Image of scones

Image of high tea stand

Image of teacups
 

What's new at The High Tea Compendium

We're planning some exciting site upgrades to make your experience of The High Tea Compendium even better.

 

Accessibility upgrade

Here at THTC we acknowledge that the love for high tea knows no bounds, and so we want to make sure that everyone — including those with vision or hearing impairments, those using assistive technologies, and/or anyone limited by download speeds — can access all content on our site all of the time. We have aimed for enhanced accessibility with features such as:

  • clear and concise headings and hyperlinks to increase usability for all visitors, including those using screen readers (Felke-Morris, 2013, p. 33 & p. 54; W3C, 2008, guideline 2.4)
  • a vision-friendly design that consistently uses black-on-white readable text (Felke-Morris, p. 201; W3C, guideline 1.4.1)
  • alternate text for all images, so that visual content is perceivable to those using screen readers or who have limited download speeds (Felke-Morris, p. 140 & p. 204; W3C, guideline 1.1)

We have plans for improving accessibility further. Our current aims are:

  • to improve how perceivable content is by developing captions and transcripts for all video and audio presented on the site; this will allow people with hearing impairments or a preference for reading to explore all content (Felke-Morris, p. 446 & p. 474; W3C, guideline 1.1)
  • to ensure all navigational elements and content on our website are operable by keyboard, so that visitors using assistive technologies or adaptive devices can access all content (Felke-Morris, p. 199; W3C, guideline 2.1; WebAIM, 2013)

Whilst these changes require time for the development of transcripts/captions and the revision of our site design we aim to deliver these upgrades by the end of June 2013, and will offer them with all future content.

 

Security upgrade

We are excited to announce that we are currently developing a 'user review' function to accompany our listing of Sydney high tea venues. This function will allow users to create an account with which they will be able to write and post reviews. It will also allow users to suggest other venues for the list.
Your privacy is important to us, so in order to protect any personal information — such as your email address — we will be implementing corresponding security measures.

  • When creating an account, users will be required to create a user ID as well as an alphanumeric password which will be used for account authentication upon each log-in (Adams & Sasse, 1999, p. 41; Guenther, 2003, p. 63).
  • We will be implementing data encryption via SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) to ensure that when you exchange information with us it is protected from unauthorised access (Felke-Morris, 2013, p. 493; Guenther, p. 65). SSL will allow your computer to communicate securely with our server via a digital certificate, and you will be able to view the validity of this certificate in the address bar (p. 495).

The cost of maintaining a valid digital certificate is ongoing, but we are committed to securing our website and your information. We are aiming to have the user review system and security upgrade in place by the end of August 2013.

 

XML upgrade

We are planning an upgrade from our site's standard HTML (HyperText Markup Language) by applying XML (eXtensible Markup Language) syntax to our coding. There are a number of reasons behind this move:

  • We want our users to be able to access our site at any time, from any place, using any device and any software. XML syntax requires accuracy in order to be 'well-formed', meaning that the computer you're using doesn't have to waste processing time and power to interpret how our pages should display (Felke-Morris, 2013, p. 25). This means that no matter whether you are on a PC, a tablet, or even a mobile phone, the device will be able to efficiently display our site. XML data can also be exchanged and processed by incompatible applications (W3Schools, 2013; W3C, 2010), so no matter which browser or program you are using to view our site, you won't experience any compatibility issues.
  • We want our users to always have the most up-to-date content and information. When our site data needs to be updated, it can be done quickly and easily without having to wade through HTML formatting code. This is because XML will allow us to separate the page data and formatting into separate files, so we can just update the information without affecting the site layout (W3Schools, 2013; Ferrara, n.d.).
  • If we need to update with our hardware or software systems we will avoid incompatibility issues. XML is stored in simple text format, making it platform-independent, so in the case of a system upgrade we won't lose data or waste time having to convert file types (W3Schools, 2013).

This upgrade will require a significant investment of time, but we aim to deliver the improved website by the end of July 2013.