• This is a new window and the main site is still open behind it.

Website Design

Taking time over design

We're always looking for ways to improve our web sites and online services and make them easier to use, following principles laid down by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) and the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB).

We also set our own guidelines.

Our guidelines include:

• Designing the site for an 800x600 view so horizontal scrolling is not required, even for users with small screens.

• Using meaningful ALT text for all images to provide descriptive text.

• Using descriptive hyperlink text.

• Avoiding the use of frames, which are difficult for special browsers to interpret.

• Using an easy-to-see web colour scheme.

• Using an easier to read non-serif font type, size and colour.

Navigating around

Making web sites easy to use goes further than just colour and fonts. We're also working hard at making sure our sites have useful content that's laid out in an easy-to-navigate way, taking into consideration customers who use speech readers. You'll find help pages, site maps and contact us pages in most of our sites to help you find the information you need.