Web standards primer for the non-techie

When a web designer says he "designs to standards," what does he mean? If he's talking about designing to the W3C way of coding web pages, he means writing semantic (X)HTML code while performing the site's styling and layout in valid CSS...

And at this point non-designers hear the voice of Charlie Brown's teacher.

Non-technical project managers don't care about the coding mumbo-jumbo behind all this standards talk. They want to know one thing -- how standards will save them both time and money.

Smaller web pages = greater bandwidth savings

Without getting into the specifics, designing a web site to W3C standards drastically reduces the code behind each page on your site. Less code means smaller file sizes, and smaller file sizes mean you're using less bandwidth every time your users visit your site.

The San Francisco Examiner redesigned their site to W3C standards -- semantic (X)HTML, CSS for styling and layout -- and was able to reduce the size of each page by almost half. Though the traffic to the site was 40% higher after the re-design, their bandwidth usage was basically the same.

Accessible to non-traditional browsers

Would you consciously choose to exclude a market from viewing your site, risking the loss of potential customers? That's exactly what you might be doing if you ignore W3C standards in your site's design.

With the rise of web-enabled mobile phones, PDAs, and browsers for the disabled, you don't want to ignore a large number of customers who might not be able to view your site with their browser/device of choice. Though standards-compatibility is not yet 100% universal in every web browser/device on the market, a standards-based design is indeed the best way to ensure that your site is displayed correctly on future browsers and devices.

Speaking of the future...

Standards-based designs also enable your site to easily convert to future browsers and devices, not to mention keeping your site backward-compatible for customers who still use those older browsers (Netscape 4.x, anyone?). Designing your site to standards today keeps you from re-designing it when that hot new device comes along tomorrow.

Keeps all current and future designers on the same page

Your site will likely go through multiple revisions and iterations at the hands of designers that will come and go. Wouldn't it be nice to have a site that was coded so that new designers can immediately jump in and know what's going on? Web standards are a well documented way to ensure consistent coding practices.

Easy to verify standards compliance

So you're convinced, but wondering how you make your site W3C standards compliant. Easy. The W3C has several handy code validators that check your site for compliance. You simply enter your web page's URL, and the validator runs through it and tells you where your code is non-compliant. If you're converting an existing site, the W3C validators will tell you what you need to change. If you're testing a new design, the validators verify that you're on the right track.