Justifying non-justified text for the Internet

Recently a client asked that we alter the text layout on a site we built for them so that the text was fully justified by default. This is something we actively don't do as a matter of accessibility as we know that the full justification of text can make the readability of said text plummet.

We declined to justify the text for said reasons of accessibility and pointed out a few useful links to sites that argue against full justification of text and the reasons why it is so bad.

So this post is here to gather together those resources in one place so we can highlight these excellent posts and provide a single resource that points to them.

• RNIB - Is Justified text, err... justified?
• RNIB - See it right standard general guidance (MS Word document)
• Wikipedia - River (typography)
• PWS Ltd - Text justification issues and techniques
• e-bility - Enabling the Internet for people with dyslexia
• Skills for access - Maximise text readability
• Made for all - Designing for users with dyslexia
• Usability - An Accessibility Frontier: Cognitive disabilities and learning difficulties
• Web Dev Blog - Can justified text be justified for the web

So there you have it. A list (in no particular order) of some excellent resources that spell out just why building an accessible site with justified text simply cannot be justified.

I hope they help other accessibility minded web designers dissuade their clients from using justified text just as they dissuade ours.

Useful SEO techniques when re-building a web site

Over the past few years, we have taken over the development and maintenance of several well established high profile websites and more often than not, we've been changing the technology that the sites are powered by to our preferred solutions. One of the major challenges along the way especially with high traffic sites with thousands of back links is to try to preserve those links whilst deploying a new site that may or may not have the equivalent pages and or structure.

So what tools and techniques are available to us?

Converting a site from PHP to ColdFusion 8 using the New Media CMS

We recently took on the re-development of a reasonably busy website with a large amount of mixed content that was originally written in a mix of straight HTML and dynamic php pages with around 130 pdf documents as well.

The overall health of the site prior to re-development was not great. There were a hundred or so faulty links, pointing to .htm files instead of .php files and vice versa which resulted in a couple of hundred 404 page not found errors. The HTML that the site used wasn't standards compliant which caused rendering issues in some of the less popular browsers and the sites search engine rankings were poor due to a lack of decent search engine optimisation on the site. From an accessibility point of view, the site would only work correctly if JavaScript and full image capabilities were enabled and it looked just awful on mobile devices.

Mobile internet usage on the rise

According to an article on the BBC news site today, usage of the Internet through mobile devices (phones, pda's etc.) is on the rise.

So, what does this mean for website owners?

Well, for one it means that the quality of your website will have to be top notch. In order to guarantee that your website works well on any device and not just the many versions of Internet Explorer. This is something we've been advocating for years and endeavour to achieve as much as possible whilst we meet our clients requirements for their sites.

For another it means that your site audience demographic will be changing, mobile Internet users are in general younger than the traditional PC/mac/Linux user and being mobile, require that the content they see is speedy, on point and easy to navigate.

Simply hoping that mobile browser technology will cope with your website is not enough. To get the best out of your site on mobile devices, you have to make sure that it is standards compliant and accessible.

"But isn't all that just for users with disabilities?" I hear you cry.

Well, the short answer is No....