Hello All,
We are currently in the midst of redesigning our sites in
XHTML/CSS and so far no tables. We are doing this for two reasons. First,
we felt that as a national institution we need to be able to get our
information and collection out to the world no matter where they are or
what system they are using. Secondly, we know that at some point the
Canadian Government will be coming out with guidelines and rules for
accessibility in government and crown corporation websites and we felt
that getting in ahead of time was the best move. We should be launching
sometime near the end of February, so stay tuned.
For those thinking of doing the switch to a standards based layout, not
only can you comply with 508 (U.S. Government regulations) but will have a
faster site and one that is much easier and cheaper to maintain. Make
sure you find a design company that is up to date with the latest
information about standards based design, even a site written in XHTML/CSS
can be a bad one if the designers don't know how to implement such
technology. Standard based design is more than just writing a site using
a style sheet and coding in XHTML. It is about creating a site that is
coded efficiently, accessible, created so that the site can be viewed
using any technology (whether that be Windows, Mac, Palm Pilots, etc.) and
that the code is semantically correct (i.e. a paragraph is a paragraph, a
table is for tabular data, a list is used to list things and so on).
If you want other books to read about this (aside from 'Designing
With Web Standards") try "Building Accessible Websites" by Joe Clark,
"Don't Make Me Think" by Steve Krug, and "Web Design on a Shoestring" by
Carrie Bickner. There are also lots of websites out there that you may
want to visit. From this small list you can find many, many more.
http://www.webstandards.org/
http://www.zeldman.com/
http://www.mezzoblue.com/
http://www.simplebits.com/
http://tantek.com/log/
http://www.stopdesign.com/
http://www.webdesignpractices.com/index.html
These should get anyone started on the road to a standards based website.
Andrew Macdonald
New Media Officer / Agent des nouveaux médias
Canada Aviation Museum / Musée de l'aviation du Canada
Phone / Téléphone : (613) 998-5689
Fax / Télécopie : (613) 990-3655
Website: www.aviation.technomuses.ca
Email: [email protected]
"Erik Christman" <[email protected]>
07/01/2004 12:47 PM
Please respond to mcn-l
To: [email protected]
cc:
Subject: Re: Web standards and museum sites
For all interested,
Source code will contain the following at the very top of the page showing
what version of XHTML or HTML:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd";>Also in the
source code this will be below the "title tag" showing that the page is
using a style sheet, and if need be how to get it.<style type="text/css"
media="screen">@import "/c/ala.css";</style>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="print" href="/c/print.css"
/>_________________
Erik W. Christman
Exhibition Designer
The Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace
18001 Yorba Linda Blvd.
Yorba Linda, Calif. 92886
(714) 993-5075 ext.243
fax (714) 528-0544
email:
[email protected]
website:http://www.nixonlibrary.org
----- Original Message -----
From: "quigley" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2004 7:18 PM
Subject: Re: Web standards and museum sites
Erik,
Being ignorant, how would I recognize an 'XHTML/CSS' website?
Suzanne Quigley
Head Registrar, Collections & Exhibitions
Whitney Museum of American Art
945 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10021
v: 212 570 7795
f: 212 570 7784
E: [email protected]
RARIN http://www.panix.com/~squigle/rarin/01rcsite.html
OnConract http://www.panix.com/~squigle/OnContract/menu.html
On Jan 6, 2004, at 8:59 PM, Erik Christman wrote:
> Dana
>
> XHTML is the next logical step to XML,, read Mr. Zeldman's book
> twice,, hit his site once a week.
> CSS is also a good way of separating your content from your design,,
> so redesigns are not so painful.
> Haven't seen any good examples of XHTML/CSS museum sites to speak of...
>
> __________________
> Erik W. Christman
> Exhibition Designer
> The Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace
> 18001 Yorba Linda Blvd.
> Yorba Linda, Calif. 92886
> (714) 993-5075 ext.243
> fax (714) 528-0544
> email:
> [email protected]
> website:http://www.nixonlibrary.org
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