Website standards and usability

For anyone getting into the field of website creation and design, as I am, a little background knowledge is in order.

The World Wide Web was the brainchild of Tim Berners-Lee, a British computer scientist that Time magazine ranks among the top 100 minds of the century. In much the same way that Gutenberg’s printing press impacted society, Berners-Lee’s Web has brought profound changes to the way we conduct business, find and share information, socialize, and communicate.

To establish international Web standards and manage its growth and development, Berners-Lee founded and heads the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), an organization consisting of member organizations, a full-time staff, and the public. The significance of the W3C, for anyone involved in creating websites, is that this governing body dictates both HTML and CSS standards.

Another person of influence, with regards to website design, is Jakob Nielsen, one of the world’s leading web usability consultants. Nielsen has published a number of books on web usability and website design and also issues a biweekly column, Alertbox, on usability issues. Follow this link to read what he considers to be the top ten mistakes in web design.  

College website comparison

This week’s instalment is a comparison of the Langara College, Capilano University, and Douglas College websites. 

People who use college websites are usually seeking specific information. Prospective students may want to know about programs offered or how to apply for admission while current students often need to pay fees, check registration dates, find out what textbooks they need, or access online library resources. Visual appeal is nice but the essential feature of a user-friendly website is quick and easy access to all college-related information.

The Capilano website does the best job of achieving this objective. Information links are grouped in logical categories – "Who Are You?" "Studying at Cap," "Admissions," etc. All of the site's web pages share the same basic layout. Site visitors are spared the effort of reorienting to different layouts while navigating from one web page to another. The same horizontal menu bar atop each page means never having to resort to the back button. And the search option is always locked in its traditional spot – the upper right hand corner of the screen.

The Langara and Douglas websites pale by comparison. On their homepages, both sacrifice functionality and consistency for the sake of visual appeal with large, space-consuming pictures. Langara, at least, establishes some consistency in page layout once you get past the homepage. Douglas, alas, runs a distant third in this contest with its new website design that sports a different look on almost every page. Lack of consistency on the Douglas site presents challenges most website users could live without.    

    

In search of engaging blogs...

I begin my journey into the world of blogging by recommending two blogs that I enjoy.

Jules Torti is a free spirit and intrepid adventurer whose blog Alphabet Soup has earned her a loyal following. Torti’s unique descriptive style engages readers on a sensory level, immersing them in globe-trotting experiences – the grandeur of the Canadian Rockies,  Africa’s perilous wonders, the exotically diverse Galapagos Islands, and more. Learn what it’s like to eat termites and goat testicles. Find out if sleeping in an ice hotel or a jungle hut might appeal to you. Torti’s stories are sure to intrigue and entertain armchair travelers and real-life adventurers alike. Her posts also include book, play, and restaurant reviews, as well as contemplative pieces on what she calls “the emotional geography that unfolds the map in new directions each day.”

My second blog recommendation stems from a series of serendipitous circumstances. On a recent bookstore excursion, I found a Robertson Davies biography. Curious about the book's author, I flipped to the back inside cover and was surprised to read that Val Ross, the middle-aged Canadian freelance journalist pictured there, had died in 2008. Compelled to learn more, I searched her name that evening on the computer and Rona Maynard’s blog surfaced with the story "When my best friend died." Maynard’s beautifully written homage embodied the fundamental truths of friendship, in all its complexities, and I wept for her loss. I’ve visited the blog several times since and always find relevant, compelling posts written in Maynard’s relaxed, down-to-earth style.

Just to bring that serendipitous set of circumstances full circle, it was Rona Maynard’s mentoring advice that got Jules Torti started on the road to blogdom.

Happy reading, everyone.