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Serving All The Masters Part 2 of 2

By Bud Kraus
bud@joyofcode.com
Joy Of Code
Creator And Instructor

v3 i3
Originally Published: February 8, 2007

Eating Cake While Serving The Masters

What Masters?

The thing I love about web standards - and what makes them so important - is that by adopting them you're able to serve many masters at the same time. Do something that's a good practice for search engine visibility and you'll be doing something that makes pages more accessible. Do something which enhances the user experience, you'll be doing something that speeds the download times of your pages.

All of this is a long way of saying, "Create well formed documents using valid Extensible Hyper Text Markup Language (XHTML/HTML) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and you'll be doing something good for all of the masters - and a few I might not be aware of." Let go of any notion that there is no such thing as best practices, no such thing as The Electronic Canvas, and no such thing as rules. If you pay attention to web standards, you will easily achieve many of the varied objectives commonly sought by millions of people. You will discover design independence, design integrity, and an easier way to develop, produce, and manage web page design.

That's the real reason - the real pull - why people are turning toward web development and design standards.

As I see it, when I serve the following 3 Masters - User, Search Engine Optimizer, and Browser - by adhering to web design standards, I stand a pretty good chance of reaching superior web design.

Let's follow a small example of how all masters are served. I will use one of my favorite XHTML attributes - "alt" - which provides an alternative text description for images embedded in web pages. Suppose I have a picture of New York City in my page. The image and code might look like this:

A photograph of New York City skyline from across the Hudson River.

<img src="images/skyline_nyc.jpg" alt="A photograph of New York City skyline from across the Hudson River" />

The User Master

If the display device, such as a hand-held, does not support images, or if image downloading has been turned off, the text alternative "A photograph of New York City skyline from across the Hudson River" will appear on the screen. If my user is blind and is using assistive technologies, those words will be read out loud.

By using an equivalent text alternative, the information provided by the image is not lost when the image cannot be perceived.

The SEO Master

Search engine robots are said to pick up alternative image text and use that information in indexing searchable databases. This could aid in raising my site's visibility.

The Browser Master

By using image alternative text, I help to ensure that my page will comply with industry standards - whether I'm testing my page for XHTML validation or making it accessible to the widest possible audience.

There you have it. I did just one thing - add an alternative text description to an image - and what do you know? I made everyone - including The Client Master - happy!!

Just how did I get all these Masters to sit back, relax, and enjoy the show? I used web page design standards.

Part 1 of 2