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Cheryl Lead and Ben Buchanan – Moving your Organization to Web Standards

Cheryl’s experience with Virgin Money

I’m going to save the world by making my company go to web standardsCheryl Lead

  • Used numbers to sell the idea X more applicants if we make it accessible
  • 400,000 legally blind web users in the UK. Tesco launched Tesco Access and made 13 million pounds more via that site the next year. Cheryl doesn’t believe you should have two separate sites; I certainly agree.
  • Virgin has approx 25 brand values that everything must tie in with; most of those relate to customer service. Accessibility fits in with this perfectly.
  • You must learn how to talk “online” to non-online people. Marketers completely shut down if you talk tech speak.
  • Our web site as it stands is a pair of acid-wash jeansOh my God, we don’t want to be acid wash jeans!
  • Having a project sponsor who understands what you’re trying to achieve is a key leverage point. This person will help you fight the battles that you will face.
  • Endless presentations were required to prove that accessible design didn’t have to be ugly or plain.
  • Standards advocates want everyone else to be as passionate as they are. They want to teach you to fish, not just give you a fish
  • Created a 60 page style guide with what markup could be used, etc. Was a nightmare to have to force this upon people, but at the time appeared to be essential.
  • We’ll fix that in faze two – faze two never very rarely comes.
  • By pushing the agency to learn standards, they’ve now turned for good. All their future clients benefit from the work put in by Cheryl’s project
  • Virgin Credit launched six months after Virgin Loans site; used same CSS templates and cut development time in half.
  • Going forward – need to be careful with the maintenance; must retain that purity of code into the future.

Ben’s experience with Griffith University

  • Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing what you thought impossible
  • Central web team that maintains core infrastructure
  • Evolved from tag soup to XHTML/CSS; framesets to frameless; 20,000 files to 250,000 files; all without a CMS.
  • It took a long time – Ben invested six years of his life pushing a cause he knew was right
  • 1998: recognized that the online brand needed to be different than the print and signage brand; first steps in the right direction. Perl script used to create text version of entire site.
  • 2001: banned font tags entirely. Publishing tool checked for font tags and rejected them. That one change caused people to use heading elements and basic CSS
  • 2003: Killed off Java applet in favour of Flash (lesser of two evils). Java applet crashed browsers. *BAM*. Goodbye NN4
  • 2006: XHTML + CSS, no plugins required; elastic em based layout. Offered a low contrast version after receiving staff feedback about headaches from extreme contrast. The end of the second text version. Now the one site is available to everyone.
  • Be prepared! You will have to say unpopular things that won’t win you any friends. You will need to compromise. Be ready for the big meetings – you’re your statistics ready and know your facts.
  • Get allies; you will start as a lone voice, but you will soon find others get onboard as they start to “get it”
  • Start with smaller changes; be realistic about what you can achieve at any given stage
  • Buy in: You’ll need management on side; you’ll need your coders enthused, they must want to make these changes. If you can get marketing onside, you will have a very powerful ally.
  • The moral high ground rarely motivates actions.
  • Appeal to the present audience – You’ll save money attracts managers; You’ll save time attracts coders
  • Use analogies – they really do work!
  • Be positive, be motivational. If that fails, then you bring out the Big Stick.
  • You are not alone, you are part of a worldwide movement.

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this was a masterfully curated event … a brilliant day that educated, entertained, and rekindled some old connections

Ash Donaldson Service & Behaviour Design Director, Tobias
Portrait of Ash Donaldson