Design values
I want to make explicit the core values inherent in the work I do in website design. I do have distinct preferences, and most of them are carefully thought out. They won’t please everyone, and that’s expected and entirely acceptable. But beyond that, I consider it important for people who might wish to use my skills to know what they will be getting. So, here are the values I strive for in all my website work.
Efficiency
Low-technology solutions will be chosen whenever possible. They will generally be more robust, quicker, less error prone, and easier to use by all concerned.
By far the simplest way of coding a webpage is to use state of the art HTML-strict or XHTML-strict. Browsers construct pages for viewing more reliably when this is used, and its variability is less than any other “flavor” of HTML.
Page structure will be kept strictly separate from page styling. Page code reveals structure, but says nothing about appearance, which is addressed only in a separate external CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) page or pages. Not only does this create a page which loads into a site-visitor’s browser far faster than any other kind of page, it also allows site-wide changes in appearance to be made with maximum efficiency and accuracy.
Webpages will be set up to be accessed and maintained by software available to all for free, thanks to the efforts of the open source software community. This is useful to you if you intend to do work on the website on your own, at any point.
Access
All webpages will employ devices designed to ease access by those individuals challenged by motor and sensory impairments. This is not hard to do, and seems only fair. Not to do this is something we simply should not tolerate. The Internet’s riches should be available to as many people as is reasonably possible.
Comfort
Webpages will all have a common page form, indicating whether or not a page is a part of the site. Each page will have familiar navigation tools.
Site visitors will find the website to have a form familiar enough that they can move about its pages with little effort. Since the exact form of any given website can vary, a sitemap will be always available to reveal the underlying structure – when the site structure is not obvious.
Content will be accessible by means of a site search tool, when this is appropriate and desired.
Flexibility
So that the site manager, whoever they may be, can move about the underlying page code with ease, each page will have an easy means of revealing its code structure. This also will allow efficient page redesign, should this be desired at some point after site launch.
Adaptability
Web page programming (HTML, CSS) will be designed for maximum adaptability to the range of browsers which people actually use.
Why is this an issue? A variety of browsers are in use on the Internet. People with more money and more interest in current technology adopt new browser versiou more quickly. Other people tend to hang onto older browsers, which simply are not as good at correctly producing on a computer screen what a web page is designed to look like.
A considerable number of older browsers are still in in use, even in the richest countries. The problem this causes is that web pages, if they are to display correctly in most browsers, must use adaptable web page programming. In other words, one must PLAN for browsers which work badly – like the infamous Microsoft Internet Explorer browser, which is still in use by about a third of all desktop computers, as of spring, 2008.