FreeBSD's backwards webdesign / corporate identity

[Robert Bonomi]

Tony <abletony84 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi all!
>
> Thanks everyone for all the feedback - it has been most helpful!
>
> Just to clarify, Siegel+Gale and the UK Design Council are just the places
> where I work. I should have taken them out of my signature to avoid
> confusion, my bad.
>
> I will start work on a major
> Rails-based<http://rubyonrails.org/screencasts/rails3>redesign for
> FreeBSD. I really liked Mikkel's suggestion of going back to the
> old design<http://web.archive.org/web/20030727123044/http://www2.freebsd.org/>and
> take it from there, so that's what I will be doing. It might take a
> couple of months though.
>

Whatever you do, make sure:
  1) everything works _without_  javascript or relying on color distinctions
     or 'background images' -- a fair number of people force 'use my colors' 
     rather than letting the server choose.  (browsing multiple web-sites is
     a *lot* less painful on the eyes, when they _all_ display in color 
     combinations *I* find pleasing. *GRIN* )

  2) Make sure *every* '<img >' tag has a "meaningful" "alt=' field.  (if it
     is just a filler/spacer image, _still_ put an  'alt=" "' field on it.
     This explicitly declares that the image has 'no content')

  3) Make sure everything passes the validator at http://validator.w3.org 
     with -zero- complaints.

  4) Make sure everything 'works' in 'lynx', the text-only browser.
     see <http://lynx.browser.org>/

  5) Make sure everything is usable in Firefox, with ALL SCRIPTING DISABLED,
     *and* then go to 'Tools->Options', the 'Content' tab, change the font 
     size to say, 64 pt; Also click the 'colors' button and *UN-CHECK* the 
     'allow pages to chose their own colors' box, click 'ok' twice to dismiss
     the two pop-up windows, and make sure everything displays OK.

  6) Try resizing the browser panel -- wide (side-to-side) and short (top-
     to-bottom), and narrow (side-to-side) and tall (top-to-bottom).
     Does it work _acceptably_ in a 640x480 window?  (why not?  There are 
     users out there with VGA-only displays.)

     *IDEALLY* there should be no need for horizontal scrolling unless the
     window is -very- narrow (circa 15% of screen width or less).

     *IDEALLY* the content should expand to fill whatever width there is
     available (I have a display 1920 pixels wide, the current webpage
     =refuses= to use more than about 1/2 of it.

     Get this right, and you show you understand that HTML is -not-
     a 'page layout' language, That one is merely providing 'hints'
     for the browser to 'do with as it sees fit'.  Web layout *is*
     a very different discipline from layout for the printed page.



Once you have -that- 100% functional with no errors, -then-, and *only*
*then* is is appropriate to add *optional* (for the user) 'enhancements' 
in addition to the basic functionality.