Ideal for the small to medium-sized business, ComeUpSmiling's Design Reports offer an independent review of your web site,
covering Accessibility, Browser Compatibility, Page Design, Design Coding, and Download Speed, as detailed below.
A Premier Design Report (view example.pdf)
checks all five criteria on specific pages of a website; alternatively a minimum of three criteria can be chosen
to create a Customised Design Report. Design Reports are generally not
appropriate for Flash-heavy sites.
The prices next to each criteria indicate their cost when chosen as part of a Customised
Design Report; a Premier Design Report is £200. In both cases this represents the charge
for testing four pages from one site, although upto ten pages can be tested if
required. Depending upon the criteria chosen, the site-specific content of each design report will
normally be between 600 and 1500 words. The report is deliberately kept as straightforward as
possible, although more detailed error messages can be included if required.
1) Accessibility - £55
This automated accessibility check is based on the W3C guidelines and testable success criteria, known as WCAG 2.0.
Each page is assessed with respect to its 'conformance level' from Level A (the minimum level of conformance)
through Level AA to Level AAA (maximum conformance) using an accessibility validator. The purpose of these conformance
levels is to try and ensure that websites are accessible to people with disabilities - see also
http://www.out-law.com/page-330
and http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG/. If a site fails to reach Level A
conformance, it is very likely that disabled users will struggle to use that web site.
Next, the contrast ratio between the foreground and background
colours of the text elements are examined to see if they also conform to WCAG 2.0. If the main foreground
and background colours on the page do not conform, then they are also assessed specifically in terms of
three colour vision problems, namely protanopia, deuteranopia, and tritanopia.
Please note that conforming with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), is only an indicator of a
particular web page's actual accessibility, and it should thus be regarded as the first of several steps towards true accessibility.
The RNIB,
for example, offers a far more detailed and very specific accessibility audit.
2) Cross-Browser Check - £40
Each page is viewed on a PC with a screen resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels using six common browsers (Internet
Explorer 8, Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 3.6, Opera 10, Safari 4, and Google Chrome 5) to determine if there are
significant differences or problems; any such problems are highlighted, and where appropriate also illustrated
by the inclusion of a screenshot of the relevant page(s) as seen in that particular browser.
3) Design Style and Structure - £65
The design report will initially look at the overall design of the page and how well each design
component (logo, banner, columns, menu, headers, text and images) complements the other, together
with page navigation and ease of use. The nominated pages are then viewed at three common screen
resolutions to see the effect on the page structure and content; finally the title, together with
the keywords and description metatags are checked to ensure that they have been included (generally,
no comments are made about the suitability of a page's keywords or description, as this requires a significant
knowledge and understanding of each site's specific market).
4) Design Validation - £20
The html and css coding of the page is checked with an automated validation tool to see
if it follows the 'accepted rules' of that particular coding
language as recommended by the W3C and International Standards. If appropriate, the total number of errors is stated,
and the main error types for the selected pages are listed (up to a maximum of eight).
Pages on most sites are likely have some errors as they can easily creep in as pages are updated; however
a page with several hundred errors could well indicate rather sloppy coding practice, or possibly an inappropriate
DOCTYPE attribute. Such a page is thus quite likely to have problems being viewed correctly across a range of
browsers and screen resolutions - for more detailed information, see http://validator.w3.org/docs/why.html
5) Speed Report and Link Check - £40
Using a suitable speed test analyser, the size (in kilobytes) of the page content is
assessed, together with the respective download times for users with a 56k modem or 1.5Mbps
broadband connection; where download times are 'excessive' for particular
components, then these are highlighted. Finally, the page links (including menu items and image links) for
each nominated page are checked to ensure that there are no broken or invalid links; any such links are
listed (upto a maximum of eight).
For an illustration of a typical report, please view
example.pdf.
The prime purpose of the Design Report is to give an overview of a website's present
accessibility and design; informed decisions can then be made - in consultation
with your site administrator and web designer - as to the exact requirements of future updates.
ComeUpSmiling will be happy to offer advice on any of the above - simply
contact us with any questions you may have.
Disclaimer
The content of the design report is provided for informational purposes only; it represents
the professional opinion of an experienced web designer and has been prepared using various sources
and data which ComeUpSmiling believes to be reliable. However, ComeUpSmiling Ltd makes
no representation as to the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of this information, and in no
event shall ComeUpSmiling Ltd assume any liability or responsibility for any errors, omissions
or opinions in the design report.
