Skip to main page content (AccessKey S)
Undiscovered Scotland's look and feel is designed to allow effective and attractive presentation of information; to ensure the site complies with accepted HTML and CSS standards; and to ensure accessibility.
Pages produced as part of the design validate against both the HTML 4.01 transitional standard and the level 2 CSS2 specification using the W3C's markup validation service and their CSS validation service. The only exceptions to HTML 4.01 compliance are in the expression of the addresses of some external links, especially to specific maps on MultiMap.com.
Pages on the site are Bobby AAA Approved, signifying they meet Priority 1, 2 and 3 checkpoints of the W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0. This process is to some extent judgemental, as once key criteria are met, it is up to webmasters to check a number of further issues manually. In carrying out these further checks we have drawn on the excellent online resource Dive Into Accessibility and used the colour blindness simulator at Vischeck to ensure adequate separation of colour information.
Many of the most commonly visited pages on the site have access key shortcuts. These are shown via a tooltip when the mouse is hovered over items on the left hand menu and they are also are set out in the table below. Selection of access keys was based partly on usage across the internet, and partly on common sense for what was left. Each access key is unique to a particular link.
| 1: Main Menu | 3: Site Index | 4: Search Site | A: Index A-D | E: Index E-L |
| M: Index M-Z | 2: What's New | L: Last Minute | V: Events | 5: Links Pages |
| B: Bookshop | W: Wallpaper | R: Recipes | K: Walking | 7: Timeline |
| 6: Info Page | 9: Feedback | X: email | T: Page Top | C: Copyright |
| S: Skip to main page content | ||||
Access keys work differently on different operating systems. On Windows PCs, you should press ALT+the access key, while on Macintosh machines, you should press CONTROL+the access key. The effect differs slightly from browser to browser. On Microsoft Internet Explorer (since version 4) using the access key moves the focus to the menu item concerned, and you need to press ENTER to complete the link. On Netscape (since version 6) and Mozilla Firefox, using the access key takes you direct to the target page.
The site design looks, feels and performs (almost) identically on Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 and 6.0; Mozilla Firefox 3.0, 2.0 and 1.5; Opera 9.6 and earlier to at least Opera 7; Safari 3.1; and Netscape 7.2. It has also been sample tested successfully on emulations of Safari 1.2 and Lynx 2.8.4. It does not work on Netscape 4.7.
The new design looks at its best on a screen definition (or in a window) of 1024x768. It has been tested and works well at higher screen definitions up to 1280x1024 (and should work at least adequately, but has not been widely tested, at still higher definitions). At a screen definition of 800x600 some of the navigational components start to overlap, but the site is still usable. At a definition of 640x480 you can still use the site, but the layout is largely lost and a lot of scrolling is required.