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Web Design Articles and Tutorials

By Dick Sowa

A (very) Brief Introduction to Web Standards

Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is THE standard text based language used to describe the contents and appearance of pages on the World Wide Web. When you visit a web site, your browser fetches the contents of the page in HTML.   It then translates the text into layout, images, colors and words that are displayed on your screen. Sounds good, right?  You bet!  Unfortunately, things are not all peaches and cream.  Most of the time that process is transparent to you, works great, and you get to see beautiful web pages.  Then out of the blue, you run across a site that looks awful.  Text overlaps graphics or is too small or too large.   Or maybe you get a message that says "This page is best viewed with....."   What happened?

I am sure you know that for years, Microsoft and Netscape (and several other smaller firms) have been at war over whose browser should dominate the market. To create the latest and greatest browser, each company added new and fancy features to their "standards" that the other didn't have.  The result became a nightmare of mostly compatible (but very often conflicting) "standards".  I won't go into any of the details in this article, but suffice it to say, that things have actually improved (sorta). 

Enter the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

"The World Wide Web Consortium was created in October 1994 to lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by developing common protocols that promote its evolution and ensure its interoperability. W3C has around 400 Member organizations from all over the world and has earned international recognition for its contributions to the growth of the Web." (their own words)  I highly recommend visiting the W3C web site to get a feel for what they have to offer, and how they are trying create some stability in such a dynamic business.

The primary thrust of W3C is what are termed "web standards."  These standards do not favor any single manufacturer, but are released to provide a framework for ALL web developers and browser makers to adhere to.   Admittedly, there is still a lot of wiggle room, and the browser manufacturers still go off on tangents with odd features.  But for the most part, browsers are now attempting to fully support "web standards" and are relying on W3C as the arbitrator and final authority in what becomes a world wide standard.

Here's what Netscape has to to say about web standards:

"Why support web standards? It's pretty clear to us here at Netscape that a standards-compliant browser provides developers and end users with the following benefits:

• ability to access rich web content and applications across a variety of hardware platforms and devices
• reduced cost for content and application development by enabling development to a single specification 
• increased innovation by providing rich, standards-based platform for application development
• freedom of choice by reducing switching costs between vendors and applications
• investment protection by enabling the creation of applications built on stable industry standards rather than proprietary technology subject to change 
• the preservation of vigorous competition between vendors by preventing vendor lock-in"

Oh boy...motherhood and apple pie, eh?  Yeah, I can be a cynic sometimes, but Netscape's statement is right on the money, in my view.   Focus on compliance with published and mature web standards, period.

OK, that sounds good, but where does that leave us?   Well, in a nutshell, it still leaves us in a bit of a pickle when it comes to our own web page designing.  Regardless of how much each browser claims to be "standards compliant" there are a lot of older browsers out there.  As a rule of thumb, the older the browser, the less standards compliant it is. 

My recommendation is to religiously avoid any of the special features that are unique to individual browsers, and design exclusively around W3C standards.  W3C offer a bunch of handy specifications, guidelines, software, tutorials and tools to help.  While some of their stuff is a bit cryptic and not all that user friendly for novices, you should still visit their site, and bookmark several of the sections that you are interested in.   Trust me in this...as you start designing your own web pages, and you want the definitive answer on something you are trying to do with HTML, you will regularly return to their site.

Copyright © Dick Sowa 2003. All Rights Reserved

About the Author:

Dick Sowa is a retired Professional Engineer and senior manager with the Federal Govt, and is a Partner and Webmaster in Digital Winners, which specializes in services for small businesses and online shopping.