News

Accessible Web Development for a record label

6th May 2021

This was a really exciting web development project for a record label with a whole lot of history.

Blue Raincoat Music have been representing musicians and releasing music for decades and their back catalogue is a variety of genres and disciplines.

That mix of artists was part of the enjoyment of this project as I ended up listening to a huge range of music – from Laura Marling to Phoebe Bridgers …via Chesney Hawkes.

The Build

The build of this website involved a custom WordPress theme built to display all of their artists from decades past, to the present day.

I used Advanced Custom Fields in order to make the site completely customisable by the client.

The site gives each artist their own page where their videos, music and contact details are all displayed. This required integration with the YouTube and Spotify APIs to deliver the video and audio content.

Animation is subtle throughout the site and includes small transitions on content to make the site feel alive. I also added some animations on the page load so that each page transition feels smooth.

Accessibility

This site also has a particular emphasis on accessibility. Google have increased the importance of accessibility in their algorithm, and rightly so, and this site scores in the mid-to-high nineties on Lighthouse in regards to accessibility.

This means that it is user-friendly and easy to use for site users with any kind of impairment.

In particular, for users with visual impairment, the site is easily navigable using a screen reader. I stuck to some of the base principles of accessible web design, some of which are laid out by the The Accessibility Project, including:

– Titles for navigation and <a> tags

– Image alt tags

– Labelling of Primary and Mobile navigation

– Using appropriate page headers

Member

About J Burt Web Developer / Web Design

I am a Bristol-based freelance WordPress web developer, making modern, sustainable websites. In fact, I’m Bristol’s first carbon-neutral web developer.

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