Design

accessible, yes, usable, not so much

dive into mark may be the best guide out there to accessibility, but I wouldn’t know since when […]

dive into mark may be the best guide out there to accessibility, but I wouldn’t know since when I got there I had no idea where I was, what was going on or where to start. Like Bloggus Caesari coming late to the party means it’s almost impossible to catch up (no matter how many jell-o shots you do).

As these sites gain popularity and fame as their body of content grows and word spreads, it becomes more and more important for them to take into account new visitors who will need to catch up.

A “start here” button is all it would take.

11 Comments

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  1. 1
    vanderwal

    Since the this portion of the site is aimed at accessibility, particularly for weblogs (although all of this excellent information is great for any Web developer) it is in weblog format and the information needed to catch-up is easily found at as one scrolls down. I have been following along off and on to the site and have loved the linear approach. I have been crank as hell lately and the dive into mark has given me a reason not to be cranky as I have a place to point to that is easy to understand and explains everthing I have been repeating over and over, with regard to accessibility, to those that need to know this stuff.

  2. 2
    christina

    I never did find the beginnning. So easy to find I can’t agree with.

    I also love the linear format for both sites.. but I want a start here button.

    I wonder more and more if bloggers might provide links to “best of” I know some of my entries have been longer, more coherent and mopre popular than others (the thesaurus conversation, fer example)

  3. 3
    vanderwal

    The beginning is found at Day 1, which is at the bottom of some pages, but not all pages. Oddly enough when I scrolled to the bottom of dive into Mark I did not see the days laid out at the bottom of the page as I had remembered. Returning to the same page through my back button the days of accessibility were there. Now I can not get this to repeat.

  5. 5
    Mark Pilgrim

    I agree that 30 days of connected content stretches the limits of the weblog format. However, the entire series will soon be republished on its own domain, which will include a “start here” link on the home page (actually entitled “Let’s dive in”), fully downloadable versions of the entire series in HTML and PDF, and 6 different ways to browse the tips.

    Until then, the entire series is listed in chronological order at the bottom of the home page.

  6. 6
    Lawrence Krubner

    >>>
    I wonder more and more if bloggers might provide links to “best of” I know some of my entries have been longer, more coherent and mopre popular than others (the thesaurus conversation, fer example)
    >>>

    It seems like it should be easy enough to run a Google search and see what posts other people link to. I could probably write a PHP script to automate the task. Sort of like what Moveable Type already does in providing “related links”.

    I’ll do this the next time I have some free time, which may not be wonderfully soon.

  7. 7
    D

    Suggestion noted. (I’m the Caesar guy.) I’m no IA/usability champ, so it’s cool to get this feedback. I’ve got a link on the main archives index that goes to the first entry; from there one can follow the story by clicking ‘next’ repeatedly… however, I’ll think about putting this on the front page somewhere.

  8. 8
    D

    Incidentally, in my experience, one’s best entries are rarely the most popular google searches. I think the author should hand-pick best entries, and so this can be done in MT by assigning a secondary ‘best entry’ category.

  9. 9
    christina

    I want to say I love bloggus… I think it is one of the smartest uses of the blog. And it’s the little things that makes a good product that much better. A “start here” on the front page would be the ticket for those latecomers.

    in a dream world, there would be a cookie to allow you to “find your place” if you stopped for a bit– a bookmark that you could move, the way you can move a physical bookmark. Bloggus is getting long!

    As for “best of” yes, I think hand picking is a good way to do it. That way you can consider multiple factors such as comments, email accolades, google links, what have you.

  10. 10
    Lawrence

    It might be best to have two lists, most popular and best. D is right that the most popular entries are often not the best. Sometimes what the public is drawn to is infuriating to the writer. I put together a web site for a journalist who writes on urban issues. He is well regarded for his book and essays about cities. Still, when he was younger, he wrote a first person account of his struggle against warts, and that remains his most popular article, both online and offline. It would top his most popular list, but would not be on his best list.

    Maybe the lists should be called “my favorites” and “everyone else’s favorites.” Further subdivisions are possible: “posts I’ve written favored by other writers that I respect”, “favorite posts of my best friend”, “favorite posts of my work associates,” favorite posts of my editor.” These would all be interesting in their own way. I suppose some of this could be automated using Google.

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