The Train Track Gauge of the Future

Why Standards? Why Standards? A train track gauge story Why Standards?

What are Web Standards? HyperText Markup Language (HTML) eXtensible HyperText Markup Language (XHTML) Cascading StyleSheets (CSS)

What are the underlying concepts of Web standards? What are the underlying concepts of Web standards? semantically meaningful mark-up separating content/presentation

How do these strategies affect usability? What is usability? The international standard, ISO 9241-11, provides guidance on usability and defines it as: The extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use. Who is the user? In the life of a Web site, the user (consumer) can be: end user designer developer bots/Web agents user agents What are the benefits ...? faster downloads / bandwidth savings Evaluating Elisabeth.com (with permission from Creative Good) consistency in document structure, display & interface maintainability accessibility extensibility In short, money and effort ... and the disadvantages? (support in software not 100%) (learning curve) These are perceived disadvantages.

How do we embrace Web standards? How do we embrace Web standards? validation throwing out pixel-perfect and absolute designs ensure your tools support standards configure your tools to support standards demand standards-compliant sites from your contractors "Buy standards-compliant Web sites" define a process to improve the quality of your Web site "Web Standards Switch"