The other day a friend of mine was asking me about XOXO and Microformats. He is relatively new to the industry and was trying to get some advice about how to implement XOXO. After talking to him a little bit we got on the to subject of (re)building a website and the steps to fixing/building sites.

A while ago I had started a project to go through the process of building a website. It’s still on the back burner right now but I thought I would present a list of things that, when developing a website’s interface, need to be focused on. I’ve collected my thoughts on a short list that hopefully will help you.

1. Structure

   All websites need to have some sort structure when writing the (x)html. I would suggest taking the semantic approach and organize things, that is to say use meaningful IDs and class names.

2. Accessibility

   I know people don’t get all excited when they see accessibility. But if you take a minute and think about it most of the SEO concerns are addressed with Section 508 and WCAG. Consider this: alt attributes on images help both accessibility and SEO concerns. I say make your site usable by all (humans) and you won’t have to worry about the robots. Google did say to build websites for humans for a reason.

3. Users

   Make sure that users can use your site. This sounds like a no brain-er but you would be surprised how how many developers launch their sites without even putting it through a simple user test. Its not overly hard to do, grab your boyfriend, girlfriend, brother, sister, parent, random person in a coffee shop… well you get the idea, sit them down and watch them use your site. Take note of where they go and what they do. Ask questions like: what are you looking for? and what did you expect to see?

4. Extras

   While Microformats are nice and handy, not everyone can use them. For example my parents don’t even know what they are. Some web developers I know don’t really know what they are. So use them but don’t expect people to use them right now. When it comes down to it and time is a factor don’t worry about Microformats. I’d rather see beautiful accessible websites then being able to scrape information off sites with a toolbar.