Comments on new Working Draft - Guideline 3

Hi,

I've had a read of the new working draft and have a number of comments.
Please note text in double quotation marks ( " ) are directly from the
document. My comments in bullets underneath.  Please note these are my
comments for Guideline 3 only (Guideline 1 and 2 sent previously- will make
comments on other guidelines over the next few days.

"Checkpoint 3.1 Provide structure within content.
Success criteria
You will have successfully met Checkpoint 3.1at the Minimum Level if:
-the following minimum structure elements are present.
---titles on major sections of long documents
---paragraphs "
   I believe we should specify that NESTED titles / headings are used on
   major sections of long documents
   We should also add that appropriate grammatical structure has been used

The following are additional ideas for enhancing content along this
particular dimension
- break up text into logical paragraphs.
- provide hierarchical sections and titles, particularly for longer
documents
- reveal important non-hierarchical relationships, such as
cross-references, or the correspondence between header and data cells in a
table, so that they are represented unambiguously in the markup or data
model.
- divide very large works into sections and or chapters with logical
labels.
   I believe we should include "provide the document in a format where it
   can be easily printed in its entirety"

Checkpoint 3.2 Provide multiple methods to explore sites that are more than
two layers deep.
Success criteria
You will have successfully met Checkpoint 3.2 at the Minimum Level if:
- sites that have more than two layers have at least one other method for
exploration besides using the links on the home page. (A home page and one
layer of pages linked off of it would be two layers)
- a link to the alternate exploration method(s) is provided on the home
page.
You will have successfully met Checkpoint 3.2 at Level 2 if:
- sites that have documents that span multiple files either provide the
documents as a single file or provide a search function which would allow
the user to search for a word across only the files that make up that
document.
   I believe that Level 2 should have TWO requirements: providing documents
   as a single file AND providing a search function

Checkpoint 3.3 Use consistent but not necessarily identical presentation.
Success criteria
You will have successfully met Checkpoint 3.3 at the Minimum Level if:
- key orientation and navigational elements are generally found in one or
two locations or their locations are otherwise predictable.
You will have successfully met Checkpoint 3.3 at Level 2 if:
-the content has been reviewed, taking into account the additional ideas
listed below, and it has been concluded that key orientation and
navigational elements are generally found in one or two locations, or their
locations are otherwise predictable
   What does it mean that "key orientation and navigational elements are
   generally found in one or two locations"- does that mean one or two
   locations in a single page, or one or two locations in the site?, or
   does it mean that navigational elements are found in ONLY one or two
   locations in a page, and NOWHERE else on that page, and that this is
   consistent throughout the site?

"Checkpoint 3.4 Provide consistent and predictable responses to user
actions.
Benefits (informative)
Individuals who are unable to detect extreme changes in context or may not
realize that the context has changed are less likely to become disoriented
while navigating a site. This applies to people in the following ways"
   I think the word "less" should be replaced with the word "more"

"Checkpoint 3.4 Provide consistent and predictable responses to user
actions.
Example 2: a warning given before a pop-up window.
At the end of a news story, several links are provided for more
information. At the beginning of each link is an icon of an arrow with the
text equivalent, "Link will open in new window." "
   I don't believe that an icon of an arrow provides sufficient VISUAL
   information as to the nature of the arrow - I would think that an arrow
   next to a text link could mean any number of things - and if it is only
   explained in the ALT tag then no visual equivalent to the text
   information is provided, thus violating Checkpoint 1.1.  I think we
   should change this example.

Checkpoint 3.5 Provide methods to minimize error and provide graceful
recovery.
Success criteria
You will have successfully met Checkpoint 3.5 at the Minimum Level if:
- if an error is detected, feedback is provided to the user identifying the
error.
You will have successfully met Checkpoint 3.5 at Level 2 if:
- the content has been reviewed and is believed to have incorporated error
prevention and recovery methods that are considered to be effective and
appropriate
   For Minimum Success Criteria: "feedback is provided to the user
   identifying the EXACT error"
   For Level 2 Success Criteria, I think  we should add "and previous
   correct information is retained"

Cheers,
Gian



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Received on Thursday, 1 May 2003 04:18:12 UTC