Putting your Business on the Internet - Best Practices
Jadwiga A. Carlson
President & CEO
Accessible Web Studio, Ltd.
A Brief Introduction
- Jadwiga A. Carlson
- 12+ years as software developer
- M.S. & B.A. In Computer Science
- 9th year teaching at a college level
- SIU, BGSU
- Teach for Computer Science department at BGSU
- Founded Accessible Web Studio, Ltd. (Jan 2005)
- GAWDS, WBENC member
Why
- Customers can access 24x7
- Provide more information
- You can receive feedback
- You can collect information (prospect lists, subscription lists, customer surveys, etc.)
- No additional costs (postage or printing)
- Inexpensive compared to traditional forms of advertising
- Expected by customers?
What
- Computer
- ISP account
- E-mail account
- Domain name (mycompany.com)
- Hosting account
- FTP program
- Merchant account (eCommerce only)
- Payment gateway account (eCommerce only)
Who
- Graphic designer
- Web developer
- ISP rep
- Hosting company rep
- Bank rep (eCommerce only)
- Payment gateway rep (eCommerce only)
Domain Name
- yourcompany.com
- Domain name helps your visitors remember your website… accessiblewebstudio.com
- .com, .biz, .net, .org, …
- Check availability
- Register your domain name
- (ex: GoDaddy.com)
- Yearly fee
Hosting Account
- Not same as ISP
- Specialize in hosting your website
- Can provide email
- (via ISP: info@buckeye-express.com)
- (via Hosting: info@yourdomain.com)
- (Free Email: info@hotmail.com)
- Windows vs. Unix based?
- Other features (backup?, FTP access, SSL)
- eCommerce?
- Enterprise computing (most complex, most flexible)
- Virtual hosting services
- Simplified e-commerce (PayPal, Yahoo Store) (simplest, least flexible)
eCommerce?
- Merchant account
- Payment gateway (Authorize.Net)
- SSL certificate (Secure Socket Layer)
- SSL is used to encrypt the data
- AIM (Advanced Integration Method)
- SIM (Simple Integration Method)
- Paypal
Choosing the Developer
- How to chose?
- What tools do they use to create the website?
- How can you update/change the website?
- Is the website standards compliant?
- Will it reach the widest audience (i.e., accessible?)
- Is the website accessible?
- What do their clients say?
Website Standards
- W3C Standards compliant (www.w3c.org)
- Do not use deprecated HTML
- Separate content from presentation
- Easier to maintain (HTML 50% smaller)
- Easier to update/change/redesign
- Faster to download, less bandwidth necessary
- Cross browser
- “future-compatible”
Section 508: Requirements
- Color contrast (foreground vs. background)þ
- Access Keys (user defined)þ
- Alternative text for images
- Keyboard only support
- Skip Links
- No flashing/moving text
- JavaScript used for non-essential items only
- Text resizing
- Focus indication
- Bottom line: give visitors the choice
Best Design Practices
- Page layout
- Browser compatibility
- Navigation
- Color and graphics
- Multimedia
- Content presentation
- Functionality
- Accessibility
New Features Anyone?
- Web 2.0 – allows user to do more than just retrieve information
- Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
- XHTML or HTML validated semantically
- Syndication of content (RSS)
- Blogging
- Social media
- Podcasting
- QR-Codes
- Video (YouTube)
