 Category :: Web Design Articles |
Author :: Nick Usborne  |
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| Article Title :: Long Copy Sales Letters on the Web: Hype or Not? |
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| I have written before about long sales copy on the web. But I have more to say on the subject.First, let me be clear about what I’m saying here. I’m not talking about long content pages within dozens of other pages on a site. I’m talking about stand-alone pages...a long, direct response sales letter online, often with its own domain name.Next, let me say this: long copy works, online and offline. If you can hold someone’s attention with your writing, a long page gives you the space to deliver all the benefits, cover all the features and address a myriad of reader questions and concerns. So long as the letter carries momentum and holds the reader’s attention, (read full article) |
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| Category :: Web Design Articles |
Author :: Trenton Moss |
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| Article Title :: Benefits Of An Accessible Website: Part 1 - Increase In Reach |
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| The DDA (Disability Discrimination Act) states that service providers must not discriminate against disabled people. A website is regarded as a service and therefore falls under this law, and as such must be made accessible to everyone.
Some organisations are making accessibility improvements to their websites, but many are seemingly not making the accessibility adjustments. Disabled people don't access their website, they say, so why should they care?
Why you should care about disabled Internet users
The statistics on the number of users who may face difficulties due to your website's accessibility are quite startling:
* There are 8.6 mill (read full article) |
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| Category :: Web Design Articles |
Author :: Trenton Moss |
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| Article Title :: Improving usability for screen reader users |
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| Simply ensuring your website is accessible to screen reader users is unfortunately not enough to ensure these users can find what they're looking for in a reasonably quick and efficient manner. Even if your site is accessible to screen reader users, its usability could be so incredibly poor that they needn't have bothered coming to your site.
Fortunately, there are plenty of simple-to-implement guidelines you can follow, which not only drastically improve usability for screen reader users, but for all web users:
1. Descriptive headings
The use of on-page headings is one of the most important usability features for screen reader users, as it helps them (read full article) |
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| Category :: Web Design Articles |
Author :: Trenton Moss |
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| Article Title :: The problem with automated accessibility testing tools |
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| An automated accessibility tool is a piece of software which can test a web page, or even an entire website, for accessibility. Automated accessibility tools are useful because they can save you a huge amount of time. Don't want to check images for alt text on each and every page on your website? Run the site through an automated tester and it'll do it all for you!
Automated accessibility testing tools have been around for a long time and have historically been a useful way of checking websites for accessibility. Bobby, one of the first and most well-known automated accessibility testing tools, is now almost 10 years, and although is no longer freely available, plenty of other f (read full article) |
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| Category :: Web Design Articles |
Author :: Trenton Moss |
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| Article Title :: Website content & usability |
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| Writing for the web is totally different to writing for printed matter. We tend to scan content on the web hunting for the information we're after, as opposed to reading word-for-word. As a result of this, there are certain guidelines you should be sure to follow when writing copy for your website:
1. Use clear and simple language
Reading from computer screens is tiring for the eyes and about 25% slower than reading from printed matter. As such, the easier the style of writing the easier it is for site visitors to absorb your words of wisdom.
Some techniques for using clear and simple language include:
- Avoid slang or jargon - Get your gra (read full article) |
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| Category :: Web Design Articles |
Author :: Trenton Moss |
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| Article Title :: Separate text-only version? No thanks! |
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| In an attempt to make their sites accessible to all, more and more websites are now offering text-only versions of their sites. With the huge number of inaccessible websites out there, any attempt to make a website accessible to one and all is highly commendable.
But is text-only the way forward? The W3C have this to say about alternative accessible sites:
And if all else fails... If, after best efforts, you cannot create an accessible page, provide a link to an alternative page.
Hmmm... so according to the W3C a separate accessible site is OK, but they do use some pretty strong language to suggest that this should be avoided wherever possible. They're (read full article) |
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| Category :: Web Design Articles |
Author :: Trenton Moss |
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| Article Title :: Web accessibility for screen magnifier users |
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| The needs of screen magnifier users are overlooked when implementing web accessibility on to a website. Screen magnifiers are used by partially sighted web users to increase the size of on-screen elements. Some users will magnify the screen so that only three to four words are able to appear on the screen at any one time. You can try using a screen magnifier yourself by downloading the Zoomtext screen magnifier from http://www.aisquared.com/Products/ZoomText8_mag/FreeTrial/Z8FreeTrial.htm for a free 30 day trial.
The good news is that some of the basic principles for improving accessibility and usability for screen magnifiers users, also increase usability for everyone. To help, (read full article) |
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| Category :: Web Design Articles |
Author :: Trenton Moss |
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| Article Title :: Tell me what your website does! |
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| You know exactly what your organisation does and what your website offers its users. This information has probably become second nature to you, but first-time visitors to your site won't know this. As such, make sure you don't forget to tell them what you do.
As soon as new site visitors arrive at your website the first thing they need to know, before anything else, is what you do. You can talk all you like about how great you are, but unless you spell out what you actually do, they won't even know what you're so great at! This oh-so-overlooked yet such basic of information can be communicated to your site visitors in a number of different ways:
Page title
(read full article) |
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| Category :: Web Design Articles |
Author :: Trenton Moss |
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| Article Title :: Writing Effective ALT Text For Images |
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| Anyone who knows anything about web accessibility knows that images need alternative, or ALT, text assigned to them. This is because screen readers can't understand images, but rather read aloud the alternative text assigned to them. In Internet Explorer we can see this ALT text, simply by mousing over the image and looking at the yellow tooltip that appears. Other browsers (correctly) don't do this. The HTML for inserting ALT text is:
But surely there can't be a skill to writing ALT text for images? You just pop a description in there and you're good to go, right? Well, kind of. Sure, it's not rocket science, but there are a few guidelines you need to follow...
S (read full article) |
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| Category :: Web Design Articles |
Author :: Trenton Moss |
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| Article Title :: The Secret Benefit Of Search Engine Optimisation: Increased Usability |
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| A higher search ranking is what many website owners dream of. What they don't realise is that by optimising their site for the search engines, if done correctly, they can also optimise it for their site visitors.
Ultimately this means more people finding your website and increased sales and lead generation. But are search engine optimisation and usability compatible? Aren't there trade-offs that need to be made between giving search engines what they want and giving people what they want? Read on and find out (although I'm sure you can guess the answer!)...
1. Keyword research carried out
Before you even begin building your website, you should carry ou (read full article) |
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