Newsletter issue #30 - 1st September 2006
This issue
Hello and welcome to the September edition of the Webcredible newsletter!
In this issue:
- Feature article: WCAG 2.0 - The new W3C web accessibility guidelines evaluated
- Top tip: Improve your 'about us' section
- Useful program: IBM EZCalc
- Top link: TheCounter
- New articles in August
- Webcredible news in August
Enjoy!
Feature article: WCAG 2.0 - The new W3C web accessibility guidelines evaluated
The second version of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is in final working draft and will soon be released. Although the guidelines are generally recognised as the de facto standards for accessibility, version 1 of the guidelines came under much criticism for being vague and extremely difficult to use. The W3C has been working on version 2.0 of the guidelines for over 5 years now -read this article to find out if it's been worth the wait!
Read this article in full at www.webcredible.co.uk/user-friendly-resources/web-accessibility/wcag-guidelines-20.shtml.
Top tip: Improve your 'about us' section
The 'about us' section on your website is a lot more significant than you may think - it's certainly more important than just being the 'dumping ground' for content that you don't know where else to put.
If you want users to interact with your site and achieve the tasks you want them to achieve (such as buy a product or contact you), they'll need to trust both you and your website. This is especially important for organisations offering expensive products or services. Some steps you can take to improve your 'about us' section' include:
- Offer a brief history of the organisation Anyone can put up a website claiming to offer whatever kind of service or product they want. One way to demonstrate your organisation is more than just someone operating out of their bedroom is to provide a brief history of the organisations' roots. This is particularly effective if your organisation has quite an interesting background and has some impressive statistics demonstrating growth.
- Provide bios of key staff Personalisation of organisations, particularly large ones, is becoming more and more prominent (this is particularly evidenced by the growth in blogs on corporate websites). By providing bios of key staff, and stating why they're qualified for the job and where their expertise lies, you help to promote the idea of an open, honest organisation.
- State who owns and funds the website If you provide a purely information-based website, it's crucial that your website clearly states how you make money from it. Otherwise, users may start to have doubts about the credibility of the site e.g. they may wonder whether recommendations for third parties are objectively selected or paid for.
- Clearly state why you're different It's likely that site visitors can easily find the websites of your main competitors. Although your website may be better designed and more usable, it's still important to clearly state what makes you different to your competitors. If you don't already know this then it's highly unlikely your site visitors will be able to glean this information from your website!
Useful program: IBM EZCalc
The IBM EZCalc is a great tool that provides you with an analysis of the results from a card sorting activity. The program is no longer available from the IBM site, but a download is provided by the Web Sort site.
You can download this program from www.websort.net/EZCalc.zip (4.4Mb zip file).
Top link: TheCounter
Ever wondered which browsers web users are using? Or what screen resolution is most popular? Or even how many web users have JavaScript support? Well, wonder no more - TheCounter will tell you!
Check out this site at www.thecounter.com/stats.
New articles in August
Read these and many other articles at www.webcredible.co.uk/user-friendly-resources.
Webcredible news in August
- Free 'Accessibility in 2006' seminar announced
- Webcredible gets new head of web development
- Webcredible has 2 job vacancies for usability roles!
- Browsealoud vs. ReadSpeaker comparison report now available
Read these news stories in full at www.webcredible.co.uk/about-us/latest-news.shtml.
Free accessibility in 2006 seminar
Webcredible is pleased to announce our inaugural 'Accessibility in 2006' seminar to be held in London on Tuesday 12th September, in conjunction with Browsealoud. The free seminar will look at the state of play of web accessibility both today (in 2006) and in the future. Refreshments and lunch will be provided.
Find out more and submit your interest to attend at www.webcredible.co.uk/services/accessibility-2006.shtml
Training courses
Courses continue to sell out well in advance! Our next training courses will take place in our training centre in Aldgate, London in September and October:
- Usability testing training - Monday 2nd October. For more information and to reserve your place before it fills up please consult our usability testing training page.
- Writing for the web training - Tuesday 5th September & Tuesday 3rd October. For more information and to reserve your place before it fills up please consult our writing for the web training page.
- Web usability training - Wednesday 6th September & Wednesday 4th October. For more information and to reserve your place before it fills up please consult our web usability training page.
- Web accessibility training - Thursday 7th September & Thursday 5th October. For more information and to reserve your place before it fills up please consult our web accessibility training page.
- Advanced CSS training - Friday 8th September & Friday 6th October. For more information and to reserve your place before it fills up please consult our advanced CSS training page.
About Webcredible
Based in London, UK, Webcredible is a user experience consultancy. Tailor-made usability, accessibility & design solutions include:
- User-centered design
- Accessible web design
- CMS services
- Usability
- Accessibility
- Training
- Website review lite
Please contact us on 0870 242 6095 or info at webcredible.co.uk, or consult www.webcredible.co.uk for further information.