What are web standards?

Why are Web Standards Important?

• You need the mechanisms that drive the website to be free of bugs, so the website runs smoothly.
• You need unconvaluted & standardised code driving the website so it work quickly & efficiently on any stationary or mobile device.
• You need good indexing and easy to use menus so that users & search engines find your product.
• You need to be able to understand your website and what it will require from you.

They are pretty much the same as in any other profession.  A builder will build to standards so you can sleep at night secure in the thought that your house will not fall down.  It's the same with websites.  If they are built to W3C web standards, you can rest assured that you are getting the more stable product for your money.  Accepting less is throwing money out the window.

One of the things that make Attitude different from many other designers, Attitude build with the future in mind. Attitude achieve this by developing to internationally recognized W3C standards.

Before Attitude send a website live we check:

1. Validation: all our sites coding are put through W3C validation
2. Accessibility: all sites are checked for accessibility, as it is not only important for disabled users, but also for users who use text-only browsers, disable images, or because of slow connections. There are 3 levels of accessibility, A,AA,AAA - sites do not go live until they satisfy at least an A rating (which is the minimum requirement).
3. Compatability: because sites today have to cater to a range of influences and portability, Attitude build to cater to as many of these as possible. Such as: screensize and resolution, browser type, operating systems, printing and security controls.
4. Speed: as many users are still on slower dial-up connections and have bandwidth restrictions, Attitude develop sites with small files sizes that will consume the least possible bandwidth and will load quickly, without restricting aesthetic appearances.

How your site operates reflects on our reputation. So you can be guarenteed that Attitude will supply you with the best performance and reliablity as possible.

Why should your site validate?

Validated HTML documents are now a key aspect of Web life to ensure document portability. However, there's a misconception that users who advocate HTML validation are using scare tactics as to its importance. Many advocates of validation are computer professionals, who have learned the hard way that portability and compatibility are key elements to ensuring the longevity of Web pages.

Valid HTML is less likely to cause problems with different browsers and more likely to survive the next browser release. If facts and logic cant speak for themselves, then those that dont try and evolve deserve to be sitting on the fence watching their sites decay with future technologies. It's not our job to convince anyone about what to do and what not to do. Its not the W3C's job to lead by example. It's our job as IT professionals to take a recommendation, and run with it as far as we can and push the envelope.

Users should be concentrating on the advances in coding that are taking it to new limits. Validation is now more than a little stamp you put on your site to say you know what you are doing. Its more 'what' you have done with that code that counts. XHTML/CSS has evolved some of the most innovating code ever written. Never in the life of HTML has this happened. Designers & programmers are expanding their potential more than they ever have. Half as much code is being written, therefore less bandwidth is being used. Less code also reduces the file size, so pages load faster!

Because a page renders well in Internet Explorer, it doesn't mean that the HTML code behind it is suffice to render it the same on other browsers, or that it meets standards. There are many other browsers in use, why handicap your site by accepting unvalidated and uncompliant pages?

Take the Test:   Validate Your Website