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Day 29 - Abbreviations

Complex words, internal jargon, and words that require context are perfect opportunities to include the abbreviation alongside the content.

Abbreviations are useful for everyone, especially those visitors who may have difficulty decoding words, use a screen magnifier that reduces the amount of context on the screen at any one time, have limited memory, or may have a hard time using context each time to understand the meaning.

Across industries the same acronyms exist, ensuring they are explicitly defined allows the visitor to understand the context of your website instead of what they may have had previous exposure to.

Abbreviations should be added after the first use of the full term. Example: "World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)”. The abbreviation can be programmatically defined by the <abbr> HTML tag. Example: <abbr title="World Wide Web Consortium">W3C</abbr>.

When programmatically defined, the browser or screen reader will be able to yield to the visitor’s preferences to either read the expanded form each time, on command, or visually show the expanded form in a tooltip.

Example

Screenshot of a web page explain the Warriors Business Community (WBC) abbreviation and then showing a marked up tooltop version

Screenshot of the abbr HTML tag in use

The example above is a web page snippet that uses the abbreviation “WBC” for “Warriors Business Community”. Since it is referenced multiple times on the same page without the original context and WBC could stand for a number of things across industries, the subsequent references are marked up to ensure the expanded form is available in context throughout the website.

Task

  1. Start on the homepage and read through your website
  2. Look for any words that may be helpful to include an abbreviation at the end of the first reference
  3. Search the website to see if that abbreviation is used elsewhere without the expanded form
  4. If so, include the abbreviation tag

Considerations

  • Finding and adding the abbr tag to all references can be time-consuming and result in potentially missed items. When possible, find a plugin for your content management system (WordPress example in the resources list) where they can be defined and added automatically.

Further resources