why do web standards matter?

Throughout our site we make reference to web standards. We thought we should devote a little time to explain a little bit about these standards and why they are so important. These are a few of the reasons that we care about web standards and how they benefit you, the end user that visits web sites in pursuit of information, products and entertainment. At the bottom of this page we have also supplied some samples and links to supporting information that is accessible from the web.

Dollars and cents — the corporate motivation. Proper XHTML markup coupled with CSS can greatly reduce the cost of web site development and maintenance. Rapid changes and alterations can be made to the presentation of an entire site but altering a single file. There is no longer a need for multiple version of pages to facilitate printer–friendly pages. Also, a properly constructed Standards governed site is typically much smaller in size than an old–school HTML page, often drastically smaller. If a page once weighed in at 80KB, it can often be reduced to less than 15, even 10KB. This keeps bandwidth issues in check on large corporate and e–commerce sites.

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a painless transition to more advanced technology

The web is moving to XML, a powerfully enabling technology. Writing well–formed, valid XHTML pages is the easiest way to begin this transition. All that is required is to carefully write code that adheres to a few strict rules that govern XHTML markup, code that validates.

cleaner, more logical markup

XHTML brings uniformity to document structure. The rules of XHTML help restore the structural integrity of documents that was lost during the web's rapid commercial expansion between 1994 and 2001. Web developers deviated from document structure in order to achieve the freedom in presentation to which we as a society have become accustomed to viewing information presented via other mediums. Quite simply, we were impatient to achieve the desired goal, no matter what.

increased interoperability

Unlike old–style HTML pages, valid, well–formed XHTML documents can easily be “transported” to wireless devices, Braille readers and other specialized web environments. Moreover, XHTML's insistence on clean, rule–based markup helps us avoid the kind of errors that can make web pages fail even in traditional browsers like Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, and Opera Software's Opera browser.

greater accessibility

Because they follow strict rules and avoid non–standard markup, well–authored XHTML pages are more accessible than old–school HTML pages, helping web sites comply with laws (U.S.) and accessibility guidelines.

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cascading stylesheets

CSS allows us to attach style rules to HTML and XHTML markup. This is where we determine the presentation rules for that clean structured XHTML markup. It is CSS that gives us the power to quickly alter the presentation of a document, in fact, CSS is fully capable of determining the entire layout of a site. Write the rules in the CSS file and you have a wonderful three column layout that we have become so accustomed to seeing on sites like Amazon.com and many others. The fun comes in when you give the user the option to change the style sheet to an alternate that has been supplied to change text–size or to completely change the layout. Very powerful and empowering for site visitors.

According to its creators at W3C, Cascading Style Sheets “is a simple mechanism for adding style (e.g. fonts, colors, spacing) to Web documents.” Let's expand that definition to see what it means for Web designers and developers:

  • CSS is a standard layout language for the Web—one that controls colors, typography, and the size and placement of elements and images.
  • Though precise and powerful, CSS is easy to author by hand.
  • It is bandwidth–friendly technology: a single 10K CSS document can control the appearance of an entire website, comprising thousands of pages and hundreds of megabytes.
  • CSS is intended by its creators (W3C) to replace HTML table–based layouts, frames, and other presentational hacks.
  • CSS, together with other web standards such as XHTML, helps us separate style from content, making the Web more accessible, and opening it up to more powerful applications and technologies to come.
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samples and articles in support of standards

That's enough of us talking about standards it's time for some proof of the importance and the benefits to be gained. The New York Public Library has been truly visionary in it's recognition of the benefits that the web standards can provide. If you did not already know, there is a governing body for the World Wide Web, they are known as the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and are headed by the man who is credited with the creation of the World Wide Web Tim Berners–Lee. There is also an exceptional grass roots organization that is committed to promoting, teaching and supporting the development and acceptance of standards by developers, browser companies and html–editing software companies, they are the Web Standards Project (WaSP). In addition, many articles/tutorials can be found at 'A List A Part', of key interest are the CSS and XHTML/HTML sections. Below are some standalone articles of interest:

In conjunction with Chris Jones of areaeleven.com we compiled some links to valuable resources and some excellent examples of just how inspiring standards-compliant sites can be. We invite you to use the list of links as a starting point for more research or for finding information on the best way to accomplish something while adhering to standards. PLEASE NOTE that not all of the sites are completely standards-compliant, but they each adhere to standards in varying degrees.

A great deal of the information on this page is drawn from the New York Public Library's website.

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