Top 10 Guidelines for UK local government websites
10. Adopt web best practice
Using frames and tables, working with scripts and plugs-ins, providing Document Type Definitions (DTDs) and encoding to the defined version of HTML, file sizes, web-safe colours … the Guidelines for UK government websites: Illustrated handbook for web management teams covers a range of agreed best practice.
Here are some key points:
- HTML coding should validate to a particular version of HTML as declared in a DTD. We recommend HTML 4.1 for ease of accessibility, but test to make sure that it transforms gracefully for browsers that support earlier versions of HTML. We recommend that pages should still work well in browsers that support HTML 3.2. Also, test pages for compatibility with a range of different browsers
- Frames and tables are fine, but must follow best practice if they are to be accessible. The Illustrated handbook for web management teams contains cut-and-paste code that has been validated
- Make sure that colours (particularly for logos and backgrounds as well as text and hyperlinks) come from the 216 colours in the web-safe palette. This will preserve your branding and also make sure that people with older equipment can use the site
For speed of download, here are some rule-of-thumb file sizes:
- Homepage: 40kb
- Standard information page: 120kb
- Download page size: 300kb
- Browser plug-ins such as Shockwave, QuickTime or Realplayer can provide more media-rich content. Just make sure that alternative versions are available—the website should be just as easily navigated and understood by people without the plug-ins. Such content should not be forced on people (ie, it should not feature on the homepage) – offer it as an option
- The Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS) is used to filter web content to protect younger users. The use of the metadata that supports PICS will be mandatory under the e-GIF version 4. The Illustrated handbook for web management teams details how it works and how to meet this requirement
- Ensure your contracts cover protective measures, such as the frequency of back-ups, the safeguarding of backup copies, your server host’s responsibility in the event of denial of service, etc
- Discussion groups need to have a clear purpose, usually to consult people on particular issues. Make sure your own commitment to act or not on contributions is clear, and place clear limits on the kinds of comments you will publish. You will need to protect the website against publishing racist, libelous, threatening or obscene comment. Spam and advertising should not be posted. You will need to decide if you want to remove such material after it has been posted or invest in a system that edits comments before publication. The terms and conditions under which users are allowed to take part should be posted on the site
- Cascading Style Sheets enable you to separate the content of the website from its styling element. They make uniform formatting easier to achieve and preserve the accessibility of the site.
Relevant resources
The Guidelines for UK government websites: Illustrated handbook for web management teams provides advice on the following topics at:
Web handbook
- Section 1.6 Discussion groups. Open and closed discussions. Clear terms of use policies (with sample)
- Section 1.8 Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS). How to set a certification rating for the content of your site. This rating is then read by filters on browsers. The page will be displayed only if it meets the user’s own criteria. This allows parents or schools to protect children from particular kinds of content
- Section 2.5 Browser compatibility. Ensuring that your HTML markup will display on different browsers
- Sections in Chapter 4?HTML markup, other formats and scripting? resolve a number of technical issues
- Chapter 6, Technical detail and tutorials, reviews best practice in the following areas:
- Hypertext Markup Language (HTML 4.01)
- Cascading Style Sheets
- HTML tables
- HTML frames
- HTML forms
- Web page navigation
- The Annexes list applications and other resources (note: appearance in these lists is NOT an endorsement). Annexes include:
- Web browser applications
- Disability-specific web browsers
- HTML editor applications
- Graphic applications
- Plug-ins
- General applications
- Changing browser fonts and colours
- Access standards and common file extensions
- Common HTTP server status codes
- Error 404
- Redirect page
- There is also a Checklist: specifying your website and a Glossary
