Target Audience: Engaged news readers looking for quality coverage. Leans slightly older.
Types of navigation evident: Main navigation bar with hamburger dropdown. Trending topics bar. Most read sidebar. Sections as you scroll down for categories such as “Culture & Lifestyle, Sports, Business, etc. Navigation on the bottom of the page has four categories, each with a blue header and multiple sub-items.
Application of principles: Consistent type and color for heads, subheads, body, categories, and author names are repeated throughout. Columnists have their own type hierarchy system. Most content is aligned left. Some content is in 3 columns aligned left and some is in 4 columns seemingly centered. Horizontal lines are used to divide the page into clear sections. The website is high-contrast, mostly using black text on a white background with some dark greys on light greys.
✓ Appealing to target audience
✓ Consistent site header/logo
✓ Consistent navigation area
❏ Informative page title that includes the company/organization/site name
❏ Page footer area includes copyright, last update, contact e-mail address
✓ Good use of basic design principles: repetition, contrast, proximity, and alignment
✓ Balance of text/graphics/white space on page
✓ Good contrast between text and background
✓ Home page downloads within 10 seconds on a mobile device
✓ Viewport meta tag is used to enhance display on smartphones
✓ Responsive page layout is configured for smartphone and tablet display
✓ Displays on popular/current versions of Microsoft Edge
✓ Displays on current versions of Firefox
✓ Displays on current versions of Google Chrome
? Displays on current versions of Opera
? Displays on current versions of Safari (both Mac and Windows)
✓ Displays on popular mobile devices (including tablets and smartphones)
✓ Main navigation links are clearly and consistently labeled
✓ Navigation is easy to use for target audience
n/a If main navigation uses images, clear text links are in the footer section of the page
n/a If main navigation uses media, clear text links are in the footer section of the page
❏ Navigation is structured in an unordered list
✓ Navigation aids, such as site map, skip navigation link, or breadcrumbs are used
✓ All navigation hyperlinks "work" — are not broken
✓ Color scheme is limited to a maximum of three or four colors plus neutrals
✓ Color is used consistently
✓ Text color has sufficient contrast with background color
✓ Color is not used alone to convey meaning
✓ Use of color and graphics enhances rather than distracts from the site
❏ Graphics are optimized and do not significantly slow download (Something is slowing the site. Not sure what).
✓ Each graphic used serves a clear purpose
❏ Img element tags use the alt attribute to configure an alternate text description
✓ Animated images do not distract from the site and do not endlessly repeat
✓ Each audio/video file used serves a clear purpose
✓ Any animation used enhances rather than distracts
✓ Captions are provided for each audio or video file used
n/a If needed, links to downloads for media plug-ins are provided
✓ Common fonts such as Arial or Times New Roman are used
❏ No more than one web font is used
✓ Techniques of writing for the Web are used: headings, bullet points, brief paragraphs
✓ Fonts, font sizes, and font colors are consistently used
✓ Content provides meaningful, useful information
✓ Content is organized in a consistent manner
✓ Information is easy to find (minimal clicks)
✓ Timeliness: The date of the last revision and/or copyright date is accurate
✓ Content does not include outdated material
✓ Content is free of typographical and grammatical errors
✓ Content provides links to other useful sites
✓ Avoids the use of "Click here" when writing text for hyperlinks
✓ Hyperlinks use a consistent set of colors to indicate visited/nonvisited status
❏ If graphics are used to convey meaning, the alternate text equivalent is provided
❏ If media is used to convey meaning, the alternate text equivalent is provided
✓ All internal hyperlinks work
✓ All external hyperlinks work
✓ All forms function as expected
✓ No JavaScript errors are generated
n/a If main navigation uses images or other media, text links are in the footer section of the page
❏ Navigation is structured in an unordered list
✓ Navigation aids, such as site map, skip navigation link, or breadcrumbs are used
✓ Color is not used alone to convey meaning
✓ Text color has sufficient contrast with background color
❏ Img elements use the alt attribute to configure an alternate text description
❏ If graphics are used to convey meaning, the alternate text equivalent is provided
❏ If media is used to convey meaning, the alternate text equivalent is provided
✓ Captions are provided for each audio or video file used
❏ Use attributes designed to improve accessibility such as title when appropriate
✓ Use the id and headers attributes to improve the accessibility of table data
✓ Configure frames with frame titles and place meaningful content in the noframes area
✓ The html element's lang attribute indicates the spoken