Who You Calling A Jesse?

Shortly after I started working in the Higher Education web space (2001) I came across the brilliant post by Jeffrey Zeldman on A List Apart that lead down all sorts of paths towards web standards and accessibility. I wasn’t alone. I think many web folks that were dealing with the internet bubble bursting were inspired by Zeldman’s call to arms to change things and many had the time to explore the possibilities. I did what I could in my position to influence the University of Waterloo web space and in 2004 we had a XHTML/CSS layout that was clean and accessible which was finally let loose on campus in early 2005.

Things changed on campus and I spent more time on usability testing and meeting with the few students that relied on adaptive technology. I wasn’t put off by the fact only two people might notice the enhancements as I knew UW was doing the right thing by fixing things. However, all of the applications students and staff rely upon were not going to be fixed or changed with even the course management system saying it was section 508 compliant but that version was even less usable than the main user interface. A problem that I have observed is that accessibility laws or regulations seem to force people under the covers in the HTML to make things work in screen readers (sometimes) but people ignored how usable the content or the application actually is.

It gets stranger by the day, developers demand unit tests they can meet to make the app accessible but there aren’t any… I don’t think. Laws and guidelines just compound the problem by giving people a false sense of compliance. In the case of learning environments most aren’t even all that usable but golly gee they are 508 compliant. It starts to drain hope.

Blame technology or developers?

A developer most certainly should make browser based apps (HTML/JavaScript/CSS apps) ‘professional’ grade by using semantic HTML, unobtrusive JavaScript, and sensible colour contrasts. That checks off a lot boxes in terms of Search Engine Optimization, re-usable code, dealing with rendering fun, and accessibility. There are different ideas of what it takes to make a web app or page accessible however, and I am not sure a developer should kill a load of time on certain things (that change with the project) like zoomable layouts—especially when browsers are implementing features that make that time wasted.

I am not sure that is inline with that Derek brings up in his post When is the right time for accessibility? as I think some (or a lot) of the things that are generally seen as making HTML as ‘accessible’ really should be the responsibility of a different team of developers (mainly those that make web browsers). I don’t disagree with the strategy of implementing accessibility later based on need and I think Derek’s post offers a bit of an olive branch to developers. You shouldn’t be expected to be all that accessible until you actually know that (a) people will use your product and (b) knowing how people will use your product.

What is my problem?

Honestly I don’t know. Call it a long winter, annoying problems repeating themselves for years, and new experts making the same mistakes.

I started this post sometime after I saw the small torrent of comments about a JavaScript framework which was summed up in Drew’s post The Cost of Accessibility. Drew is on that fence of innovation needs to take into account the reality of the web browser right now and I am not sure I agree.

At the same time I got into a few insane conversations about making the new job system for co-op on campus accessible and IE6 isn’t dead (like we had hoped) for an important 5% of our user base. Our development process makes it insanely difficult to spend time testing, fixing, and tweaking for accessibility (application is hiding behind a VPN and has a few other features that make it hard to access outside of our network). We use jQuery wisely, CSS, and HTML to the browser. AJAX is sprinkled in parts but nothing should depend on it. For a first version that isn’t really ready for user testing it has some good fundamentals but someone pulled the ‘yes but you are missing x’ and I just got deflated.

The problem, in my mind, goes back to the way people think about accessibility. The whole issue is an Art not a Science and certainly not engineering. Engineers have left us with this problem, with HTML, a stateless browser, and a crippled feature set that forces hacks, short cuts, etc. They are doing their part, slowly. Code artists like Derek Featherstone and Drew McLellan help spread the word and lower the barriers through simplified approaches and keeping the dialogue going.

HTML 5 gives me hope even if the Engineers aren’t too quick to drop it in our browsers! I am not really cynical ;)

Do you want to make the system better? Do you want people to use your code? Do you want to work with me? It is close to the end of the first round in co-op here at Waterloo and we have a couple jobs posted. Here is the jobmine info so you can find it easier:

Winter 2009 Co-op 00092349 Software Developer
Winter 2009 Co-op 00092354 Software Developer – Q/A
Winter 2009 Co-op 00092662 User Advocate

We need some passionate students that are keen on web technology to get us to the pilot stage in the spring. Do you think you are up for it?

The technology you get to play with is mostly Microsoft – SQL, .NET, etc – but the GUI likes to use jQuery (before Microsoft decided it was cool).

Another TODCon has come and gone in a haze of mojitos, great food, and great company. This year it was back in Orlando—my favorite place for it even though it was really hot and humid, I am getting bored with Las Vegas. This year had an amazing line-up of presentations which had little to do with ‘Adobe stuff’ and more to do with developing rich experiences on the web using whatever tools you use. Sure there was some from folks from Adobe showing off some things in CS4. Greg Rewis from Adobe gave a sneak peek of Flash CS4, there was a demo of Fireworks CS4 from Alan Musselman, and some discussion on Dreamweaver CS4.

Really looking forward to next years conference already as I think there are some changes afoot that will make it an even better community focused conference.

My two presentations were on AJAX strategy and Web Project Management. I have stuck both sets of slides up on slideshare but I don’t think they make much sense without the whole presentation ;)

January first is upon us and after what was a hectic Christmas break I can sit down and reflect on the year that was 2007 and what might come technology wise for 2008. All this happened in my life:

• I became a Dad on January 19th
• finished my course load on my Msc
• changed jobs
• cities I visited outside of Ontario: Las Vegas, London, Cambridge, Oxford, Leeds, Harrogate, York, Liverpool, Wigan, Deddington, Buffalo, Quebec City, Montreal
• Drove 30 000 km (or so) and I live 2 km from work
• instigated 4 BarCampWaterloo’s and one StartupCampWaterloo meeting a load of really interesting people at all of them

…and that is what I remember. Last year I set some goals for myself and had a few comments on technology. If I wouldn’t have changed jobs all those could have been met (I think) but I didn’t foresee that I have an opportunity to work with an extremely talented team on an impossible project with technology I hadn’t ever worked with. That fuels my excitement for 2008.

For this year my goals are just as simple as last year:

• Finish my msc (I have to by April)
• Focus on user experience and UI development
• Spend every moment possible with my son

As far as web technology goes. I thought last year that Spry sucked and AJAX might be more accessible by year end. I think as the year went on Spry got better and folks like Derek figured out some best practices for more accessible AJAX experiences.

This year I think the big technology fight will be between Flash and Silverlight. Microsoft has to figure out how to convince Flash developers why they should forget all they have learned and change technology while Adobe needs to figure out how not to step in it and be seen as an arrogant company that doesn’t deserve the loyalty Macromedia had built. The buzz and reaction over the whole user tracking thing or updates is going to piss people off. How dare customers get upset? Indeed.

Microsoft’s UI with Silverlight trump card might be Sharepoint. This beast of a CMS is (I think) the most extensive and customizable business class CMS out there. It is the best of a really bad bunch and Silverlight could make it suck less from a UI perspective. We shall see.

Should be an interesting year ;)

In what I think is a good example for large institution web teams, the BBC has gone and offered an update to their home page. It is very Web two point oh with some widgets and gradients, big images, and larger text so its easier to read in this web world of increasingly high resolutions. They have some cool design elements like a classic looking clock, customization, and all the other bits you would expect on a site… except advertisements. The rationale for the design is offered in a blog post.

Issues to note about the BBC in my mind are:

• It is publicly funded and the public can take an ownership view on its web presence
• They have a large team but an even larger web presence
• Their primary audience is hugely diverse and crosses generations, from pre-teens to WWII vets

What I like:

• Their blog post explains what they thinking with regards to the big changes and invites conversation
• They point out there will be continuous changes (the web is not a static medium)
• It is a big change on look not content so they try to undersell it a little as a ‘lick of paint’ not a ‘redo’

Love it or hate it, its a pretty cool public process given all things.

Looking to browse book covers but not wanting to walk down to the book store? Check out Zoomii. You can fly around the book shelves and get a feel for the book size, select what you want, and then purchase it through Amazon.

Chris Theisson has been busy over the last few months showing off his new Amazon affiliate site Zoomii to folks at DemoCampGuelph, DemoCampToronto, and BarCampWaterloo.

This store shows you 20 000 or so book covers and their relative size. You can simply browse the shelf and check out the interesting looking books. For an AJAX based site it is just amazing to fly around the book shelves. I love how fast it is and the search results are just nicer than what Amazon normally gives you. If you are a visual person, this store is certainly more fun than the typical Amazon experience. You have to bounce over to Amazon to make your purchase (maintains your comfort level with Amazon).

If you want to try it out I have a couple invites available to me so just post a comment.