When someone refers to a webpage as "standards compliant", they mean that the web page is built using the language standardizations recommended by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), and that the page avoids proprietary languages or language extensions such as the browser-specific tags like the Netscape 4 specific LAYER, or the Internet Explorer specific MARQUEE.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) develops interoperable technologies (specifications, guidelines, software, and tools) to lead the Web to its full potential. W3C has published more than forty Recommendations since its inception. Each Recommendation not only builds on the previous, but is designed so that it may be integrated with future specifications as well.
One of the W3C's recommendations is (X)HTML ( almost identical to the 'normal' HTML you are familiar with): Several versions of HTML have stabilized the explosion in functionalities of the Web's primary markup language.
Another of the W3C's recommendations is CSS (Cascading Style Sheets): Two versions of CSS offer site designers a rich palette for styling Web pages. By allowing the separation of structure and presentation, style sheets make site management easier and promote Web accessibility. CSS can be used to control the presentation of HTML as well as of any XML content.
Internet standards are more than just the language syntax, these standards were designed for very specific purposes, to do special things, and to work together. When you code for standards, you use the languages the way they were intended to be used. Following the spirit of the standard as well as the letter of it. The majority of today's Internet web development crushes the spirit of the standards in three ways:
XHTML IS HTML, and both are all about structure, not about presentation. Type faces, colors, margins, gutters, positioning and other user interface related issues are not a part of the HTML or XHTML specifications, and should not be encoded there.
Stylesheets allow you to generalize the way documents look based on their structure. CSS provides this functionality. You define how the structural elements in XHTML should look once in a separate linked file. When those elements occur in the source document they are automatically styled anyway you want. More importantly, even major changes to the document style are accomplished with minor changes to the Stylesheet.
Standard's use can cut costs. Generalizing layout with CSS cuts bandwith usage immensly. Most pages realize a savings of more than 50% - some as great as 75% or 80%. The more complicated the layout, the more it can benefit from being converted to CSS.
Further, XHTML / CSS-based pages are flexible. Since the document is defined by it's structure, rather than it's layout, it is much easier to make changes to the style of the site when you want to. Make a change to the stylesheet, and it instantly propogates to the entire site. If you want to spruce up the site for the Christmas selling season, then just make a new stylesheet that grossly overuses green and red - and the entire site becomes a Christmas spectacle
Standards-based web pages are the future. Surprising few developers seem to know this, but it is slowly becoming more well known. Almost every single major browser manufacturer now has a standards-compliant web browser. Some web sites are already built with XHTML/CSS and the appropriate separation of content from design. However, there are no real leaders in this area yet as far as visual design is concerned. Most of the people using this technology so far are serious programmers.
Use of current W3C standards ensures future compatibility. Standardization is becoming more and more common amongst browser applications. The best way to future-proof your applications is to code to established standards. Future-proofed applications, platform independence, and the ability to multi-purpose content are all solid business cases.
Not so long ago only way to access the Web was through a personal computer or workstation. Standards-compliant web sites are compatible with practically every single internet device. Today mobile phones, smart phones, personal digital assistants, interactive television systems, voice response systems, kiosks and even certain domestic appliances can all access the Web. Since structure is defined in terms of what is essentially HTML 2.0, even the most obscure of these devices can access a standards compliant page. If the browser agent doens't understand CSS, or doesn't understand some parts of CSS, it simply ignores them. The user can still read the text (which is what sells your product and services afterall) but it will be lacking whatever CSS attributes it doesn't understand. This means that your web can be accessed by users whatever device they choose to use, when and where they choose to access it. Device Independence encompasses the techniques required to make such support an affordable reality.
WEB-TV brings together Television and the Internet in one way. Internet access is also delivered by Cable TV companies, bringing the two together in another way. These technologies will merge in the near future, and become much like the functionality brought to the Internet by Windows Media and Real Audio, allowing real time interactive commercials in which your products can be bought and sold as the commercial progresses.
Standardization is one of several keys to opening this and other new markets to the consumer via technology. Standardization is the one of the keys to enable every internet enabled device to be an advertising mechanism, and point of sale for you.
The percentage of standards supporting browsers in use has increased tremendously. The percentage of non-standards supporting browsers is low and doing nothing but decreasing. Those older browsers still in use are largely found in institutions where the choice of which browser to use is out of the control of the person using the computer; and then typically not on the desks of the decision makers you are seeking to reach with your message.
Compatibility is NOT an issue, it is a choice. Content is at the heart of every web site. There were no good CSS browsers until 2000. Yet in spite of that, the use of the Internet has grown because of what people had to say, and only incidently how that was presented. With the average life of a computer somewhere between 3 and 5 years, then by the year 2005 nearly every computer will have been replaced by one whose OEM installed browser is CSS Compliant.
CSS and XHTML are by now in so many popular browsers that they should be used on every single page. These standards will be incorporated into future browser agents, and although the the number of non-compatible browser users hovers around 15 percent, it will grow rather than decrease as the number of Internet Enabled devices increases.
With the use of modular XHTML v1.1 certain features will be available to some devices and not to others much as things are currently with older browsers. When a person chooses to utilize a text only LINX broswer, they are trading away YOUR stylish presentation for a personal reason. Likewise those who rely on a cellular phone for their browsing pleasure have done so understanding the loss that currently entails, and they happily exchanging YOUR stylish presentation for the portability THEY desire. Those who choose to use Netscape 4 as their primary browser are no different.
Don't let yourself be fooled. Compatibility is not not an issue. A web site is a dynamic interface between your company and your clients. Watch your site statistics and you will get to know your audience. Provide a vehicle for feedback, and you will get to know them better as well as keep a few unhappy customers. Establish a dialog with those who are dissatisfied and you will keep most of your unhappy customers.
Through it all you will come to know your audience and the user interface they need. Start off with a standards compliant web site, and you are choosing to support every browser agent; and you won't find yourself re-designing your web site every six months, or if you choose to re-design, it may take minutes instead of months. If you decide that you wish to expand your stylish presentation into the world of Netscape 4, or some other non-compliant agent, you will have not better starting place that a fully XHTML/CSS Compliant base of interesting and desirable content.
The true meaning of impulse buying will never be seen until "Joe" consumer can truly access your product line any-when, any-where, and any-how. When I can use my internet enabled cellular phone to buy flowers from the corner flower shop as my wife powders her nose at the restaurant before we walk home from our anniversary dinner; dash into the store as we pass and in 3 seconds dash back out with a bouquet of her favorite. That is when we know that the Internet "has arrived". This is the dream that the standards can make into reality for you today.
We here at TexaStar.com stand behind W3C standards for XHTML, and CSS, as well as those defined in Web Accessibility Intiative Content Accessibility Guidelines 1999/05/05, Support Level: AAA and US Government Section 508 Guidelines Unless specifically forbidden to do so by a client, we will design and validate the web pages we develop to meet these standards in accordance with both the spirit and the letter. Let us help you to market your products in ways that your competitors are still only dreaming about.
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Last modified: 2004-02-04
This page is designed for all browsers and devices and is authored to W3C recommendations including XHTML 1.0 Transitional and Cascading Style Sheets. It is Bobby Approved to the WAI Content Accessibility Guidelines 1999/05/05, Support Level: AAA and complies with the U.S. Section 508 Guidelines: Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility Standards. As a result, this web page displays as intended in Opera 5, Opera 6, MSIE5, MSIE4 MacIntosh Edition , MSIE5.5, MSIE6, Netscape 6, and title="External Link: Mozilla" Mozilla (possibly the best browser ever), while its text is available to any browser or Internet device, from Netscape 1.0 to Palm Pilots and web phones, and in those displays is intended to degrade to a readable and logically organized layout.