What are Web Standards?

Essentially, the idea is to create one set of code that works for everyone, independent of browsers and platforms, disability and device. The essential elements are:-

• Valid xhtml code - this is an updated version of the sleek language that underlies all web information (html) the x signifies its interface with CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) for designing the text, layout and basic look.

• This is all about the separation of content and structure from presentation leaving your mark-up clean and semantically meaningful, making it quicker and reducing total file sizes and download times.

• Code correctness means that the individual elements have meaning on their own, labels that ensure that each individual piece of a site can be understood by search engines, browsers, all appliances and people as well!

So really standards are all about accessibility and usability now and in the future.

There are three main areas of accessibility, and all are equally important:-

Computer users - Great design should cover you on this, but remember that in the past designers hacked around with html code to make things "beautiful". But along with beauty came the beast of complication and that led to sites crashing, taking ages to load, freezing your computer, and worse. By using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) to create elegant page styles alongside slimline html (xhtml) the beast is no more. Simple.

People with impairments - Whist there are more and more devices to assist people with impairments, there are several things that we have to (legally) include on our sites to make their experience as good as it can be. The most crucial of these is to label every item on your site - photo, table, graph, flash. Also, to explain those elements that are crucial to the site in detail, this is particularly true for tables, animation and statistical charts. You need to assume that people may not be able to see the pictures and other elements, so describe them in whatever detail is required.

Remember that many people with site impairment can see relatively well, however they cannot see type below size 12, nor can they read your pages unless there is sufficient contrast between your background and your type. Colour blindness is also an issue, and one thing that all designers should ensure is that every site is just as meaningful in black and white as in colour. (To ensure this you may need to expand some of your tags and descriptions).

New Hardware and Software - People who use up to the minute technology (now and in the future) - i.e. "handy" things with very small screens, new browsers, search engines... The greatest breakthrough that the Web Standards folks have achieved so far is to bring everyone on board, so that all new and future devices and software will recognise the things that go to make up new standards (xhtml, CSS, etc.)

Personally, I don't think that any of this goes very far from good design practice - except that we must remember to be much more accurate and detailed in our behind the scenes descriptions.