Creation of the quality model Web GuidelinesBackground
Several development preceded the development of the Web Guidelines. It started with the cabinet's policy plan 'Transfiguring government' in December 2003. The core of that plan: the government should be more transparent, more accessible, more effective and more efficient. Moreover, the government is for everyone. This plan covers the entire government and all communication and transaction channels between the government and citizens and between the government and businesses.
The internet is one of the channels. A standard was needed to make the internet channel more transparent, more accessible, more effective and more efficient. Early 2004, The Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations commissioned ICTU for the development of such a standard.
In collaboration with TNO and Cinnamon Interactive, the first version of the Web Guidelines appeared in October 2004. Sustainability and accessibility were guaranteed through a layered architecture, strict separation of style and content, no dependence on 'optional technology' and correct application of open Web standards.
To enable checking on compliance with all standards, development of an automated validation instrument started in 2005. The instrument, the Web Guidelines Quickscan, is in use since September 2005 to examine the accessibility and constructive quality of more than 800 government websites. In the same year, the Quality mark drempelvrij.nl was introduced, a scheme for the (manual) testing of websites on accessibility. Until 2007, the quality mark scheme was based on the minimum accessibility requirements from W3C: the WCAG 1.0 Priority 1 checkpoints. This set is also part of the Web Guidelines. The Quality mark drempelvrij.nl, the norm for accessibility checking, thus fits almost seamlessly on the Web Guidelines, which is a quality model.
In 2005-2006 the ministries jointly developed a style guide, to create a common platform for corporate websites of the ministries. The Web Guidelines are part of the key concepts of the style guide.
In April 2006 the Dutch House of Representatives expressed its concern about poor accessibility of most government websites. Eventually, a motion was presented in which the cabinet was encouraged to speed up improvement. The motion led to the Ministerial decision on the quality of government websites in June 2006. The ministerial decision is fully based on the Web Guidelines and should lead to compliance of all websites of central government at the end of 2010. The Web Guidelines Test is used to verify that the decision has been met.
The motion and the decision have led to a strong connection between the Quality mark drempelvrij.nl and the Web Guidelines. In the current version of the automated validation instrument, the results of a manual examination (in accordance to the Quality mark drempelvrij.nl requirements) can be integrated into the report of the validation instrument. Nowadays, the normative document of the Quality mark drempelvrij.nl Foundation is entirely based on the Web Guidelines.
Changes
Differences between version 1.2 (August 2006) and 1.3 (November 2007)
Reason for the changes to the website is a new testing methodology, which is based on the normative document Web Guidelines of the Quality mark drempelvrij.nl Foundation.
Scores of the validation instrument are no longer in percentage terms, but in points. This indicates at what level the Web Guidelines were examined. There are now four levels of review:
- Automatic testing on 47 of 125 guidelines
- As 1, plus manual review on WCAG 1.0 Priority 1 checkpoints of the W3C.
The report includes 61 of 125 guidelines - As 2, plus manual review on WCAG 1.0 priority 2 checkpoints of the W3C.
The report includes 79 of 125 guidelines - As 3, plus manual review on the other Webrichtlijnen.
The report covers all 125 guidelines
Differences between version 1.1 (March 2005) and 1.2 (August 2006)
- The minimum set and optimum set have been replaced with one complete set
- guideline R-pd.2.9 has been added:
including all additional documentation;“Build a website according to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 1.0) of the W3C”
- Addition to this website of the legally binding Ministerial decision on the quality of government websites;
- On the pages Why this Manual:
- By the heading The benefits of accessible websites: the advantages Faster website en Better indexing by search engines, including introductory text.
- By the heading The benefits of sustainable websites:
replaced by‘ Play an important role in archiving the published information’
‘Easier to archive’
- New paragraph A Government requirement;
- New paragraph Changes;
- New introduction on the homepage;
- Parts of the chapter Colour usage have been modified.
- The section Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) has been added.
- A piece about Progressive Enhancement has been added.
- A piece about Unobtrusive Javascript has been added.
- A piece about Conditional Comments has been added and a piece about Dean Edwards' IE7 has been removed.
- The content of Open and closed standards has been added to the chapter Open Standards.
Differences between version 1.0 (October 2004) and 1.1 (March 2005)
- Navigation has been modified.
- Graphic design has been modified.
- It is possible for the user to change page styles.
