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Thank you parallax — Parallax Forums

Thank you parallax

softconsoftcon Posts: 217
edited 2011-12-03 21:25 in General Discussion
I've just spent the better part of the past 2 hours trying to find out more information about two other boards/companies who produce competing products to the parallax ones. I must say, that I'm now thoroughly convinced that parallax is the only place I'll be purchasing my microcontroller parts/projects. I don't know who handles web design for the various sites, but Parallax (by far) has the most accessible web site. It's easy to navigate, almost everything is labeled (few unlabeled images w/o alt tags on them) and their prices are clearly viewable. Since I use a screen reader (voice over which is built into osx) sites that are designed poorly or give no thought to layout, alt tags, title tags, or other items that make the sites navigable for visually impaired individuals) are very difficult to use, and I'm more than happy to report that parallax has an excellent design, and though there are elements missing here and there, it's no problem for me to find things on the site, and I just wanted to say thanks to Parallax whether intentional or not for maintaining an accessible web site. I'm certainly planning on purchasing many many things from the site, and will do my level best to make sure others do too (though attempts to get my local radio shack to join the parallax bandwagon fell flat), though I'll get to see the colonial heights store next month, since we have some Dr. appointments out that way, so plan to drop by and see what's on the shelves when we go. :)
But, getting back to the point, Thank you parallax for both having an accessible web site, and tech support folks who are willing to work with anyone to solve anything we throw at them.

Comments

  • Matt GillilandMatt Gilliland Posts: 1,406
    edited 2011-11-23 21:04
    Wow, Softcon! You are too kind...thanks on behalf of everybody here!
    Parallax isn't perfect, but it's nice to hear that we get it right sometimes :smile:
    -Matt
  • SRLMSRLM Posts: 5,045
    edited 2011-11-23 21:09
    Although I'm not visually impaired, I appreciate it when a website has a good TAB structure for keyboard navigation. I particularly hate it when pressing "enter" in a form causes the page to reload...

    But thanks for posting. It's nice to hear that the extra effort when designing a website is helpful to somebody.
  • $WMc%$WMc% Posts: 1,884
    edited 2011-11-23 21:40
    Matts oldest son posting!
  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,069
    edited 2011-11-23 23:00
    softcon: It's nice to hear about your findings.

    Unfortunately, I think we sighted persons have no idea about how you manage on the web, let alone how you navigate, and what we can do to help. Even worse, is the fact that I (and in reality we) do not even think about it.

    I was thoroughly amazed when I first read what you had built. I was amazed it was even possible for you to do this.

    I have enough trouble seeing the electronics with my glasses and I am almost 60 and my eyes are pretty good for my age. However, I am soldering the smt parts - typically 0805 case size and sot23 sizes and the qfp propeller chip.

    Perhaps you can educate us a little here on how you do this, so we can learn how to make our sites friendlier.

    OT: I am simply in awe of the advances made in prosthetics and hearing aids. I cannot wait until they manage to make decent advances in sight by implants in some usable form. I do know there is some work here, but the resolution is no where near enough yet, although I guess anything is better than nothing here.
  • xanatosxanatos Posts: 1,120
    edited 2011-11-24 07:47
    Cluso99 wrote: »
    OT: I am simply in awe of the advances made in prosthetics and hearing aids. I cannot wait until they manage to make decent advances in sight by implants in some usable form. I do know there is some work here, but the resolution is no where near enough yet, although I guess anything is better than nothing here.

    There have been some very recent advances in visual prosthetics around using fractal arrangements of the retinal implants' electrodes which have yielded dramatically increased resolutions. I guess the "target resolution" to equate to "normal" vision is 70 megapixels (I would have thought more). While they are still a long way from that I believe they are now well over the 1mp threshold, which can yield quite usable visual data. Way up from the 32 x 32 image I saw about 10 years ago... Hopefully such devices are nearing market-readyness soon.
  • Ken GraceyKen Gracey Posts: 7,401
    edited 2011-11-24 09:15
    Hello softcon - thank you for the web site compliments. I'll be sure that our WebDev team sees your post so we can make sure that our next web site release is also useful for visually impaired individuals. In July 2012 we are releasing a complete redesign based on Drupal tools. You could check the www.parallaxsemiconductor.com web site to make sure it's as easy to read as the www.parallax.com web site since the former is based on Drupal. Much of our documentation is moving from PDF to web at the same time.

    Happy Thanksgiving softcon, and welcome to the forums. It looks like you're a newcomer here. Make yourself at home and ask the questions you want to.

    Sincerely,

    Ken Gracey
  • MicrocontrolledMicrocontrolled Posts: 2,461
    edited 2011-11-24 17:28
    @Ken: Drupal, eh? I personally like their platform and I have made a few websites with it, though not my personal one considering how it is really more of a blog. I find some of it's features and layout options limiting compared to full from-scratch web design but it is a nice code base anyway. I think they have built-in support for the visually impaired, but I could be wrong.
  • SRLMSRLM Posts: 5,045
    edited 2011-11-24 21:21
    Ken Gracey wrote: »
    Much of our documentation is moving from PDF to web at the same time.

    I hope the web documentation is not in replacement of PDF documentation...
  • softconsoftcon Posts: 217
    edited 2011-12-03 19:35
    In general, it's been my experience that most products like drupal work fairly well with screen readers. There is a tendency for developers to assume it all works, and not to go back and touch up things like alt tags, and title tags, but overall, such sites are generally pretty good in the accessibility department. I'll poke around the other site a bit, and see if there are any areas that need serious help, but if it's just cosmetic things (like unlabeled links) unless otherwise asked, I'll leave them alone, since those kinds of things don't prevent use, just makes it interesting, since sometimes I have no idea what the link is. Most of the time though, context lends a hand, so it's usually not a problem. :)
  • Peter KG6LSEPeter KG6LSE Posts: 1,383
    edited 2011-12-03 19:58
    We need PDFs ...... its the only way real datasheets are done.

    I have the entire BS2 PDF on my OLD phone .. its handy
    think of what customers you may loose if the ones who support you are not able download a PDF and read it ..



    Peter...
  • Ken GraceyKen Gracey Posts: 7,401
    edited 2011-12-03 21:25
    @ Cody and Peter: no need to worry. Documentation can be available many ways and I'm sure marketing is planning single-source, multi-destination documentation (HTML, smart phone, PDF, etc.). You can have confidence that we will be able to get files anywhere, anyway, and anytime with the new web site.
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