Implementation and maintenance Packaged
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Part 3 Implementation
Cascading style sheets CSS
A simple mechanism for adding style e.g. fonts,
colours, spacing to web documents. CSS enables
different style elements to be controlled across an
entire site or section of site. Style elements that
are commonly controlled include Typography,
Background colour and images borders and
margins
Web accessibility
An approach to web site design that enables sites
and web applications to be used by people with
visual impairment or other disabilities such as motor
impairment. Accessibility also demands that web
users should be able to use web sites and
applications effectively regardless of the browser
or access platform they use and its settings.
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Cross-browser support. Dependent on the standards used and how they are implemented, the site may appear different in different browsers since they may have interpreted some
of the W3.org standards differently. This can result in a site rendering appearing differ- ently in different browsers. Sometimes different browsers, such as Internet Explorer 6, may
require special coding to support them. So, prior to implementation a list of browsers and versions should be targeted and then subsequently tested using tools such as BrowserShots
Figure 3.9.
Increases accessibility – users can more readily configure the way a site looks or sounds using browsers and other accessibility support tools. Site is more likely to render on a
range of access platforms like PDAs and smartphones.
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Use of stylesheets for different platforms. We introduced
Cascading Style Sheets CSS
in Chapter 11 as a mechanism for enabling different style elements such as typography and
layout to be controlled across an entire site or section of site. Managers need to check with designers that the CSS will be designed to be flexible for
making minor changes to presentation for example in the case of a re-branding and that it supports different platforms such as mobile access or print output.
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Accessibility support. We saw in the section on user-centred design in Chapter 11 that
web accessibility
is about allowing all users of a web site to interact with it regardless of disabil- ities they may have or the web browser or platform they are using to access the site. The level
of accessibility support provided Level A, AA and AAA should be defined before imple- mentation and then validated as part of implementation. Since each level has many require-
ments, individual requirements should be specified, e.g. ‘text of the main document will resize when the option is selected via the browser or from the site option’ many designs do
not support text resizing despite this being essential for visually impaired users.
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SEO support. We saw in Chapter 9 that different on-page optimization techniques are important to indicate to search engine algorithms the context of the page. Box 12.2 high-
lights some of the main standards. Unless SEO support is strictly defined as part of a site redesign it may be difficult to change these attributes of a page through a content manage-
ment system. The on-page factors should be uniquely defined for each page within the site to avoid a ‘duplicate content penalty’ meaning that the search engine does not index a page
since it is considered similar to another page.
It is also important that staff creating and reviewing content are aware of these factors and can then modify the way their site is described through the content management
system. So SEO markup needs to be part of a page creation and review process.
Box 12.2
Key search engine optimization SEO requirements
This compilation of the main factors that affect the position of a site within the search engines is taken from SEOMoz www.seomoz.org a resource created for webmasters
and online marketers to help them achieve better rankings in the search engines. This compilation shows an assessment of the most important ranking success
factors by 30 experts in SEO where they rate each factor out of 5 and then the average is presented. Terms such as title and meta description are described in more detail
in Chapter 9.
6 Ajax:
Ajax is based on other standards, notably Javascript and XML supported by the DOM and CSS. A key feature of Ajax is that the XMLHttpRequest object is used to
exchange data asynchronously with the web server without requiring new browser page loads. http:en.wikipedia.orgwikiAJAX.
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Form validation. Forms are vital pages in a site since they create value from a visit through leads via a contact us form for example, forum postings or the shopping trolley and
checkout. It is vital that they use cross-browser web standards and that they use an appro- priate approach to check user inputs are valid for example a ZIP or postcode.
Software and services for web-site development and testing
A variety of software programs are available to help developers of web sites. These can save a lot of time when developing the sites and will also help in site maintenance since they will
make it easier for other people not involved in the original development of the web site to be involved in web-site maintenance. Tools are available with different levels of complexity and
managers must decide which are most suitable to invest in. The types of tools to choose between are listed below. Although there are many rival tools, the ones here have been used
for several years and are widely used, and skills in these tools are often mentioned in adverts for web design staff.
Basic text and graphic editors
Simple text editors can be used to edit HTML tags. Such tools are often low-cost or free, including the Notepad editor included with Windows. They are flexible and all web site
developers may need to use them occasionally to develop content since more automated tools may not provide this flexibility and may not support the latest standard commands.
However, they will not be widely used.
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