Re: [WSG] realistic placement of 'high contrast' & 'text too small?' links?

[heretic]

Hi Jamie,

> Aside from this though, the links are in the same size as the body text,
> wouldn't a high contrast link need to be massive and bold? There's no WAY
> anyone can do that on a high profile site, surely? 
> What to do? Any help and ideas would be great, thanks in advance, 

I'd suggest giving marketing the top left to do as they will, but keep
the top right to do as you will. Remind them that the average user
scans diagonally from top left to bottom right on the first glance, so
their "prime spot" is at the top left.

Someone looking for an alternative design will probably be a little
more motivated to scan the screen - having watched users with page
zoom software, they are probably faster and certainly more thorough
than the average user. They will more than likely find links at the
top right.

If marketing are having trouble swallowing the idea that the site
needs some functionality as well as sales pitch, you can fall back on
arguments of general usability (backed by legislation).

You could also change the pitch to "site customisation for all users".
Change the links into one link to a preferences page - "Customise font
colour and size" or something. That way it's not for a small subset of
users, it's for everyone. The prime users will still be that small
percentage, but you can argue that actually everyone will use it.

Hope that helps.

cheers,

h

-- 
--- 
--- The future has arrived; it's just not 
--- evenly distributed. - William Gibson
**
The discussion list for  http://webstandardsgroup.org/

 See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
 for some hints on posting to the list & getting help
**

Re: [WSG] realistic placement of 'high contrast' & 'text too small?' links?

[Martin Heiden]

Jamie,

what about something like this:


  [help|high contrast|text too small?]
--
[logo]


[tab][tab][tab][tab]  [login form]
--

You could put a small line above the header with some
accessibility/usabilty related links. It won't steal to much marketing
relevant space and would be still visible enough for people who need
that information. You could choose colors wisely so that the
accessability section appears more related to the browser than to the
site. (Maybe by using the user's color-scheme?)

Just my two cents.

Martin.

**
The discussion list for  http://webstandardsgroup.org/

 See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm
 for some hints on posting to the list & getting help
**

[WSG] realistic placement of 'high contrast' & 'text too small?' links?

[Jamie Mason]

Title: realistic placement of 'high contrast' & 'text too small?' links?






Hi all,
I don't think this will work out in this case, but (I think) it's a difficult question all of us are going to be faced with. especially on high profile sites.

Up to now I've been able to maintain my site header as vaguely the below;


--
[logo]
 [tab][tab][tab][tab]
[help|high contrast|text too small?]  [login form]
--


Right up at the top by the logo is the high contrast stylesheet switcher and a link to info on altering font sizes. The rationale being that if a user has trouble seeing then it can't go anywhere else but the prime spot, because I can't guarantee they'll find it anywhere else.

This is a very high profile site and marketing want to use this space to promote to the high % of users, rather than to facilitate the very low % of users.

What can be done? It's not something I'm likely to be able to maintain for long, but it's essential that somehow I do. 


Q: Just have the high contrast etc links on the homepage then the promo stuff once you're in? 
A: no, not everyone enters by the homepage. 


Q: Display the high contrast etc links when the last page the user visited wasn't from the same domain?
A: This is my best idea so far, but what if they don't see it on the first load?


Q: Keep the high contrast links but design other strong promotional areas to compensate
A: Probably the most realistic, but the promotional areas you do are going to need to be damn good to compensate enough in the eyes of a marketer, and even then, having both would be even better for Marketing and you can bet they'll try.


Aside from this though, the links are in the same size as the body text, wouldn't a high contrast link need to be massive and bold? There's no WAY anyone can do that on a high profile site, surely?

What to do? Any help and ideas would be great, thanks in advance,




Jamie Mason
Ps- I've seen http://www.alistapart.com/articles/lowvision/