Zepfanman.com (Stylesheets Off Version)

Web standards, usability, and accessibility

Update: Kevin released Project: New.

Web standards and the terms that go with it are unknown to too many people. Molly, Kevin (see his Project: New, started in mid-February '05), and Derek (& his commenters) are realizing that we need better ways to show people and organizations how and why their websites should comply with standards. To start, here's a quick web standards definition: principles recommended by W3C that make the Web accessible to all users (despite differences in culture, education, ability, resources, and physical limitations).

I've attempted to provide my own brief expanation of standards, but it needs some improvement. In fact, I wouldn't recommend studying the source of my html as it's not the best example to model after! There are many other sites that discuss standards, but I have yet to find a simple explanation of what they are and how you can start using them. Even Webstandards.org is not very helpful. Honestly, it's hard to describe standards without seeing specific examples. Here is a short list of introductory material to get you thinking about why your website should be more usable (offer other suggestions or corrections, please):

• Usability - the measure of how easily a thing can be used; Wikipedia definition.
• Accessibility - most often used to describe facilities or amenities to assist people with disabilities; Wikipedia definition.
• Separating structure (CSS, DOCTYPES, etc.) and symantecs (HTML) makes websites faster, easier to modify, and saves bandwidth.
• Limit use of the table element to the presentation of data, not to format the display of your site. This is probably one of the biggest pet peeves of standards evangelists.
• Stop using Internet Explorer - If you start designing standards-valid websites, you'll notice that they look different depending on which browser you're using. For many reasons, IE does not render sites correctly; find yourself a new browser!
• W3Schools Online Web Tutorials is probably the best place to start if you are a wet behind the ears beginner. Added '05Jun21
• Developing With Web Standards by Roger Johansson, 456 Berea Street; Updated Oct5, created March '04 - A long article (a mini-book), encouraging the use of best practices in web development. Available in several languages. Added '04Dec21
• The Big Web Design Details List by D. Keith Robinson, Asterisk; 2004Jul28
• Unusable Web, Asterisk; 2003Nov29
• Standards Resources for Beginners by Dave Shea, mezzoblue.com; 2004Aug25
• Accessify.com tutorials; updated 2003Aug21
• DiveIntoAccessibility.org - an online book by Mark Pilgrim; 2004Mar19

By rockofvictory | Mon 2004Dec20 15:17 CST | Links | Last edited Tue 2005Jun21 17:25 CST
Trackbacks disabled due to inactivity.