RE: WSTF - home page thoughts

Justin said:
 
I don't think that the 2 paragraphs for about WAI are really going to
benefit the newbie.  I think they would be great to be the first two
paragraphs for the About WAI page.  If they have to stay on the homepage
a suggestion would be to find a way to change it into bullets so that it
would more easily facilitate scanning.  I think that by having the About
WAI paragraphs on the home page it's just going to cause more people to
think that the page is about WAI and not about accessibility.
 
Shawn replies:
 
humm, we should have talked more about that in EOWG last week, as I
thought there was consensus at that meeting on this wording on the home
page.
 
1. "The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) advances Web accessibility by
providing an international forum for collaboration. WAI guidelines are
widely regarded as the international standards for Web accessibility."
 
I think it is important to establish up front that WAI it international
and that the WAI guidelines are the standard.
 
I am continually surprised at home any people don't know about WAI, and
many who do know have serious misunderstandings about WAI. One of the
misunderstandings that is important to dispel is that WAI is a US or US
& European organization only. Those who think they know WAI are unlikely
to go to About WAI, so we might want to include a few of the important
points on the home page.
 
I think having international & standard on the home page this helps
supports the following from the vision: ...is seen as the definitive
(re)source, authoritative, credible...
 
2. "_WAI guidelines_ are widely regarded as the international standards
for Web accessibility. WAI also develops _resources_ to help implement
Web accessibility."
 
These 2 sentences serve to let people know what they will find on this
site, and links to the major areas. I think we need to have something
like that somewhere prominently on the home page.
 
Perhaps we should add ", and help people just _getting started_." at the
end and bold the links. The attached HTML pages shows this.
 
See Misc comments below about re-wording.
 
3. "WAI welcomes participation from individuals and organizations around
the world. Participation opportunities range from reviewing,
implementing, and promoting guidelines, to participating in an interest
group or working group."
 
We are also continually coming across they myth that WAI is a closed
organization. It is extremely important to dispel this myth. So we might
want to do that with a blurb on the home page.
 
I think have a blurb on participation helps supports the following from
the vision: ... draws people into WAI process...
 
I started to say we could take out the second sentence; however, we are
using that to link to _interest group or working group_. Anyway, we
could look at shortening the first part of the second sentence if there
is consensus to.
 
4. conclusion
 
Also note the WAI Home Page, Design Notes at:
http://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/Drafts/UCD/design-sum.html#homehome
(which is on the agenda to review today) say: "Focus: We want people who
are new to the page to easily see "About WAI" and repeat visitors to be
able to easily "mask it out"."
 
So, I think much of the content probably should stay on the home page;
however, I think we could *consider* re-working it so it is less About
WAI, including changing the heading. (Although that will mean taking it
back to EO and delaying things more - sigh.)
 
Justin, any chance you could take quick pass at that (including other
heading ideas and possibly bullets) before the meeting - to help see if
there is interest in pursuing this change or not?
 
Best,
 
~ Shawn
 


-----Original Message-----
From: public-wai-eo-site-request@w3.org
[mailto:public-wai-eo-site-request@w3.org] On Behalf Of Justin Thorp
Sent: Monday, June 28, 2004 11:22 AM
To: public-wai-eo-site@w3.org
Subject: RE: WSTF - home page thoughts


I agree with Carol. We need to make the getting started really stand
out.  We made it a goal for the newbie to be a primary user.  It just
needs to be a lot more visible and readily identifiable otherwise it's
going to get lost.
 
I don't think that the 2 paragraphs for about WAI are really going to
benefit the newbie.  I think they would be great to be the first two
paragraphs for the About WAI page.  If they have to stay on the homepage
a suggestion would be to find a way to change it into bullets so that it
would more easily facilitate scanning.  I think that by having the About
WAI paragraphs on the home page it's just going to cause more people to
think that the page is about WAI and not about accessibility.
 
Sincerely,
Justin Thorp
 
********************************************************
Justin Zachary Thorp
Partner & Web Developer -  MyCapitalWeb.com
 
E-Mail -  <mailto:Justin@mycapitalweb.com> Justin@mycapitalweb.com
Cell - (517) 974-5021