Unobtrusive Javascript Controversy
As a professional and bleeding edge design firm we work hard to stay on top of new technology. We put careful thought into our coding practices and conventions. But what happens when a previous convention has room for improvement but the cost of change is prohibitive? We certainly don’t suggest partial implementation. If it’s worth implementing, it’s worth implementing fully.
Our current controversy revolves around the topic of unobtrusive javascript. We (the staff at Designing Interactive) all agree on the benefits of unobtrusive javascript:
Target’s Way off Target
Way back in 2006 a blind student at the University of California-Berkeley, Bruce Sexton Jr., filed a lawsuit against the national retail giant, Target. Bruce, in conjunction with the National Federation of the Blind, has accused Target.com of having an inaccessible website.
New Browser Windows
When a user clicks a link on your (or any, for that matter) website, they expect the new web page to appear in its place. To navigate back to places they have come from, they click a ‘Back’ button on their browser. This has become normal for all internet users and is the experience they expect to have. Breaking the expectations of your users can lead to confusion and disappointment: two words usability experts despise.
It’s amazing to me that this is still a controversial topic.
Why Flash is Mostly Bad
Adobe’s animation and multimedia technology, Flash, distracts users from a websites sites core content, and introduces a myriad of design problems. While there are a few occasions where flash is acceptable, and can even add value, typically the use of Flash makes websites harder to use.
One of the largest problems with flash is Search Engine visibility, and accessibility to those with disabilities. While these problems are severe, this article’s focus is on usability, not accessibility.
Reasons to Validate
Validation is the process of ensuring that your web pages (XHTML, XML and CSS files) meet the standard set aside by the w3c, the organization responsible for these markup languages. Validation is similar to running your documents through a spell checker for errors, ensuring that the data sent to the web browsers is well formed and syntactically correct.
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