Development of a Website Using Web Standards - Report Example

Web Project Insert Name Course Professor’s Name Institution Date Table of contents Introduction Conceptual analysis What is and Why Web Accessibility is important in web design Requirements Page layout Implementation Validation Design rationale Navigation and orientation Evaluation Reference list Introduction This paper is a comprehensive report on web design and key consideration in web development. In reality, the report focuses on web accessibility its importance and how it can be achieved by good practices provided in the guidelines of accessible web design. The report focuses on the web site design task which provides the basis of discoing and implanting web design strategies incorporate guidelines that foster web accessibility. Conceptual Analysis What is and Why Web Accessibility is important in web design The World Wide Web is a precious channel of communication that benefits mankind the world all over. However, it is noteworthy that the use of the web is made possible by it specifications that make it accessible. Web accessibility is defined as the designated design of the web in order to make easy to use. This implies that any one inclusive of handicapped people can easily perceive, comprehend and browse the Web and contribute equally. Since the Web has a huge impact in the society today it is definitely fundamental to make it accessible such that equal access and equal prospects are available to people with disabilities. There are millions of people who access the web thus among them are people with disabilities as well as limitations in use of web technologies. According to the Web accessibility initiative, basic accessibility of guidelines ought to take into consideration the essence of text based browser which lack the capability of displaying images. In fact, the World Wide Web consortium requires web developers to adhere to best practices which are grouped into three classes. These are: Level A This is a specification that has least requirements; the most basic level that any website should meet. This implies efficiency in use and to suit text based browser to display alternative text for images and any image maps. Level AA This requirement makes its mandatory to apply html code correctly in web design. Thus, style sheets must used to control layout and design of the pages. The standard cascading style sheets( CSS) are used of text rendering and will functionally normally with a text based browser that will ignore the style sheets, but still display the text effortlessly in a readable manner. Level AAA In this level the guideline for web designs stipulates that all necessary measures must be applied to detail in order to make the web convenient for use by all means especially to suit people with disabilities. This requires provision for alternatives to make web browsing comprehensive through providing descriptions for speech readers to be rendered between links. In actual fact, web developers should use navigation bars alongside markers to tell visitors where they are on the web site. In addition, the World Wide Web consortium dictates that web development should emulate a logical order in the creation of links and forms to allow a visitor easy navigation by using tab keys to go up and down the pages. Web accessibility is no doubt important in its use and applicability in our daily lives (Harper & Yesilada, 2008). In the education sector the web has been a significant resource that has aided education especially in post secondary studies. First, the web provides faculty resources that are substantial in enhancing face to face instruction in the learning environment especially distance learning. Post secondary institutions of learning are quite sensitive to web usage by students and pay great detail to accessibility for all individuals inclusive of handicapped people (Harper & Yesilada, 2008). In essence the utility and usability if a website is the most important aspect of web accessibility since visual design has absolutely no effect on accessibility and can hardly enhance utility of web pages. Web accessibility must concern user-centric aspects since it is web users who determine what part of the website to click. Therefore, a standard web design ought to be user-oriented that is, giving consideration web users’ preferences and web browsing habits. In most cases, web users parse text with their eyes and sample useful links to follow. In reality, users’ expectations determine their perception of a website and their likelihood to use it. It is noteworthy that users seek for distinct properties to match their expectation. (Harper & Yesilada, 2008). These properties are: Quality and credibility-user seek high-quality content in web pages they visit in reference to their search criteria. Thus, the design of a web site cannot lure web users to browse a web site if it does not provide high quality content instead they will it and keep on their search for a credible website irrespective of its design. Readability- usually web users do not read websites in their entirety. Instead, they scan the contents of a web page by analyzing the most significant anchors that are likely to lead to them to the content of the page. Thus, readability is key to web users and determines the popularity as well as the accessibility of a website. Precision-web users seek perfect page layout that strike their first visit to a website with the content they are looking for. The impatient nature of web users’ demand a very straightforward principle which is, if a web site does not meet the user’s expectations, the user dumps the page and searches for alternative sites. Consequently, less cognitive load and intuitive navigation leads to failure in web design. Content Emphasis-users seek to browse web pages by choosing the most reasonable option instead of looking for the most optimal choices to find the kind of information they are in search of. In addition, web users do not browse web pages in a linear manner but rather in a selective way without a sequential order from one section of the website to another. Web users are keen to find a link which seems like an ultimate lead to the target content and a likely to click such a link. Intuitive design-users rely on their intuition whilst browsing the web instead of following the information on the website which the designer has provided. Utility Control- users are inclined towards easy and convenient web browsing that they can control hence they prefer consistent data presentation in a website. For instance, web sites that have interactive elements such as pop-up windows that distract a user web browsing session. Users find unexpected popping up windows to be annoying hence the quit such websites hence limiting accessibility of such websites. Therefore, universal design is core to the web development process in order to achieve great web sites with impressive visual design which also are usable y all groups of people regardless of their ability age and situation. A universal design is very effective in designing a website that achieves all goals of web design with one solution that can be easily accessed by a text based browser (screen reader) and full functionality browser(Harper & Yesilada, 2008). Requirements This website is designed purposely for web development clients in search of a web designer to create a web solution for their personal and business needs. This web site serves as my online portfolio show casing my skills as a web designer hence reaching my prospective clients in an online platform that is easily accessible and convenient. Requirements catalogue page features Home Main links and navigation structure for the website and basic information the purpose of the world wide web About me Navigation menu to related pages and basic information about the web master (me) Portfolio Complete professional information about my skills and qualification Site Map Schematic diagram on the navigation and general layout of the website Contact A messaging board for visitors to contact me Page layout I applied a hybrid approach to layout this website combining pure html and CSS. Implementation Web site template code is shown below. For this web site the main elements of html are tables for layout as well as layers and div element to divide the website in distinct sections. In fact, below are screenshot illustrations as well. (Screenshots) (template code) Home|Welcome Professional Web Authoring Home| About Me |Portfolio|SiteMap|Contact| Home| About Me |Portfolio|SiteMap|Contact| Welcome to my e-portfolio. Thank you for visiting.

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Validation The results of html markup and CSS style on this web site displayed no errors. Design rationale User friendliness is a major concern in web design because it addresses the issue of user experience when navigating the website. Thus, simplifying a website to the most practical level possible is of utmost importance. Well designed websites have a well designed interface that makes user experience hassle-free and browsing enjoyable. Achieving user friendly web design requires consideration of user needs in the design process in order to make a website that is both appealing and easy to comprehend for users. In my project, I took care of user friendliness concerns by adopting CSS styles to achieve a good website layout, easy navigation, contrasting color scheme between the website content and the background color. In designing the navigation of the website, the use of simple wording was quite useful in making the user experience good with easy to understand words. This eliminates confusion and definitely odd navigation which can seem confusing to users who use on-screen readers. However, some graphics from my sample works, which copied from online do not have this capability since they only visible after download (Bradbard & Cara, “Web Accessibility Theory and Practice ”, n.d ) The use of CSS styles made my project feasible in achieving user friendliness. Apart from enhancing design, it was also possible to accomplish incredible content layout. The spacing style made it easy to achieve a great topography presenting information in an effective way that enhances readability of the website wedding. Some of the main focus on achieving this was font choice spacing and color combinations. In addition, provision of alternative texts for graphical texts and titles for pages were of great importance in achieving user friendliness. This is to enable users to easily grasp the information contained in a page by simply reading title. For users with disabilities the alternative text or rather image description was a useful tool since the images can be read by use of pointers for people with visual disabilities (Bradbard & Cara, “Web Accessibility Theory and Practice ”, n.d ) Navigation and orientation Designing a dynamic website is a great and intriguing undertaking that is probably the most fulfilling experience in my web design encounters. At the exposure of unlimited technological ability, my focus turned to making my website more dynamic with a great focus on interactivity and impressive design in content presentation and layout. This came in handy in putting a personal touch on the website to express my personality and preferences especially the color scheme. This would entailed designing pages with distinctive color contrast between the background color in different pages to match the theme of the topic presented in each page hence dynamism. First, I would added features that enhanced more interactive and links to websites of my interests and provided external links. In addition, I had aspired to use social media integration through social media plugins to connect with my social media network but it was beyond the scope of this project. However, the orientation of the website has a suitable layout that can be easily adopted in social media integration. This would enhance presentation of correlated information from my social media activity hence promoting my personality with an emphasis on my points of view to promote my skills. To make the website more interactive at a person level, I focused on navigation scheme that can possible be merger with a blog section to use for discussion and updating of information on my areas of interests that is, skills and opinions on various issues on sports among other topical affairs that are of concern to me. I would also implement a rating tool that is functionality to rate articles which I post on my website according to user’s satisfaction with them. Lastly, I made the consideration of navigation capabilities necessary for multimedia elements both audio and visual such as animations, flash video and slide show to present content in a visual way to give the website a visual look captivating to users especially in practical scenarios in which graphical enhance readability and clarity pertaining to a topical issue (“Web Design” 2013). Evaluation The overall feel of the website is satisfactory given it text color and background contrast which renders it easy to read and user friendly. In addition, it layout is simply readable and hassle free in navigating the website. In reality, the application of CSS to enhance the content layout makes it quite ideal. Below is the css extract for the various sections of the website. Recommendation Practically, the website can be improved by use of more visual appealing elements to enhance its look as well additional descriptions of its various sections to inform visitors on where precisely they are on the site (Harper & Yesilada, 2008). Reference List Bradbard . D., A. & Cara, P. n.d. Web Accessibility Theory and Practice: An Introduction for University Faculty. Winthrop University. [accessed 24 December 2013] Available at http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ904073.pdf Harper, s., & Yesilada, Y. (2008). Web Accessibility: Research Foundations. Goldaming, Springer London. Koutsabasis,P., Vlachogiannis, P. and Darzentas, J. S. Journal of Usability Studies, Volume 5, Issue 4, August 2010, pp. 157 – 171. [accessed 24 December 2013] Available at http://www.upassoc.org/upa_publications/jus/2010august/koutsabasis1.html Web Design: 11 Characteristics of a User-Friendly Website. June 17, 2013. 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