Re: Internet Standards Questionnaire

>General Internet Standards Issues
>1. Could you please list the three web sites that in your view are
> the best examples of good design and have given you the best
> experience online? 1. 2. 3. 


"best" is a strong word.  I have not looked at the entire internet.


>2. Why do these sites illustrate good practice/design in your opinion?


Imo, good sites have the following main priorities:

a. They accomplish their goal
b. The are resource efficient (friendly)
c. They use W3C standards when ever possible instead of proprietary ones
d. They prioritize (or layer) semantic markup over implementation details.


> 3. Could you please list the three web sites that in your view
> are examples of bad design and have given you the worst
> experience online? 1. 2. 3. 4. Why do these sites illustrate bad practices
> / design in your opinion?


Ditto above.

> 5. Do you think it is important for sites to comply with standards for
> development and if so why?


Yes, to maximize efficient use of finite resources.


> 6. Put the following list of web development considerations in order
> of how important you feel they are?

1 Download times
2 Readability
3 Navigation
4 Consistency
5 Security
6 Technologies used
7 Accessibility
8 Any Other (not listed above) __many_______


> Please give one reason for each of your top three choices. 1. 2. 3.


If you can't download, read, or navigate, then the rest of the issues are
not relevant.


> Design Issues 7. When developing a web site do you test for download times?

X Yes


> If you answered no, why is this the case? If you answered yes however, what
> time scale would be generally acceptable?

Navigation and text has to load within a couple minutes on dialup.


> 8. How do you keep your site content both consistent and readable?

 X CSS
X Template Pages
X Framesets


> Please comment on any of your favoured approaches.

No comment.


> 9. Do you think keeping layout and information code separate
> is important if so why?


Yes because semantics (the meaning of the info) often has other important
interpretations and presentations besides a single layout.

Easier to apply new interpretations and presentations if they are orthogonal.


> 10. What tools do you use to create web pages (from the following)?

X Notepad (I assume this includes any text editor)
X Other [Please Specify] __Cool Page_______ (which I do not claim is yet
proficient as desired above)


> Accessibility Issues
> 11. Do you think that information on the Internet should be
> available to anyone and anywhere without restrictions placed
> on disabled people, or other groups of users who might have
> difficulties with accessibility?

X Yes (as a goal, but on conscience and priorities, not legislation)


> 12. If you answered yes, how do you think this should be done?

X By altering existing sites to conform to guidelines

> 13. Currently there are only a very small percentage of web sites
> that conform to accessibility guidelines. A recent study by the Royal
> National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) has shown that 17 of Britain's
> leading web sites fail to conform to current accessibility standards.
> Do you think that there should be a greater effort to teach people when
> learning web design the importance of complying with these standards?
> (There are currently around 2 million people in Britain alone with some
sort of visual disability)

 X Yes


> If so how should this be done?

Public awareness campaigns possibly with corporate sponsors.


> Scripting Languages
> 14. Do you have experience of using a server-side scripting language
> such as ASP, PHP or Coldfusion when developing web sites?

X Yes

> If you answered yes could you please indicate which one(s) from the list
> below you have knowledge of and continue to answer all questions
> in the following section, if you answered no please go to the next section?

X PHP
X Perl


> 15. As part of your programming which of the following good programming
> practices do you use?

X Indentation
X Commenting
X Naming Conventions (i.e. all connections to database starting with 'con').
X Separating Reusable functions from bulk of code
X Using consistent names for variables corresponding to database values


> 16. When programming interactive pages do you try to keep programming
> code away from your design/layout coding?

It is a goal.

> If so do you use any of the following methods to achieve this? 

X Include Files
X Making all connections to Database before HTML coding starts
X Declaring Functions before HTML coding starts 
X Saving Design Information as a Template


> World Wide Web Consortium W3C and Standards
> The World Wide Web Consortium was created in 1994 by Tim Berners-Lee
> at Massachusetts Institute of Technology [MIT] to develop common standards
> for all technologies related to the Internet. W3C now has over 500 member
> organisations and has earned international recognition for its contributions
> to the growth of the Internet.
> 17. Before receiving this questionnaire were you aware of guidelines for web
> development that the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) produces?

X_ Yes


> 18. Do you follow W3C's Guidelines on Accessibility when developing a web
site?

X Yes (not always but is a goal)

> If you answered no, what measure are you taking to make you site more
> accessible?
> 19. When developing HTML/CSS pages do you check all, some or none of you
> pages on W3Cs service. Why is this?

No.  Our design methodologies are not yet perfected.


>Conclusions
> 20. Do you think it would be useful if there were a coherent web site that
> demonstrated current web standards in order that people could learn more
> about how to implement these standards?

X Yes


> Would you be willing to use such a service if it was offered free?

X Yes


>Would you be willing to take part in a short evaluation exercise of such a
product? 

X No 

-Shelby Moore

Received on Monday, 23 December 2002 15:35:27 UTC