Why are Web design agencies still not building to Web Standards?
I can't believe that there are still Web design agencies out there that are still not building their client's sites using Web Standards, or even their own sites! When I look at the new sites that they've built, they're structured with tables, use font tags, and even worse they are setting the font size using pixels. Do they not know, or do they just not care?
Unfortunately their customers probably don't even realise. Some people in our industry would say that their sites will be obsolete in a few years time. If only their customers knew! If these agencies were to switch to Web Standards they could even save themselves work.
So what are Web Standards and why use them?
In case anyone reading isn't aware of them, here are a few of the (many) reasons for using Web Standards.
- Shorter design and re-design times
- Backwards and forwards browser compatibility
- Your site will even work on Macs (we must keep the designers happy!)
- Support multiple browser types including PDAs and mobiles with the same Web site.
- Content easier to access by users
- Automatic search engine optimisation
- Accessibility comes for free! If you build to Web Standards, chances are that you will meet your local accessibility laws and basic WAI A. Sometimes just a few minor tweaks will be required to get you to a higher level.
- Separation of presentation, structure and behaviour, meaning finally design and development teams can work together!
- Best of all faster loading times.
Where to start and learn Web Standards
If anyone is looking for a starting place, Designing with Web Standards by Jeffrey Zeldman is highly recommended. It's really good on standards, basic CSS, basic DOM and is actually quite an enjoyable, funny read as well.
The Web Standards Project, is a grassroots coalition fighting for standards which ensure simple, affordable access to Web technologies for all.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is a massive source of information. They are an international consortium where Member organisations and the public work together to develop Web Standards.
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