Standards Based not Standards Obsessed

I recently had the privilege to work on upgrading a client’s website and after an initial run through the code I was horrified. It was strangely written and obtuse. For some reason each page was being displayed in an Iframe unnecessarily, etc. I then saw the culprit. It was built in Iweb, the built in Web Site Publishing tool by Apple as part of their ILife software suite.

The website looked good, it worked in all the browsers I tested, and it was even, to my great surprise. Standards Compliant.

I am a big supporter of Web Standards as a way to make the web a better place, but I also realize that any set of rules or standards can be gamed to the point of irrelevancy. Thats what this site was. Iweb produces nasty code that should only be used on a personal website. I am still amazed that the drag and drop interface of Iweb works so well across browsers and in such a rich graphical manner but when you start digging it gets really ugly. It also validates as XHMTL Transitional 1.0 perfectly, proving my point.

Validation as standards compliant is not and should never be the defining characteristic of quality code. A huge amount of other factors need to be considered when designing your website and obsessing over a validation is not where I want to spend my or my client’s time. Some of the web standards recommendations I don’t agree with and will break. The removal of the “target” attribute, for example, in the strict doctype is very annoying since this help controls how links work and is very important. There was no easy replacement for this functionality that was given.

Trying to get embedded youtube videos to validate requires rewriting the code even though it produces the same effect.

At some point the case for web standards comes down to a case of diminishing returns. It is easy to have a site validate when it is static and completely under the control of a web developer. If you add in a content management system of some kind and have users who don’t know web standards then it is just not worthwhile. Proper training is essential for the users but its not going to ever be perfect.

Standards are always the bar that I reach for with my websites; but for me, the real test of a website is everything besides that. Does it influence site visitors? Does it produce sales? Does the site have repeat visitors? These are the true criteria of success and ultimately what we are all after.