Web design guidelines & DDA Standards to improve your website

By Andy Headington

This article aims to outline the importance of web development guidelines and standards, why they should be implemented and how they can benefit business websites.

An introduction to Web Development Guidelines

Back in the early days of website development, the only option available to web designers was to use HTML to build and design their web pages. HTML was designed purely to allow content to be published (or 'marked up'), it was never meant to be used to design pages; presentation was meant to be achieved using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). However, CSS standards were very slow to be adopted by the web developer community (the first version wasn't finalised until 1996) which meant that the first web browsers (Netscape and early versions of Internet Explorer) couldn't show CSS correctly and hence website developers opted for the safer option of HTML.

As the Internet matures over time, new technologies become more widespread, and thanks to new browsers such as Firefox and IE6, more and more web developers are making use of CSS and XHTML. These technologies allow content and design to be completely separated meaning that data can be deployed on any device which can access the Internet (see the CSS Zen Garden for CSS web development examples) and the ability to use data wherever needed, is achieved.

Who develops the web standards?

The main web development and design guidelines comprise of a list of recommendations and guidelines laid out by the W3C. The W3C are a collective, comprising of Microsoft, IBM and Sun amongst others, who recommend best practises for website development and formalise language syntax and structure. Working to these guidelines usually ensures websites work with most users and browsers and hence perform better for businesses. The W3C are not the only organisation committed to improving the web. Other organisations such as WebAIM, the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) and even the European Commission have laid out guidelines for website developers to improve they way the build sites and ultimately, improve the web experience for website visitors.

Adido Solutions have developed all websites to level one of the WAI guidelines laid out by the WorldWide Web Consortium (W3C) from the 1st of January 2005.

What are there website standards?

All website standards are developed by the W3C. These include HTML ver 4.01, XHTML ver. 1.0 & 1.1,CSS ver 1.0 and the Document Object Models (DOM). The aim of these guidelines is to try to standardise development of websites and also the presentation of them to users so that every user can make use of the information presented regardless of physical attributes, viewing device or browser (although the last one is hard to achieve: display differences between Firefox and IE).

We believe that it is to every web user's benefit that these technical aspects of development are observed. However, Adido Solutions make other techniques 'standard' as part of the web design and development process such as running your site through text browsers or through usability testing tools. Testing your site using the agreed standards and other tools, will help identify potential problems with your site and make it as easy to use for each and every website visitor (thus making it 'standardised').

Why should this affect my website?

Those with websites may be saying 'so what?'. It is true that the majority of all websites built do not comply with the most basic level of the W3C accessibility guidelines (in fact a study by the DRC in April 2004 found that 81% of the websites in their survey failed to meet level one of the Website Accessibility Initiative) but this should no longer be an excuse for any site built recently. There are many reasons as to why standards have not been adopted by web developers (see below) but implementing small changes can make all the difference and can bring the following benefits to any business website:

• Increase revenue

  • The WAI have said that "at least 10% of the population in most countries has disabilities,". Which company website wouldn't benefit from another 10% of customers through their door? It is estimated that around $114.7 BILLION was spent online during 2004. If this 10% of users could use the Internet in the same way as a 'normal' website user, it is fair to suggest the total spent online would have been a lot higher. Adhering to website development guidelines would have increased the amount of users who could have used your site and made a purchase online.

• Enhanced online profile

  • By adhering to the recognised website standards and guidelines, you show that you are serious about your online business and shows that you are aware that not everyone who uses the Internet has the vision, cognitive or work situation of the developers who built your site.

• Improved search rankings

  • The majority of the sites which are built to website standards are smaller in actual file size and are easier to navigate for search engine spiders due to the efficient HTML coding and lack of images / Flash animations. If search engines can find your site and it has been properly optimised for search engines, then the chances of it being found should increase.

• Faster navigation speeds

  • The separation between content and presentation means that file sizes can be greatly reduced. This leads to quicker, and generally easier, navigation for website users, thus giving them theinformation they want when they want it. Additionally, web browsers can render standardised web pages far quicker than traditional HTML pages, again improving the viewer experience.

Why have website developers not adhered to the guidelines?

The guidelines developed by the W3C have been around since 1999. Yet, as mentioned, the majority of websites fail to adhere to the most basic of these guidelines. Until recently there has been little support to website developers looking to build websites which comply with HTML, XHTML, CSS standards or the WAI. There are many reasons for this and they will be explained briefly below:

• Lack of browser support

  • Up until very recently Internet browsers such as IE and Netscape have not been able to handle some of the techniques used to build WAI compliant websites (such as XHTML and CSS) which has meant that developers have not been able to build sites in the way they want. This has resulted in a lot of developers building sites just for IE users and creating 'lazy' code which is not compliant with the WAI guidelines set out.

• Website developers don't know where to start

  • The lack of browser support has led to lack of uptake for the development community and as such there remains little help for developers looking to make the jump to standards, although this is gradually changing for the better. (Good discussion post here)

• Website development tools

  • Of the billions of web pages ever written, it is fair to assume that a large majority of them are built using some kind of authoring tool (such as FrontPage® or Dreamweaver®). Some the older versions of these tools build code which is referred to as 'bloated' (i.e. being a lot larger than needs to be). This investment into website authoring tools cannot be easily written off (product licensing, training, existing code etc) and as such companies are reluctant to change.

What is the future for website standards?

As more and more website developers and website development companies become more aware of web standards, begin to implement them and see the benefit of doing so, I predict that 2005 should see an increase in the amount websites developed to the W3C standards and to the basic level of the WAI. The main benefits of doing so have already been pointed out but as the need to access information anywhere increases day by day (see Google mission statement), the adoption of web standards will mean that this is achievable.

It is the policy of Adido Solutions to build all websites to the minimum of the standards laid out by the WAI. We test sites using the most recognised website accessibility tools around. We hope that by doing this all of our customers will see an improvement in the service we offer, which can then be passed on to their customers and hence make their website an integral part of their business. By building websites to these standards means that our customers can not be convicted under the Disability Discrimination Act (official DDA website).

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