Extending XHTML: Target and Strict

That the target attribute is not by default allowed in valid XHTML 1.1 or XHTML 1.0 Strict continues to be a source of frustration for designers. It simply doesn't have to be.

Burkett, Wayne. Dionidium (2004). Design>Web Design>Standards>XHTML

Firefox 3: The Webmasters Portal to the Internet

So now, you have absolutely no excuse! Firefox’s newest release, version 3, takes everyone’s favorite open source web browser to a level unparalleled by any of the competition. While Firefox has always been the browser of choice for most web developers, designers, and internet geeks, the new features have taken it to a completely different level for user experience. So you’re a web developer or graphic designer and don’t use Firefox? Why not? Firefox makes being a webmaster much less of a chore. With hundreds of useful extensions, Firefox allows webmasters to customize their browser to meet their needs. Need some examples? Here’s a few I use on a daily basis.

Robbins, Kyle. ReEncoded (2008). Articles>Web Design>Standards>Web Browsers

Firefox Spread Leads to Design Scrutiny, Built-In RSS Feeds

Are the browser wars back? As Firefox and Netscape gain steam, site designers can avoid losing users by focusing on Web standards. Plus, built-in RSS is here -- warts and all.

Glaser, Mark. Online Journalism Review (2005). Articles>Web Design>Standards

Five Questions to Ask Your Web Development Team

As a client or manager responsible for a web development project you don't need to know anything about how a standards based web site is created. However you do need to know that your project is addressing these five important issues.

Allsopp, John. Western Civilization (2005). Articles>Web Design>Project Management>Standards

Fix Your Site With the Right DOCTYPE

Per HTML and XHTML standards, a DOCTYPE (short for “document type declaration”) informs the validator which version of (X)HTML you’re using, and must appear at the very top of every web page. DOCTYPEs are a key component of compliant web pages: your markup and CSS won’t validate without them.

Zeldman, Jeffrey. List Apart, A (2002). Design>Web Design>Standards>XHTML

"Forgiving" Browsers Considered Harmful

Current browsers are very forgiving; they quietly correct or gloss over many common HTML errors. This makes it easy for people to experience the joy of creating their own web pages with a minimum of frustration—if a page displays correctly, then it's “right.” Unfortunately, by hiding the need for structure that the web will require as it moves towards XHTML and XML, these forgiving browsers have helped create a world of structural HTML illiterates. As long as browsers continue to parse and display HTML that isn't well-formed or valid, we will never learn the right ways, and we will never get to a structural web.

Eisenberg, J. David. List Apart, A (2001). Design>Web Design>Standards>XHTML

Governing Good Web Site Design

Looking for a means to judge the quality of a web design? A good place to start is with the US Federal Government, which provides more than 175 research-based guidelines.

Janisch, Troy. Icon Interactive (2004). Articles>Internet>Web Design>Standards

HERA: Accessibility Testing with Style

HERA is a tool to check the accessibility of Web pages accoridng to the specification Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 1.0). HERA performs a preliminary set of tests on the page and identifies any automatically detectable errors or checkpoints met, and which checkpoints need further manual verification.

HERA. Resources>Web Design>Accessibility>Standards

How To Do HTML

This site explains how to make basic web pages with plain old Hypertext Markup Language, or HTML.

Krause, Steven D. Eastern Michigan University (2001). Design>Web Design>Standards>HTML

How to Grok Web Standards

Many web designers, myself included, come to the web with a background in the graphic arts. We think in pictures, not in code. When we first begin designing for the web, we'll use HTML and CSS crudely, as a means to an end--a method of arranging pretty boxes in space--without grasping the true nature of the box itself or what it contains. Altering that strictly visual mentality is the highest hurdle to overcome when a graphic designer first dives into semantics and web standards. For the visual designer, really understanding web standards means you'll have to change the way you think about design.

Cook, Craig. List Apart, A (2007). Design>Web Design>Standards>CSS

How to Read (W3C Specs)

Although they appear maddeningly incomprehensible at first, W3C specifications are actually great sources of information, once you understand their secrets. Learn how to read the specs.

Eisenberg, J. David. List Apart, A (2001). Design>Web Design>Standards>Specifications

HTML 5 and XHTML 2

While the intention of both HTML V5 and XHTML V2 is to improve on the existing versions, the approaches the developers chose to make those improvements is very different. And with differing philosophies come distinct results. For the first time in many years, the direction of upcoming browser versions is uncertain. Uncover the bigger picture behind the details of these two standards.

de Jonge, Adriaan. IBM (2007). Articles>Web Design>Standards>HTML5

The HTML 5 Image Element

One of the great things about the current HTML 5 draft is that they give plenty of examples of how to specify alternate text for images, although a few of them are misguided. Alternate text should be concise, and a longer description provided with a longdesc attribute if necessary.

Lemon, Gez. Juicy Studio (2007). Design>Web Design>Standards>HTML5

HTML 5 Timeline

Firefox 2.0.0.10 broke its implementation of the HTML5 canvas element and guess what, the world noticed. Actual websites started breaking because they relied on the canvas functionality to work. The point is that we expect implementations of HTML5 to happen way before the fifteen year mark. In fact, the fifteen year mark includes having all features at least implemented in two different (shipping) products in the same way with the additional requirement that they have a decent amount of market penetration. This means that when the specification finally makes it to W3C Recommendation it has already proven itself.

van Kesteren, Anne. annevankesteren.nl (2007). Articles>Web Design>Standards>HTML5

HTML Applications: Introducing the HTA File

The letters HTA are meant to stand for HTML Application. The technology was developed by Microsoft, so is a proprietary concept, and only works in conjunction with Internet Explorer (specifically version 5 and above).

HyperWrite (2005). Articles>Web Design>Standards>Microsoft Windows

HTML's Time is Over. Let's Move On

As users and builders demand more and more richness from the Web, we need to re-evaluate the technology that 99% of it is built on. It seems no matter how sophisticated our back ends get, the front ends remain stagnant. What other options are there? What are the requirements that we as user experience designers face that newer technologies miss the boat on?

Heller, David. Boxes and Arrows (2003). Design>Web Design>Standards>HTML

Inheritance and Cascading in CSS

This is a guide to help people learning CSS to understand how a browser works out what styles to apply to a particular element. As we saw in the introduction to CSS, there are lots of ways you can apply styles to a particular element. When more than one of these methods applies, how do you know which styles will be applied? Fortunately, these rules are quite simple, once you know them. This article tries to explain all. Of course, the best way really to learn this stuff is to try stuff out and see what happens.

Hunt, Ben. Web Design From Scratch (2006). Design>Web Design>Standards>CSS

Interview with DMXzone's Bruce Lawson

Find out why self-confessed non-techie Bruce Lawson has been winning friends and influencing people with his support for web standards and web accessibility.

Lawson, Bruce. Accessify (2003). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Standards

Introducing XHTML

The benefits of transforming HTML from a stand-alone language into an XML version of itself aren't immediately apparent until you understand the inherent value of XML. Since the language syntax is so strict in XML, parsers (the software that reads and understands the code you write) are a lot easier to develop. Ultimately, it will allow browsers to become smaller, faster, and more stable. It also means your code will behave in a far more predictable way: Either something will work, or you will get an error. It will be a marked difference from the voodoo we experience across multiple browsers today.

Veen, Jeffrey. Webmonkey (1999). Design>Web Design>Standards>XHTML

Introduction to CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is a smart way to add styling information to web pages. While it's possible to add styling to HTML (e.g. using the tag) HTML should only be used to structure your content, CSS is the only way you should apply styling.

Hunt, Ben. Web Design From Scratch (2006). Design>Web Design>Standards>CSS