Web Standards A Design Mistake?
After an interesting discussion over at the Accessify forums Provoked by a recent article posted on webpagesthatsuck.com I though I would share the findings and my thoughts on the matter.
Basically webpagesthatsuck.com suggested in their article that a:
The article goes on to further suggest that "usability guru" Jared Spool "put everything into perspective" by suggesting that:
On the Accessify forum Tommy Olsson, of autisticcuckoo.net fame, came up with a good response to each of the 5 points raised by Jared Spool. I whole heartedly agree with all his answers and couldn't write it better myself (so I didn't), Hopefully Mr.Olsson will not mind this post being reproduced here on this lowly blog.
I posted this entry because although some others take the view Tommy highlighted, I have never heard anyone saying people that do follow web standards and employ accessibility techniques are in some way making a mistake.
Granted there are the people that think it is too much hassle for them to learn a new approach, and that's fine by me, but why label following web standards and accessibility guidelines one of the biggest design mistakes of 2004?
Anyone who suggests that it is "design mistake" would instantly make me question the validity of anything else they say.
Put it this way, If its good enough for Jeffery Zeldman then its good enough for me.
Basically webpagesthatsuck.com suggested in their article that a:
Mystical belief in the power of Web Standards, Usability, and table less CSSwas one of the biggest design mistakes of 2004.
The article goes on to further suggest that "usability guru" Jared Spool "put everything into perspective" by suggesting that:
I learned quickly that business executives didn't care about usability testing or information design. Explaining the importance of these areas didn't get us any more work. Instead, when we're in front of executives, we quickly learned to talk about only five things:
1. How do we increase revenue?
2. How do we reduce expenses?
3. How do we bring in more customers?
4. How do we get more business out of each existing customer?
5. How do we increase shareholder value?
Notice that the words 'design', 'usability', or 'navigation' never appear in these questions. We found, early on, that the less we talked about usability or design, the bigger our projects got. Today, I'm writing a proposal for a $470,000 project where the word 'usability' isn't mentioned once in the proposal.
When we work with teams, we teach them to follow the money and look for the pain. Somewhere in your organization, someone is feeling pain because they aren't getting the answers they want to one of the questions above.
On the Accessify forum Tommy Olsson, of autisticcuckoo.net fame, came up with a good response to each of the 5 points raised by Jared Spool. I whole heartedly agree with all his answers and couldn't write it better myself (so I didn't), Hopefully Mr.Olsson will not mind this post being reproduced here on this lowly blog.
1. How do we increase revenue?
By attracting more customers (see #3) and reducing expenses (see #2).
2. How do we reduce expenses?
By using semantic markup and CSS, rather than presentational markup and tables, to accomplish these things:
- faster development (no browser-specific hacking)
- efficient maintenance (all standards, easy to understand)
- less disk space and bandwidth
3. How do we bring in more customers?
By making the web site accessible to as many people as possible, including those with disabilities and those with modern devices such as PDAs and mobile phones. When people get welcomed into such a site, rather than being met with "Please upgrade to Internet Explorer 4 [upgd_err4.jpg 286KB]" they are more likely to recommend it to their friends, too.
4. How do we get more business out of each existing customer?
By building a usable and accessible site that makes it easy for the customer to find what he or she is looking for. Strategic links on the product order page could lead to additional purchases.
5. How do we increase shareholder value?
Who cares about those speculating whelps in suits anyway? Smile
I think focusing on #1 to #4 will automatically take care of #5.
This reads like just another 'I've spent years learning to do nested tables and font tags in my WYSIWYG editor, and I don't want to learn anything new because it looks too hard' posts to me.
The house analogy doesn't work. Houses are a perfect example of the use of standards. You use standard measurements for your doorways and kitchen cabinets, so that you can buy new doors and kitchen stuff at any store, rather than having to have each one custom made.
People do care about how well-built a house is, because they don't want it to fall down while they live in it. Comparing web standards to hammers is just silly. The hammer is equivalent to the choice of a WYSIWYG CMS or text editor, not to the technique used to build the house itself.
I posted this entry because although some others take the view Tommy highlighted, I have never heard anyone saying people that do follow web standards and employ accessibility techniques are in some way making a mistake.
Granted there are the people that think it is too much hassle for them to learn a new approach, and that's fine by me, but why label following web standards and accessibility guidelines one of the biggest design mistakes of 2004?
Anyone who suggests that it is "design mistake" would instantly make me question the validity of anything else they say.
Put it this way, If its good enough for Jeffery Zeldman then its good enough for me.
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