Accessibility

Accessibility is coming to the forefront of web design at last. Web sites should be designed so that they are accessible by all: whichever platform or browser they are using; whether they are hearing impaired or blind, all users should be able to have access to the same content.

With the introduction and gradual enforcement of the Disability Discrimination Act websites need to be more aware of how they display their content and how it can be viewed. This may seem like a bit of a chore to make sites accessible by all: but it should not be seen that way.

If websites are more standards enforcing and accessible then everybody wins. If everybody can view and read your site and navigate around effortlessly, then the more people will become customers and the more your business will succeed. Why would you ever purposefully or accidently deny people access to your content, you message or your products? You wouldn't, but your web site might be. It's something that should be checked up on. The best guidelines are provided by the W3C Standards organisation, and can be found at the link below:

http://www.w3.org/WAI/

Usability

All websites need to have superb usability. If your users can't navigate around your site effectivly, and can't find what they want, they will leave and not come back.

Make sure your navigation is clean, easy to follow and gives the user what they want. Do not try to be deceptive or keep people on pages, or pop pages up or take people to places they don't want to do. Be ethical with everything you do on your site, and you won't fall into most of the usability traps. Make your website as you would want to use it.