GORGES CEO Chris Grant meets with Congressman Hinchey

When the Congressman asked me about GORGES, I let him know about our rapid business growth over the last 5 years, primarily due to our innovation in Internet technologies, and our ability to help our customers businesses grow.

I also mentioned that we are actively keeping software development work from heading to offshore development companies, as our expert developers, low cost of living, and proven processes compete very well on the global market.  While our hourly rates may be higher than India, for example, our total cost to complete a project is often lower.

There are many reasons for this, foremost among them dedicated project management, a willingness to understand our clients’ business needs to create the right-fitting solution, as well as in-house experienced web developers and designers.

After hearing this, the Congressman remarked ‘Now this is the kind of company that America needs to create jobs and move this economy along’.

Just what we were thinking….

This set of guidelines may be used for evaluating websites as they develop or for examining sites by others. It addresses Usability, User Interface, and Communication. There is more to UX, please see other posting by me and watch for new posting on the subject in the next few months.

While this article is not explicitly about SEO, applying the standards here will only be good for SEO.

Usability

Do the graphics communication or supplement the message and purpose of the page? What is the desired balance between the graphical message and the text message?

People scan web pages. They do not read them. So, layout should be rhythmic and language should be concise. Break up traditional paragraphs by using subheadings, bullet lists, and short paragraphs.

Do not over do the breaking up of the page text. If it is a bullet item, then it does not need to be indented. Use one method or the other.

Font styles, sizes, and alignment should be consistent, and generally controlled by the style sheet. Avoid in-line styles. Using more than three different fonts in one page requires very high design skill. Keep it simple.

Link text should contain clear, action words that indicate what the link points to. Avoid using “Click Here” and other test that refers to the document. Remember, the user should be aware of the message, not the website.

Links to non-web formats, such as PDFs, should be identified by noting the format in the link text.

Users associate underlined text with links. So, do not underline text that is not links, this includes headings, page and section identification, and titles in general.

Color for emphasis and differentiation is under used in web pages. The twentieth century used italics and bold to differentiate. The twenty-first century uses color.

Communication

The purpose of every page should be clear to the user. Good questions to ask when creating and reviewing pages include:
• Is it clear what this page is for?
• How is it different from other pages?
• Is this message necessary?
• What is the first thing I notice on this page and does that match what should be the first thing a user notices?
• Is there anything distracting me from the main purpose of this page?

The language of the site and any system messages should be written in clear terms familiar to most users. Avoid jargon and overly technical terms.

Do not invent syntax. Do you mean “or” or do you mean “and”? Do not write “and/or”. It is one or the other. More distracting yet is “inside/outside”.

Do not over use punctuation. Users are not generally computer programmers. The comma is understandable. “Jim ate rice, the brown kind.” Parenthesis have a purpose, but can be just distracting. “Jim ate rice (the brown kind).”

Strunk and Whites. The Elements of Style belongs on every proofreader’s desk.

All text should be proofread for spelling and grammar mistakes.

User Interface

Link text should contain clear, action words that indicate what the link points to. Avoid using “Click Here” and other test that refers to the document. Remember, the user should be aware of the message, not the website.

Links to non-web formats, such as PDFs, should be identified by noting the format in the link text.

Users associate underlined text with links. So, do not underline text that is not links, this includes headings, page and section identification, and titles in general.

Help user to avoid errors. For example, if data need to be entered in a specific format, provide clear instructions for doing so. Do this consistently. Examples:

Home Phone _________________ +1 (607) 555-1212
URL ________________________ http://www.mydomain.com

Does the text wrap around images correctly? Is it spaced away from borders and other graphical edges?

Did you use H1’s for page titles, H2’s for sub-headings, etc.?

Does each page have a unique <title> ? Does the title match the page content and purpose. Remember, these are the words displayed by search engine returns and the default words stored in bookmarks.

Strong passwords are essential to data security. Passwords are easy enough to produce, but they are not as effective as they should be because human foibles lead to compromises. Humans find strong passwords hard to remember so they write them down. They find them hard to say so they send them in email to coworkers.

These problems can be overcome and it can even be fun.

Make the strong password by making it along with a mnemonic. Like this:

Which bear ate up my donut holes
Wb8^mdOs

Now we can refer to this as the “donut” password without giving much away and it is memorable.

We can also make a family of passwords:

Bears do not care for those expensive holes
B!c4t$Os

Is it useful to have two related passwords that may be called “the bear question” and “the bear answer”? Say, for the admin password and the staff password?

Assigning words to the shift characters on the number keys is the trick here, but not too tricky. “^” is top or up or above. “@” is at or each. “$” is money or cash or dollars ……
You get it.

Now we have pass words that can be remembered without using word combinations, i.e., thefudge, or word bastardizations, i.e., es$enti@l, either of which is easily cracked.

Now we also have passwords that can be named even in the presence of strangers without giving them away, you could just say, “Try the bear answer.”

You may also use these ideas to make your own private passwords.

While you are thinking about this, it is also a great way to generate “family passwords.”

Jane never cared for asparagus
jnc4asparagus or jnc4agus

Have fun!