Posted: February 16th, 2010 | Author: Nick Smith | Filed under: Announcements | No Comments »
At London Web Standards last night we announced a website design competition. London Web Standards is getting organised, we’re getting passionate presenters and an amazing group of new and regular attendees. We want the website to reflect this. If you’re interested in helping out, read on.
Aims of the site
- To be a focal point for all of London Web Standards (LWS) online activities
- To take the discussion online
- To promote London Web Standards
- To promote web standards
- To be a focal point that collects all London Web Standards related materials (video, blog posts, photos, events, presentations and speaker bios), linked from the site
Content
Check out the current website (this is it) for an idea of the information we currently have. We’re going to be adding to this. We thought about drawing you an IA diagram, but then realised you’re one of the talented designer/IA or UXD professionals who come to LWS. So here’s the content we need somewhere in the site:
- The exisiting LWS logo (we like the design and were hoping to complement it with a new site design)
- Aim paragraph for LWS (still being written)
- Links (and/or content) to services that LWS uses: Flickr, Vimeo, Twitter, LWS Yahoo Group
- Eventbrite booking page (yep, right there within the London Web Standards site)
- Blog posts, including embedded videos and slides, as well as links to video, slides, comments, pictures and tweets from events
- A prominent place for sponsor logos
- Public calendar of upcoming events (fed from Google Calendar)
- Information about the venue
- Contact information, LWS and organisers twitter names, email address, web form
- Promote up coming speakers – a bios page with relevant links to their work
Our technical bits and UI requirements
- Our site is based on WordPress so whatever you produce will be applied to a theme
- We need your designs to be accessible, for example – think of colour blind users (of course it’s not limited to this).
What do you get out of it?
Kudos? Satisfaction that you’ve made the site look less boring? A high value item in your portfolio for a cutting edge community group website.
You’ll get a link of the type “Site designed by X” at the bottom of every page and a link back to your personal site. Plus, between competition close and Monday 5 April, every entry will be displayed in a voting section of the current site with a link back to your website.
What we need from you
We need the graphic and UI design from you. Initially we’d like 3 templates:
- The homepage
- A blog page
- A generic template page
We can work around what you produce (creating the Eventbrite and calendar pages), but if you want to design more templates please feel free.
We’d prefer graphic design files in any format openable in one of the Adobe Creative Suite applications (things like Fireworks and Photoshop). For speed, you can send through a .JPEG, .GIF or .PNG file in the first instance, but we’ll need access to a layered (.PSD or Fireworks .PNG) version of the designs when converting your designs into a working theme. We’ll also accept code-based designs (if you prefer to design in the browser) and other supporting documents (things like IA and design justifications). However, we must make it clear we’re looking for graphic and UI design, not fully formed code (we can do that). If we have trouble opening your work we’ll get back to you.
What, where and when to submit
Entries can be submitted via email attachment to competition@londonwebstandards.org. We can receive messages of up to 25Mb in size. We don’t mind you putting them in a compressed file (such as a Zip), in fact it’s probably easier that way.
You will get confirmation of your submission within 24 hours. If you’d like to arrange another way to give us your work, get in touch with us at organisers@londonwebstandards.org, but please give plenty of time before the deadline.
The competition will start on Monday 15 February, it will be announced at the meetup and you’ll be able to submit entries until Monday 15 March 2010, entries will need to be received on or before 12 midnight. (Update: The deadline has been extended to Wednesday 31 March 2010.)
Deciding the winner
The winner will be announced on Tuesday 6 April 2010. They will be decided in an open public vote. Each entry is guaranteed to be displayed (along with a link back to your site) on the LWS site between competition close and when the winner is announced.
The LWS Organisers reserve the right to update this information as clarifications become necessary. If there are any major changes that will significantly affect your entry we will email the LWS email list with an update. If you’d like to sign up for these emails please register with our Yahoo Group. It’s also worthwhile periodically checking back here if you can. If you have any general questions please put them in the comments below.
Posted: February 15th, 2010 | Author: Jeff Van Campen | Filed under: Uncategorized | 4 Comments »
Update: You can now download the Keynote Presentation used at this event. There is also a companion Word Document or PDF.
Introduction
Ben Dodson is talking about how London Web Standards is now family entertainment.
Past Presentations: Web Fonts, YQL / Flickr API, HTML5, Mobile Web Best Practices, jQuery.
Future presentations: Speed / Unit Testing, JavaScript Optimisation, User Experience, Web to App.
Gowalla Spot for London Web Standards.
@media discount for LWS members to be emailed.
Jobs
- Ben Dodson is looking for PHP Web Developers
- Jam is looking for a Mid-senior Web Developer, fulltime roll
- ORM are looking for a front-end web developer, talk to Gavin or Lisa.
Design Competition
The website will be a focal point for London Web Standards. We’ll be sending details to the mailing list tomorrow.
Sandi Wassmer
She’s here to convince us that inclusive design is the way to go.
Accessibility is an overused word. It’s “just not working.” People think that it’s something they just have to do. To be a little politically incorrect: it’s what you have to do to make disabled folks happy.
She wants to give it better PR.
People think of accessiblity as somethign you do after you build a website. It’s something you do when you “get out the checklist.”
Accessiblity as it currently stands is currently very misunderstood.
Understanding the aims of Accessiblity
“It creates an unobstructed bridge between me and the world.”
“But I went to art school and I see things visually, albeit at 10 centimeters.”
Stats
90% of people registered blind have some risidual vision
3% of people registerd blind are completely blind.
Purchasing power is 80 million pounds a year.
What is Inclusive Design?
Same as Universal Design and Design for All.
Seven Principles of Inclusive Design
These are the Sandi-ised, plain English version of these principles (with the original version in brackets).
- Unbiased – everybody’s welcome (Equitable use)
- Flexible (Flexibility in use)
- Straight-forward (Simple and intuitive use)
- Clear, no ambiguity (Perceptible information)
- Sensible when dealing with errors (Tolerance for error)
- Minimises physical effort (Low physical effort)
- Doesn’t stop you from being able to use it (Appropriate size and shape)
You have to know and understand the users that use the product or website.
“We can create different experiences for different users with one website.”
There is no right or wrong. In an ideal world there would be no client, no budget. In a real world we have clients, and we have to make compromises.
It’s a learning process. Someone always comes up with a better solution. We have lots of knowledge and lots of people sharing it.
“We want people who think. We want people who create and user their minds.”
How does the process differ when you’re creating an inclusive website?
The Brief should include a mention of inclusive design.
The Process should use real people . Have an Inclusion Leader on your team, who makes sure the principles of inclusive design are adhered to.
Technical Scoping – backend and frontend people should understand what eachoterh do and how it imacts ont he other. Talk, talk and talk some more.
Testing – even people who “get it right the first time” need to test.
More Testing – you need to make sure the whole thing works together.
The G in WCAG
They are guidelines not rules. They make you think, but don’t restrict you. Allows you to think about what you’re doing and think about the users who will be using your website.
Usability
Different from accessibility.
It’s about specific users with specific goals in specfiic context.
Three key areas
- effectiveness
- efficiency
- satisfaction
Tends to go together because there are so many overlaps.
It Begins With Web Standards
Progressive Enhancement is an extension of Inclusive Design.
Progressive Enhancement is a strategy. Graceful Degradation is an afterthought.
Internet Users are people and people come in all shapes and sizes
Marketers and Analyitics specialists should be listened to, but they don’t really understand human nature.
Peter, George and John
Same to marketers: same demographic, except:
Peter – internet lover. Firefox with all the extension. Loves JavaScript and Flash.
George is a luddite. Has JavaScript turned off.
John – Like Peter, technially savvy, but he’s visually impaired.
One last thought
Inclusive Design brings people together
Q & A
- Q: I have a website that runs well on the desktop, but doesn’t run on mobile. Would you class that as non-accessible, non-inclusive?
- A: Yes. Technology moves forward. Two ways to look at mobile: mobile style sheets (existing content) or repurpose the existing content for a mobile browser. It’s a difficult thing. 65% of people are using mobile to surf the Internet in the UK. In third world countries many people don’t have desktop computers they only have mobiles. Try your best. If that’s a market you want to server, you need to think about that.
- Q: How can I test if my website is actully accessible?
- A: Use real people to test it.
- Q: Where can I find them?
- A: You’ve got a couple blind folk here. It’s about budget. If you client doesn’t have budget, you won’t be albe to do it. The British Computer Association for the Blind has a list of 300 people who will test.
- Q: You’re preaching to the convereted here. How do we get the message of inclusivity to the “boring banks.”
- A: It needs to be brought to the mainstream. Accessiblity talk to another, but we need to mainstream it. The whole point is not having specialised thing, but including everybody. It’s social change. It’s time. Chalenge what blind it. Challenge norms and steotypes. “I’m not what you think blind is.”
- Q: What is the best way develop an accessible website: write the best semantic code or… ?
- A: If you get underneath the WCAG. The solution isn’t technical. You need to understand the people using the website. It’s not technical, it’s about structure. There isn’t one solution.
- Q: Have you ever pushed for exclusive design?
- A: I don’t like exclusivity. I find it difficult to think about that sort of thing. I’m a “human rights marketer.” Exclusive feels wrong philosophically.
- Q: The statistics that you gave at the beginning. Where can we get more information? Your website?
- A: Lots of places. I’m giving the presentation to Ben, so you’ll be able to track that down. W3C. WebAim. London Accessibility Camp.
- A: (Jim) Mike Davies redesigned the Legal & General website. He did a presentation on the business case for usability at London Web Standards in 2007.
- A: (From the audience) We built a better website because the vice-president of BP couldn’t see our website. We’re trying to reach old people. They’re the decision makers. They have visual impairments, but don’t like to admit it.
- Q: As a vision impaired user, what is your experience of the internet like?
- A: Most websites are frustrating. I have frustrations with pretty much every single website I use.
- Q: Contrary to what has been said here, I’ve found that big companies are hell-bent to have their websites “accessible,” but often go over the top. Example: adding access keys to every link.
- A: We do have nice clean, semantic markup, etc. What people think accessibilty is and what it really is are two different things at the moment. HTML 5 comes along with landmarks and ARIA. You have to understand the directions things are going (even if you don’t want to use HTML5 because it won’t validate right now). A lot of people who think about accessibility think it’s a checklist, but if you really look under the hood, it’s not logical. Don’t look at it as a list, as a rule. This is why I’m saying “Inclusive Design.” It’s about including as many people as possible.
- Q: Make it usable by a 10 year old. Average reading age in the UK is 9. WCAG, the C is content…?
- A: Yes, part of the guidelines is that text should be clear. Plain English. It’s about thinking abou the user’s. Not everyone has English as a first language. Be as simple as possible. People scan. People don’t read the Intenet like they’re reading a book.
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