A Corporate Web UI Style (CWUIS) is useful to the extent that it supports corporate goals.
It should help the corporation produce more usable products more efficiently
(assuming that product usability is a primary goal).
A CWUIS may need to trade off standards conformance (e.g., HTML 4.0) for portability
to browsers actually in use, missing parts and bugs included.
For example, Netscape 4.x browsers provide minimal support of Cascading Style Sheet (CSS)
and the HTML 4.0 Object Model, while Explorer 3.x browsers provide little support for JavaScript,
and all major versions of major browsers differ in subtle ways about how they interpret the same HTML.
For mass markets, corporations can not dictate browser/hardware requirements without
limiting market penetration or alienating users.
The Web is a volatile platform.
Each new browser release presents new needs to adapt designs.
Each innovation raises the expectations of users.
Products must be highly configurable and modifiable.
Any CWUIS needs to support ongoing global modifications of design/implementation.
Global modifications must be placed the context of a need for quality assurance
(e.g., regression testing).
Usually, global modifications are accomplished by
single-source specification of the user interface
(thereby allowing global modification in one place).
International markets require partitioning all natural language
and locale-specific presentation of data.
Platform portability requires partitioning all presentation styles
from functional specifications/code.
SiteSearch styletables, gadgets, and entity substitution in general
can support these approaches
(see FS UI Architecture).
The following lists provide examples of goals for products,
areas of guidelines and methods.
Underlying this high level view are many details
requiring knowledge of
usable design,
browser differences,
internationalization,
accessibility needs, etc.
In practice, it is unrealistic to expect to get everything right,
or even to know all the dimensions to be addresses.
It is important, therefore, to centralize knowledge
(ideally represented in code to produce or at least verify),
and that the representation of this knowledge be an ongoing quest.
- establish corporate branding
- increase usability
- coordinate across corporate workgroups
- coordinate across products
- facilitate rather than enforce
- improve productivity of developers
- portable across platforms (browser versions, hardware)
- internationalization (multilingual, multicultural)
see ISO-639
| ISO-8601
| ISO-8859
| Unicode
| W3C
| etc.
- disability accessible
- see WAI
- customization (site and user)
- etc. (this list is meant to provide examples, not be comprehensive)
|
- DRSS - ILL
- CORC
- WebExpress
- CatExpress
- FirstSearch
- etc. (this list is meant to provide examples, not be comprehensive)
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- Layout of pages
- Navigation across pages
- Data Input/Display
- Form/Dialog Design
- Terminology
- Graphics
- Interactive media
- User guidance - tips in dialogs, online help, and print
- Feedback, Messages, and Error Handling
|
- Process
(prototyping, usability testing)
- see OCLC UI Design
- Tools to Support/Check Design
- General Guides
- e.g., Yale |
WAI |
etc
- Instruction of developers
- e.g., courses, group reviews and discussion
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