Most websites today do not comply with existing laws for providing full access to disabled audiences. There are over six million disabled people in the UK alone (over two million with vision limitations) and the Government, along with organisations like the RNIB, are getting tough on those organisations whose sites are not accessible.
Being publicly shamed or sued is not a great way to build a good reputation. Nor is it wise to put up barriers to a large customer segment that includes people with disabilities as common as colour-blindness.
Ignoring this issue can clearly have serious consequences, but most site owners have done little to address it. It's not a trivial issue: some modern sites can be 'fixed' but it is hard to retro-fit accessible design and code to most current sites. Many need a redesign.
There's a major upside however: addressing accessibility now also has substantial benefits in terms of future-proofing your site and improving its performance for all audiences today. Every customer is important, and they should all enjoy the best experience your organisation can give them.
We provide free top-level SiteReview audits that include an initial compliance assessment. We can then help you design and develop what you need to.
Often the only people who can easily find what they need on a website are the people who put it there. Very few 'normal' website users find sites easy to use: usually because they are more complicated than they need to be.
There is no possible advantage to a site that is not as usable as possible. Yet most sites strive to be different for the sake of it.
Ask your customers if this is what they want. Go on, we dare you. They'll tell you they want your site to be simple and as relevant to them as possible.
Forming a positive impression is as much about being the same these days as it is about being different. Customers expect to find things in logical places, with familiar labels. They want instant usability.
So should you: an instantly usable site allows customers to look past how it works and focus on who you are, what you offer, and what makes you special.
By simplifying wherever you can, your site will become easier to use. And the less your customers have to think about how your site works, the more they will focus on you.
We can help you identify where changes are needed to improve your site's usability and deliver design improvements to a small area or an entire site.
Look around the internet today and you'll see that the general quality of website content is terrible. At some point, every site has suffered from “just put this up on the website” or “that needs to be live by the morning”. Few seem to have recovered.
In most cases, only a small percentage of the content available is actually useful, and the majority of that could be improved.
Take words. Very few sites have well-written text that has been edited effectively for online consumption. Most has simply been 're-published' from a printed source.
Visual content fares little better: photography is used to make the page look more 'attractive', when it should be used to show a product at its very best or to give a brand life and personality.
'Is it there?' is the first question a customer asks of content, but 'is it useful?' is the most important. Sadly, the answer is rarely 'yes'.
Remember, your customers come to you for your content. They learn from it, are influenced by it and make decisions based on it. No matter what its role, its importance should never be underestimated.
We can help assess and improve existing content, create standards and
style guides, and create new written and visual content for you.
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