link to pdf considered bad practice, can we upload the content to the site as post?

[ivan-kocienski-gfsc]

Links to PDFs are considered bad usability.

Let's keep the existing content as is but moving forward only link to PDFs if absolutely necessary.

This guideline should form part of a "Accessibility and SEO" document for content writers.

[ivan-kocienski-gfsc]

i am going to mark this as wontfix as it doesn't require a coding fix

[kimadactyl]

Links to PDFs are considered bad usability.

Hard disagree with this catagorical statement - different things are right for differnet audiences and use cases

Can you elabourate?

[katjam]

It's because access to content in pdfs is not as flexible/ customisable as other formats. As a minimum, where a pdf is provided, it should be supplimented with content in an alternative format.

On a train but this is good for starters on more context from https://www.gov.uk/guidance/publishing-accessible-documents

On Mon, 10 Jul 2023, 16:13 Dr Kim Foale, @.***> wrote:

Links to PDFs are considered bad usability.

Hard disagree with this catagorical statement - different things are right for differnet audiences and use cases

Can you elabourate?

— Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/geeksforsocialchange/gfsc-v3/issues/317#issuecomment-1629170651, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAGSH5HQWXGSO23JXQVMDI3XPQL3PANCNFSM6AAAAAA2ELVOQA . You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread.Message ID: @.***>

[kimadactyl]

A web page is just not a suitable format for a printed document though like a zine or handout.

where a pdf is provided, it should be supplimented with content in an alternative format.

I agree with this but that's different to just saying they're bad practice!

[honor-gfsc]

@kimadactyl i think sometimes the content of zines etc can be re-presented in a slightly different way which allows for both webpage and pdf. i think where possible, information which is highly visual/intended to be distributed offline/outside of our website should be presented as both - but this leads us down the path of having cluttered links every time we want to link to something, and maybe too many choices or steps to actually get to the information you want. overall i am pro us having everything in both webpage format and PDF format if the PDF has some utility (more easily shareable, highly visual, etc)

examples where a zine has been turned into a readable, usable webpage and is presented in both formats (and also i made this website): https://cassidy.zone/zines

[kimadactyl]

Superceded following discussion today about new project area