Herrod, Lisa wrote:
My interpretation of this issue is that we're talking about the consistent
application of hierarchical elements and therefore, their semantic meaning
to a user. Who are the typical users who rely on this type of
element/markup?
Well, absolutely. My main concern is screen reader users. In user
testing, certain principles have proven themselves over and over;
1. Use heading tags for marking up headings
2. Start at H1
3. Use the heading levels in order; don't skip a level
Not doing these things causes confusion and delay for screen reader users.
I think one of the central points when you consider usability for screen
reader users is you become very aware of what is real content and what
is not.
All site branding and almost all navigation is unnecessary - it is
extra, it isn't core content. (This echoes Jacob Nielsen, although he
comes at it from a different direction.)
I find a useful rule of thumb is to imagine what the page should look
like in an ideal situation if you were to print it. The site name would
be no more than a footnote repeated on each page. The main heading would
be the page title; branding and navigation elements are superfluous and
would not be shown.
To diverge from the current topic momentarily; consider links. Links are
the primary means for screen reader users to scan a page to try to
derive context and an overview of the content. And think, what
percentage of the links on a typical web page are directly related to
the content or the area you're in at the moment? Almost all links on a
page are to unrelated items, and the worst thing is that there is no
means for the screen reader user to identify the few in-content or
downward links from the mass of unrelated links that clutter most web pages.
The mental model that screen reader users create is extraordinarily
different from the real structure of a page or a site, and often
distorted. So, this is why I believe that the site title has no place in
any heading tag. It's _not_ in the information hierarchy for the current
page; it's just clutter, noise.
All the site tools, extra cruft and navigation are best bundled up and
either skipped over by a skip navigation link or placed at the end of
the document. Note that placing this material at the end of the document
may slow screen reader users down for key tasks, such as finding contact
details, since they are used to going to the end and working up to find
addresses and phone numbers.
I'll close with an observation from user testing; many screen reader
users give framed sites extremely high marks for usability and perform
tasks much faster in these sites compared to unframed versions, because
of the encapsulation and separation of content from the superfluous
links of navigation and other tools. Framed pages often provide the
perfect, stripped down content that screen reader users enjoy, as do
pages found in popup windows.
Food for thought?
Cheers
Ian
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