Website Design and Development
“I want a website that…”
- is clear and easy to use;
- works on all browsers;
- can be accessed by the widest possible audience;
- does not discriminate against disadvantaged people;
- works on other media such as printers, handhelds, assistive technologies, etc.;
- is search engine friendly;
- loads quickly despite being content-rich;
- can cope with, and benefit from, future technological developments.
Background
Get the foundations right and the rest will follow. If you want to add features, functionality and search engine marketing to your site with a minimum of cost, fuss and risk, then the site must be sufficiently robust and pliable to start with. The same holds true even if you just want a site that does the basics well.
Hence the importance of standards, usability and accessibility.
Egn Webcraft can give you…
A flexible, contemporary design process
A grid based design that is fluent, balanced and consistent without being restrictive and repetitive. Semantic, logically structured content that is separate from the presentational style sheets. Dynamic prototyping to create interactive examples that convey greater realism than static wireframes. Incorporation of the latest CSS 2.1 techniques to take advantage of modern browsers whist still degrading gracefully for older browsers such as IE6.
Standards-compliant web pages
Pages that are built with valid XHTML and valid CSS. Content and structure that is separated from presentation for scalability, easier maintenance and compliance with other media such as print, mobile, etc. Compatibility across all the major browsers. The upshot is a site that is stable, future-proofed and ready to take advantage of the next releases of XHTML, CSS and accessibility guidelines.
Usable web pages
Pages that are designed to ensure clear and easy navigation. They will include self-evident signposts to tell the visitor where he/she is within the site and where he/she can go next. Content that is visually ‘scannable’ by making appropriate use of headers, bullets, highlights, font sizes, etc. Page structure that is consistent throughout. See further details of Egn’s web usability consulting services.
Accessible web pages
Pages that conform to at least WCAG 1.0 double-A guidelines and triple-A wherever possible. And will conform to the forthcoming WCAG 2.0 
guidelines. Consideration is given to colour contrast, non–reliance on colour, keyboard–only navigation, image explanations, audio transcripts, readability and compatibility with assistive technologies. See further details of Egn’s web accessibility consulting services.
