So you want to improve websites and online services ? Your efforts to improve the user experience on the web will have to be based on a broad array of diverse topics.
- You know how important the UX (user experience) approach is.
- You also know that improving accessibility is essential for people with disabilities.
- You know that security issues are fundamental and that privacy is essential
- You know or will soon know that performance improvement is crucial as well as eco-design.
- You know how much the quality of sites impacts on conversion and retention and more generally on the financial viability of online businesses.
- You already know how much non-quality costs are associated with web design activities.
I could go on but most of this you know, but you don’t know how to prioritise.
All these topics are essential. All existing users and potential users are important. Any issue you decide not to address will impact somebody in some way. Disabled people suffer massively from the shortcomings of e-commerce sites. Older people have their personal data stolen. Hospitals suffer from cyber attacks. Refugees and migrants are confused by incomprehensible administrative procedures. People with low bandwidth cannot access certain content because it is too heavy. Parcels are sent back and forth over hundreds of thousands of kilometres because products are badly described.
So, for the past 20 years, we at Opquast have decided not to prioritise but to create a checklist that allows us to cover some fundamental elements on all these subjects. We decided to create a glossary of terms and to make sure that Web professionals were familiar with them.
We decided to create a cross-disciplinary course, necessary while not exhaustive, that helps you start from the beginning, whether you are just entering the digital sector or if you have been in it for a long time.
How about starting at the beginning?