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  • Should links open in new windows?

    10 February 2009
    2 comments

    In my job, I get asked every now and then: “Can we make links to other websites open in new windows?” The reason generally given is to avoid “losing” site visitors. The answer, in short, should be “No”. There are a couple of points to raise here: The target attribute is deprecated, and not valid in modern web standards (i.e. no ‘target=”_blank”’). However, the functionality could still be done using javascript and validating against web standards. So… why shouldn’t we just use javascript to do this?

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  • Web writing guidelines

    12 September 2007
    1 comments

    Writing for the web is very different from writing for print. Key reasons for this are:

    • Users scan web pages rather than reading every word.
    • Users typically won’t give a web page their full attention. For example, they may also be listening to music and using instant messaging.
    • Web pages are interactive.

    The six elementary rules

    George Orwell’s rules (“Politics and the English Language”, 1946) are just as relevant today for the web.

    1. Never use a metaphor, simile or other...
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  • Image alt text

    13 February 2007

    Here’s part one of three in follow-up to the Oxford Geek Night, to elaborate on the points I made about image alt text. A quick recap (or introduction, if you weren’t there or haven’t seen my slides!): An image’s alt text is presented to a user if their “user agent’ (the thing they’re using to browse web pages) does not display the image. e.g.

    • A text browser is being used
    • The user is blind and a screen reader...
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