The Case for Web Standards

1. The Case for Web Standards (A reusable presentation for website managers worldwide) This presentation was written in March 2002 and is provided as a template. It should be tailored to a particular company’s needs as well as updated.

2. Agenda • Benefits of web standards • Lower your development and maintenance costs • Future-proof your sites • Reach more customers and improve the user experience • Considerations • Conclusion This presentation was written in March 2002 and is provided as a template. It should be tailored to a particular company’s needs as well as updated.

3. It’s about reducing costs, future proofing,and customer acquisition and satisfaction • By using web standards as defined by the W3C, companies can reduce costs and gain many strategic advantages. These advantages are detailed in the following slides. This presentation was written in March 2002 and is provided as a template. It should be tailored to a particular company’s needs as well as updated.

4. Lower Costs: Much easier to manage a site-wide look and feel • Getting rid of the painful mix of content and presentation by separating them • Use Strict HTML and CSS to enforce the separation • Store presentation in a separate file, aka « Style Sheet » • It is possible to update style sheets (and change the layout on all pages) without updating the documents. This presentation was written in March 2002 and is provided as a template. It should be tailored to a particular company’s needs as well as updated.

5. Lower Costs:Simplified development and deployment • Using CSS for special effects on text makes one’s web site much easier to update. • Well-formed (valid) HTML code reduces quality assurance costs • Errors are spotted by W3C’s Validator • Rendering differences still exist, but are limited • Asking a vendor to produce a standard-compliant web site is a way to ensure a measurable quality control on what is delivered. See http://www.w3.org/QA/2002/07/WebAgency-Requirements This presentation was written in March 2002 and is provided as a template. It should be tailored to a particular company’s needs as well as updated.

6. Lower Costs:Standards use less bandwidth, load faster • Separating presentation from content using style sheets reduces the size of documents. Therefore web pages load much faster, which translates into a better user experience. “CSS has made it possible to transform table-based layouts into CSS-based layouts. Typically this reduces page size by 25 to 50%. “ Interview with Andy King (Author of Speed Up Your Site: Web Site Optimization) This presentation was written in March 2002 and is provided as a template. It should be tailored to a particular company’s needs as well as updated.

7. Future-proof: Standardized code • Content needs to be ready for non-PC devices (phones, handhelds, etc.) • Using valid standards-compliant markup ensures that data will still be re-usable for a long time on many devices, as specification on how to interpret the standards are well documented and here to stay. • Coding to standards does not mean producing less compelling content. • As a matter of fact almost anything taking advantage of proprietary extensions can be done in a standards-compliant way. This presentation was written in March 2002 and is provided as a template. It should be tailored to a particular company’s needs as well as updated.

8. Future proof: Extensible architecture • Using Strict HTML and CSS paves the way to XML • XHTML is an XML-compatible version of HTML • Tools and standards are becoming available for leverage in the near future: • SVG – Scalable Vectors Graphics (Animated graphics) • MathML – to manipulate Mathematical equations • XSLT to transform data in an XML-language into another. • These XML technologies have been built around interoperability. This presentation was written in March 2002 and is provided as a template. It should be tailored to a particular company’s needs as well as updated.

9. Future proof: Avoids lock in to particular developers • See http://www.w3.org/QA/2002/07/WebAgency-Requirements • Most organizations have experienced difficulties in re-using code written by a former vendor or employee, because of undocumented "hacks" and specific coding practices. • Valid standards-based code ensures that code is on par with best practices. This presentation was written in March 2002 and is provided as a template. It should be tailored to a particular company’s needs as well as updated.

10. More customers: Better search engine ranking • Separating presentation from content augments the information/markup ratio. Since most search engines rely on text placed on top of the page, using standards such as CSS give such web pages a higher rank. • Using text and CSS to do special effects such as roll-overs instead of graphics also help. This presentation was written in March 2002 and is provided as a template. It should be tailored to a particular company’s needs as well as updated.

11. More customers: Compatible with more browsers and platforms • Overall, 5 different rendering engines are used to surf the web in dozens of browsers on 3 platforms. • More and more browsers, other than Internet Explorer for Windows, are used to surf the web. • Windows : MSIE, Netscape Gecko, Opera. • Mac: MS-Tasman (IE/Mac) , Netscape Gecko, KHTML, Opera • Linux: Netscape Gecko, KHTML, Opera • Coding to standards (instead one or two specific browsers) is then the only practical solution. This presentation was written in March 2002 and is provided as a template. It should be tailored to a particular company’s needs as well as updated.

12. More customers: Accessibility • Accessibility is a major mandate • Section 508 in the US • 2003 European year of people with disabilities • Recent W3C standards (HTML 4.01, CSS, XHTML) have been designed with accessibility in mind, simplifying accessibility compliance. • Your site better serves disabled people as well as those using non-PC devices, increasing a web site’s effectiveness as a broad communication tool. This presentation was written in March 2002 and is provided as a template. It should be tailored to a particular company’s needs as well as updated.

13. Conclusion: It’s smart to invest in web standards today • Using standards today means • Reducing cost of developing and managing content • Reaching a wider audience (wider compatibility with browsers, accessibility, better ranking in search engines) • Compliance with accessibility law • Tomorrow • Reduced lock-in to particular developers and vendors • Reduced cost of maintenance • Flexibility of presentation, including non-PC devices • A door open to XML technologies and benefits This presentation was written in March 2002 and is provided as a template. It should be tailored to a particular company’s needs as well as updated.

14. “To hedge one's product success and longevity bets, preserving a path to cross-platform support should be a development action item from day one.” –Eweek, “If You Don't Build It, They May Never Come” Dec. 9, 2002 This presentation was written in March 2002 and is provided as a template. It should be tailored to a particular company’s needs as well as updated.