Opening the Web: Designing inclusive digital spaces

Dołączył: 10 Mar 2024 Posty: 1

Part of the success of the Web platform as an information distribution system is due to the fact that it was designed with open architecture. That is, all the code languages that make up a web page (HTML, CSS, JavaScript), and the communication protocols that facilitate communication between networks (HTTP, TCP, IP, etc.), were not privatized. Therefore, the organizations that developed these technologies have been able to implement web standards that are interoperable — that is, they work in any hardware or software context.

Thanks to these standards, the website can be accessible to any user with an Internet connection and a browser; This knowledge network is available to , regardless of the brand of their mobile device or the operating system installed on their computer. The architecture of Industry Email List the web, then, ensures an equitable and democratic system, right? In theory, yes. In practice, not so much. In my opinion, despite the standardized technology that supports the web, the platform has been losing its open nature to become increasingly closed and exclusive to users with more advanced hardware or faster and cheaper connections.

If we as web designers create content within the context of a developed country, that is, where broadband, mobile data, and hardware devices are affordable, we may begin to believe that this is the reality everywhere; that everyone surfs the Internet on an iPhone with 4G connections. This is obviously not reality. So what can we do to ensure a more open and inclusive digital environment on the Web?

Design “Progressively” When visiting a website, users have a goal in mind: read an article, learn something new, sign up for a service, etc. Therefore, the main responsibility of any website is to display the information or facilitate the process for users to achieve their goal. Unfortunately, as web browsers become more advanced, many skinners choose to create innovative digital experiences that users with less advanced mobile devices, slower connections, or older browsers cannot enjoy. This, I consider, is bad design, since web design should be for everyone, not just the technologically privileged.

Progressive Improvement ” is a web design methodology that seeks to solve this problem. When designing a website under these guidelines, priority is given to the content and basic functionality of the page. This ensures that you can meet the goals of all users; both those who have restricted internet accessibility options and those with greater resources and advanced technologies.

In the context of a web page, the content in the document is the most important and therefore what should be given the most priority. Next comes the visual design of the page (written in CSS), and finally the dynamic component (written in JavaScript). 2 Think about the real cost of your website Mobile device adoption in emerging markets, such as Latin America and the Caribbean, has grown considerably in recent years, but the cost of mobile data remains unaffordable. On the contrary, consumers in countries with greater resources (such as the United States) can purchase “unlimited” data plans at a relatively reasonable price.

For example, in Brazil, a page weighing 2.5Mbs costs $0.18 to download on a mobile network. It is worth emphasizing that this is the cost to download a single page . That means that browsing and downloading 10 pages at that average weight would cost $1.80. A substantial amount of money that is equivalent, for example, to the public transport fare to get to work. Therefore, some people would prefer to allocate those resources to more essential services.

To help you visualize this problem, I invite you to use the free tool whatdoesmysitecost.com . When you enter the URL of any web page, the tool calculates its weight in Megabytes (Mbs). An algorithm then computes what the cost of downloading the website would be in different countries around the world. An easy way to reduce the weight of web pages is to reduce the size of images and ensure that the user downloads only those they will need. For this, you can use tools like tinyPNG or Photoshop , as well as new web design patterns such as lazyload or the <picture> element for HTML images.

Wysłany: Nie Mar 10, 2024 04:25