Style is important. There is no debate around the proposition that people want a website that looks good. This is for a very good reason – an attractive website will draw in your customers, build their confidence in what you can provide for them, and keep them engaged with your website. But a great website can’t just look pretty. You can create a gorgeous website with nothing but a single large image. This can be beautiful graphic design – but […]
Continue reading “Introduction to Web Semantics” »Category: Web standards
The case of the missing alt attribute.
Jennifer Sutton brought this interesting factoid to my attention today: the single most common HTML (HyperText Markup Language) validation error is the missing alt attribute. Of the 100 most common validation errors collected by W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) Love, a missing alt attribute comes it at number one — with almost double the occurrences of the next most common error. It’s 2012, and the key mistakes in HTML seem to remain the same. Now, one can’t help but hope […]
Continue reading “The case of the missingalt attribute.” »It’s still important to talk about HTML 4
Yes, that does say HTML (HyperText Markup Language) 4 in the title. This is not an article about HTML 5, or, indeed, about anything which is at all new. But it’s not just new technology which needs discussion in the web development sphere! It’s sometimes hard to remember that HTML 5 is still not in common use — and that writing about HTML 5 is something which almost exclusively targets forward-thinking and experienced web developers. HTML 4 is still in […]
Continue reading “It’s still important to talk about HTML 4” »Forthcoming Updates on Federal Section 508 Rules
Section 508 web accessibility standards were written as an amendment to the Rehabilitation Act in 1998. In web development terms, this isn’t short of an eternity — and in all practical sense defines an era. The web programming methods and styles of 1998 were radically different to what you see in normal use today. The Section 508 rules have been under revision recently, and were available for public comment until June 21, 2010. Unfortunately, my time didn’t allow me to […]
Continue reading “Forthcoming Updates on Federal Section 508 Rules” »HTML 5 has cool stuff: new input types!
Even though many elements of HTML (HyperText Markup Language) 5 have only limited application at this time due to lacking browser support, there’s little reason not to make use of them. The design of the markup language is intended to minimize dependence on user agents, failing invisibly if the browser doesn’t offer that feature, which helps encourage early use of new elements. Of course, the lack of support does have some consequences. We can’t just go out writing HTML 5 […]
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