RE: [WSG] Real world use of standards

[Mark Stanton]

> How many of you have experienced working for companies/clients which
> actively embrace the standards and protocols/working methods we
> discuss here
> every day? It seems to me that very often dealing with clients and
client
> needs makes using standards to the fullest an impractical thing at best.

In my personal experience proven ability to implement standards based
sites is a selling point for about 20% of our clients. The rest really
don't care.

Pretty much any client who is involved in government or is in anyway
government funded should be extremely aware of standards & should insist
on their work being standards compliant. By standards compliant I don't
mean validating XHTML 1.1. I mean primarily WAI and AGLS (because this is
law), but also valid mark-up (any version) & proper separation of content
& presentation.

Anyone else (outside the technical world) has no real reason know or care
about web standards at this point in time.


> I'd like to know how many of you have experienced work-places where
> standards are extremely important, and not just an afterthought in the
> production process.

For us standards are extremely important. We are not validation nazis, but
we feel that the proper use of HTML & CSS results in a higher quality of
end product. There is also a side benefit that our code is easier to
write, maintain & reuse these days. So our priorities are:

#1 - Better user experience
#2 - Better product for the client (easier for the client or another
agency to maintain).
#3 - More efficient development process

Maybe a small example is in order - http://www.pophouse.com.au. This is a
really small & simple site. The client doesn't know or care about web
standards. Personally I don't know if the HTML & CSS validate and I
haven't checked whether it passes any of the WAI standards. However none
of this really matters & there was no budget for building & testing
against the specs.

I think the site is still cool because its really simple & easy to use.
- Its fast loading.
- The nav is clear & text based.
- The fonts resize.
- Content & presentation are pretty neatly separated (with a couple of
exceptions).
- It makes almost as much sense in Lynx as it does in IE.
- The whole layout is super simple & reusable.
- The client can easily edit page content with Contribute.

So without chaining ourselves to the letter of the standards we've found a
nice balance by understanding the principles behind them. I think its
taken us about 18-24 months to reach this point & be pretty comfortable
with it. This learning process has involved everyone in product, from
project management, to graphics & programming.

If you treat standards as something programmers or QA people deal with at
the end of development you are going to waste a massive amount of time &
effort. If you start off by understanding the standards you can work them
into your day to day work without batting an eyelid & you'll end up with
all round better end products.

> This is perhaps a little off-topic, but I think it's worth a discussion
> because the PRACTICAL, real-world use of standards is surely of utmost
> importance to us all.

This is definitely NOT off-topic


Cheers

Mark


------------------
Mark Stanton
Technical Director
Gruden Pty Ltd
Tel: 9956 6388
Mob: 0410 458 201
Fax: 9956 8433
http://www.gruden.com

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