Internet Marketing - Matt Bailey [140]
Previous assignments have asked you to get third-party opinions of elements on your site. Ideally, some of those have remarked about the home page and the navigation used in your website. What have people said? Have their comments reflected your page as a destination or as a direction to the content?
Is your main navigation the only function available to find information? Are you limiting visitors to a single tool for exploring your website? How many navigational aids are you providing, and are they understandable?
Start with just a basic card sort by yourself, and then invite others to participate. After you start to understand how people are generating groups, ask a few customers if they wouldn’t mind helping you improve your website. Again, this can be as easy as starting with index cards or sticky notes and as complex as subscribing to an online service. Either way, you will learn more about your website and the organization of your content.
Evaluate your main navigation:
Does it employ visual cues that show the hierarchy of information from within the website?
Do the words within the navigation support the section of content and the content presented?
Are all the navigation tools consistent in the presentation?
From an interior page on the site, complete this quick evaluation to check for consistency among the navigation elements:
URL (What words are used in the URL, if any? Do the words match the content of the page?)
Page title
Page heading
Subnavigation content heading
Breadcrumb navigation path
Are you using elements of text size, contrast, and text color combinations to show a clear relation of the current page in relation to other pages and topics available?
How can you take important information and package it into a visually impactful container that utilizes a clear topic label and four to six clear links to deeper information?
Have you looked at your analytics to see the popular content or popular pages within your site based on topics?
What are people looking for when they come to your site? Is it easily shown on the home page and throughout the site in the form of related or topical content?
Wireframe the key pages of your current website. You don’t have to be exact, and don’t get fancy—a simple sketch will do. If you would like to make wireframes on your computer, simple programs such as Microsoft Word or PowerPoint and Apple Pages contain the basic elements necessary to get started.
Wireframe the key pages of a few other websites to get an idea of how they are arranged by content area and functions.
When adding a new landing page or page, section, or advertisement to your website, start by wireframing, and answer as many questions as you can early in the process, rather than afterward. Make sure that your business goal and visitor goals are primary elements in your designs.
Chapter 13
Week 10: Design for Accessibility
Accessibility is one of the most overlooked and misunderstood issues for online marketing and website development. This chapter focuses on the basics of accessibility and its business value. The serendipity of accessibility is simply amazing because issues addressed by accessibility actually make websites easier to use for everybody. Not only that, but search engines rely on the very same things that assistive technology needs for full accessibility.
Chapter Contents
Monday: Get Familiar with Accessibility
Tuesday: Learn the Intricacies of Accessibility
Wednesday: Understand Color Blindness and Contrast
Thursday: Create Accessible PDFs
Friday: Apply Accessibility to Search
Monday: Get Familiar with Accessibility
Accessibility, to most people, is making sure your site can be used by visitors who are blind, deaf, or reading impaired. The technology that is used to help people access the content on your site is called assistive technology. This allows people to access the content, functions, and abilities just like any other visitor. However, in order for the assistive technology to work properly and allow the same level of