Designing to standards - we all win
Standards. What standards? No, we're not talking about how great our sites look with one 'standard' popular browser using one 'standard' screen size. We're talking about building great sites that look great with any browser, any screen, on any computer. And the standards we're talking about are those produced by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
Some web sites display button images similar to those shown above to indicate compliance with a standard - and expect you to take it on trust that the page truly is compliant. Other sites display those images linked to the specific pages where you can test the claims for yourself. Rather than use those types of image, we've provided simple text links at the bottom of each page so you can check for yourself.
- xhtml - links to the W3C validator for XHTML 1.0
- css - links to the W3C validator for CSS (site-wide)
- 508 - links to US Section 508 accessibility checker
- aaa - links to W3C accessibility level AAA checker
What does it all mean?
And why should you care, anyway? What it means for you as a web site owner is that you can be assured that a site designed and developed by halfadot smallwebs will display correctly in all standards-compliant browsers. Not just the most recent web browsers, not just those of a particular 'make', but ALL standards-compliant browsers.
It takes more care and more skill to design web sites this way, and you benefit from it since all your visitors will find the site equally functional.
Accessibilty
There's more to accessibility than making a site that works in all browsers. For a number of years, a number of national governments have had legislation that requires certain web sites to be accessible to visitors with vision deficiencies or other conditions that make it difficult - or even impossible - for them to access a web site 'normally'.
And the extra cost is how much?
There is no extra cost. Standards-compliant and accessible sites can be developed as quickly as those that are non-standard, and frequently in a more time-effective manner. Standards-compliant sites are simpler to maintain, simpler to modify, and simpler to update, and make your web site accessible to more people.
So why doesn't everybody build sites to these standards? Honestly, we don't know. We suspect it's because the designers haven't put in the time and effort to learn how to do it. We have. We suspect it may be because some designers prefer to stick with 'templates'. We don't. We suspect it's because we are prepared to devote more care to what is going to make your web site better.
All good reasons for choosing halfadot smallwebs for your next project.