Refresh Cambridge 07/02 - accesskey, usable forms, Google Maps and dropdowns!
The Refresh Cambridge crew held another discussion-filled meeting last Wednesday, with four speakers covering topics spanning accessibility, usability and Google Maps.
Accesskeys
First up, GAWDS member Karl Dawson gave a short talk on the hows, whys and—more importantly—the ‘why nots’ of the humble accesskey attribute. While easy to implement, and therefore often employed as an accessibility “quick win”, accesskeys can cause all sorts of problems for users of various assistive technologies; they can also get in the way of typing foreign characters, especially if you follow the UK Government’s accesskey recommendations.
Karl’s presentation is available on his site, or peruse his del.icio.us links on accesskeys for further reading.
Usable, accessible forms
Continuing the accessibility theme, I gave a summary of best practices for creating accessible and usable forms. As well as considering some basic accessibility requirements, such as the use of <fieldset>, <legend> and <label> to provide meaning and structure to your form, I also talked about the need to consider the most suitable means of data input for your audience, and how to use JavaScript to enhance the usability of the form.
You can read the full presentation and play with the demo form – I’ve only tested it fully in Firefox/Mac, though, so don’t complain if it doesn’t work and/or look right in other browsers.
Google Maps in 10 minutes
Ever wanted to add a neat little Google Maps instance to your contact page but been put off by all that JavaScript? Julian Price of inCharge.co.uk has created a clever little package that takes all the hassle out of the process.
The instructions on the sample map page take you step-by-step through what to do to end up with your own personalised Google Map, complete with icon, and Julian’s demonstration of the technique certainly took less than ten minutes. The benefit of this method is that it degrades gracefully to a static image of the map if JavaScript is unavailable.
(Oh, for anyone wondering about the site that came up in the ensuing discussion, here it is: Top 10 Naked People on Google Earth) ;)
The usability of large dropdowns
Finally, Simon Jones from Studio 24 led a discussion on the usability of various ways of approaching the problem of selecting from hundreds of options in a dropdown (for example, to select a country), and presented some sample interface solutions to address the problem, including Ajax-powered suggestions and matching incorrectly spelled words.
Summary
Like last time it was gratifyingly well-attended, with a mix of freelance and employed web developers from the local region and students from the university. Thanks again to Tim at Anglia Ruskin University for the use of the facilities.
Our next event (barring informal pub get-togethers) may possibly be a joint excursion with CaMedia, the local media professionals network. I’ve met with the organiser and we both think that a semi-crossover event would be of interest to everyone – so watch this space!
Filed under: Refresh-Cambridge, Internet.
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Ah, in order to comment, first I have to find the comments form. I’ve obviously been too well trained to look for it at the bottom of the post. Didn’t see it over here on the right at first :-)
Thanks for the write-up. Sorry I couldn’t make it, I was too busy working on mobile phone stuff for a client demo this week. Hopefully I’ll make it along to the next one.