Overdoing accessibility: possibly something many well intentioned designers are guilty of.
Sometimes when people first learn about Web accessibility they look for quick ways of improving the sites they build. This often leads to misuse or overuse of certain HTML features that are meant to aid accessibility, but when used wrongly have no effect and can actually have the opposite effect by making the page less accessible and less usable.
Roger points out the accesskey attribute as a case in point:
A potentially useful attribute, the accesskey attribute creates a keyboard shortcut for a link or form control. However, it is so badly implemented in most browsers that it’s safest to avoid using it. Very few users are aware of it, and with current implementations it can conflict with shortcut keys used for other functions in the browser.
That said, accesskey can be useful to some people if many sites use the same shortcut keys. Many public sector sites use the same shortcut keys since they follow a guideline which states which keys to use for what. It doesn’t solve the user agent problem, but at least it makes the use of accesskey consistent.
It is quite common to see accesskey use go completely overboard though, with just about every link and form control having an accesskey attribute, especially in the administrative interfaces of CMSs and other tools that claim to be accessible.
That’s an interesting point about accesskey functions potentially conflicting with a browser’s functions. How then to allow for a separate layer of keyboard control for website functions that don’t interfere with other applications that are in use on a viewer’s computer? +
Are you taking enough annual leave?: freelancers and soloists listen up! It can be all to easy to pass up on the chance to take a complete break for fear of missing out on work, or losing a client.
Often soloists don’t plan their annual leave well enough and, unfortunately for many, they haven’t taken a real holiday for years. Yet it is hugely important for soloists to take meaningful chunks of time out from their business.
With the holiday season upon us this really is a good time to consider planning a holiday. A real holiday. +
Five Ways to Keep Your Online Reputation Clean: what’s the maxim? “Think before you click?” Some great tips from Meryl K. Evans for keeping yourself out of hot water online. +
ET too bored by Earth transmissions to respond: a possible explanation as to why there has been no response to messages beamed from Earth into the cosmos… they’ve been too boring.
Humans have so far sent four messages into space intended for alien listeners. But they have largely been made up of mathematically coded descriptions of some physics and chemistry, with some basic biology and descriptions of humans thrown in.
Well high school physics and chemistry used to send me off to sleep, so I guess it’s no different for the likes of the Mr Spocks and Darth Vaders who are out there listening in. +
The shape of things to come: do these people actually have a crystal ball?
Trend-spotters and futurologists have become the evangelists of the modern business world. Spend more than 10 minutes listening to their breezy uplift about what is around the corner, however, and two questions begin to well up inside you - how come they know this stuff, and how does one go about separating the wheat from the chaff?
Last on the list of their predictions for 2008 and beyond is the rise of Virtual identity managers.
Essentially there will so much of ourselves online, through blogging, social networks, and video and photo sharing for instance, that we’ll need to hire someone to manage what the world sees. Anyone up for a career change? +
