Poor website accessibility could be costing your business billions in online sales
New analysis from web hosting providers LCN identified clothing retailer H&M’s homepage as the most accessible UK website for the visually impaired.
H&M’s homepage received a score of 100 on Google Lighthouse when being marked for website accessibility, and is the only retain website that caters for all types of visual impairments, according to LCN.
At the bottom of the scoring board, motoring retailer Halfords’ homepage scored 49 overall, despite other retail websites posting worse scores across specific impairment categories.
Other than H&M, Laura Ashley, Beauty Bay and B&Q were at the top of the score board. The least accessible websites other than Halfords were Carphone Warehouse, Wilko and New Look.
The report noted that over two million people in the UK suffer from vision loss – with an additional three million people suffering from colour blindness, resulting in a large number of the UK population that struggle with certain online tasks.
Each homepage studied was also assessed for which type of impairment they may be neglecting. The report found that most of Halfords’ homepage issues were related to accessibility problems for screen readers and colour-blind users.
Over half of Brits claim a slow webpage is the key reason for abandoning an online purchase and just under half refuse to revisit a website following a bad experience, making it double difficult for sluggish e-commerce sites to win their audience back, according to Fasthosts data.
Phil Dunsford, Front-End Web Developer at LCN, commented: “Moving forward, accessibility for disabled users should be at the forefront of any web designers’ goals. Beyond the obvious moral responsibility and emphasis on equality, it is in a retail business’ best interests to make their site accessible to all.
“Five million people in the UK have some sort of visual impairment that impacts their ability to use and buy products on the web. This is a significant customer base to be neglecting. Especially as many of these changes can be made quickly and easily by developers.”
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are designed to help websites meet accessibility standards for colour blind users. These state web pages should strive for a contrast ratio of 4:5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text to pass level AA.
This comes shortly after a similar report by Fasthosts uncovered that a slow performing website could set retailers back by a reported £59.6bn each year in lost sales.
With 60% of Brits claiming to have upped their shopping habits since the outbreak of COVID-19, Fasthosts says that website accessibility should be "top priority" for retailers.
This Microsoft Edge update is a dream for all you clumsy typists
Spelling errors may soon be a thing of the past for Microsoft Edge users thanks to a new update coming to the software.
The company has revealed it is working on bringing a new "text predictions" feature to its browser that uses Microsoft's own in-house AI and ML technology to offer word suggestions to users.
This feature will initially be available to Windows 10 and Windows 11 users in the Edge Canary Channel, but should be coming to a wider audience soon.
Microsoft Edge text predictions
The change will see Microsoft Edge utilizing a similar process seen in the company's Outlook platform and Microsoft Editor service.
Predictions or suggestions will be displayed in a greyed-out suggestion box shown when the user is typing in Microsoft Edge. Users can accept a text prediction suggestion by clicking Tab or pressing the right arrow key - and to ignore a suggestion, just continue typing and the preview will disappear.
Users can try out the new addition now, but will need to be members of the Edge Canary Channel to do so. There's no news on a wider release date just yet, but given Microsoft's past track record, the tool should come to the market soon.
It's the latest in a series of recent upgrades for Microsoft Edge as the company looks to keep users engaged and away from competitors such as Google Chrome.
Although Chrome only offers text suggestions in the URL search bar, several other Google tools provide predictive text tools for users.
Autocorrect came to Google Docs back in February 2020, with the company's Smart Compose tool looking to help users stamp out spelling or grammar mistakes following its launch on Gmail all the way back in 2018.
Smart Compose automatically suggests the next few words of a sentence based on what you've already typed, learning from your writing habits to become more accurate over time.
A room with the quintessential gaming rig, a slew of fancy posters on the walls all around, a ton of RGB lights and a soul that is limited to the confines of this self-created cave. This is a standard image of a gamer’s cove that you’d draw in your mind. Also, the gamer in question is a person with a graphic tee, funky hairdo and a headphone hung around the neck.
This is probably the stereotype persona that you can create of a gamer. And you aren’t wrong as well because that’s how almost everyone has seen gaming for a long time. Interestingly, the concept of powerful gaming devices has traditionally been either consoles or a custom gaming setup.
However, this is exactly what the Alienware m15 R6 defies. This latest and the most premium looking gaming laptop not only breaks the norms associated with a gaming laptop but also unleashes raw power that can run any demanding game with ease.
Thanks to the Alienware m15 R6, now anyone can be a gamer - even though you’re a student, a banker, a coder, a content creator, a clerk at the office, a housewife, an intern or even a sales manager.
Not only does it redefine what a gaming laptop should look like but also helps anyone ace their gaming skills. Unlike a regular gaming laptop – the Alienware m15 R6 is thin, light and is powerful – that lets the gamers enjoy their favourite games wherever they want – be it their room, a busy subway, their friends’ place or even while visiting your parents/grandparents at their natives.
Power at the core
Coupled with the latest and the most powerful 11th Gen Octa-Core Intel Core i7 11800H processor with Turbo Boost Technology that offers processing power on demand, the Alienware m15 R6 is probably the only device that you’d need to complete various tasks right from slaying the office work to challenging your friends for the next session of gaming.
Talking about other key specifications, it comes with multiple configuration options like 16 or 32GB of ultra-fast DDR4 RAM, up to 1 TB of blazing-fast SSD storage, and a choice between three of the most powerful graphics cards - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 8GB GDDR6, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 8GB GDDR6 or NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 8GB GDDR6. This monstrous setup, which can sit on your lap, can cater to the demands of any graphic and resource hungry game that you can ever think of.
(Image credit: Dell)
Display worth a show-off
Defying the norms of the market, where all you had is a preset build without any option to customise, the Alienware m15 R6 lets you choose what you like and what works best for you. Even the 15.6-inch display offers you a choice between an FHD panel with a 165Hz refresh rate and 3ms of response time or a QHD panel with 240 Hz refresh rate, 2 ms response time and NVIDIA G-SYNC compatibility. It is up to the gamer what they want – a panel that’s battery friendly or a no-holds-barred panel, in any case, the gaming experience remains unmatched.
The massive display is not only helpful in offering an ultra-smooth gaming experience but is also equally efficient in editing videos or photos, or even through the office presentation and those complicated excel sheets that not many can understand. What you get with the laptop are panels that boast up to 400 Nits brightness and colour accuracy.
Well-connected laptop
You’re also covered when it comes to wired and wireless connectivity as the laptop has - an ethernet port, a 3.5mm headphone jack, 3 Type-A USB 3.2 Gen 1 Ports, a Type-C with PowerDelivery and an HDMI 2.1 Output Port. For wireless connectivity, you get Wi-Fi 6 support for fast and stable connectivity apart from Bluetooth 5.2.
An 86W/HR battery is sufficient for a long gaming session even when you’re on the go and the bundled 240W adapter helps you quickly juice up the battery pack.
(Image credit: Dell)
An all-round package
Not only is the Alienware m15 R6 a powerful beast to the game upon, but it is also one of the most-trendiest gaming laptops in the market. Available at a competitive price point, this laptop is meant for every individual who has ever wanted to play games on their laptops.
The Alienware m15 R6 breaks the norms that are normally associated with gamers and gaming. Not only it’s a powerful device it comes with raw processing power to complete any task thrown at it and has a long battery life that can help you work or play on the go. At just over 2.4Kgs it is one of the most portable gaming laptops, another trait that you’d normally not associate with a gaming laptop.
The Alienware m15 R6 is available to purchase at a starting price of Rs.159,990* (T&C apply) directly from Dell’s official online store. To sweeten the deal Dell is offering an extra Rs.5000 off on payments made via Netbanking. Additionally, the laptop can be bought by opting for easy instalment without any additional costs. Last but not the least, Dell is also offering an Alienware headset worth Rs.7999 for just Rs.999 on this product.
