In our June Lunch and Learn session, members of the University Marketing team discussed a proposed update to the UW Theme. They talked about the possibility of one column layouts being narrowed (in width). We’d like to provide information about this change, detail its benefits, and gather feedback from the WiscWeb community.
In case you missed it, here’s the full recording of the session.
Current state
By default, the single column page layout defaults to 1152 px wide, which averages around 120 characters per line at 100% browser zoom.
Accessibility and design considerations
There is no hard and fast rule about default characters per line in WCAG standards, but a mechanism (such as browser zoom) must be provided to allow the user to reduce to 80 characters per line.
For people with some reading or vision disabilities, long lines of text can become a significant barrier. They have trouble keeping their place and following the flow of text. Having a narrow block of text makes it easier for them to continue on to the next line in a block.
Moreover, the long lines present a design challenge.
Recommended future state
Ideally, the future change would involve narrowing the width of 1 column layouts to 760 pixels.
This could mean centering the h1 heading on the page:
Or it could mean left aligning but keeping in line with the text:
Feedback
We would love to gather feedback from the WiscWeb community on this change. Specifically, we are looking to answer:
- How comfortable are you with this proposed change?
- Do you have any concerns you’d like to share?
- Do you have questions for the team?
We will have the following survey open through July 7, 2023. Please consider providing feedback about this change. Note: Those who attended the lunch and learn can choose if they’d like to provide additional feedback:
Narrowed width survey (anonymous)