Nidahas » Musings on design, web standards and free software from a Sri Lankan geek.

Ideas? Yes. Actioned?

2006.02.26

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I do not want to appear critical, or worse, an antfucker, but the 330kb flash navigation menu on the website of the Government Internet Data Center does seem to reflect the sad plight of government websites in Sri Lanka. It looks as if the “poor” nature of connectivity of the country has been overlooked in an effort to make the site spiffy. Is the “pro-poor” idea not being actioned?

A lot of systems ICTA is currently working on are web based applications. Most of them will be part of the government websites that will be developed/redesigned through the “Re-engineering Government” initiative. A brief look at some of the sites that have gone live makes one wonder whether there’s any real progress achieved.

Speaking at FOSS-ED, Manju Hatthotuwa, Chairman and CEO of ICTA admitted that none of the systems that are being developed for the government are FOSS. Our observations show that none of the websites that are being launched use web standards, and accessibility doesn’t appear to be a concern at all. This is not news, but Sri Lanka is losing out on a great opportunity here. We have a chance to get things right in the first place rather than overhauling systems to FOSS and converting sites to web standards later, but sadly it doesn’t seem to be happening.

I have bitter memories of working on a government site, so the lack of attention to maintainability or making proper use of sustainable technologies does not come as a surprise. Instead of whining about what’s lacking, I’d like to make a few suggestions to the designers working on these sites (based on the assumption that they will still be using tables for layout):

• It’s ok to go simple. If you keep the layout simple you won’t need to use so many spacer gifs
• Don’t use Flash; Sri Lankans can’t afford it over their slow connections
• Keep images to a minimum; most of the decorative stuff gets in the way of communication, and take ages to load as well
• Try browsing the site with images turned off and see if all content is still accessible
• Use unobstrusive javascript, if at all

These are not difficult to follow if you try to focus on simplicity.

On the other hand, if you did design a government website with web standards, our respect! Please let us know too - we’re always on the lookout for local standardistas.

Permanent Link | Filed under: Design, FOSS, Sri Lanka, Thoughts

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