Accessibility Article Archive

Tips for Designing for Colorblind Users

July 28th, 2010 37 Comments

It’s estimated that about 8% of males and 0.5% of females are born colorblind. That may seem like a low number but if you’re designing for a large audience, having a site that’s unusable for eight out of every hundred males is definitely less than desirable.

Fortunately, you can fairly easily make sure that your site is colorblind friendly by always keeping in mind the information below. We’ll take a look at what colorblindness really means and how you can tweak your designs based on a few simple principles.

Learning From Microsoft: 10 Design Pitfalls to Avoid

May 1st, 2010 57 Comments

Today we’ll look into the web design practices and trends of the single biggest name in software to see if we can learn anything about some mistakes to avoid in our own work.

Feel free to comment to either agree or disagree with the suggestions below. As professional designers your insight is valuable and I look forward to your thoughts.

12 Tips for a More Accessible Website

March 19th, 2010 35 Comments

Making your website accessible to everyone is not only a moral duty, it’s a legal obligation. Many organizations, including the International Olympic Committee, have been sued for not making their websites accessible enough. With 50 million Americans suffering from some disability or other, improving your site’s accessibility makes clear commercial sense too.

The Importance of a / B Design Testing

March 9th, 2010 12 Comments

For many developers, launching a site is not the end of the design process. To continually improve the success of their design, these developers turn to A/B testing. This relatively simple process can teach you loads about what your users are looking for as well as what they ignore or find unimportant.

Today we’ll take a quick look at what A/B testing is, the benefits of implementing it, and some tools to get you going.
Read More

How to Build a Site With Keyboard Navigation: PSD to HTML

November 30th, 2009 45 Comments

Today we’ll be looking at how to add keyboard navigation to a website using a few simple lines of JavaScript. First we’ll create a simple site theme in Photoshop and then transform it into a working website that uses keyboard functions to switch pages.

12 Accessibility Pitfalls to Avoid

November 18th, 2009 41 Comments

Usability isn’t an exact science. What one visitor considers helpful another considers annoying. Despite this uncertainty and complexity, you should always strive to make your site as accessible as possible to the people you’re trying to reach. You’ll find that a little bit of catering to the special needs of a minority of users can drastically improve the function of your site for all users. Here’s our list of twelve accessibility pitfalls to avoid along with some examples showcasing sites that either excel or fail miserably in these areas.

An Informative 404 Page

June 4th, 2008 15 Comments

Classic 404 error pages are prone to being relatively useless. Whilst a well designed page can provide a means to find what they are looking for, wouldn’t it be great if you could find out more about what went wrong? This tutorial will show you how simple it is to have an explanatory email sent to you whenever a visitor hits a 404 page.

Cross Browser Testing (PC)

March 7th, 2008 20 Comments

A sure sign of a rock solid, well coded CSS layout is that it displays consistently across browsers and platforms. A look at recent global browser stats shows that, while Internet Explorer continues to be the most popular web browser in general use, its user base is fairly evenly split between versions 6 and 7.

And although other browsers such as Firefox, Opera and Safari have a relatively small share of the browser market, it would be unwise for any web designer or developer to ignore them when testing their work.

Custom 404 Error Page

July 31st, 2007 10 Comments

The standard 404 error page can often be really frustrating for readers. Using a simple .htaccess file can allow you to customise your error page, and ensure that users are displayed a useful alternative.

Cross Browser Testing (Mac)

July 26th, 2007 4 Comments

Many web professionals use Apple’s OSX for design and despite what you may think, it’s not difficult to test your website in the big three browsers – Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari. This article talks you through how to easily test your site and gain access to these browsers on a Mac.