site overview

About Me

KernsS — Sun, 04 Apr 2021 20:26:08 +0000

About Me

KernsS Sun, 04/04/2021 - 16:26

Why Drupal

KernsS — Sun, 04 Apr 2021 00:41:28 +0000

Why Drupal

Why Drupal?

To learn more about Drupal click here.

Although I currently enjoy full time employment as a web developer, I am also a graphic artist. This dual set of professional skills allows me to code web sites and design at the same time. I consider this to be a significant advantage. But, the CMS* that I use needs to stay out of my way, and let me do what I want. This is why I chose Drupal. Once mastered it allows the greatest flexibility when compared to it's competitors.

A quick google search will show that Drupal's main competitor is WordPress. And a quick scan of the articles dedicated to comparing these two systems will show that WordPress is no slouch. In fact, WordPress claims to be behind 40% of all the sites currently published on the web. To me the comparison looks like this...

WordPress: Easy to use, but options to customize content are limited
Drupal: Hard to use but options to customize content are plentiful.

So, the right choice for me was Drupal. The more i use it the more I love it.

*CMS: Content Management System

KernsS Sat, 04/03/2021 - 20:41

WCAG Compliance

KernsS — Sat, 03 Apr 2021 18:00:57 +0000

WCAG Compliance

I made a conscious effort to utilize WCAG 2.1 in the construction of this site.

What does this mean? WCAG stands for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. Web sites that follow the WCAG are accessible to assistive technologies that bridge the gap between content and disabled viewers. Any site that follows WCAG can be read out loud to viewers who are vision impaired, and can be navigated by physically handicapped people who use sip and puff devices, or are limited to using just the tab and enter keys on their keyboard.

How does the WCAG affect this site's design? The full range of design considerations is more than I can explain here. But, listed below are a few of the more distinctive style and content attributes you will see on this site.

All images include thorough text based descriptions that can be accessed by assistive technologies like screen readers, or brail readers.
All pages can be navigated with the tab and enter key, as well as by sip and puff systems.
Typography size and color are measured against WCAG guidelines to ensure adequate contrast is present. This allows viewers with low vision to see text more clearly.
I have avoided the use of animation as this can be problematic for people with motion induced illness. This is why my site does not make use of a slide show on the home page.
All pages include headlines that are coded in a way that makes it possible for screen readers to pick out the overall meaning of a page.
Content is arranged into logical groups that allow efficient navigation without requiring the use of a mouse.

Why did I follow WCAG principals? First of all it is the right thing to do, but there is much more to it than that. When I studied the WCAG principals it occurred to me that they were actually best practices in general. Site content that is WCAG compatible is also semantically ideal for search engine optimization. If devices like Amazon's Alexa are any indication of things to come, the WCAG principals may become the gold standard of the future.

Where can I see all of the WCAG 2.1 principals? Click Here

KernsS Sat, 04/03/2021 - 14:00

About this site

KernsS — Sat, 03 Apr 2021 17:59:50 +0000

About this site

Throughout my career as a visual artist I have adhered to the principal that successful graphic design honors communication over decoration. This is why the design direction of this web site honors the form over function ethos. If I have been successful, you will take note of my artwork, but not the device that has been used to present it to you.

What follows is a list of design decisions I made to realize my vision for this site.

I did not chose a special font for this site. This was an especially difficult sacrifice for me, because I love typography. There are several reasons I chose to go in this direction. In my youth, typography choices were absolute. Once the ink or paint dried, the font choice was permanent, so the designer's choice of letter style was final. Web design represents a break in this ancient principal. The electronic era we currently live in allows us to do many things that were not previously possible. For example, a person with poor vision can use their web browser to zoom into text. A blind person can have the text spoken out loud, or presented to them in a brail reader. Browsers allow their masters (you) to chose fonts of their own liking. But, most importantly of all, I believe that the font that is the easiest to read is the best font. And it is a good bet that the default font for your browser was chosen for this reason, so who am I to argue. I prefer to get out of the way.

I did not use colors in the website design. By limiting my web site palette to black white and grey, I allow the true voice of the site to be that of my artwork. The website itself is nothing more than a frame. Each of us can probably see Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa in their imagination, but very few can remember what the frame looks like. And this is the way it should be. The frame is a tool, not a decoration. If you look closely at my site's footer you will see an exception to the site palette, where I used a blue line to divide the links. This was done as a nod to the Drupal logo, which I include in the footer. To learn about the Drupal logo and why I have included it click on this link.

There is no animation on my site. Animation can be problematic for people who have motion induced illness. This is the primary reason I do not use a slide show on my home page. When I do web development for customers who desire animation, I utilize special javascript that hides the animation when a user has selected "reduced motion" in their system preferences.

KernsS Sat, 04/03/2021 - 13:59