Patterns for the Colour Blind
The patterns, tools and examples on We Are Color Blind.com help you create websites the colour blind can use without problems.
webdesign
10 reasons why all-Flash websites usually suck
Last week, Simon Sundén published a post in Swedish called 10 anledningar varför sajter helt byggda i Flash oftast suger (10 Reasons why sites completely built in Flash usually suck).
He’s right. They do. There are numerous reasons why all-flash sites fail to be a good choice. Simon had a problem getting down to as few as 10. In all my years I’ve still yet to be presented with a convincing argument for a site to be totally Flash-based.
Here is a brief translation of Simon’s 10 reasons. Some of the 10 points do have workarounds or solutions, but that’s like treating an illness you could have avoided catching in the first place.
- Long loading-times
- Accessibility
- Mobile compatibility
- Problems with visitor statistics
- Browser & mouse functions (CTRL-F, right-click, etc)
- No unique URLs – forget “caring is sharing”
- Back and Forward buttons don’t work
- Copy and Paste
- Indexing by search-engines
- Internal links and SEO
Flash objects have their use, but put quite simply, a wholly Flash-based site just doesn’t live up to the web standards we should be following to make the browsing experience more enjoyable and successful.
Ignoring web standards
Why do so many redesigned web sites still fail to follow web standards and best practice? A refresh or relaunch should be the ideal opportunity to right wrongs and make your site more accessible, usable & successful.
Here’s my best guess as to why web standards and best practice are so commonly ignored:
- Poor project management
- Lack of developer knowledge
- Lack of early communication between client, design agencies and production agencies
Sure, there are plenty more out-of-the-box reasons as to why a project can fail or fail to pick up on things – but I’m starting to take the opinion that a web project manager should be sufficiently capable to pick up on a whole range of standard issues and best practices to make sure that they are included. If they aren’t, then i would hope they have the skill and the wherewithal to bring that skill on board.
An easy to read and easy to understand guide to web-standards
An easy to read and easy to understand guide to web-standards
Finding, Understanding, and following the relevant web-standards for developing web-sites is no easy task. They don’t exist as a single entity. It’s a doctrine rather than a unique reference. Sure there are official standards described at W3C, but they aren’t always easy to understand or follow. Harry Roberts, a web developer from the UK has created a wonderful web-standards one-pager called web design +. He’s summarised various best-practices and web-standards into a very easy to read and understand web-page. A very useful resource for developers, but equally as useful for content publishers. Ensuring that standards are followed doesn’t stop with the one who initially coded a site – it’s the job of everyone who publishes content on the Internet.
X-Ray and see the CSS
My favoured tool for seeing beneath the bonet and examining the CSS and mark-up behind the elements of a webpage. Anyone dealing with creating modern web pages based on web standards must have an X-Ray tool at their disposal.