Webdesign UK (2)
The Webdesign UK site, a resubmission of a previous grading, has improved from having the look of a typical corporate, fixed width, boxy looking site to a more modern, stylish and focused site. Its use of canonic icons as well as the general layout of information makes for a more pleasant and effective user experience. We were also pleased with the use of mostly clean and semantic markup.
Having said that, there are some major issues that need to be addressed. One major issue is the 404 page. We were happy to see the custom 404 page made for the site. However, the page itself has navigation menu issues, in terms of it’s look and feel.
As well, there were some definite issues in regards to the layout and functionality with Opera 9.01. There were some specific issues revolving around the layout of the main navigation as well as the lack of utilization of focus on specific navigation links that could create confusion for the user utilizing the keyboard.
The team would also have liked to see some sort of search functionality available as well as making the footer of the site a bit more visible, in terms of the relative font size compared to the rest of the site.
The Webdesign UK site was designed by Leo Ludwig. After much discussion with the team (especially around the navigation and Opera issues), the site has been deemed eligible for an Award Level of: “Notable Universal Design.” Congratulations Leo!
Note: It’s important to understand that even though the award level is the same as the previous submission, it’s a stronger Notable award than what was originally awarded. If the specific issues above had been addressed, the site would have definitely been eligible for a Quality-level award.
Joe Dolson responds:
Posted: March 3rd, 2008 at 9:30 pm →
Congratulations, Leo! Great job on the redesign!
Mike Cherim responds:
Posted: March 3rd, 2008 at 10:20 pm →
Nice job Leo. Congratz.
Leo responds:
Posted: March 4th, 2008 at 3:33 am →
Thanks guys for allowing me to submit my redesign.
I just have a couple of questions / comments re- the two main issues.
I have tested it in Opera 9.00 and will download the latest version to make sure the navigation works in it, so thank you for the heads up.
Regarding the focus on the main navigation, I did use :focus, and you can tab through and see where you are. Could one of you confirm that it doesn’t work only in Opera?
Kind Regards and thanks again.
Leo
Mike Cherim responds:
Posted: March 4th, 2008 at 11:29 am →
We do have the graders’ note Leo, if you would like them. We don’t keep them for long but the opportunity is still available.
Leo responds:
Posted: March 4th, 2008 at 1:04 pm →
Hi Mike, Yes Please.
BTW thank you again for the heads up about the problem in the latest opera releases - I have now added a width to the li which solves the problem
Thank you again.
Leo
Jermayn Parker responds:
Posted: March 5th, 2008 at 9:19 pm →
One question:
The logo has .com but it is a .co.uk address.
Apart from that I like the design a lot
Leo responds:
Posted: March 6th, 2008 at 3:34 am →
Hi Jemayn,
The original domain for the site was www.webdesign-uk.com and the company is known locally as webdesign-uk, but to make it easier to explain over the telephone we decided to go for WDUK.
Thanks for the nice comment though.