Welcome to the Escape Blog

So, it’s Saturday and I am checking out a bit of the competition, like you do. I work hard with others at The Escape to ensure our website is as good as it can be - it’s what we do and we should be walking the walk - so it’s good to see what other people are up.

Now, a year or so ago, Accessibility was a relatively unknown topic and some would argue it still is. At The Escape, we have been driven, mainly by our web team, to adhere to W3C standards for the past two and a half years (at least) and it has become second nature and standard practice.

So, when I take a look at the websites of our local competition and they talk about accessibility and DDA Compliancy it can only be a good thing (that other people are adopting standards). Or can it?

Half Arsed and Lazy

So, this is the rant. I don’t call myself a programmer but I can do basic coding. With the help of my colleagues I have learned. I have come to understand that it is actually easier to code to Strict validation standards than it was the old way with tables and frames and invisible Gif files to pad out web pages. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and semantic markup are not only important, but essential, on a modern day website.

So, it really p*sses me off when I see Companies sell their services as DDA this and that, accessible this and compliant that and their own websites are transitional in validation not strict. This, in MY opinion, basically means that they either don’t fully understand ‘Accessibility’, and see ‘disability’ and ‘law’ as a good sales tool, or, they are simply to lazy to do it properly. Either way I think it is misleading to people buying websites and it gets my goat.

Many a time recently, I have had meetings with clients who didn’t know about accessibility, so I understand the lack of widespread knowledge out there. But they are buying something so it should be important to understand up front.

But, it is not just about disabled people. Yes, there is the DDA and I think that is a start but think about the (mobile) future. Frames, tables and Flash don’t sit well on a 2" screen.

Advice

If you are looking for a website designer, make sure they know their onions:

1. Run their website through the Validator at W3C
2. Learn About Accessibility
3. Make sure that your website will not be built with tables and frames but with Cascading Style Sheets and Semantic Coding.
4. Bear in mind mobile technology and other devices (ie. Screen Readers for people with bad sight need clear structure when reading a website.)
5. Read the RNIB Best Practice Guide for Websites.
6. Take It Seriously - there are 8.5 million disabled users in the UK alone and they use the web differently.

One thing I would especially watch out for is if you are going down the content-managed route. CMS systems are notoriously bad.

As for all those web designers out there - come on - you know it makes sense!

Rob’s thinking about joining the Baseball league he has been doing so much pitching recently. We won one and lost one and have two more in the pipeline.

We finished and uploaded the Whispa Web Site and also delivered a mailer for Corgi and an Annual Report for Anchor Trust.

We’ve just started a web project for a new company called EMP to produce a website and have finally worked out how we are going to get a website to talk to a database back-end system for a large AV Distributor, so that’s now in production.

The Seminar Programme for 2007 is being finalised so that will go out in the next e-shot (subscribe here). If you are near Basingstoke, feel free to book up! It has been based around client feedback.

Steve, our new Escapee, came in yesterday for a coffee and to meet the team. He’s a Web Programmer and keen as mustard!

Big news of the week - Our Secret Santa was drawn!

Take the hassle out of the yearly Secret Santa with the TUC of all people - Electronic Secret Santa from workSMART

Well, it’s only in the US so far but if popular, I am sure it is only a matter of time before you can use this in the UK. From the Adwords Blog:

Hosted business pages, a new feature for AdWords Starter Edition. A hosted business page is an informational
webpage that new advertisers can create when they sign up for AdWords
Starter Edition. You can use a hosted business page to tell people more
about your business when they click on your ad. For example, if you own
a restaurant, you might write about your award-winning cannoli; if you
are a tailor, potential customers would be thrilled to read about your
48 hour turnaround on alterations.

Big shout to Advertising For Peanuts for this post on a very smart billboard campaign for Groupe E, a Swiss
electric company (by Saatchi & Saatchi Simko).

The billboards ‘plug in’ to electrical devices in close proximity. Clink on the links above - there are more.

So simple, so clever, so powerful (no pun intended).

An interesting article from Web Metrics Guru about how the page view as a metric is quickly becoming obsolete with the "widgetization of the web".

That said, I met someone today trying to impress me with how many hits his website was getting. It’s amazing that so many companies really still measure their websites by that. That’s so nineties

They need some proper web KPIs!

From the BBC, another report on the lack of uptake on accessible websites:

• 73% relied on JavaScript for important functionality
• 78% used colours with poor contrast, causing issues for those with colour blindness
• 98% did not follow industry web standards for the programming code
• 97% did not allow people to alter or resize pages
• 89% offered poor page navigation
• 87% used pop-ups causing problems for those using screen magnification software

You can read the whole article here.

Alex Metcalf from Nomensa (the company that undertook the research) comments:

It is important for commercial, legal and moral reasons that websites put in place a strategy for accessibility, both in terms of quick wins and longer term improvements.

With an estimated 8.5 million disabled users in the UK and 600 million worldwide, perhaps it’s now time companies took their heads out of the sand?

BBC Magazines have just launched the Good Food website to compliment their print magazine. I love it! I think the design is great - so full of information but not confusing. Our tech guys also tell me its built very well and is very accessible.

One of the main things I like about the design is the way they have managed to make it look visually very ‘big’ but when you view it at 800 x 600 pixels all the info you need is there (adverts go off to the right - but I’m here for the food not break down cover!)

A great resource (love the recipe binder feature) that works well and looks sexy to boot - hurrah!

So, there is a big hu-ha in the UK over Threshers and their 40% discount - or is there? As Simon pointed out to me yesterday:

Read carefully the comments and noises coming from Thresher – they don’t seem that arsed that the ‘offer’ has got out of hand, do they? It strikes me that they knew exactly what they were doing with their 40% discount to a small select band of south African (!) suppliers and their family and friends…or they have realised their error and are intent on milking it for all its worth?

The offer only applies to Wine and Champagne (notice not beer) so this could be deemed as strategic positioning in their competitive market place as these two lines provide them with their biggest mark-up and also promotes the Thresher brand as somewhat more exclusive than your average off-licence.

Plus they are also currently offering 3 for 2 on wines and champers so is this latest offering not purely an extension of this?

Finally, what are Threshers in the business of – selling wine and champagne. What will this offer accomplish – an enviable revenue stream me thinks until Dec 10th and free worldwide publicity!

Makes you think doesn’t it. I got home on Friday to see this story on the news on BBC and ITV. I drove to work on Saturday with it as a main news story on my local radio station. It’s been in the national papers - That’s a lot of Free Advertising. What’s more, they want your details to give you the offer - that’s a big mailing list they just got.

Another thought to ponder… The South African Wine Company in question Stormhoek, has a clever person behind their marketing - Hugh Macleod of Gaping Void. Make of that what you will, but he definitely knows his viral marketing. Not that they have anything to gain apart from the exposure, but it may also be a connection.

Or, it could be one big happy accident. Good luck to them all - in my opinion, they pulled it off.

But, what do you do if you are a competitor? You jump on the bandwagon of course. Look what popped up as a Google Ad when I searched for ‘Threshers’:

Viral Marketing has that name for a reason. You can’t control it once it’s out.

Bring on Threshers, who generously decided to give their suppliers and friends a massive 40% off on wine and champagne in the lead up to Christmas.

Unfortunately for them, it may end up costing them a fortune as one person sent it to 10, who sent it to 10…. I think you get the picture.

The BBC Reports:

One wine company has reported 800,000 downloads and the Threshers website has crashed under the strain.

Don’t tell me you want one too… Download webcoupon123.pdf