While it would be easy to start this book diving headfirst into design, it would be a dis- service to the first cornerstone of the Internet: the written word. Text is the Web’s foun- dational element, from the earliest Gopher servers housing physics papers to the millions of web pages published through corporate websites, personal blogs, and social networking domains like MySpace. Sharing text was the reason the Internet was invented in the first place. Text is searchable, scannable, and transportable; it can be moved from file to file, program to program, lan- guage to language. It can be sent thousands of miles in half a second or distributed to a million inboxes at the click of the Send button. Rarely has a medium fit the platform so perfectly. After distilling all responsibilities down to a base level, the core role of a web designer or information architect is to build an environment that illuminates the content crafted by copywriters and blessed by the marketing team. The entirety of this book and its ideas all serve the same grand purpose: to deliver the message of the site. In the world of corporate web design, this is critical to remember. Many websites feature elegant layouts and refined typography, exalting the text. But just as often, designers and marketers overthink a project, and a potentially simple design devolves into a complex lay- out that actually hinders reading, when time could be better spent writing and editing the marketing message. For better or worse, the Internet is too often a living case study of art deco mentality: time, effort, and money spent on embellishing the perfectly functional. People visit corporate sites to get information. Sometimes they are already customers and have a question, and they hit the Support section. Sometimes they’ve heard about you, but need to clarify a few details about one of your widgets, so they visit the Products page. Sometimes they stumble across your domain by pure coincidence, and browse the About section to figure out what exactly you do. Whatever the reason, the visitor is going to con- sume content—video, animations, diagrams, photographs, and, most importantly, text. The raison d’etre of the web designer is to make sure this content is findable, available, and accessible. This chapter covers what website designers, copywriters, marketing strategists, and every- one else involved in the site needs to know about copy for the Web. This not only includes the unnecessary obfuscation of content and trouble words to avoid, but best practices in layout and typography that lead to more digestible words. To compete, you need to be found Worldwide business is changing every day. Globalization is reaching full steam. The world’s economy is flattening, and the old economy giants of brand-name business are faltering beneath the growing power of the long tail. 1 In just over a decade, the rulebook for WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES 22 1. The long tail is a term first coined by Chris Anderson in an October 2004 article for Wired (available at www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.10/tail.html), which he later expanded upon in a book. It describes a feature of statistical distribution where the bulk of the population is found in the long trailing end of the graph. 8393CH02.qxd 8/6/07 3:59 PM Page 22 marketing economics has been tossed aside. The Web has leveled the playing field, and any company can serve any customer with an Internet connection, at any time of day, and from any part of the world. No longer must you buy Tide detergent. A simple search for “laundry detergent” brings up dozens of alternate brands eating away business from Procter & Gamble, many of them from Internet-only mail order companies. No longer must you buy music at the mall. Hundreds of music shops—many of them serving narrow niches like classic jazz or hip hop—thrive on the Web by catering to the customer who wants a deeper selection of uncommon releases. The always-on, instantly searchable, globally connected Web offers a tremendous platform for businesses small and large to compete with equal footing. Millions of companies have seen the Internet’s potential, and the medium is teeming like a jar of sea monkeys with marketers vying for your business. But this new landscape introduces a new problem. Or rather, reintroduces an old problem: how to differentiate yourself and win business over your competition. Consider a local music store called Armand’s. They compete with the downtown mall shop and another record store a few blocks away. Their biggest problem came when the com- petitor marked his 12-inch singles down to $5.99 and theirs were still $6.99. Despite this, business remained strong because everyone knew Armand’s name, where they were located, and the variety of the merchandise, and the helpfulness of the staff. By contrast, an online shop has thousands of competitors, all lined up on the same “street,” each with relatively equal pricing and selections. The Internet flips the archetype of the brick-and-mortar store. The new twist on the age-old problem turns out to be deceivingly simple—to succeed on the Web, you must be found in the first place. Old paradigm: the phone book. New paradigm: search engines. Google, Yahoo, and MSN have supplanted the slabs of dead trees thrown on our doorstep every six months, and their information is a hundred-fold deeper and updated every second of every day. There is one critical differentiator between these models. Search engines are more than directories of names and addresses. They index every word of your website, offering a richer representation of your business, and then attach that data to a geographic location if one exists. Today, users can search by physical location or keywords. As you can see in Figure 2-1, Google can find Armand’s store by keywords (“hip hop records”) or by location. This abrupt exposure has forced companies to reexamine their content. Marketers are no longer able to control whose hands their brochures fall into, and by publishing on the Web, they are effectively inviting a billion people to learn more about their business. Some people might type in “detergent.” Others, “discount detergent refills.” Still others, “environment-friendly detergent alternatives.” Each combination is going to bring up a dif- ferent set of results, but at the top of each ranking will sit the company who wrote about these topics in plain, clear, concise language. CONTENT 23 2 8393CH02.qxd 8/6/07 3:59 PM Page 23 Figure 2-1. Businesses can be found by keyword or geographic location. To be found, you need to say something Here’s the reality: people search with words that make sense to them. For most people, that means plain, short, common words, not the oblique marketing speak so prevalent on the Web. Too many corporate sites (and the technology sector is by far the most consistent offender) feature marketing messages so pregnant with buzzwords, made-up phrases, and convoluted clauses that it’s questionable whether the original writer has any clue what he was trying to communicate. The company that speaks in everyday vernacular will simply appeal to a wider customer base. For instance, people will not type “integrated premises-based ECM solution” into a search engine. So if your site says that, you are missing a disproportionately large segment of your target audience. Someone might type in “content management for accounts payable.” Maybe. More likely, that person will search for “software to organize invoices,” and then find the company that solves this problem without talking about all of that ECM mumbo jumbo. Search is already playing a significant role in our online experience. As the Web becomes more cumbersome and competition thickens, the increasing influence of search engines will continue to define how content is organized, parsed, and delivered. In the end, plain WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES 24 8393CH02.qxd 8/6/07 3:59 PM Page 24 language will be a decisive advantage. Not only because your website will appear more often in search rankings, but also because readers can understand your message when they visit your domain. People will always recommend products and services they understand, never ones they don’t. No world leader ever gained power by speaking above his followers, and no song- writer ever hit stardom for not making sense (except Bob Dylan, but even he made sense some of the time). People will consume and pass along messages they grasp and relate to—like a website their moms can use to buy environmentally friendly detergent. Writing better copy for the Web If there’s one axiom of global commerce, it’s that companies that cannot be understood lose business. Ask any English-speaking businessperson traveling to France, Saudi Arabia, or Japan; most figured out long ago that learning the native language was a significant competitive advantage. On the Web, the axiom still applies. There is simply no point is throwing mud into the water of language. Obfuscation kills communication. The goal of your domain should be to open a dialog with a customer, prospect, or investor, not intimidate them. This requires communicating in plain language, not hiding behind opaque words, and is best accomplished by avoiding corporate speak and writing for your target audience. Avoiding corporate speak Imagine walking into a pastry shop, asking for a Boston cream doughnut, and getting the following response from the shopkeeper: “That particular confection, with its falsely his- torical nomenclature of alternate-dessert elements and synergistic relationship with first light beverages, presents a best-of-breed banquet that yields sweet savor from the first morsel of brunette icing to the last swallow of golden cream. It is also currently out of stock, but we’ve leveraged our advanced dessert replacement solutions to replenish the inventory.” You would probably leave. As you walked down the street looking for a Dunkin’ Donuts, you’d wonder how that bakery ever stayed in business. Visiting any number of corporate sites on the Web, you could easily wonder the same thing. Here are three fictional exam- ples of typical corporate speak: Example 1: “Although our software can be premises-based or deployed as a fully hosted solution, we allow companies to automate and streamline processes, progress organiza- tional efficiency, and concentrate on governance and compliance through the direct man- agement and explicit control of content.” Example 2: “A person-centric architecture is at the core of our products. Whether imple- mented into an enterprise system or interfaced as a particularized solution, our laboratory software offers unparalleled functional competence.” CONTENT 25 2 8393CH02.qxd 8/6/07 3:59 PM Page 25 Example 3: “Leverage the power of ever-increasing interconnected media channels by inspecting them through a marketing lens. This integrative archetype affords businesses a new context proven for retooling marketers to rethink clients working in a rewired market.” This trend toward what writer Erin Kissane calls “zombie copy” blossomed with the advent of the Web, and hit critical mass around the time the first dot-com bubble burst in 2001. 2 Traditional selling collateral rarely required such language because most sales efforts were focused on consumers. But the economic tsunami of the technology sector brought a massive influx of postmodern business-to-business marketing, and companies quickly found themselves stumbling over superlatives, euphemisms, and run-on sentences. There’s no obvious reason why this occurred, but it’s fair to say a combination of factors were at work, including the following: To make the product or service appear more complex than necessary To make the company itself appear smarter than its customers and thus subcon- sciously claim authority on the topic To make their target audience feel smarter To use the thesaurus more often The trend, thankfully, seems to be waning. Many companies have scaled back the layers of nonsensical verbiage, put their thesauruses back on the shelf, and started writing in plain language again, like their forefathers in advertising taught them. The more your company exercises this, the more effective and far-reaching its marketing material will be in the market. Have mercy on the thesaurus The torrent of bad writing has left a graveyard of once-valid, now-cliché words in its wake. In the California Gold Rush of 1848 and 1849, thousands of people tore through rock and stream to find any speck of gold their prospecting neighbor up the stream left behind. In the late 1990s, the American English Thesaurus became a similar victim of pillaging. Suddenly, plain English wasn’t good enough. Use was replaced by utilize, company was made obsolete by enterprise and the use of acronyms—the ultimate achievement in euphemistic writing—was suddenly so fashionable you could invent them on the fly and people would almost applaud. This swath of abuse sent dozens of useful but relatively uncommon words crashing down into a pit of clichédom. Couple this with the invention of new words ( seriosity) and the trend of ridiculous modifiers (world-class), and we suddenly have a template for how not to write. Following are a few words that have had their character ground away by unrelenting use (or is that utilization?): WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES 26 2. Erin Kissane, “Attack of the Zombie Copy,” A List Apart, October 24, 2005 (www.alistapart.com/articles/zombiecopy). 8393CH02.qxd 8/6/07 3:59 PM Page 26 Solution: Probably the poster child for corporate-speak abuse, this once great word now appears on an incalculable number of company websites. Unfortunately, while elegant, it has little meaning when orphaned, especially in a site’s navigation. The word is still valid when meaning an actual answer to a problem, but not when used as a replacement for more tangible words like products or services. Utilize: The major problem with utilize is that it is simply overused. It may or may not be a direct replacement for use; in different situations, its meaning can con- note something slightly different. For example, I can use this shovel to dig a hole (its intended purpose), or I can utilize this shovel to smash this lock open (an unin- tended use, no matter how practical). However, the problem lies in the fact that copywriters use utilize even when its monosyllabic cousin would be clearer and more to the point. Enterprise: This word is just a flowery alternative to company. Who can seriously tell me they don’t think of Star Trek when they read it? A prime casualty of the- saurus abuse, try the more humane company, organization, or business instead. Leverage: This is another alternative for use, but with major bonus pretension points. While a real word with real meaning, it hardly ever relates to the marketing material in which it finds itself. Your software might leverage your client’s IT invest- ment, but it more likely takes advantage of that investment instead. Best-of-breed: This one just has to stop. Probably one of the most pompous descriptors to come into common use, best-of-breed is a term best left to award ceremonies at dog shows. A marginally better best-in-class could be employed, or you could just stop writing empty modifiers and talk more about the real-world benefits of your company’s product. Writing with clarity also requires the immediate cease-and-desist of trying to write with pomposity. People who try to write over the heads of their audience nearly always fall short; after all, what is the benefit of confusing your readers with sentences thicker than tar and as appetizing as sawdust? Removing these common sins from the copywriting tool- box can help further the cause of intelligibility: Invented words: Making up words not only complicates language, but suggests one of two things: either the writer was not intelligent enough to think of a perfectly decent word, or the company regards its self-worth high enough to warrant its own secret language. There are many rather funny examples, but just keep in mind that verbing nouns only increases the complexification of wordspeak. Acronyms: These poisonous little strings of letters are the darlings of technology pundits everywhere, from software makers to commercial equipment manufac- turers to government agencies. Very few are valid. Just for fun, try to guess what these stand for: SERP, ECM, XSLT, OPML. Superfluous modifiers: Modifiers are the subtle little attachments to nouns that make the subject sound just a bit better. Like a good pair of shoes, they provide fla- vor to the package—and, like a pair of hot-pink knee-high Nancy Sinatras, can quickly become distasteful. We discussed best-of-breed in the preceding list; world- class , unprecedented, and others also appear with uncomfortable frequency. CONTENT 27 2 8393CH02.qxd 8/6/07 3:59 PM Page 27 Write for your audience, not your ego Avoiding obfuscation is the first critical step in a more readable website. Thinking about what your audience wants to read—and how they want to read it—is the second. Many copywriters indulge themselves with big words and heavy-handed messaging. Avoid this. Edit copy to a common denominator by assuming your reader knows nothing. This means offering the full story, in clear language, so search engines index you, readers find you, and customers refer you. Larger companies have dedicated editors for web copy. These folks understand the golden rules of brevity and clarity. Unfortunately, these wise companies are the minority, so it is important that web designers, information architects, and others involved with the project understand what makes words work well so they can collaborate with the copywriter to produce the most reader-friendly messaging. Provide the whole story Don’t assume people know what you do, how you do it, where you are, or when you started. Providing all this information offers people the whole picture of your company. Leaving out a key piece of the puzzle just annoys visitors and puts them off going any fur- ther. For instance, a web page describing the services of the company should be rich with detail, whether marketing copy, testimonials, or illustrations. Failing to adequately inform readers about what the company does and its methodologies results in only one thing: less interest. Short paragraphs The print medium provides designers tremendous creative freedom. If they want 2-inch columns, text set at 8 points and the background a light gray, there’s not a darn thing the reader can do about it. This flexibility in design accommodates different content styles as well; our example of carefully designed columns would handily fit denser type and longer, multi-sentence paragraphs. The Internet ignores all constants. Text size is dictated by the user, and long paragraphs of text can quickly become unwieldy on a wide monitor, causing reading speed and informa- tion retention to plummet. Because of this unpredictability, the best web content is writ- ten like newspaper copy: short paragraphs that focus on one thought and rarely exceed three sentences. This fast-paced style organizes thoughts into easily digestible chunks, and helps the eye travel from block to block through the copious whitespace. So how long is a paragraph on the Web? A 50-word paragraph is reasonable; shorter is better. It has been demonstrated over and over again that readers scan web content quickly, rarely lingering to read and fully digest the information. Short paragraphs oblige this pattern. Bullets Like short paragraphs, bullets help readers lightly graze on content to help determine whether they’re in the right place. Here are some general guidelines: WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES 28 8393CH02.qxd 8/6/07 3:59 PM Page 28 Keep bullets short and punchy. Group them together in logical clumps. Don’t overuse them. It’s best to mix bullet points with paragraphs to break up content and keep the eye moving. This also avoids feeling too much like PowerPoint. Also, be careful that your bullets— which are intended to abbreviate and highlight key messages—do not obfuscate your message. It is entirely too easy to truncate a complete thought so much that it becomes meaningless to your readers. Reading level Most television sitcoms are written at an eighth-grade reading level to appeal to the widest audience possible. News and editorial programs might be written for a more educated audience, but I would bet that if you sat a class of 13-year-olds in front of the TV, they would understand almost every word on CNN. Television is written by professionals who know how to speak to a broad demographic in a common language. It would be wise for companies to follow TV’s lead. It’s common to assume your audience is more educated than they really are, but even if that’s true, people don’t want to think too hard when reading, especially on the Web, where the term reading is used loosely. Examples of clarification Taking into consideration everything covered up to this point in the chapter, let’s take another look at the examples of the thick corporate speak referenced earlier, and see if we can’t increase the signal-to-noise ratio to get a clearer meaning. Here is the first one: Example 1: “Although our software can be premises-based or deployed as a fully hosted solution, we allow companies to automate and streamline processes, progress organiza- tional efficiency, and concentrate on governance and compliance through the direct man- agement and explicit control of content.” This is not bad copywriting per se, it’s just heavy-handed. It’s technically correct, but the cacophony of big words wearies the brain. Here is the same message, but with lighter, sim- plified text: Example 1 (edited): “Our software introduces new ways to organize your corporation’s many kinds of content, increasing employee efficiency and helping to meet compliance regulations. The software can be installed locally in your company, or hosted through our datacenter.” The message is still there, but the delivery is not as dense. Example 2: “A person-centric architecture is at the core of our products. Whether imple- mented into an enterprise system or interfaced as a particularized solution, our laboratory software offers unparalleled functional competence.” CONTENT 29 2 8393CH02.qxd 8/6/07 3:59 PM Page 29 The second example is tougher, because while the sentence is long and uses colorful words like person-centric and interfaced, it’s not actually saying too much. Here’s a possi- ble revision: Example 2 (edited): “Our products, built with the user in mind, help make your laboratory more efficient.” It’s not particularly mind-blowing, but it’s about the best we can do with such thin raw material. Example 3: “Leverage the power of ever-increasing interconnected media channels by inspecting them through a marketing lens. This integrative archetype affords businesses a new context proven for retooling marketers to rethink clients working in a rewired market.” This final example is just bad copy. The writer is trying way too hard, and the final text is a plate of syrupy mush lacking any kind of intellectual nutrition. The message is there, and it’s fairly simple once all the layers of language are peeled away: Example 3 (edited): “Using a combination of marketing media, you can reach new customers.” Design considerations for content Some web designers may think they are perfectly justified in glazing over this chapter. It is after all, about content, not design, or even traditional information architecture. But the reality is that the two elements are fundamentally bound, like hydrogen and oxygen atoms in a water molecule. In fact, their symbiosis is driving many designers to become increas- ingly conscious of web content—what messaging works and what doesn’t, how people react to typography decisions, how people scan content within a page, and so forth. Every day new research offers deeper insight into how the masses interact with content. Those theories and best practices filter down and permeate the decisions driving how interfaces, navigation elements, body text, and more are actually designed. In a traditional marketing structure, designers design and writers write. Large organizations might even have a dedicated copywriter for the Web. A medium-sized business might retain a copywriter who handles both print and web content. But in a small company, one person could easily comprise the entire in-house marketing team, and their job is to both write copy and get it live on the site. Whatever the case, it is in a designer’s best interest to read the content. At best, they can work proactively with the copywriter to craft better messaging; at a minimum, under- standing the text can only help them appreciate the company’s needs, which will ulti- mately result in a stronger design. WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES 30 8393CH02.qxd 8/6/07 3:59 PM Page 30 Insist on copy—refute lorem ipsum Designers everywhere have a familiar friend in ancient Latin text. For hundreds of years, Cicero’s De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum has provided printers and designers a content doppelganger: the infamous passage containing the words lorem ipsum. This once obscure text now finds its way into countless design projects as meaningless filler copy. It suppos- edly approximates typical character distribution in an average passage of English text, and is intended to force the viewer’s eyes to focus on the design of the text without getting hung up on the actual words. While the technique has merit—especially when testing typefaces—designing a website without real content does a disservice to everyone, especially the designer. Imagine a mas- ter picture framer carving a new frame without knowing what the painting looks like, only that it’s about 3 by 2 feet and has some red in it. While it can be done—and maybe even done well if the framer guesses right—the end product will not be anywhere close to its potential without understanding the context of the art. To execute the best possible work, designers and developers need the full story, and that means real content. Too often, clients, marketing departments, and writers instruct graphic artists to “just ‘greek’ in the text.” 3 While designers might have a general idea of what the site needs to convey in its look and feel, it’s still just a shot in the dark. Typography considerations The world of typography on the Web has a murky, sordid past, filled with inconsistent browser rendering, poorly aliased text, cross-platform font discrepancies, and the unpre- dictable text-resizing whims of users. This trail of frustration is, thankfully, slowly subsiding. Today, the tools are better than just a few years ago, and as technology marches forward, some of the maddening variables of early web design have stabilized into a few concrete guidelines. To serif or to sans? The question over whether to use serif or sans serif fonts in body copy is actually a fairly interesting debate. In the web design world, it has become an accepted precept that sans serif fonts are better for condensed body copy, and in the world of print, serif fonts are better for longer passages of type. This is, however, a myth that has yet to be proved con- clusively either way, but you can see an example of the difference in Figure 2-2. CONTENT 31 2 3. The term greek is technically false (lorem ipsum is Latin), but it has been slowly converted into a slang verb by thousands of designers and marketing folk looking to quickly fill a block of content without actual text. 8393CH02.qxd 8/6/07 3:59 PM Page 31 [...]... accessibility The term web standards encapsulates many things, but is most known as the sum of web development best practices: using valid HTML for structural markup, CSS for presentation, and JavaScript and the DOM (Document Object Model) for enhanced functionality 11 www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/clf2-nsi2/index-eng.asp 45 8393CH03.qxd 8 /2/ 07 12: 04 PM Page 46 WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES Valid... world 34 8393CH03.qxd 8 /2/ 07 12: 04 PM Page 37 3 ACCESSIBILITY 8393CH03.qxd 8 /2/ 07 12: 04 PM Page 38 WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES Architecture and web design are close cousins Both vocations require focus in creatively designing tangible experiences and environments that facilitate movement A good architect will study how people move from room to room and craft a layout that...8393CH 02. qxd 8/6/07 3:59 PM Page 32 WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES Figure 2- 2 The text on the right could appear on a website; the text on the left is formatted for print Several studies have been conducted, all of them producing virtually imperceptible, almost anecdotal evidence supporting both arguments For typography on the Web, we can deduce the following:... essence, the WAI shifted away from the 7 8 W3C, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0” (www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/ #Guidelines) Joe Clark, “To Hell with WCAG 2, ” A List Apart, May 20 06 (www.alistapart.com/articles/ tohellwithwcag2) 43 8393CH03.qxd 8 /2/ 07 12: 04 PM Page 44 WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES technique-centric approach and rewrote the guidelines by principle This... Mastery: Advanced Web Standards Solutions, by Andy Budd, Simon Collison, and Cameron Moll For an entertaining read on how Arial was unceremoniously derived from Helvetica, read Mark Simonson’s article “The Scourge of Arial,” at www.ms-studio.com/articles.html 33 8393CH 02. qxd 8/6/07 3:59 PM Page 34 WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES Summary Writing and the presentation of the written... reading Compare that to white text (#FFFFFF) on a field of dark blue (#000080), and the ratio jumps to 15.95:1, a highly legible contrast 12 www.wat-c.org/tools/CCA/1.1 47 8393CH03.qxd 8 /2/ 07 12: 04 PM Page 48 WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES Most sites have good contrast for normal viewing, but for some, good color choices are simply not enough Visually impaired visitors need... contact form uses an asterisk and red text to indicate which fields are required In addition, it also explains what the asterisk means 55 8393CH03.qxd 8 /2/ 07 12: 04 PM Page 56 WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES JavaScript enhancements should be nonintrusive Adding functionality to a form can greatly enhance usability, but only if the JavaScript is nonintrusive, meaning that the form... labels, fieldsets, and legends The tag is a beautiful piece of semantic markup that links a field to its text description It provides a larger hit area for the control; for instance, clicking the text Name in the example shown in Figure 3-4 would automatically move the cursor into the correct field 53 8393CH03.qxd 8 /2/ 07 12: 04 PM Page 54 WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES Figure... designers, developers, and directors need to be concerned about The W3C The W3C is a large, nonprofit organization comprised of hundreds of individuals and organizations whose purpose is to establish standards and guidelines for the Web They are most famous for establishing HTML, CSS, and XML, but also actively work on standards for the PNG and Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) graphic formats, SOAP and. .. Design for device-independence 10 Use interim solutions 11 Use W3C technologies and guidelines 12 Provide context and orientation information 13 Provide clear navigation mechanisms 14 Ensure that documents are clear and simple WCAG 2. 0 WCAG 2. 0 arrived in 20 06 and saw both criticism and praise from developers all over the Web Many considered it a major step forward, while others, like accessibility consultant . decade, the rulebook for WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES 22 1. The long tail is a term first coined by Chris Anderson in an October 20 04 article for Wired (available. other handicaps. WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES 38 1. www.joeclark.org 2. www.accessify.com 8393CH03.qxd 8 /2/ 07 12: 04 PM Page 38 The 20 00 US Census reported that 12. 3 percent. utilization?): WEB DESIGN AND MARKETING SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESS WEBSITES 26 2. Erin Kissane, “Attack of the Zombie Copy,” A List Apart, October 24 , 20 05 (www.alistapart.com/articles/zombiecopy). 8393CH 02. qxd