Welcome to redQueen
Webstock presentation
June 19th, 2006
Last year when Russ and I were both working at the Museum we discussed ways we could redevelop the current Museum site from a users perspective. This discussion soon extended into how to incorporate new technologies and methodologies into any large site in an attempt to provide users with more control and an improved experience.
Russ recently presented some of these ideas at Webstock in New Zealand. His presentation was called “Let go and allow users to control their own experience”. Fortunately for those who could not make it we get to see and hear Russ, plus have his slides.
Check it out along with all the other fantastic talks presented at Webstock this year.
Dinosaur wish list
February 24th, 2006
This week my childhood career aspirations were fulfilled. I was asked to help put together a dinosaur wish list for a new exhibition. Palaeontologist can be crossed of the list!
Ever since I can remember I have loved animals. My childhood cats copped the brunt of this affection until our Labradors joined the family when I was six. Early on my career options seemed clear: Vet, Zoologist or Palaeontologist.
I find it amazing now how closely I have stood by these initial decisions and how this fascination with animals has always remained such a passion.
My desire to be a vet was fulfilled and abandoned after five years of Vet Nursing. While I loved the job, it was not the side of animals that I wanted to spend my days viewing - vomiting cats and dogs with diarrhoea. So when I went to Uni, Zoology was the path I chose - with a focus on animal behaviour.
Recent events however, have allowed me to fulfill a hat trick of sorts - I am now working on the development of a new dinosaur exhibition and website at the Museum. While I am not a Palaeontologist I might get to go on a dino dig and I am currently putting together a list of dinosaurs I would like to purchase.
My current pick is Argentinosaurus – as we are going with a Gondwanan theme.
As for careers, time to start writing a new list.
Developing content for a global audience
February 14th, 2006
Last Friday, I was lucky enough to be in Canberra to hear Richard Ishida talk about internationalization. The presentation was fantastic and really extended my understanding of this area of the Web.
Prior to attending, I had known and explained to clients that the Web is a worldwide medium and this needs to be considered when developing content and navigation. But to be honest I had never given it a huge amount of thought. Probably because the predominant number of websites are written in English and their interfaces are designed for Western Cultures - so being an Australian these issues had not significantly affected me.
Internationalization and localization of content
In his talk Richard defined internationalization and localization as:
“Internationalization is the design and development of a product, application or document content that enables easy localization for target audiences that vary in culture, region, or language.”
“Localization is the adaptation of a product, application or document content to meet the language, cultural and other requirements of a specific target market (a ‘locale’).”
When considering these ideas and content you need to think about the primary aims and audiences of your website. If your aim is to reach a global audience then you will need to incorporate internationalization into your content strategy as you would with your code and design. There are many ways in which this can be done and I have listed some broad considerations below.
Developing your site in one language
If you decide your audience is global but choose to keep your site in a single language you might think about:
- Dates, calendars and times (e.g. dates from different cultures include DD/MM/YY, MM/DD/YY, and YY/MM/DD).
- Avoiding phrasing and references unique to certain cultures or groups.
- Defining abbreviations (e.g. NSW).
- Numeric formats (e.g. 1.547 in a country and 1,547 in another country might actually be the same number.)
- How forms are structured and the collection of personal information.
- Whether your text and graphics contain references to objects, actions or ideas which, in a given culture, may be subject to misinterpretation or viewed as insensitive.
- How the content and interface interact. This includes the location, labeling and presentation of navigation.
- The use of plain language - no jargon.
The advantage of this approach is that it takes less time and it may allow you or someone else to localize your content in the future. The disadvantages however might include audience alienation and bland content that does not appeal to any group.
Developing your site in several languages
This can be done in a number of ways depending on the content and what the website is trying to do (e.g. inform, sell, educate).
- If you maintain the same content and carry out direct translations you might enable the users to understand the content but it might lack any interest or relevance.
- Alternatively you might have multilingual content written specifically for your audiences’ local cultures and interests, which often increases relevance.
The disadvantages of multilingual approaches are that they can be costly and complex to implement.
Delivering a culturally tailored website has obvious advantages and disadvantages. What you decide to do will depend primarily on your website’s aims and audiences.
Page source order
January 17th, 2006
Is page source order important for screen reader users? Roger Hudson, Russ Weakley and I recently completed some work examining this very question. However, we did not want to stop with one line of inquiry while we had screen reader users to work with - so we decided to investigate the usefulness of skip links and structural labels at the same time.
During this project we worked with some remarkable people who were incredibly generous with their time and knowledge. I have been involved in task-based testing with screen reader users several times before, however this testing involved a number of new experiences for me.
First of all I got to see Bruce Maguire navigate our sites using his BrailleNote – a device that allows him to read every line of text on the page in Braille. It was amazing to watch someone interact with the web in this way – the speed at which he read and navigated the site was astounding.
Secondly, for this study we decided to recruit a relatively inexperienced screen reader user who had only been using JAWS for a few months. We felt this was important, as often user testing with blind users involves those who are proficient at using their technology. By working with a person who had lost her sight late in life we learnt many more interesting things about how screen reader users interact with the web and what practical problems they encounter. While observing this inexperienced user operate JAWS I could feel her frustration with learning this technology and for the first time understood how hard it is to master.
So if you ever get the chance to observe someone use an assistive technology - do it! It truly brings home the importance of adhering to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines as well as expanding your understanding of how people access your site.
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