Viewing Guidelines for Sites Created by Rob Barthle

The following guidelines are offered to you to maximize your viewing experience of my work.

Standards

Beginning in 2008, all sites I develop are created with a specific set of goals in mind.

To enahnce your viewing options, I strive for the following:

  1. Adherance to web development standards. My HTML code is tested and checked against the HTML 4.01 Transitional standards. ** Valid HTML 4.01 Transitional
  2. Flexibility of design. My design layouts are done via Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), offering a greater level of creativity and design options. **
  3. Accessibility to the visually impaired. By using CSS and avoiding tables, the underlying HTML code is kept to a basic level and is very accessible to those using screen reading software. This allows me to adhere to Section 508 Usability standards as much as possible. **
  4. Ease of use. Where applicable, sites are built with custom built administrative tools that allow the clients to maintain portions of their sites without my intervention.

Screen Size

My sites are tested to be viewed on screen sizes as small as 800x600, but a minimum screen size of 1024x768 is recommended for optimal pleasure.

Recommended Browsers

When creating a web site, I test it in the following browsers. I recommend that you use one of these browsers.

Older versions of any browser listed above are not supported. As of 2009, I have decided to stop supporting IE6. With IE8 having been released, and the advent of the "Web 2.0" style of user interaction, I cannot in good faith support such an outdated and limited browser when I am doing the pro-bono work in my spare time.

I won't go into a soapbox tirade on this, but I highly recommend using a standards-compliant browser like Firefox, Safari, or Opera. Unlike IE, these have long adhered to the world-wide accepted W3C standards for HTML code. Microsoft hasn't gotten the memo on that yet, they cling to the false belief that they somehow know better than the rest of the world. This is not my opinion, it is a known fact. It iis also a fact that more and more people are slowly moving away from IE, so there is hope for the future. As a developer, it is a headache to have to build sites for two different viewing audiences, but until Microsoft comes into alignment with the rest of the web-browsing world, it will have to be this way. Okay, so that was a little of a tirade...

I test my sites in both Macintosh OS X and Windows XP environments.

AOL users: It has come to my attention that the internal web browser AOL uses is not standards-compliant. As I do not have an AOL account, I cannot test for it. However, you shouldn't be stuck using that browser! You can use ANY web browser you want to after you log in to AOL. SO use one of the recommended browsers listed above, and junk the AOL browser!

Pop-ups

Occasionally, I will force links to pop open a new browser window. Usually these are to external sites, when I don't want users to lose their place within my sites. Never will any popups on my sites be used for malicious intentions. Please adjust your popup blocking software to allow popups from my sites.

JavaScript/jQuery

JavaScript is recommended for optimal viewing exerience. On some pages I will make use of the jQuery library of code to provide "Web 2.0" functionality. These pages will require JavaScript to be enabled, and those who have disabled it will be presented with a note to enable it and reload.

** - In the future, I will be upgrading older sites to these marked standards as well. Sites built before 2008 may not yet meet this guideline.