Web Do's & Don'ts

Don’t use HTTP based resources on a HTTPS page

Siniša — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 20:35:27 +0000

Internet Explorer interrupts the download and displays a confirmation dialog whenever it detects the use of mixed content on a secure page.

In IE 7 and ealier, this dialog would cause annoyance to users but generally didn’t cause any other significant problems because most users would click on the Yes button and allow non-secure content to be downloaded. However, the wording in the IE 8 version of this dialog has changed and to download the content a user would now have to click on the No button.

Specify a text colour for img elements

Bojan — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 08:59:09 +0000

Some browsers display the alt text when an img element is not displayed. The alt text can sometimes be invisible or hard to read, if the color of the text is similar to the background color. Therefore, specify the color(s) and check how it looks in the browser.

Don’t use protocol relative paths to CSS files

Siniša — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 18:53:03 +0000

Internet Explorer 7 & 8 will download stylesheets twice if the http(s) protocol is missing.

Plan the absence of Javascript

Siniša — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 19:38:05 +0000

The fact is that some of your website’s visitors will have JavaScript disabled. Should hidden content remain hidden even if JavaScript is disabled? Should all content be available to screen readers and search engines? If a piece of content becomes visible only after an AJAX call, how do you adequately fill that space when JavaScript is disabled?

Always provide an alt text in img elements

Bojan — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 09:24:11 +0000

The alt attribute is a textual replacement for the image which is not being displayed. It must always be used, even if the image in question is purely decorative–in that case, the alt attribute should be an empty string.

Use tables in HTML email

Bojan — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 08:59:28 +0000

Tables are inappropriate for layout, but a necessary evil in HTML e-mail. Mail clients have bad CSS support which means we must use tables when coding newsletters to ensure consistent display across clients.

Get familiar with CSS escape sequences

Siniša — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 11:38:43 +0000

Escape sequences are useful because they allow style sheet authors to represent characters that would normally be ignored or interpreted differently by traditional CSS parsing rules.

Don’t be skipping heading levels

Siniša — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 12:55:53 +0000

One of the benefits of a proper and consistent heading structure in an HTML page is that they can be repurposed to improve access to the content. Also keep in mind that skipping a heading level makes navigating by headers less usable for screenreader users.

Use the title attribute on form elements

Siniša — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 18:43:58 +0000

The title attribute offers an extra avenue for associating text to a form field. It should not be used as the first means of associating a label text with a corresponding form field. In situations where supplementary information is useful, the title attribute is helpful.

Skip navigation links

Bojan — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 10:00:43 +0000

Provide a link to skip over navigation links, helping keyboard and screen reader users to jump to the main content of the page.