Tag Archives: Web Experience
Web Site Content Quality Checklist
Is the quality of your Web site costing you money in terms of abandoned e-Commerce transactions or visitors bouncing before accessing the information that would turn them from browsers to buyers? Could you be doing more to ensure content integrity? Site quality matters. In fact, it is costing the UK millions of pounds in lost revenue for Internet businesses as reported in a BBC article¹ posted earlier this year.
Site Quality is multi-faceted, but at its core it is focused on a site that users can trust and visit repeatedly as well as ensuring everything works in a way that meets a user’s expectations for speed, reliability and access.
There was a need for a Web Site content quality checklist to support the millions of websites that are losing money, in breach of accessibility guidelines and faced with content, brand and technical errors. So we’ve created just that.
Firmly Covet Customer Feedback
Customer feedback should be encouraged by every organisation as a vital source of information on how they can improve their website and their services. In a competitive online environment it is also essential that companies take advantage of the significant additional custom accessibility affords. As a blind person I am constantly having to switch from site to site until I find one that I am able to spend my money with – but very encouragingly each month sees a gradual improvement in awareness and implementation of inclusive design.
Is Ignoring Inclusive Design for Dummies? [Opinion]
The simple answer is, of course, ‘Yes!’ Did you know that designing for the broadest audience possible is so obviously the right thing to do from every angle that it’s a wonder only a tiny percentage of websites out there are successfully embracing the opportunity?
Questions that shaped the web experience [Opinion]
In preparation for an upcoming webinar, I started thinking about the questions that have helped shape how we view the web experience. Some of these are captured below.
Technology 4 Good Awards
On Tuesday I attended the UK Technology4Good Awards. It was a great opportunity to celebrate what companies, organisations and individuals are all doing to help make technology more widely available for everyone from young to old, disabled to non-disabled.
What really inspired me was how many people are working to ensure technology and the Web are accessible for all. Some of the winners were:
• Internet Buttons won the Innovation award for its web tool aimed to simplify the Internet for new or nervous users. You can create a page with a few simple links and share it with your friends or family, making it easier for them to find what they need online.
• The HiSoftware sponsored category, Working Together Award, was won by XMA and iansyst. These companies collaborated to ensure the effective and efficient delivery bespoke computer packages to enable over 9,000 children those with disabilities and special needs get online as part of the Home Access programme.
• The Accessibility Award was given to Lifelites. This children’s technology charity provides a package of fun and educational technology to every children’s hospice in the UK. This gives children the chance to: take control of something for themselves; spend quality time with their families; keep in contact with their school and friends; and simply enjoy themselves away from the constant reality of their illness.
I was inspired by my co-presenter Martha Lane Fox, the Government’s UK Digital Champion. When presenting the Working Together Award she mentioned her 2004 near fatal accident in Morocco. She emphasised the role technology played in her recovery helping to connect her with her family and friends.
Martha’s Race Online 2012 campaign – backed by organisations from the Post Office to the Women’s Institute – has signed 100,000 volunteers in a bid to get everyone in the UK online by the time of the London Olympics. With nine million people in the UK never having been online, this campaign has volunteers pledging to train someone in their family or community.
Web Accessibility opens the door for people to save money, find jobs and connect with the outside world. These awards really hit home to me.
Read more about Web Accessibility.
New Cookie Law Hindrance [News & Opinion]
I bet your company is one of the many violating the new cookie privacy law. The Register reported last week that almost the entire EU is in violation. The main difficulty though is where to begin?
Benefits of Cookies
A cookie is a file placed from the web server to the user’s machine so it can remember something about you later or track where you go. It may remember an IP address, or what you added to a shopping cart or other information.
Cookies allow a web application to respond to you as an individual. By gathering and remembering information about your preferences, the web application can tailor its operation to your needs, likes and dislikes. A cookie will allow web developers to create better web applications, applications that are more personal, easier to use and richer in their degree of interactivity. While some sites do not make use of cookies, they are widely accepted as a way to improve the customer’s web experience.
So what is the law specifically?
In summary, the new Regulations will require UK businesses and other organisations to obtain consent on an opt‐in basis to store, retrieve and use information from users’ visits to their websites and/or how they respond to emails (otherwise known as ‘cookies’ or ‘gifs’). Under the old 2003 regulations users only had to be told that cookies or gifs were being used and given an opportunity to opt-out.
Where to Begin
I’d like to wager another bet, that you might be able to describe some of the cookies you use, but maybe not all? Many companies face issues with trying to identify exactly what cookies they are using. Without this knowledge actually setting up opt-in consent is impossible.
Businesses need to be able to identify pages setting http-cookies, third party http-cookies, expiration http-cookies, document.cookie and input use of cookies with on-click. They also need to be able to evaluate http headers to identify pages that are setting cookies. This is an essential checkpoint for identifying where to begin with the new privacy law.
Financial Penalties
The ICO informed us last week that they will not be enforcing the law for a year, however financial penalties will follow after the consultation period is over. A year seems like a long time now, but it will fly by. Avoid those penalties now by identifying what cookies you are using to put in place the proper opt-in consent.
Image Source: scubadive67
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