The Advantages of Standards-Based Web Design
September 1, 2004
By Robert Thoelen III
Principal Software Engineer
RTCubed Consulting, LLC
Very shortly after I discovered TCP/IP, and how to use computer networking, I became very interested in the World Wide Web, and in creating web pages. My first few attempts were mostly text-based pages, with very few graphics. After all, I was studying to be an engineer, not a graphic designer! I saw the designs that many people made on the internet, and just could not duplicate what they were doing. Many times they made use of elaborate tables and tricks to make their sites work with all kinds of browsers, such as Internet Explorer, Netscape, Opera, Mozilla, and others. I got tired of trying to figure everything out, and concentrated on honing my skills as a software developer.
Fast-forward a few years to the year 2003. I had just started my consulting company, and it wasn't to do web design. However, I didn't want to pay someone to develop a web page for me. I felt that my content was too valuable to be done wrong, and not many people would truly understand what I was looking for. When I set out to create the pages myself, I found that things have come quite far since the early days of the web. With standards such as XHTML and CSS, I was ready to get back into web design. Here are some of the reasons why I use standards-based design:
XHTML forces consistency
In regular HTML, some tags, such as a horizontal rule (<hr>), do not a have a closing tag. Other tags do have closing tags. This gets to be confusing. Because XHTML is based on XML, everything must be closed. So <hr> would look like <hr/>.
Consistency is also maintained by the fact that with XML, you can validate your XML against a Document Type Definition(DTD), which will parse your XML code and verify that it complies with the published standards. There is no guesswork involved.
Designed correctly, very few hacks are necessary
I remember reading books on web design, where the author would make elaborate schemes to detect the browser, and then redirect to a page specifically for that browser. By having standards that all the browsers adhere to, this problem for the most part goes away. There are still little bugs in how pages are rendered, but these are much simpler to deal with than creating different code for different browsers. This is what drove me years ago to abandon web design. I grew tired of having to play games with tables to achieve the results I wanted. Now, by coding with XHTML, and using CSS for style, I have a consistent look across many browsers. Will some old browsers not render my pages correctly? Yes! But I'd rather not support legacy browsers. Most of my web statistics show people are using IE 6 and Windows XP, so I'm not concerned. Internet Explorer versions 5.5 and above, and Netscape 6 support most of the CSS features I use.
Lower costs of maintenance
This is only true if you design the pages correctly. By correctly, I mean that you need to learn to separate presentation from content. I use XHTML code to contain the content of my site. I use CSS code to handle the positioning and the presentational elements (fonts, size, etc.). I do break this rule sometimes, but only when it makes more sense to do so. The net result of separating the presentation from the content is that you have a much more maintainable website.
For instance, with my website, I'm starting to publish technical articles. Whenever I want to publish another one, I simply copy the file to a different name, and edit the content. I do not worry about re-doing the positioning, because the same CSS file is used. If I change the positioning in the CSS file, each article's positioning will now be updated. If I had put the CSS in each XHTML file, I'd be editing each one. So spending less time maintaining web pages, means that I can charge less money for my work, and spend my time working with more clients. This savings is then passed on to my clients. If an update is needed, quite often it is just a simple change to one file.
Conclusion
XHTML and CSS provide a very easy way to publish websites and documents to the web, and to maintain a consistent look and feel to a site. If you put some thought into the design of your site before you start, beginning with thinking about the separation of presentation and content, you will be well on your way to designing a professional site that reflects consistency and maintainability. As always, RTCubed is here to help you. If you like our philosophy of web designing, please don't hesitate to call us and schedule a consultation. We would be more than happy to develop your website. You owe it to yourself to present your company in the most professional manner possible.
Related Links
September 1, 2004
By Robert Thoelen III
Principal Software Engineer
RTCubed Consulting, LLC
Very shortly after I discovered TCP/IP, and how to use computer networking, I became very interested in the World Wide Web, and in creating web pages. My first few attempts were mostly text-based pages, with very few graphics. After all, I was studying to be an engineer, not a graphic designer! I saw the designs that many people made on the internet, and just could not duplicate what they were doing. Many times they made use of elaborate tables and tricks to make their sites work with all kinds of browsers, such as Internet Explorer, Netscape, Opera, Mozilla, and others. I got tired of trying to figure everything out, and concentrated on honing my skills as a software developer.
Fast-forward a few years to the year 2003. I had just started my consulting company, and it wasn't to do web design. However, I didn't want to pay someone to develop a web page for me. I felt that my content was too valuable to be done wrong, and not many people would truly understand what I was looking for. When I set out to create the pages myself, I found that things have come quite far since the early days of the web. With standards such as XHTML and CSS, I was ready to get back into web design. Here are some of the reasons why I use standards-based design:
XHTML forces consistency
In regular HTML, some tags, such as a horizontal rule (<hr>), do not a have a closing tag. Other tags do have closing tags. This gets to be confusing. Because XHTML is based on XML, everything must be closed. So <hr> would look like <hr/>.
Consistency is also maintained by the fact that with XML, you can validate your XML against a Document Type Definition(DTD), which will parse your XML code and verify that it complies with the published standards. There is no guesswork involved.
Designed correctly, very few hacks are necessary
I remember reading books on web design, where the author would make elaborate schemes to detect the browser, and then redirect to a page specifically for that browser. By having standards that all the browsers adhere to, this problem for the most part goes away. There are still little bugs in how pages are rendered, but these are much simpler to deal with than creating different code for different browsers. This is what drove me years ago to abandon web design. I grew tired of having to play games with tables to achieve the results I wanted. Now, by coding with XHTML, and using CSS for style, I have a consistent look across many browsers. Will some old browsers not render my pages correctly? Yes! But I'd rather not support legacy browsers. Most of my web statistics show people are using IE 6 and Windows XP, so I'm not concerned. Internet Explorer versions 5.5 and above, and Netscape 6 support most of the CSS features I use.
Lower costs of maintenance
This is only true if you design the pages correctly. By correctly, I mean that you need to learn to separate presentation from content. I use XHTML code to contain the content of my site. I use CSS code to handle the positioning and the presentational elements (fonts, size, etc.). I do break this rule sometimes, but only when it makes more sense to do so. The net result of separating the presentation from the content is that you have a much more maintainable website.
For instance, with my website, I'm starting to publish technical articles. Whenever I want to publish another one, I simply copy the file to a different name, and edit the content. I do not worry about re-doing the positioning, because the same CSS file is used. If I change the positioning in the CSS file, each article's positioning will now be updated. If I had put the CSS in each XHTML file, I'd be editing each one. So spending less time maintaining web pages, means that I can charge less money for my work, and spend my time working with more clients. This savings is then passed on to my clients. If an update is needed, quite often it is just a simple change to one file.
Conclusion
XHTML and CSS provide a very easy way to publish websites and documents to the web, and to maintain a consistent look and feel to a site. If you put some thought into the design of your site before you start, beginning with thinking about the separation of presentation and content, you will be well on your way to designing a professional site that reflects consistency and maintainability. As always, RTCubed is here to help you. If you like our philosophy of web designing, please don't hesitate to call us and schedule a consultation. We would be more than happy to develop your website. You owe it to yourself to present your company in the most professional manner possible.
Related Links