I’m a freelance web designer who prides herself on the fact that I care about web standards as well as design. There are lots of people who go on and on about the fact that that’s just a load of hog-wash (they probably don’t believe in Global Warming,either). So they load up Microsoft Frontpage 5.0 and churn out tons of td laden, boxy pages and people pay good money for them.
Oh, what’s she ragging about,now?
We are now in 2008, shouldn’t your site look like it was made in at the very least 2006?
But the way a site looks is actually the least important thing.
To me the most important aspect of being web standards compliant is that the site will render properly in a variety of browsers. It’s reassuring to know that what a visitor sees using Opera is close to the same as a visitor using IE.
There’s a bit of a kerfuffle going on over writing code as water tight as a duck’s ass. I waver because there has to be a line drawn somewhere and for me it’s all those hacks.
Hide from IE 5 mac for crying out loud. Are there people using IE 5 on macs?
I tend to get cross eyed also thinking I should set up a seperate style sheet for print, then for media hand held devices,then for Braille. Braille? You got me there.
If someone can set up a site that someone can read in Braille, pay them 2500 bucks!
They’ve earned it.
And then there’s aural. Where the site visitor has a device that reads the site for them. A text reader device needs text to work with…
This is why it’s good to have actual text on your website, not images in place of text. Or image maps for links. Or javascript for navigation. It’s called accessability,baby! It’s the web version of wheelchair access. Of course a lot of people assume that the Internet is for the sighted.Because it is viewed on a screen…like TV…does the set designer of Grey’s Anatomy worry that the differently abled won’t be able to appreciate their work? I wonder.
But perhaps I’ve stretched that analogy a little too far.
The Internet should be available for everyone to enjoy and use. Some say the Internet was built for porn and that makes me laugh because porn sites are the worst offenders when it comes to accessibility.They must think only people with eyesight masturbate. Er.
Anyway, what burns my britches are people designing websites with absolutely no thought toward standards. I admit to being a total blowhard on the subject but only because it’s going on right now! Right now there is a web design company creating (is it a creation?) a site that will go live without a whisper of a Doctype and all browsers that land on that site will do so in Quirksmode because a Doctype tells the browser how to render code andwithout one the browser has to do it’s best.
I’m not perfect. I’m not the best.
I just care about how things could be the best when someone cares enough to try to be perfect.
I also dislike litterers. Not too fond of Fundamentalists,either.
Why it keeps happening:
The problem and why sites that get my goat are still being bought and sold is that the employment of web standards is a subject mostly known to those on the inside.
Your average company wanting a website doesn’t know or care about this kind of thing,usually.
They usually just want a good looking site up as fast as possible and they want it to do and say the right stuff in a way that works. The blame lands solidly on the web design company or individual who doesn’t care to educate themselves and improve their skills.