Web Standards
Posted on May 5, 2010
Filed Under news | 4 Comments
The majority of Web Sites today are launched without clearly defined and/or enforceable Web Standards. For larger organisations, looking to execute efficiently on the Web, this is a major stumbling block.
Confession. Having worked in and for large organisations for over 25 years, I always hated Web Standards. They were always out-of-date. They were written by non-practitioners. Their format was dry and verbose. Their purpose unclear – just obey. Effecting change or providing feedback was actively discouraged – information flows one way: down! There was not much to like about Web Standards.
However, when you sifted through it all, there were little gems of insight hidden away. Looking back through older eyes I realise that I never really hated Web Standards. I just didn’t like the way they were enforced. So I rejected them. In doing so, throwing the baby out with the bath water.
Web Standard Example
Name:
All Web Pages must be XHTML compliant.
Purpose:
XHTML is the recommended markup language for the Web. It helps to avoid accessibility problems. Has better tool support and facilitates the re-purposed of content on the page. XHTML is more predictable and widely used across different device types.
Success:
1. Open the document with the appropriate DOCTYPE and NAMESPACE.
2. All markup tags are lowercase.
3. All attribute values are wrapped quotes.
4. Close all tags.
5. Close all empty tags.
Tests:
Use http://validator.w3.org/ to determine if the Web page is XHTML compliant.
A Web Standard is both a guide and a measure. As a guide, Web Standards are educational aids. As a member of a Web Team, they serve to guide how you develop Web Sites. The best Web Standards clearly document their purpose and out specific steps required to meet them. As a measure, your project deliverables can be evaluated on their compliance to Web Standards.
The above Web Standard has been trimmed down for the purpose of this post. Typically, it would also have links to the XHTML standard. All the success cases would have sample snippets that show by example things like how to wrap all attribute values in quotes.
Note that Web Standards can depend upon other Web Standards. XHTML is a Web Standard. That’s not a problem. Just reference it and keep it simple. Web Standards are also written within context of your organisational business objectives. If you’re a government institution, then accessibility Web Standards may be higher up on your priority list. If your company with Software as a Service (SaaS) product offerings, then Domain Name and URL Strategy Web Standards will be core to satisfying your business goals. As an organisation, there will be Web Standards that are mandatory across all your projects. Others will be optional. These are more Best Practices, than Web Standards.
Wrap Up
Web Standards bring tangible, concrete benefits. Web Standards are the low hanging fruit from which organisations can quickly derive high value, for low risk, with minimum effort. This is because Web Sites are well understood. Web Sites are founded upon well-established protocols, industry best practice and open collaboration. However, in spite of this, time and time again, organisations do not set, maintain and enforce Web Standards very well. It’s an all or nothing scenario here. Either do it well, or don’t do it. The cost to all involved of doing it badly are very high.
That said, when done well, Web Standards significantly raise the quality bar on your Web Site and increase the productivity of your Web Team. There has been some great work done by folks in the Web Standard Enforcment space, but I’m out of time. I’ll pick up on these over the next few posts.
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4 Responses to “Web Standards”
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Hi Cleve
I do agree with you that Web Standards are important and they are there to help you. Unfortunately there is a bigger problem to realise, that the organisations don’t care about Web Standards. There is a minority of Gov organisations that need to make their web sites compliant to standards as they have to be accessible. But, this is only due to that single fact. All the big organizations I worked with don’t care about the standards, all they need is the final result. If it was achieved one way or another it doesn’t matter.
What would you do and how will you try to reach out to those organisations and tell them that standards are important, and why?
In places like these we were usually left with “do whatever you want as long as I get what I want” kind of environment. This left us, the devs, a possibility to do the work according to the standards. That brings out another important aspect. People who are actually producing the final result should take the responsibility for the Standards.
I hope that the organisations will recognise the importance of Web Standards.
Cheers, Greg
Hi Greg, thanks for your comment.
I’m guessing that in your dealings with ‘the organisation’ you were being brought in as a the Web Team and working for the business. In which case, you should be bringing your Web Standards to the table. Sharing the knowledge. In projects where you join and/or extend the in-house Web Team, these folks definitely do care.
Also, I’ll get to this in another post but Web Standards also include areas such as information structure and access, editorial workflow and analytics. These type of Web Standards are very much in the business domain and something that you need to educate folks in up front. Call it on-boarding your client. But its definitely a line item in the project plan.
What do I do to reach out to these organisations? I try to convey Web Standards in a language that makes sense to them. Budget, time, effort, conversions, whatever it takes. I try to frame Web Standards within the context of their Web Policies which are set at a more senior and strategic level. But again, more on this later.
Greg, I’ve just started down this path and already its rocky. But I feel it just needs to be done…
Hi Cleve
It goes both ways for me. Sometimes it is a part of the team and sometimes we for entire new team.
I liked the way you put it: “I try to convey Web Standards in a language that makes sense to them.” That is actually the only way of convincing.
Standard means more viewers across all the browsers, this could mean more money. Standard means content makes sense to search engines, this brings more viewer, eventually more money. Deveopment team has clean, organised plate, means they work faster, means less money spent, means “on budget” (at best
, so on 
I do agree with you and I think that industry is recognising the Standards slowly and more and more people needs less convincing and more action
Keep up the good work my man.
Greg
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