Opera's Web Standards Curriculum
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...looks interesting.
http://www.opera.com/...
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Jack Pickard The Pickards Information Services| Blog | Twit
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URLs are not good link text, Jack!!
I think the articles are too wordy. Some bullet points are the length of a long paragraph! There are publishing errors, such as unnecessary line breaks and words touching code where a space as gone missing. Indention is inconsistent, varying between 4 spaces and TAB.
The pages themselves have coding mistakes, such as rev="prev" for rel="prev" for navigating between articles. And this navigation uses <p> and <br> instead of <ul> or <ol> and <li>.
Speaking of which, I found navigating between them really difficult. Indeed, even getting to the first article is a bit of a task. The "Start Learning!" button looks like a promo, so it suffers banner blindness. The text link taking you into the articles is far towards the middle of the page, so you're lucky if F-shaped reading pattern takes you that far.
Incidentally, the alt text for that button is the wrong way round. The button says Start Learning! The Opera Web Standards Curriculum but markup says alt="The Opera Web Standards Curriculum: Start Learning!".
Why isn't that page just the table of contents? Nobody reads marketing blurb so they could delete the whole "Making Opera Work for You" section. Or at least move it to a separate page and link to it in the table of contents.
While we're on that page, the Testimonials area uses <p class="quote"> and <p class="credit">. Why not <blockquote><p> with <cite> or <address>? Would you trust articles about web standards published on a website which doesn't use <blockquote>?
Perhaps I'm being too cynical, but the project feels like it's more about raising publicity for the authors and for Opera than educating people about web standards.
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My CV type thing and my Life of Ben (Blog). Nigel Peck's Accessify Forum Requirements.
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| Cerbera wrote: |
| URLs are not good link text, Jack!! |
...and multiple exclamation marks are normally the sign of a deranged mind. Well, that and people who describe themselves as 'zany'
| Cerbera wrote: |
| I think the articles are too wordy. |
I'm minded to agree: there's a lot of background and they could be punchier...
| Cerbera wrote: |
| Speaking of which, I found navigating between them really difficult. |
| Cerbera wrote: |
| Perhaps I'm being too cynical, but the project feels like it's more about raising publicity for the authors and for Opera than educating people about web standards. |
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Jack Pickard The Pickards Information Services| Blog | Twit
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| Well Opera obviously have an agenda - as a standards-compliant but small market share browser, they will obviously benefit if more people use standards compliant code |
Certainly true. As I say on my blog:
"Of course, it’s not all altrusim from Opera, it’s a long-term plan. What hurts Opera is when big name sites don’t work in the browser. This happens not because there’s anything wrong with the browser but because the website is “optimised” for a less standards-compliant browser ... So if we can train future web developers in the right way to develop, it’ll enhance Opera’s utility, as well as make the web a better place. Give us the child, and we’ll give you the semantic, standards man."
Does the fact that we might benefit from it in about a decade mean that we're not seriously trying to teach people web standards now? Does the fact that we might gain invalidate our efforts?
About the long-winded background in the pieces; that's true from our perspective, but nobody here is from the target audience -- it's aimed at beginners. I do hour-long presentations on "why accessibility matters" that would bore the pants off everyone on the accessify forums, but which give me feedback from n00bs saying they found it fascinating.
Great feedback, Cerbera, on the editing and proofing errors that slneaked through. I've passed them onto Chris Mills, who commissioned and edited them. Please let me have any other glitches you notice.
Edit 3.15pm: we've corrected the errors, and made the table of contents more prominent for easier navigation.
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www.brucelawson.co.uk
Web Evanglist, Opera, WaSP Accesibility Task Force
Study the Web Standards Curriculum
International Lothario (retired)
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I've found a few more things.
Just before I sent this message, I noticed the navigation between articles isn't fixed. The <br> elements were merely replaced by a </p>, a newline, then a <p>. It's a list of links, not 3 adjacent paragraphs where each paragraph is a single link.
Saying "This is Article 4 of the Web Standards Curriculum" seems redundant. The <title> starts with 4, as does the main heading. The "Article Categories" item for the Web Standards Curriculum is specially styled to show that's where the article is.
If you keep it, you could make the "Web Standards Curriculum" part a link to the curriculum homepage. Then you could remove the "Table of Contents" link.
Hmm, just before closing that article I noticed a few inline references to markup aren't using <code> in the What is XHTML table. Item 2 in the Lets add some style section seems to be missing the <pre> to contain and style it. The more time I spend in the curriculum the more editorial "glitches" I find. So I'm drawing the line here and getting on with some actual work instead.
(EDIT) Clearer link text.
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My CV type thing and my Life of Ben (Blog). Nigel Peck's Accessify Forum Requirements.
Last edited by Ben Millard on 02 Oct 2008 12:48 am; edited 2 times in total
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good points, Cerbera.; I' ve just noticed this,
Thanks (genuinely) for taking the time to point them out. Mills will be onto it like a rottweiler tomorrow morning.
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www.brucelawson.co.uk
Web Evanglist, Opera, WaSP Accesibility Task Force
Study the Web Standards Curriculum
International Lothario (retired)
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Cool. Just fixed about 50 editorial glitches (aka human errors) in my blog entry. 
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My CV type thing and my Life of Ben (Blog). Nigel Peck's Accessify Forum Requirements.
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Ben, do you have an a Amazon wishlist?
You've done a really thorough job of constructively criticising the new Web Standards Curriculum stuff - and given me Chris Mills and I enough ammunition to persuade our dev guys to get the xml prologue off the site and look at the CSS.
So I'd like to say thank you properly from Opera. Contact me off list, if you prefer. It's brucel at the obvious work domain.
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www.brucelawson.co.uk
Web Evanglist, Opera, WaSP Accesibility Task Force
Study the Web Standards Curriculum
International Lothario (retired)
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