

First of all we find out that all the cool AJAX stuff flying about at the moment has serious problems when used in conjunction with speech browsers. Then last night I was interviewing Aral Balkan for an upcoming podcast and he was telling me about how exciting flash is these days. Although he was sharing some incredible stuff I couldn’t get that grumpy old man’s voice out of my head moaning about the associated cost of accessibility.

Then as if to add insult to injury we learn that the next generation of web accessibility guidelines (WCAG 2.0) are almost impossible to interpret and even harder to implement.

It almost makes you want to give up and go back to the bad old days where we all ignored accessibility. After all the WCAG 2.0 guidelines now kindly allow me to create a baseline for all the sites explaining that none of the cool stuff is accessible and still allowing me to be compliant!

In my opinion a lot of the problems revolve around deficiencies in user agents such as speech browsers. They are simply not sophisticated enough to deal with the new techniques and approaches that are emerging. Of course even if they were to improve the cost of upgrading would, for many, be prohibitive.

It’s an interesting dilemma. Should progress be held back because accessibility concerns? What do you think?

Podcast 35: An interview with Andy Budd

Posted in Classic shows on by Paul Boag

This week on boagworld.com Paul chats with Andy Budd, author of CSS mastery, founder of clear:left and “international” speaker. Paul and Andy discuss the state of web design, working with clients and a bit about Andy’s background and expertise.

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Despite what I may like to think, myself and Marcus don’t know everything which is why we felt it was about time we started to get some other web professionals on the show.

In the first of what will hopefully be a regular series of interviews with different web designers, I speak to Andy Budd. Andy is a prominent figure in the web design community and is well known for his book on advanced css as well as his personal blog. However, Andy is also a founding member of clear:left the web development agency which arranged last years grass roots web 2.0 conference; d.construct.

Myself and Andy discuss:

  • How Andy got involved in web design
  • Why he is passionate about it
  • The general state of industry today
  • clear:left and how it came about
  • Andy’s book on Advanced CSS
  • How web designers should keep up with our constantly evolving industry
  • What web managers should be focusing on over this year.

Coming soon

Our next interview will hopefully be with Aral Balkan who is an expert in flash applications. With any luck he will be able to put me in my place regarding this overly criticized technology!

In the meantime be sure to download next week’s show where we look at the basics of creating a solid information architecture.

Holier-than-thou standardites

Posted in Working in web design on by Paul Boag

A number of things have happened recently that have got me thinking about the state of web design. I find myself increasingly concerned about the mentality that is developing within certain parts of the industry.

I guess a recent interview I did for Dustin Diaz started me thinking. We found ourselves on the subject of whether I ever got sick of talking about good practice in web design (things like web standards, progressive enhancement etc.). I explained that this is where my real passion lies and that boagworld.com exists to communicate best practice in a way that isn’t patronising or full of technbabble, which nobody understands.

I have become increasingly concerned that there is a growing divide between those who have grasped this new methodology for designing websites and those who have not. The problem is that many of the "Standardites" have a holy-than-thou attitude, which can seem very condescending to those that aren’t "in the know". In our desire to promote standards we have made those who are not yet using them, feel ignorant.

Not me too!

What has disturbed me most is that I have found myself doing the same thing. In my last podcast, I ranted about another web design show that promoted all kinds of bad practice. In next weeks show I moan about the "ignorance" of some designers when it comes to accessibility (following comments made on sitepoint.com about the target case). In both cases, I may have (and probably did) come across as very dogmatic and arrogant. This kind of approach only builds walls making it harder to educate and inform.

Take for example Andy Clarke’s comments to accessify.com:

Those people still delivering nested table layout, spacer gifs or ignoring accessibility can no longer call themselves web professionals.

In the past, I have praised Andy for these comments and I still believe that they are in essence true. However, now I find myself wondering if comments like that actually help. If I wasn’t using web standards and had not yet faced the challenges of accessibility, I would find those comments very demoralising.
There can be all kinds of reasons why people haven’t adopted these new "best practices". Whether it is a lack of time and training, or simply that they find them too challenging, when in the past they have relied on a WYSIWYG editor like Dreamweaver. Whatever the case we should be aiming to encourage and not condemn these people.

The web standards gang

There is a definite web standards community who all read the same blogs and go to the same conferences. When you are in this group it is hard to conceive that people have not yet grasped the concepts of standards and we are in serious danger of becoming increasingly insular.

My hope is that boagworld.com can bridge that gap and convince people about "web design good practice" without bashing them around the head with it.

A tough decision on accessibility & standards

Posted in Accessibility on by Paul Boag

I made a tough decision yesterday by taking the current Headscape website offline and replacing it with a holding page. Obviously, a web design company without its own website is bad news. However, I believe that leaving the site up would have been even more detrimental.

As you may already know if you read this blog regularly, we have been working on a new Headscape website for sometime. The current site is over three years old and was built in the days before many of us were aware of things like web standards and accessibility. Although, at the time, the site did conform to best practices in web design and accessibility, it now appears horribly out of date.

At Headscape, we work with extremely switched-on clients who specifically ask for sites to be built with standards and accessibility in mind. We were beginning to notice a definite impact on the quality of leads from our site. Although the numbers were still high we were finding that, the values of projects were lower as large clients were put off by our legacy site.

The final nail in the coffin was an interview Andy Clarke gave to Accessify.com in which he said:

"Those people still delivering nested table layout, spacer gifs or ignoring accessibility can no longer call themselves web professionals."

I passionately agree with Andy on this one and Headscape has been working with standards for over two years now. The problem is that our site does not reflect this and I was concerned about how others would perceive us based on our site only. In the end I became convinced that a single page that validated, conformed to the highest standards in accessibility and was built using web standards reflected better on our brand than a whole site of invalid, inaccessible code.

Was it the right decision?

What do you think? Do you think it was the right decision? Which is more damaging; a web standards built holding page or a complete site using out of date development techniques? What would you have done faced with the same dilemma.

Making content accessible

Posted in Accessibility on by Paul Boag

Isn’t it funny how so many people who claim to be committed to website accessibility (myself included) tend to ignore the more subjective criteria of the WAI guidelines?

Take for example this humble guideline included in the most basic level of accessibility:

14.1 Use the clearest and simplest language appropriate for a site’s content.

I don’t know about you but I always gloss over this one! I guess that most of the time I am not responsible for content so it’s not my problem. Of course, accessibility is my problem yet I very rarely challenge my clients over whether their content could be clearer or simpler.

So what makes content more accessible?

Well actually, the W3C who wrote the accessibility guidelines also make suggestions about how to comply with checkpoint above. These include:

  • Ensure your headings and link text are as clear as possible even when read out of context
  • “Front load” both the whole page and individual paragraphs so that the most important content and summaries appear first. This will aid skim reading of pages.
  • Limit each paragraph to one main concept or idea.
  • Avoid slang, jargon, and specialized meanings of familiar words, unless defined within your document.
  • Favor words that are commonly used. For example, use “begin” rather than “commence” or use “try” rather than “endeavor.”
  • Use active rather than passive verbs.
  • Avoid complex sentence structures.

I work a lot with Higher Education institutions and other government bodies who are largely passionately committed to ensuring accessibility sites. However, they often fail horribly on this very basic checkpoint in the accessibility guidelines.

The phrase “content is king” is truer than ever before and we need to focus on ensuring that content is accessible as possible.

Further reading

If you would like more advance on writing for the web then take a look at my article on “effective web site copy”

Visit the W3C site for much more detail on improving comprehension.

Check out this excellent article on website readability and its associated automated readability checker that rates the reading age of your site.

Dreamweaver 8 reviewed

Posted in Reviews on by Paul Boag

As anybody who listened to my last podcast will know, I was incredibly excited about the arrival of Dreamweaver 8. However, was my childlike delight justified? Did Dreamweaver 8 live up to my expectations?

The short answer is, yes it did. Of course, that does not make much of a blog entry, so here are my top five reasons why Dreamweaver 8 kicks ass:

Number five: Design extras

Coming in at number five, are the variety of design tools that have been added to this release. It is now possible to add guides and use rules just like you would in Adobe Photoshop. You can even zoom in on your page for pixel perfect detail.

Of course, nothing is perfect. The guides were sometimes hard to place accurately and no matter how well Dreawmeaver’s render engine is it cannot take into account every browser. So using design tools cannot guarantee pixel perfect rendering for those viewing your site.

Number four: A better CSS palette

Nobody likes change, and when I first saw the new CSS palette, I was not sure I liked it. However, overtime it began to grow on me. Eventually I found it much more powerful, allowing me to quickly identify a particular CSS style that was controlling the design element I wanted to edit.

Number three: An improved coding environment

Sneaking into my top three were the improvements to the coding window. In the past, I think it was fair to say that Dreamweaver was perceived as being a designer’s tool. Its coding environment was always basic, with none of the features you have come to expect from other HTML coding products.

However, this new release has brought some dramatic improvements. It is now possible to collapse tags or even selected areas of code. You can easily find parent tags, comment out code, and highlight invalid code. Combine this with the ability to click on an item in the WYSIWYG window and jump directly to the associated place in the code, now puts Dreamweaver ahead of many pure coding applications.

Number Two: You can work with XML

Being the geek that I am, my second favourite feature of the new Dreamweaver was the ability to work with XML sources such as RSS feeds. I am finding Headscape doing more and more work with XML and it is nice to work with this natively in Dreamweaver.

However, I have to say this is not for the inexperienced user. I was hoping for a slicker solution where XML was handled in much the same way as any other data source. Unfortunately you need to learn a whole new way of working (if your not already familiar with XML) involving data sources, XSL templates and Transformers.

That said, at least the functionality is now available.

Number one: It renders web standards code

Without a doubt, my number one reason for being passionately in love with Dreamweaver 8 is the improvements to the render engine.

As anybody who reads this blog or listens to my podcast will know, I am an evangelist for building with web standards. All of the design I develop these days use tableless design. However, the problem has always been that Dreamweaver would make a complete hash of showing the design in its WYSIWYG editor. This was a huge problem as many of my clients relied on the WYSIWYG even if I chose to hand code. We often receive briefs that make Dreamweaver compatibility a requirement. Thankfully, now at last, it can be without a load of unnecessary hacks!

What do you think?

Okay, so that’s what I think of the new Dreamweaver 8. I would love to hear what you think of it. Post a comment!

Virtual communities – the benefits

Posted in Site content on by Paul Boag

Virtual communities can be a powerful tool in helping you do everything from increase brand loyalty to improving your website.

Virtual communities offer lots of exciting opportunities not only for companies with products to sell but also for charitable, voluntary and government sites who are looking to enthuse and excite people about their goals and vision.

I believe passionately in virtual communities. Back in 1994 when I was an art student working for IBM I wrote my dissertation on virtual communities and the benefits they offered. In those days online communities were new and exciting (like most things on the internet) and I had all kinds of idealistic visions of them breaking down social and racial barriers as well as allowing access to the disabled and immobile. Well pehaps I was somewhat naive (after all I was an art student!) but I do still believe they have a lot to offer. This article aims to define exactly what a virtual community is and then look at some of the benefits it brings:

What is a virtual community?

A virtual community is any place groups of people talk together on the Internet; in mailing lists, in newsgroups, in chat rooms, or on Web sites. Virtual community can also cover more specialized situations, such as long-distance education or shared project work spaces. And it can describe some communications that aren’t discussions, such as posting customer evaluations or answering opinion polls. Whenever people are aware of each other’s presence on the Internet, they’re likely to consider themselves part of a community.

Below I briefly cover the different kinds of virtual communities:

Mailing list

E-mail discussions within a group of subscribers are the simplest and most familiar form of virtual community. Anyone who can read and send e-mail can create a mailing list virtual community, although there are more elaborate tools for administering large lists.

Newsgroups

A worldwide system of discussion groups, also called Usenet, are the most abundant source of communities. Whatever the topic, there is a newsgroup devoted to it. Like e-mail, you post a message to a newsgroup and come back later to see if you’ve received an answer. Newsgroups are simple to participate in (if you have a newsreader), but somewhat difficult to administer.

Chats

Discussions that take place “live” (in real time) in chat rooms are the quickest way to connect with people on the Internet. In addition to traditional chat rooms, there are chat rooms in which you can move through a graphical world and others in which you can build your own text-based world.

Web-based discussion groups

Discussion groups linked to a specific Web site are quickly becoming the standard for site-based virtual communities. Like e-mail and newsgroups, you post a message to a discussion group and read the response later. You can participate in Web-based discussion groups on any site that hosts one, and build your own either by hosting it yourself or by using one of the many free discussion group tools like World Crossing .

Why launch a virtual community?

Here are the three best reasons to launch an online community:

You have a vocal, enthusiastic, and involved group of users who could help each other in using your product or services.

Do you get lots of e-mail every day? Are your users constantly offering you suggestions about how to improve your product or service? Do you have customers at all different levels of expertise who could help each other? If so, you might benefit from building a place where your customers can ask each other questions and exchange ideas.

You’re interested in developing a new product or service and genuinely want input and knowledge from other people.

Does your company do original research, either developing new products and services or entering a new business area? Are you forever cornering friends and family members with your next great idea? Do you have a genuine passion that keeps you out and asking questions? If so, you might build an online study group where you can bring other passionate people together to discuss new areas of research.

You have a “natural” community of product or service users, associates, and suppliers and want to give them a place to talk to each other.

Is your product or service directed towards a naturally cohesive group of customers? Do these customers have a hard time finding each other? Are they underserved by existing online communities? If so, you might build an online community where your customers can find each other and talk about their mutual concerns. This is particularly relevent to charities or voluntary organisations who attract people who are passionate about a certain subject. This gives them a forum to share that passion and spur each other on.

So there you go, a basic introduction to virtual communities. Obviously there is a lot more that could be said. After all I wrote a whole dissertation on the subject. Virtual communities offer lots of exciting opportunities not only for companies with products to sell but also for charitable, voluntary and government sites who are looking to enthuse and excite people about their goals and vision.