indite the web

Before going into college, I hadn’t touched a lick of code.  One of the biggest determining factors in choosing Web development was simply that I love electronics and “tech” things.  But, once I started learning HTML and CSS, I liked it.  (Then, once I really started programming, VB, PHP, XHTML, etc., I loved it.)  Anyhow, the time came in one of my Web Development classes for my first site.  Our site had some criteria to fulfill, but we had our choice of topic and color/design scheme.  Any guesses on what I chose?  No takers?  Okay… (drumroll please…):  orange and teal.  That’s right, the official colors of the Miami Dolphins.  Obvioiusly not great, but the horror of the issue is compounded when you realize that the site wasn’t on the Miami Dolphins.  No, instead, being the avid dog lover that I am, it was on me and my dog.  Teal text on an orange background; my head hurts just thinking about it.  But, I had some great professors, and this one, (undoubtedly taking into consideration that this was my first site), simply said something like, “Good job.  I’m not crazy about the color scheme, but…”. 

My point?  No, I’m not saying orange and teal are out for site design.  I’m saying: consider your user, consider usability, and consider accessibility.  On a broad level, does the design, (colors, layout, etc.), suit your user(s)?  Narrowing things down, is the site easily readable?  Will the user’s eyes begin to hurt after reading only a few lines of text?  Consider, too, the possiblity that your user may be, for example, color blind.  Are there still clear indicators of important items?  (Such as headings being indicated through text size and weight.)  Or are you relying on colors where you shouldn’t be.  I’m not saying don’t include them.  But I am saying not to rely on them.  Finally, there’s the user that may access your site through a screenreader.  Are your images standards compliant, using the alt tag for textual explanations of the picture?  This is one way to make browsing your site by impaired users easier.

I’ll be writing a more detailed post on how to make your site more accesible, usable, and overall standards-compliant.  But, I thought this would provide some interesting discussion info for now, as well as giving some background on moia.  Let me know what you’re thinking below.