Content, Presentation, Behaviour
The business case for web standards, or let’s simply call it industry best practise, really comes down to the keystones of separating content from presentation and again from behaviour. Content is kept in the markup (HTML), presentation is maintained with Cascading Stylesheets (CSS) files, and behaviour is separated out into JavaScript (JS) files. There’s no mix-and-match but instead there are three general streams of purpose with how you develop the website.
I should mention here that presently I’m on the fringes of a conversation where a large redevelopment is occurring and they really aren’t onto the concept of best practice at all. And from within the organisation – why bother to learn new ways of doing things?
Here’s why. Because by keeping the content marked up separately its much easier to edit and maintain. Its also easier to redesign because you don’t have to troll every page (and there may be thousands) just to change the font, everything gets fixed in the separate CSS files. That means speed of redesign and development dramatically improves. The same applies to the behaviour – no rubbish JavaScript littering your every page needing updates and fixes and culling when its time to rebuild.
Further, your CSS files (presentation) are cached on the computer the first time the site loads. If the presentation is mixed with the content you would have to download that presentation every time – up to a 30% improvement in speed simply by using these methods. Not to mention Google loves content and your’s is going to be rich rather than watered down with rubbish (don’t forget to use good semantic heading structure along with that), so Search Engine Optimisation is significantly improved. Yes your pages will be more accessible as well.
Now I’m preaching to the converted here no doubt and this post could go all day. But I did want to emphasise these three keystones again and because some businesses who come by this site might not enjoy the luxury of our knowledge about web technologies.
As for the large corporate rebuild – call me if you want to save money, improve service and need either an ideas champion or a change agent within your organisation willing to fight the good fight until only two teeth remain so I can barely eat cut up steak niblets. I’m not talking about doing the coding – you need someone in management willing to prove the business case and pursue the outcome with some authority. Don’t expect to hire a junior front end coder and expect your miracle to eventuate from there without support.
I find the larger the organisation the more I piss them off by having contemporary ideas which might save them money. Go figure. Its also important to think about removing some obstacles from the equation (or side-shifting them) so they don’t become project cannonballs chained to the teams legs.
By the way, in about 6 weeks I will be available for full time work again. If anyone would like a copy of my current resume then use the contact form and I’ll email one along. I am looking for a full time position and not a short term contract or freelance tidbit.
p.s. a good IT job in Tasmania would be good but I am also willing to commute to the mainland for the right position
