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Louisiana.gov Markover
The subject of the first markover is Louisiana.gov, the official website of the State of Louisiana. The site serves an important function as a comprehensive portal to various state services, particularly in the wake of the recent hurricanes. It's also a good example of how a markover can make a site more useful.
Take a look at the original site and the markover.
Disclaimer: Infocraft has no affiliation with Louisiana.gov. A portion of their website is reproduced here for educational and critical purposes in accordance with the Fair Use provisions of US Copyright Law.
The Numbers
| Total Files | HTML Size | Total Size | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Original | 25 | 41.0 KB | 124.6 KB |
| Markover | 17 | 10.1 KB | 58.6 KB |
| Savings | 32.0% | 75.4% | 53.0% |
Project Notes
I added a bit of unobtrusive Javascript to the page to fix some behaviors. A few of the links on the original site activate popups, but become dead links for browsers without Javascript enabled. I preserved the popup behavior, but fixed the links for users with Javascript turned off. Additionally, The default text in the search box now appears as a regular label for those without Javascript (so it doesn't have to be deleted manually).
In the interest of accessibility, I reordered the source of each column to ensure that the main content comes first. I also added a link at the bottom to allow a user to return to the top. Valid XHTML, alt attributes for images, and the usual accessibility-specific enhancements bring the new page in compliance with the Section 508 guidelines and Louisiana.gov's accessibility policy (now no longer linked to from the front page).
Summary
With this markover the site will:
- load more than twice as fast;
- use less than half the bandwidth;
- get better search-engine rankings;
- be easier (hence less expensive) to maintain;
- be much more accessible to those with vision- or motor-disabilities; and
- render properly in Firefox, Safari, and future web browsers.
Contact Infocraft to see how your site will benefit from a markover.
