USEworthy July 2003
The monthly Newsletter from The Usability Company

Welcome to July's edition of USEworthy. In this issue, we focus on quality and best practice. As mentioned in last month's newsletter, The Office of the e-Envoy launches its "Quality Frameworks for UK Government Website Design" in the coming weeks. Catriona Campbell, Chairman and Co-founder of The Usability Company was one of the two usability specialists consulted by the Office of the e-Envoy to assist in developing the document. In support of this framework, we present our short and snappy overview of fundamental considerations for a usable and accessible website that can be applied to all websites.

Tobias Misera, our newly appointed Head of User Centered Design discusses the benefits of involving User Centered Design at the beginning of the development process.

In addition, we provide an accessibility news update in two parts. We bring you news of the first legal case brought against companies over the failure to make their sites accessible to people with visual impairments by the RNIB and we discuss the new Euro Accessibility Group comprising of twenty-four European organisations and the W3C/WAI for the creation of a Euro accessibility project.

Company News

June was a busy and successful month at The Usability Company. We are pleased to announce that we have been awarded the contract to provide Bradford and Bingley with User Centered Design and User Centered Design services for the Market Place website redevelopment project. In addition to providing User Centered Design services The Usability Company will also use WebIQ, a unique technology that identifies visitor intent and associated success, carry out lab based usability testing and provide Accessibility Audits.

The Usability Company is also delighted to announce some changes to our team. Tobias Misera has now become Head of User Centered Design at The Usability Company. Tobias has been active in developing frameworks for organising digital information for over eight years. With a strong track record working in digital design, Tobias has provided consultancy to numerous blue-chip clients including KLM, BT Cellnet, Victor Chandler and Tesco.

Carl Kim has joined our Usability Practice team as a Usability Specialist. He not only lends an international dimension to the team by bringing many years' experience in usability in Australia but he also brings client side and agency usability experience. Carl has held usability roles at Westpac, the leading online bank in Australia and AMP Henderson Global Investors, Australia's largest fund manager.

And Finally...

Last month, The Usability Company sponsored the usability supplement in the June 19 issue of The New Media Age. The supplement serves as a comprehensive guide to usability and accessibility issues. It includes an introduction to usability and provides a good overview of usability and accessibility issues. Please contact us, if you would like a free copy of this very useful supplement by emailing with your request and we shall send you a copy. We have both electronic and hard copies, so please indicate which format you would like to receive and provide the relevant details.

Fundamental Considerations for a Usable and Accessible Website

Marty Carroll, Director of Usability Practice, The Usability Company

Below is a list of key issues and considerations for usability and accessibility that are applicable to all websites.

Images and Animations:

Accessibility: Alt tags - the descriptive text attached to graphics, which allows screen-readers to articulate them - should accompany every image, even blank spaces comprised by gifs. Animations should be kept to a minimum and should include an option to switch them off

Usability: Alt tags help those without sight problems because they provide useful information about the images that may not be clear from their appearance. In addition, for those on slower Internet connections, alt tags provide information on downloading images allowing the user to decide whether they want to wait for the download or not

Image Maps:

Accessibility: If an image is a link then it should have alt tags, which say what the image links to

Usability: It does not suffice to simply have a description of the image in the alt tag if the image is a link. The alt tag should always provide information on where it is linking to in the same way as a text link

Multimedia:

Accessibility: A website should provide captioning and transcripts of audio material and descriptions of video

Usability: While much has been made of multimedia, many Internet users in the UK do not have the bandwidth to support multimedia. Alternative presentation of multimedia (such as text) should always be provided to accommodate these users and for those whose environment (busy office, quiet train coach, etc) precludes their use of multimedia

Hypertext Links:

Accessibility: Use text that makes sense when read out of context. For example, avoid repetitive use of "click here" and "more"

Usability: Use words that describe the feature or the function of the destination page because this allows users to make informed decisions on whether they wish to use the links. Research shows that people often scan a page for links rather than reading all of the text available so descriptive links are paramount

Page Organization:

Accessibility: Where possible, use style sheets to keep content data separate from the data governing that content's presentation

Usability: Style sheets allow for consistency in the presentation of information and consistency is the hallmark of usability. Good use of style sheets mean that people learn to use sites effectively much more quickly

Graphs and Charts: Accessibility: Use 'Longdesc tags' with graphs and charts because these tags provide in-depth textual descriptions of contents

Usability: The provision of 'Longdesc tags' can help with communicating the meaning of complicated graphs and charts. Using 'Longdesc tags' to convey this information can save valuable screen space

Scripts, Applets, and Plug-ins:

Accessibility: Provide alternative content in case active features are inaccessible or unsupported

Usability: The security setting on a user's PC or the presence of a company firewall often means that features may be unavailable to a large part of the population. Many of the new Internet users feel intimidated using the Internet and will not install plug-ins on their PC's

Frames:

Accessibility: Provide a "no frames" option and if frames are used; make sure the titles attached to them are meaningful

Usability: The use of frames means that it is difficult to bookmark pages of a site. If someone wants to send a web address to a friend via email for reference purposes then copying the URL from the browser will not work if frames are used because the URL refers to the frameset rather than the page the user is viewing

Tables:

Accessibility: Rows and columns need to relate to one another so that information in each cell can be understood in context

Usability: N/A

Check your work:

Accessibility: Look out for simple spelling mistakes and check that the accessibility elements added meet W3C's guidelines at http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG

Usability: Of course, the presence of simple spelling mistakes conveys the impression that the site is shoddy and will consequently lead to a lack of trust. Conformance to accessibility guidelines does not necessarily equate to good accessibility - how people with various disabilities actually use the site needs to be taken into account. For example, while software may indicate that alt tags are present these alt tags may not be very useful

Why User Centered Design (User Centered Design) should be involved from the start of the website development process

Tobias Misera, Head of User Centered Design, The Usability Company

A few years ago, many clients were not aware of the importance of User Centered Design (User Centered Design) in website development. The focus was solely on having a web presence at all costs in order to compete in the new market. There was a general lack of understanding of the complexities involved in designing a website.

When designing websites, designers had many new considerations. For example, in addition to creating a visual style and layout of an individual page, designers now had to focus on the aggregate collection of information and design a web site structure and navigation system, which are both elements of User Centered Design. These functions, although completely new to designers had become requirements to the web development process. In addition to this, design was at the end of the development process and designers were given tight deadlines and budgets. As a result User Centered Design elements were neglected because designers generally concentrated on visuals, which were ultimately easier to sell.

Most websites at this time looked arguably fantastic and had highly creative design but performed poorly. Users got lost within the sites, did not find relevant information and could not perform the relevant tasks. Many organisations were losing visitors, revenue and brand equity due to these issues with their websites.

Even if User Centered Design was considered in this era, it was considered at the design stage of the project, which is just before the production stage. There is generally neither enough time nor budget for possible change at this stage, which can often limit the effects and the ability to implement User Centered Design recommendations as User Centered Design can require a complete rethink of the project. The same is true for programmers and developers who were now faced with the task of implementing beautiful designs in a structure-less product or environment. If there wasn't a structure in place at this stage it was up to the developers and programmers to consider the organisation of information and navigation while producing the site.

Today, websites are increasingly complex and rich in information. This combined with the maturation of the industry resulted in a more complex development process involving more specialists such as new media project managers, digital strategists, E-marketers, usability experts and User Centered Designs. Interestingly, the bulk of new media jobs has shifted from creating new web sites to re-designing and/or re-structuring existing web sites. It's usually the usability experts and web statistics that point the clients towards User Centered Design.

User Centered Design is not graphic design, software development or usability engineering but it does touch on all of these and many other areas. User Centered Design takes a holistic view of websites by simultaneously concentrating on users, content and context. The complexities of website development now mean that it requires a phased approach for success. User Centered Design comes before the design and development process and should start at the beginning of the project with the planning, marketing and branding phases.

The Information Architect translates the business requirements and balances them with the users' needs. By using card sorting exercises to define the structure, creating wireframes to develop and test navigation systems and drawing sitemaps and process diagrams to document the website, User Centered Designs ensure that the content structure and navigation of a website is built to enable the user to achieve their objectives thus enabling clients to achieve their business goals.

All of these components are passed on to the design team who in turn use them as blueprints for their designs. In this way, the User Centered Design speeds up the design process significantly by allowing the designers to focus on what they're best at; design!

Getting a thorough understanding of User Centered Design and usability implications before the building process commences can considerably reduce development costs and timelines because the User Centered Design's recommendations are tested by real users at the beginning of the process hence avoiding over development and wasted investment during the project.

Accessibility Update Part One: RNIB Brings UK's First website accessibility legal case

The RNIB has confirmed that it is supporting a number of individuals in cases against companies failing to make their websites accessible for people with visual impairments.

The RNIB has openly stated for a long time that it would support any individuals wishing to bring such cases against organisations failing to comply with accessibility requirements under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. Although these are the first cases to be brought in the UK there have been a number of successful prosecutions abroad, the most famous of which was against the Sydney Olympic Committee in 2000.

Although the RNIB cannot release details of its actions, digital development officer Julie Howell confirmed its supporting several individuals in discrimination claims against a number of companies.

The RNIB’s procedures for tackling issues brought to its attention do not necessarily result in legal action but the DDA has harmed the RNIB with the power to support individuals in taking such action.

2003 is the European Year of Disability and this move by the RNIB is a watershed in the development of online services in the UK.

As mentioned in May’s newsletter, the Disability Rights Commission announced that it would be investigating 1,000 sites for their ability to be accessed by Britain's 8.5 million disabled people in their first Formal Investigation. The DRC last year published a code of practice that made explicit reference to online services, saying that site operators failing to take disabled users into account would be in breach of the DDA.

Accessibility Update Part Two: Twenty-four European Organisations Launch Effort for a More Accessible Web

Twenty-Four European Organisations from twelve countries working in the field of Web Accessibility, together with the W3C/WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the creation of a Euro Accessibility Project.

The MoU sets out governing principles for their co-operation towards the goal of establishing a harmonised set of support services over Europe, which would include a common evaluation methodology, technical assistance, and a European certification authority for Web accessibility.

All the signatories of the MoU consider that equal access to Web is a key factor in the inclusion of people with disabilities in the society.

In setting up this project, the signatories expect to contribute to reinforce the European co-operation toward the full accessibility of e-services based on the W3C/WAI guidelines, to avoid the risks of fragmentation of the WAI outcomes, and finally to significantly increase the number of accessible Web sites. Their main goals include establishing a certification of authority for web accessibility, addressing the lack of a harmonised methodology for the application of the W3C/WAI guidelines and to consider the provision of an "eAccessibility Mark" for goods and services which comply with relevant standards for eAccessibility.

The 24 European organisations are:
AbilityNet Ltd (UK), Accessibility Foundation (Netherlands), Accessinmind Ltd (UK), ASPHI (Association for the Development of ITC Projects for people with disabilities, Italy), Blindensorg Licht en Liefde (Belgium), ONA (Belgium), BrailleNet (France), Cellule Wall-On-Line (Belgium), AEGEAN (The Department of Product and Systems Design Engineering of the University, Greece), European Blind Union, FIT (The Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology, Germany), France Telecom R&D (France), IBM Europe, Linz University (Austria), Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium), KFKI Research Institute for Particle and Nuclear Physics (Hungary), Palo Alto (Belgium), RINCE (Ireland), RNIB (Royal National Institute for the Blind, UK), RNID (Royal National Institute for Deaf People, UK), Fundación Sidar - Acceso Universal (Spain), Fundosa Teleservicios S.A (Spain), Videncenter for Synshandicap (Visual Impairment Knowledge Centre, Denmark), Web for All (Germany).

To learn more about the group, please visit www.euroaccessibility.org

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