Our websites are fast loading, compatible and built to meet W3C standards - as standard, but what does that mean to you?

Fast loading

One of the biggest reasons visitors don't stay at a website is that it takes too long to load. The site needs to be designed around the premise of 'loading' as quickly as possible.

To achieve this Fidelity ensure a strong text base for the pages. When images are used, we tailor them to be the appropriate size and structure to ensure that they load within an appropriate time (i.e. saving for web using JPEG and GIF compression techniques).

Browser compatibility

A site needs to be compatible for viewing across a wide range of user platforms and browser software. We test the site with many different browsers to ensure that the vast majority of visitors can see the site quickly and easily.

This includes optimising the site for:

Browser display (resolution):

(Stats Correct as of August 2009 & figures reflect global usage - Information provided courtesy of W3Schools.com)

Search engine optimisation

Search engine optimisation is the process where a website is modified to be friendlier towards search engines such as Google & Yahoo. Search engines send automated programs called 'spiders' to look around websites - reading their content and following links.

Fidelity build sites with these modifications in place, as standard, to ensure your site is instantly Search Engine friendly.

XHTML

XHTML is a family of current and future document types and modules that reproduce, subset, and extend XHTML. XHTML family document types are XML based, and ultimately are designed to work in conjunction with XML-based user agents.

XHTML 1.0 is the first document type in the XHTML family. It is a reformulation of the three HTML 4 document types as applications of XML 1.0. It is intended to be used as a language for content that is both XML-conforming and, if some simple guidelines are followed, operates in HTML 4 conforming user agents.

Fidelity develop pages in XHTML because:

• XHTML documents conform
• XHTML documents can be written to operate as well or better than they did before
• XHTML documents can utilise applications (e.g. scripts)
• As the XHTML family evolves, documents conforming to XHTML 1.0 will be more likely to interoperate within and among various XHTML environments

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language used to describe the presentation of a document written in XHTML. It's most common application is to style web pages written in XHTML but the language can be applied to any kind XML document.

Fidelity use CSS because it helps to improve content accessibility, provide more flexibility and control in the specification of presentation characteristics, and reduce complexity and repetition in the structural content.

CSS can also allow the same mark-up page to be presented in different styles for different rendering methods, such as on-screen, in print, by voice (when read out by a speech-based browser).

Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) and Disability Discrimination Act (DDA)

WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative) which is the online organisation for Web accessibility for people living with disabilities have outlined as 'best practice' guidelines & techniques for the presentation of images and text content.

Although not endorsed by any browser, as part of the general guidelines as described it is recommended to provide text equivalents for non-text elements (i.e. images), typically the use of JavaScript code to change either font size or colour is not endorsed.