Create A Website Tailored To Suit Target Population
People are individuals, with differing needs and tastes. Unfortunately, many businesses forget this rule of thumb as they build a website. This is an especially material problem for those of us with special vision requirements, mobility challenges, communication problems, and the like. Everyone is different. Everyone is unique. Yet we all share basic needs and desires. Therefore, it is important to make your web site as accessible as reasonably possible.
Consider someone who is slightly aging. An older person should be given priority from a sales perspective because older people have had more time to accumulate wealth. However, with elders, their eye sight starts to diminish. This is usually not a problem because our operating systems and web browsers can just “bump up” the text size. Or, can they? If you don’t account for this functionality when you build a website, important features will not be usable for those with increased text size.
When you make a website, it’s important to take consideration to the color scheme. Color blindness, in some form or another, is quite common despite popular belief. The common forms of color blindness still allow individuals to see colors, just not distinguish between similar colors. Create a website that uses contrast and try to avoid using colors to represent meaning. Wording such as “items colored red are not in stock” is something you should avoid.
Let us think for a moment about mobility restraints. Whether due to an accident or other medical issue, there are many people who access the web, and use a keyboard, but whom can not operate a mouse. Therefore, it is important to consider other navigation options when you are ready to make a website.
It’s fairly easy to create a website that will function with the keyboard alone. You can simulate keyboard navigation with ease, by just using a keyboard to navigate! Give it an hour-long trial by visiting your daily sites and using the keyboard instead of the mouse. You’ll certainly find that some sites work great with it and others aren’t so great. Decide how your easy or complicated your site is with keyboard navigation.
Be sure to consider the type of software visitors to your website might be using. There are over a thousand combinations of operating systems/browsers/preference combinations. Are you unintentionally excluding any of them? Think about a site that uses JavaScript to create links in a fancy drop-down menu. Did you know it’s common in many workplaces to disable JavaScript for security reasons? What that means is that anyone browsing the web at their workplace won’t be able to follow your links to the checkout page! When you create a website, try to create one that doesn’t exclude users because of their software.
To recap, the three big issues are mobility, software, and sight. Cater to them, and they will cater to you. With these best practices in mind, you can confidently create a website that will maximize its intent. You’ll get more visitors, more repeat visitors, and happier visitors. This is a great way to run a successful business.
Sight, mobility, and software are the three issues facing web developers. When you build a website, it’s important to take consideration to the color scheme. Create a website that uses contrast and avoid using colors to represent content meaning. Now consider mobility restraints. You should consider that your users may not be using a mouse when you make a website. Lastly, think about what software your visitor could already be using. There are many different configurations of browsers, operating systems and user preferences. When you develop a website, users shouldn’t be prevented from navigating because of the software they run. Pay attention to those issues, and you will be rewarded.
- Tem Balanco
