Provide user-friendly files:
How do you do this?
- Optimise images for the web
- Zip files to reduce their size (although the user must be able
to unzip them)
- PDF files can be saved
at a resolution of 72dpi without significant loss of quality
- For longer documents, provide an executive summary in HTML
- Provide the option to download particular sections or the whole
file
- Include the file format, file size and number of pages in all
links to downloadable files. For example, the full link name should
be '<filename>, PDF format, 350KB, 35 pages'
Why? Compressing files decreases download times.
Breaking the file into sections allows the users to print out the
sections they want. Warning the user of file format benefits users
who may not have or may not be able to get a reader for that format.
Warning the user of file size is valuable information for users
who have slow internet connections. Warning users of the number
of pages is important for students who must pay for printing by
the page.
Next Tip: Don’t
surprise or annoy users with elements that flicker, flash, or create
new windows without warning
These tips may be applied to any web site or Vista
course, and are derived from the World Wide Web Consortium
(W3C) Web
Accessibility Initiative but are not intended to reinterpret
them. Web developers are encouraged to access the W3C
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Version 1.0, directly.
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