A Business Case for Standards-Based Design

What is “standards-based” design?

In an attempt to end the “browser wars” of the late nineties and early 2000’s, the Web Standards Project (WaSP) was formed, which advocated the use of technology standards recommended by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). These standards were created to help developers and designers expedite the production of websites, as well as serve as a guide for browsers to interpret and deliver website in predictable and consistent ways. Prior to this, each browser manufacturer deciphered websites differently and incorporated proprietary code that, more often than not, did not render or even function on the competing browser’s platform. Thus we had websites that worked in Internet Explorer and broke in Netscape and vice versa. Developers were forced to create elaborate detection scripts that had to be updated with each new browser release, or simply decide not to support the competition (e.g., remember the “best viewed in Internet Explorer” disclaimers?).

Why Should You Care?

All of this probably seems a bit esoteric to the average web surfer, and even the business power-user is probably saying “so what?”. After all, if it looks good in your browser, what’s the big deal? However there are a number of issues you should be concerned with if your company’s website is not adhering to web standards.

Accessibility

Your company may not be a non-profit, government-funded enterprise, or required by law to provide equal access to the disabled, including the blind, elderly and those with limited motor skills. However, it is not just these organizations who are subject to the scrutiny of lawyers. In one noteworthy case, Target was sued by a blind person who could not access their site with screen reading software. In addition to the litigation, Target is still recovering from the negative publicity generated by this case. Being viewed as ‘unfriendly’ to the handicapped is an image that very few companies can afford.

Beyond the chance of being sued, there is one “blind” user that almost no one can ignore. Google’s web crawlers, the ones that actually track and rank your site in search engine results, are essentially blind in the sense that they do not use traditional inputs (i.e., mouse, keyboard) to traverse your site. Navigation menus which rely on javascript (e.g, many drop-down or “fly-out” menus) as well as many flash based sites completely deter these crawlers from accessing your site, reducing your search engine rankings significantly.

Cost & Maintenance

With the ubiquity of broadband and online storage becoming cheaper it may seem that the days of optimizing your site to download quickly on dial-up modems are gone. However, while bandwidth is expanding, so are the media, content, and functional requirements that users expect. Streaming video and websites that perform like desktop applications are commonplace and require sophisticated development and delivery strategies. Standards-based development results in more streamlined code that is easier to troubleshoot and maintain, and more easily ported across multiple platforms and user-agents (e.g., PDAs, mobile devices, etc.). Moreover, bandwidth is still typically being charged on a per/use basis. The more hits your site gets, the more expensive it becomes to deliver your content, so having optimized code can result in huge cost savings over time.

How can we help?

The user-centered philosophy that Duo employs affects many facets of the interactive design process. Beyond simply making sites that are intuitive, easy and fun to use, the techniques we employ to construct sites is integral to the fulfillment of our vision. Unobtrusive javascript, progressive enhancement, and semantically meaningful markup will ensure that your site performs well and is available to the widest possible audience.