Where has the time gone? It feels like only a few weeks since our last update, but here we nearly half way through the year! And a lot has happened in those months, so let's dig into some of the key changes.
Platform: Accessibility Metrics
We’re thrilled to have recently launched new accessibility metrics in the Lumar platform, so you can use the same platform for identifying, prioritizing and fixing both technical SEO and accessibility issues.
The metrics are aligned to WCAG 2.1 (update: this has subsequently been updated to WCAG 2.2) and cover Levels A through to AAA, and also include best practices from the axe digital accessibility library. Users can prioritize issues more effectively with our accessibility health scores, and also save time by reducing the number of false positives for issues like color contrast, thanks to Lumar’s bespoke technology.
Accessibility metrics are available in Analyze for audits and detailed analysis, Monitor to get a high level view of accessibility issues across multiple domains or one large site, and in Protect to for automated accessibility QA testing.
Find out more about our new accessibility metrics.
Platform: Deprecated and Changed Reports
From time to time, it’s necessary to deprecate or change some of the reports in Lumar that are no longer relevant, or have been replaced with an alternative. We’ve therefore implemented a new process to advise you of these changes. When you search for a particular report in Analyze, you’ll see that the title is suffixed with ‘DEPRECATED’ to show that it is in a deprecated state. The report will continue to be generated for 3 months at which point it will be removed permanently.
We’ve also created a new deprecated and changed reports article on the Knowledge Base to show which reports are going into a deprecated state or changed, the reason why, and the date that it was either changed or will be removed from the platform.
Deprecated reports will show when searched for, but will not appear in the ‘All Reports’ list. The deprecated reports will also be shown in Monitor and Protect, so you can switch them out for another report as required.
Platform: New Sidebar
To make switching between Lumar apps easier, we’ve changed the left sidebar so you can see all apps in one place. When you click a particular app, the icons related to areas of that app will open up so you can quickly navigate to where you need.
Analyze: Account Tasks
In the icon list for Analyze you’ll also now see an icon for account tasks. With this view, you can see all of your tasks across all projects in one place, helping keep on top of how tasks are progressing, and what needs to be done next.
Analyze: Client Cookies Setting
We’ve added the ability to send cookies to be present in the browser while rendering, which can be used to impact the page before any metrics are calculated. For example, to accurately measure accessibility metrics you may need to hide certain pop-ups such as cookie acceptance banners. You can find the cookies setting in Advanced Settings, in Step 4 of the crawl setup.
Read more about the new Cookie Setting and how to set this up.
Monitor: Segmentation
To allow more granular monitoring of important site sections, we’re also supporting Segmentation in Monitor. This will allow you to focus on monitoring the most important part of your site and domains, and improve the efficiency of your workflows.
When creating a new board you can enable segments in the available views and you’ll see ALL URLs or the name of the segment that’s available. You can also filter the list in the top section.
Find out more about creating dashboards in Monitor.
Feedback
As always, we’re keen to hear your feedback to help us improve the Lumar platform. You can do this very easily by clicking on the smiley face in the bottom left-hand corner of any of our apps.