December sees another batch of nominations for the GAWDS site of the month.
1. www.inspiredbynature.biz
I don’t think I have ever seen a page that validates like this before:
This Page Tentatively Validates As XHTML 1.0 Transitional (Tentatively Valid)!
The main index also Passed Automated Verification. However the contact form didn’t. This is a common source for errors, and wouldn’t be too hard to fix.
The site is visually appealing, with a nice colour scheme. One thing I don’t like though is keyboard navigation, tabbing through you can’t see where you are. This is worse on the front page, than the internal ones. Also the lack of any skip/jump links is only a minor problem on this site, because the menu is only short, but will be considered a problem by some.
2. www.brothercake.com
I nominated this particular site, knowing that it had a few issues. But this guy has done a lot towards accessibility, including creating a few accessible games.
The site validates, and Passed Automated Verification.
The site may not look as flashy as some but there is a lot going on under the bonnet (or hood). The site may be classed as a tad bland, but to me it is a nice individual site. Good use of jump/skip links.
3. www.stylegala.com
The site misses on validation, mainly due to an enencoded & in a link. It also Failed Automated Verification.
This site looks like a blog. the style switcher for wide and narrow is nice, but I would have preferred a wider content area. It doesn’t feel right, as you can’t tell which is the more important! On wide, the content goes to two columns, which is ok, but the ‘Broadcast news’ form looks out of place.
The site could do with a few jump links to aid navigation.
The main page validates, which is quite afeat for a large corporate site! It also passes autmoated accessibility checks.
In IE the page is more or less fine. You can tab through the page, and there are jump/skip links in place, though there is no visible indication that they are there. However in Firefox tabbing through the page you get a to a point and stop, I can’t figure out why, or even where on the page this is!!
By not highlightinh links as you tab through it is difficult, nearly impossible, to tell where you are on the page.
So much thought and design has gone into this site, it does make me wonder just how much usability testing was done in browsers other than IE. The inability to tab through the page with firefox is a major stumbling block.
The main page does not validate, and fails automatic accessibility validation.
There is no indication where you are when tabbing through the page, and the choice of link colour is a bit dubious, especially in the right hand column.
This site features a See it Right
, sorry but I “See it Wrong”.
Who did I vote for this time? Brothercakes website. However, despite its problems, I was tempted by the Disney site.