Re: [WSG] Website Directory Structure - Best Practice
Although there are some good tips in this thread, I'd be more worried about how the user is going to see the addresses, rather than how we structure our filesystems :)Some things that bug me about URIs: page-name.some-technologyWhy does the user care if it's a php, html, asp or whatever file? Either turn extensions off on your server, or use and index file in each seperate directory. Also on this, don't link to, or publicise a URI as /folder-name/index.php, always remove the index.php.information-architecture through foldersIf a folder name contributes some sort of information to the user, then use it, if it doesn't, then dont! For example, a URI of /deptartments/whitegoods. Is the fact that whitegoods or whatever is a department useful information to the user? If not, then don't include it. The reason some sites use this structure? To keep folders organised... scary. technology based uris www.somedomain.com/some-type-of-script.php?var1=kk3nn3var2=blahblahblah Ahhh these are the worst! It's basically lazy programming that causes this, and there is little reason not to correct it (unless your using some awful CMS that doesn't let you change this). These URIs are difficult to email and near impossible to read out and/or write down. Bookmarking these can often cause problems as well, because these URIs may only be valid for a short time. This article offers some good ideas on this: http://www.sitepoint.com/article/guide-url-rewritingsubdomains - avoid if possible (this will probably be contentious :)) 1. Most people don't know that www isn't necessary at the front of a web-URI2. www.example.com is instantly recognisable as a URI, sub.example.com isn't necessarily3. More people are familiar with the standard www.example.com/folder/ than sub.example.com4. If you get the sub part of sub.example.com wrong, you will get a server not found type message. If you get the folder part of www.example.com/folder , the server can handle the 404 not found error, and provide a friendly error message.5. Branding issues - eg. www.printers.ibm.com Am I visiting a printer website that sells IBM printers? Or is this IBM's website about their printers? This w3 web quality tip also offers some good points:http://www.w3.org/QA/Tips/uri-chooseSorry for the rant/thread hijacking :) Daniel NitscheOn 3/20/06, Wendy [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Sarah Peeke (XERT) wrote: Joseph R. B. Taylor wrote: How do YOU set up your directories? Hi Joe, I agree with Jay, and pretty much use the same structure. Regarding images, I also break them up a little by giving them a name which helps me find them later (certainly useful on larger sites): eg staff_name1.jpg staff_name2.jpg ... staff_name9.jpg product_name1.jpg product_name2.jpg ... product_name9.jpg etc. HTH Sarah :)And while this probably makes little to no difference, I label image folders i rather than images - easier to type, certainly, and justmight save a megamillisecond or two. BTW I'm certainly no guru either, but thought I'd offer my 2c!! Me, neither, and me, too!Cheers,Wendy**The discussion list forhttp://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list getting help**
Re: [WSG] Usability issue with form help
As an idea, why not make the label for each field a link, which will provide contextual help on that item/field?I'd do some user testing to make sure it works, but it makes sense to me that following such a link would lead to information about that field. The advantage of this would be it reduces the number of elements on the form, and it doesn't repeat the label (eg. First name, then Contextual help for First Name). Daniel NitscheOn 3/14/06, matt andrews [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On 13/03/06, [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi all, I'm hoping to get some feedback from people regarding a solution to a usability issue. I work for a large organisation and we have very large/detailed processing required. Because the applications we develop are very detailed and change dynamically depending upon the current input, context sensitive help becomes very important. I have quickly thrown together an example of what Im talk about... http://users.bigpond.net.au/leenath/form/forms-example.htm The issue we face is that users are frustrated with having to tab through the help icons all the time. Users get into the habbit of tabbing twice (to go past the help and get to the next input field), but sometimes a help item wont exist, meaning the user accidentally tabs past the next input feild. Users say they want the help, because it comes in handy frequently, especially as the organisation is so huge and complex that they could never remember exactly what every input feild is about. So, here is what feeback Im looking for - How can we keep context sensitive help available for each input feild that requires it but potentially ignore it in a tabbing sequence? However, help must also be accessible (think about screen readers) and available via keyboard if they need to select it. It seems like a catch 22 to me, but I figure someone out there may see a solution that I cannot.Seems to me that you're saying the primary problem is tabbing*consistency*.If so, then I'd suggest ensuring there is a help item for *every* field.Surely there's potentially some kind of usefuladvice or clarification for every field?Occam's razor.The simplest solution is often the best.** The discussion list forhttp://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list getting help**
[WSG] File sizes in links: kb KB mb MB etc.
Hi all, I was wondering recently what is the best format to indicate file sizes when linking to a file. For example: a href="" file (PDF 0.1MB)/a My inclination is to use MB (Megabytes) where appropriate (ie. if the file is greater than 0.01MB), and KB (Kilobytes) for files less than 0.01MB. My reasoning is that more users can grasp the concept of a Megabyte (think floppy disks, flash drives, some MP3 players) than they can a kilobyte, kilobit or megabyte. My only concern would be that most sites seem to use (ambiguosly) one of the kb varieties. What does everyone else think? Cheers, Dan
Re: [WSG] Width defaulting to 100%?
Hi Kara, Check out tip 1 in the sitepoint Top Ten CSS Tricks article: http://www.sitepoint.com/article/top-ten-css-tricks As mentioned, block level elements default to 100% width unless specified, so one (of many) ways to change this, would be to specify display: inline;. Cheers, Daniel NitscheOn 10/4/05, Kara O'Halloran - Eduka [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi guys,I have 2 divs inside a container.1: a relatively positioned div to contain and position an image2: another div, absolute position, to contain a submenu.Image on left, menu on right. For some reason, both divs are expanding horizontally to take up all theavailable space, even when the content inside them is only 20 pixelswide. I'm not specifying any widths because the content is dynamic so I have no way of knowing what the width will be.The only width I have specified is the container width of 60em.Why are they doing this? Shouldn't they only expand horizontally to makeroom for whatever is contained in them - in this case only a few words? Any help would be appreciated. :)K(ps this happens in both ff and ie.)**The discussion list forhttp://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list getting help**
Re: [WSG] ol displaying 3.1 3.2 etc. instead of 1 2 3
There is something on this very topic in the WCAG: http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10-HTML-TECHS/#lists Cheers, Daniel NitscheOn 9/21/05, Taco Fleur - Pacific Fox [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Is there any way to make list look like 3.1 text text 3.2 text text 3.3 text text 3.4 text text Instead of 1 text text 2 text text 3 text text 4 text text I am thinking NOT with plain markup, but I could be wrong (just checking). And how would someone else do this? Just use ul and put the numbering within the list item as text? Taco Fleur - Pacific Foxan industry leader with commercial IT experience since 1994 …http://www.pacificfox.com
