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Home::ECommerce
Universal Web Design Catering to All of Your Visitors
Author : Mark Nenadic
Copyright 2006 Mark Nenadic
The world wide web is an extremely unique place that allows
everybody to have access to the same information from all around
the world. This truly is an ability never experienced before by
humankind. Just as exciting is the fact that this resource is
always growing, expanding, and improving, so that a web user is
limited only by his or her own imagination.
As the world wide web continues to grow, so will the needs of
its different users. For this reason, universal web design is
also increasing in its importance, so that web sites are
continuously able to accommodate these needs.
Fortunately, by implementing a site with a universal web design,
you can continue to grow with your visitors' needs, and without
a great deal of difficulty. In fact, by using universal web
design, you'll achieve a much more professional, clean, and
usable website. Any alterations will involve only a few very
simple, straight forward changes, which will make you much more
likely to keep it improved and fully up to date.
Universal web design, when done correctly, will automatically
accommodate your visitors, no matter their computer skills,
internet experience, needs, and desires.
For example, when using the universal design style, your site
will be consistently laid out as far as its links, navigation,
content, and other features. This way, your visitors will
quickly become used to the way the site works, and they will not
have to "re-learn" it every time they changes pages.
Universal website design will also not rely wholly on
Java-Script, and without using alt-tags for images. This is all
very helpful to users who want a faster result, as well as those
who aren't really sure what they're doing.
After all, many of your users may be visiting with the graphics
feature turned off in order to give themselves higher protection
from viruses and spyware, and to speed up the process because of
a slow computer, a slow connection, or an expensive connection.
If your site depends entirely on graphics and Java-Script, you
have already excluded those clients before they were even able
to get started.
Universal web design, therefore, will often require that the
site offers two different methods of website accessibility for
reaching the same goal.
Even better, this will open your website up to visitors who have
very special needs such as those who are:
- Visually impaired, such as blind or color-blind - Deaf -
Motion impaired, resulting in greater challenge using a mouse or
keyboard - Cognitive impairments - Text-only browsers, such as
Lynx
This is true because many of these individuals have different
hardware, software, and overall techniques for accessing the
web. For example, people who are visually impaired will
frequently use a screen reading software. This software works by
reading the webpage to the visitor one word at a time, one row
at a time.
Now consider your own website accessibility. When you first see
it, your eyes will go over the entire layout of the page,
including its headings, side bars, text content, images,
subheadings, ads, and other elements. You are quickly able to
recognize the organization and goal of the particular page and
are able to skip to your desired information right away.
However, will a person with a screen reader be able to do the
same? Their reader will go across the page one word at a time,
straight across the entire page, including any alt-tag
information that may be there. Top-listed links create a
disastrously confusing result.
There is an easy way to get around this with the universal web
design style. When you create your alt-tags, simply enter the
words "Navigation Bar" within the information and the screen
reader will this information and then the links, having it make
sense to the person listening to the screen reader, and will
remain invisible to sighted readers. If you want the screen
reader to ignore it altogether, simply enter "" as your alt-tag
description, and it will move past it without a pause.
Similarly, make sure that your buttons are a good size, so that
any visitors with motion impairments won't struggle to point and
click.
Remember that color should be used very carefully, as
approximately 8% of all visitors to your website will have
difficulty distinguishing among colors to some extent or
another. Your colors shouldn't be dense enough that they appear
black on a black-and-white screen, nor should they be so similar
that those with red-green color blindness cannot differentiate
between them.
By taking the precautions of universal web design, you'll make
certain that your site visitors are always able to access the
different elements of your website, and that you're always
keeping up with their changing needs and desires. This is the
mark of a web designer who will achieve great successes.
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