Jan 03
Web standards article part II
2006 at 03.36 am posted by Veerle
Now that my article about web standards has been published I’ve given the opportunity to write a follow up for Inside. The editor and I thought that it would be a good idea to probe some thoughts from my readers first to get a bit of a consensus.
Remember that the readers of Inside are decision makers, managers, board members and people that are self employed. There bound to be some web designers in there too but the large majority of them have never heard or worked with web standards. That’s why my first article was a get to know piece. So they have been introduced into what benefits there are and now it is time to take it to the next level.
Let’s imagine that you are one of those readers and your interest has been sparkled what would you like to read next? Forget what you already know and place yourself in their shoes. Do we talk about the practical problems that you can encounter for example? I was thinking maybe to write about the ‘myths’ and misconceptions around web standards but that would only be some part of the article. Secondly I though of mentioning some nice references to learn about web standards (URLs and books). What do you think? I have 20,000 characters at my disposal, so I would love to hear your thoughts about it. Thank you for your help.
14served
1
Well, maybe most important bit is to show them why they should use them, or why they shouldn’t. You can look at the economical aspect (it takes time to learn), the technological aspect (nowadays, it’s possible to write beautiful html, but you can’t use a table with 100% height anymore), the seo-aspect (google loves standards), and so on.
I haven’t read your article, and you might have already mentioned it there, one of the sites that convinced me was css zen garden.
Also, what do you exactly mean with “web standards”? HTML and CSS?
2
@Chris Eidhof: The first article covered the basics such as a bit of history, benfefits like SEO, faster loading etc.
Also, what do you exactly mean with “web standards”? HTML and CSS?
The guidelines of the W3C. So yes (X)HTML/CSS.
3
Maybe explaining why web standards reduce the cost and complexity of development while increasing the accessibility and long-term viability of any site published on the Web by real world examples.
4
The ease of a redesign while keeping the existing data/content
5
For decision makers: focus on the Return on Investment.
Feel free to borrow from:
http://www.netlash.com/log/voordelen_van_werken_met_webstandaarden
6
Hey Veerle! I think you’ve got a great opportunity before you. And I think the best way to really make an impact on the readers with your piece - and sway them to the ways of CSS - is to point out how designing with CSS can decrease bandwidth costs, improve accessibility for all, drastically decrease initial web development timeframe, and make keeping up and expanding a website very easy.
At @ Media 2005 Douglas Bowman gave a great presentation that (for someone who at that time didn’t really quite understand CSS ) really sold me on designing and utilizing CSS for an entrepreneur’s and a designer’s point-of-view.
The presentation was entitled “The Beauty of CSS” and can be found at: http://www.stopdesign.com/log/2005/06/14/atmedia.html I’m not saying to copy his piece. I just think it was done so well and was very convincing on why to use CSS.
I think it would also be very relavent to point out all the big names in business that have switched to CSS - Yahoo!, ESPN, Macromedia, Sprint, etc. Let them know they’re competition is already onto CSS!
Keep up the great work!
7
Maybe a weird idea but I’ll post it anyway: Since most of the article’s readers weren’t aware of webstandards I’m assuming they can’t really tell an “old school design” from a standardsbased design. You might include some sort of “ten ways to spot a good or bad design"-list. Instructing them how to spot the difference without having the technical background.
Let me clarify what I mean :
I convinced a client of the power of webstandards recently by just telling him to:
1. check the “view source” on his old design and my redesign and ask himself which page was more readable (I followed up with saying “imagine your a search engine spider having to index these pages: which is likely to make more sense.)
2. turn off your javascript and images and again compare the two to see how you get around the website.
3. look at the difference in file size.
and you can probaly come up with more simple tests.
( got the order for the redesign a couple of days later ;-) )
8
Veerle,
Something completely different. I noticed that tomorrow the (catholic) church celebrates “Saint Veerle” Se lived in...yes..Gent, and died in the year 750.
MAy be we can start a request to claim her as the the patron saint of all webstandard believers
Ciao
Johan
9
Dear Veerle,
This is a great opportunity to put the whole ‘Web Standards’ deal out there for the people who actually call the shots ie. Senior managers, Bard members and so on.
I a way, I believe that you should _alsmost_ be selling the idea of ‘web standards’ to them. There are many articles out there doing that and I don’t think I’d have to point you out to them.
Just had a quick look at the ‘Inside’ magazine from the link provided above and it seems to be catering mainly to the European audience but stiching Wed Standards to the Legal play field is a damn good idea, I am sure the big guns of a company pay more attention to legal matters more than anything else. I am not very sure on what the legal situation is like with Web Standards in Europe but here in Australia, it is as follows:
DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION ACT 1992 - SECT 24
Goods, services and facilities
(1) It is unlawful for a person who, whether for payment or not, provides goods or services, or makes facilities available, to discriminate against another person on the ground of the other person’s disability or a disability of any of that other person’s associates:
(a) by refusing to provide the other person with those goods or services or to make those facilities available to the other person; or
(b) in the terms or conditions on which the first-mentioned person provides the other person with those goods or services or makes those facilities available to the other person;
(c) in the manner in which the first-mentioned person provides the other person with those goods or services or makes those facilities available to the other person.
(2) This section does not render it unlawful to discriminate against a person on the ground of the person’s disability if the provision of the goods or services, or making facilities available, would impose unjustifiable hardship on the person who provides the goods or services or makes the facilities available.
So yeah, it might be an idea for you to look up some legal issues concerning ‘Web Standards’ and how it has affected companies in the past in and around Europe.
And finally, I came accross this article a while back - you might have read it already but here it is anyways:
http://www.digital-web.com/articles/ten_reasons_clients_dont_care_about_accessibility/] 10 Reasons Clients Don’t Care About Accessibility
Hope this helps for atleast 10 characters of your 20, 000 ;)
10
I’d definetly say bandwith savings on a high traffic site is a good thing to mention. The kind of people You’ll be adressing are desicion makers, and, I’d guess that they mostly have medium to high traffic sites, and they like saving money they don’t really need to spend.
Another thing is a great “emotional” revenue from investing into client care, through better accessibility, that doesn’t really cost either.
It just hit me, that, perhaps it is also a smart thing to cover, just lightly some things about the benefits of increasing user experience, or usability, and not just webstandards, if possible, and within the “parameters"(hdIst?) of the topic.
Design choices @ alistapart, seems to me, to possibly be a very good starting point.
And you could definetly mention that many, many web designers like us will visit their site and pinch a good word around about their company, if they redesign in standards. :)
Good luck! Go girl!
11
Portability, XML, Rapid-redeployment, Separation of content from design, Increase customer-satisfaction and benefits by easily integrating various of web-services, ...all the rest that we coders always mention is the css/no-tables/browser compatibly etc, although important, very important, doesn’t mean didly squat to the CEO and other decisions. They are to be appealed to based on Dollars Saved, Increased Productivity, Competitive Advantage, Rapid Turn Around to Changing Markets, and Increased Sales and Customer Satisfaction. My 2c worth…
All the best Veerle!
P.S. We have a patron saint of the internet:
more… ...so why not one for Web Standards. I too cast my vote for Saint Veerle.
12
Well congrats Veerle, for the article i think that something in this line should help readers to understand the benefits of designing with web standards in mind.
13
@Thanks all for the cool suggestions. I’ll keep you informed about the article. It won’t have to time to finish it before SXSW so it will be a few months further down the road when I pick this up again.
14
I think “‘myths’ and misconceptions around web standards” is a good idea. One of the reasons web standards are hard to sell is that it’s difficult to show immediate results (no one’s gonna pay you to redesign their site just to let you prove a point), and most of the times all you can show is validation results from the W3C validation service.
I’m exagerating of course, but it’s a fact that web standards are hard to sell.
That’s why you could consider tying the idea with that of “industry best practices”. We have a great French website that promotes best practices ( Opquast ), of course it’s in French…
But I think selling the angle of best practices might work if it gives decision makers the feeling that you are not up to par if you don’t at least make an effort towards accessibility, interoperability, code reuse, etc. you will be losing an edge over the competition.
And because : “if you are producing tag-soup code and using tables for layout in the 21st century, that’s what you are: Incompetent.” says Joe Clark
I’m not saying you should shock them with a Joe Clark attitude, but the message is true.
I hope I’m not too late, and by the way consider me de-lurked with this message.