Web Standards - why and who?

Web standards are, as a website designer, something you either embrace or utterly ignore. Those that ignore would argue they are merely suggestions that can get in the way of a good, cutting-edge website. Those that embrace web standards would say that having a website that looks and, more importantly, functions the same for everyone should be the goal of every designer.

Paterico falls into the latter category. Having a site that is cross-browser (as in, works with all internet browsers, not angry ones) compatible, fast, responsive and efficient, is more important to me than having a flash-based website that fails to load for even one user. Not only does this increase your exposure on the internet (using any proprietary plug-in immediately limits your audience), it ensures you are using your server and bandwidth pushing information to customers rather than visually impressive filler.

Web standards are set by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), who publish best practice guidelines and offer tools that validate web pages against these standards. Their objective is to make the internet as accessible and affordable as possible, it just so happens that their guidelines result in clean, efficient code too!

It's possible to see how well a website conforms to web standards using the validator here - you can have a look at how any website you like. Go on, have a go! Ok, now have a look at how Paterico is doing!

As you can see, web standards are something important to Paterico and, if you value customer experience, so should you. Feel free to get in touch with any questions you might have.