> -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Christian Montoya > Sent: Tuesday, 6 December 2005 3:40 PM > To: wsg@webstandardsgroup.org > Subject: Re: [WSG] talking points for standards > > On 12/5/05, Ric & Jude Raftis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > The question is, how many designers include icons and links > on their > > sites back to W3C for XHTML and CSS? How many include an icon for > > Accessibility? Personally, I don't have all my sites Triple A > > compliant, but they do pass automated validation and I include a > > Statement to this effect on sites. > > > > I feel that by exposing clients and their visitors to such > icons that > > it spreads the word about standards. It makes more people > aware that > > they actually exist and I would encourage all designers to include > > such icons on their sites. > > I don't think those little icons/buttons are enough, though. > I think an "About this site" page with accessibility > features, explanation of standards compliance, etc. is a lot > better, since it explains the quality of the code rather than > just sending visitors to some cryptic validation page.
None of the general public cares about whether our sites are AAA compliant, whether they follow any standards or guidelines or not. What they want is a site that works. If you buy a washing machine and it tells you "This washing machine follows the "AS/NZS2040" standards - do you care? Would you get out the manual and read up on the AS/NZS2040 standard? And if you do care, then probably only because you spent good money on that washing machine. The general user spends no money on a website. It works? Good. It doesn't work? Bad. These icons with "AAA", "W3C", "HTML", "XHTML" on it only confuse most users. So often in usability tests I have heard users ask me: "What does this mean"? Not because they care about standards, but because it is something on the website that means absolutely nothing to them. Too many people are already uncomfortable using website technology, how much more terrifying do you make it by dumping technical abbreviations and standard codes onto your site? In my opinion the icons are mostly put onto the sites to make people feel better about the work they have achieved. Web Developers spent a lot of time making their sites standard compliant without anybody really noticing. By putting an icon on the site we have found a way to say to other web developers: "Hey guys! I have put a lot of hard work into making my site standards compliant! Now I want people to see it." Coming back to the nice building codes analogy from earlier in this thread: have you ever seen a house with a huge sign on it: "This house is standards compliant"? ****************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help ******************************************************
