Chapter 16: Next Steps

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Now that you're armed with how web standards can improve your websites, remember that the learning never stops. Methods and techniques are constantly being tweaked, improved, and updated, even as I tap out the last few words of this chapter. What better way to stay on top of the game than on the Web itself? There are thousands of helpful sites out there exploring the wonders of standards-compliant design and development.

Where do You Go From Here?

To close this book, I've collected a few of my favorite resources, of which I highly recommend visiting regularly to stay sharp on the latest developments of the web standards world.

Organizations and Publications

W3C

www.w3.org

The World Wide Web Consortium is where it all happens. This is the organization that leads the Web and develops the standards that we all use every day. The site serves as a reference that is chock-full of technical details on anything and everything. Although it can be difficult to navigate and digest, this site is the definitive source for standards.

Especially helpful are the W3C's validation tools (validator.w3.org). Use them often to make sure your markup is in tip-top shape. You can validate by URL or by uploading a file you're working on locally.

Web Standards Project

www.webstandards.org

Formed in 1998, the Web Standards Project (WaSP) promotes web standards to the public and provides educational resources for web designers and developers to carry out standards-compliant methods. WaSP also works with and encourages browser and software makers to adhere to the standards that it promotes.

The Web Standards Project site is filled with resources on everything standards related.

A List Apart

www.alistapart.com

Founded by Jeffrey Zeldman and Brian Platz in 1998, A List Apart magazine explores the design, development, and meaning of web content, with a special focus on techniques and benefits of designing with web standards.

This indispensable online magazine has published many great tips and techniques on a wide variety of standards-compliant design, development, and business topics. A must read "for people who make websites."

CSS Zen Garden

www.csszengarden.com

Planted and curated by standards guru and WaSP member Dave Shea, the CSS Zen Garden is "A demonstration of what can be accomplished visually through CSS-based design." Designers submit their own CSS designs that each reference the same markup structure. What results is a continually updated showcase of cutting-edge CSS design.

A fantastic inspiration—and also a great destination to point CSS naysayers to. (I'm referring to those who believe CSS is incapable of great design. Ha! And to think that would even cross someone's mind.)

Dive into Accessibility

www.diveintoaccessibility.org

Mark Pilgrim published this online book to help people better understand how easy accessibility features can be to implement and also who benefits from these features.

Taking the perspective from five different people, each with a different disability, the information is incredibly easy to understand. Read through Mark's explanations, and your sites will be better because of them.

css-discuss

www.css-discuss.org

css-discuss "is a mailing list devoted to talking about CSS and ways to use it in the real world." This is a great place to ask questions and get answers as you're exploring the benefits of CSS. Plenty of helpful folks are out there with the knowledge to get you through just about anything.

Web-Graphics

http://web-graphics.com

Web-Graphics "is a compilation of hypertext design resources, links, and commentary." An all-star cast of editors serves up fresh news on standards-compliant design and development. A great resource for hearing about what's new in the community.

Digital Web Magazine

www.digital-web.com

Published by Nick Finck, Digital Web Magazine is an online magazine full of columns, news, and tutorials for web designers.

The Weekly Standards

www.weeklystandards.com

As its name suggests, The Weekly Standards is updated weekly and "is dedicated to recognizing sites that have been lovingly crafted with web standards and the future in mind." Here you'll find a great collection of standards-based sites that is continually updated.

Influential and Inspirational Weblogs

Many of the standards community's most talented designers and developers publish daily content on their own personal sites. By reading these weblogs regularly, you can learn from the masters as they pass their knowledge on.

Jeffrey Zeldman Presents: The Daily Report

www.zeldman.com

Jeffrey Zeldman, essentially the godfather of web standards, has been publishing web design news and information since 1995. Zeldman is cofounder of the aforementioned Web Standards Group, publisher of A List Apart magazine, and author of Designing With Web Standards, and this book wouldn't have been written if not for the work of this guy.

This site is a fountain of information regarding standards-compliant design, and a regular must stop on your favorites list.

Stopdesign

www.stopdesign.com

Douglas Bowman, best known for his standards-based redesigns of Wired News (www.wired.com) and Adaptive Path (www.adaptivepath.com), publishes useful tutorials, commentary, and insights into the mind of a designer within the world of web standards. His work on Wired News was a huge influence on my redesigns of the sites for Fast Company and Inc., and his attention to detail is second to none.

mezzoblue

www.mezzoblue.com

No one monitors the pulse of the standards community better than Dave Shea, curator of the aforementioned CSS Zen Garden. At mezzoblue, Dave tackles the cutting-edge issues of standards-compliant design head on, oftentimes getting the community involved to work out existing issues. A fantastic resource.

meyerweb.com

www.meyerweb.com/

Recognized as the expert regarding anything CSS, Eric Meyer has written several great books on the subject and has long been an advocate of web standards through his consulting, speaking, and work with Netscape. His site contains great commentary on CSS as well as some great showcases and experiments.

Tantek elik

http://tantek.com/log/

Weblog of the author of the famed Box Model Hack described previously in this book, as well as Microsoft employee and W3C representative to the CSS and HTML working groups.

What Do I Know?

www.whatdoiknow.org/

Personal site of designer Todd Dominey, the man behind many a great standards-based designs, including the wonderful site for the PGA Championship (www.pgachampionship.com).

Asterisk*

www.7nights.com/asterisk/

The personal site of web designer and developer D. Keith Robinson, who offers thoughts and questions on standards-related design and development topics.

superfluousbanter

www.superfluousbanter.org

Dan Rubin and Didier Hilhorst are not only crafting beautiful websites, but also writing about them here.

Simon Willison's Weblog

http://simon.incutio.com

Developer and Web Standards Project member Simon Willison writes about "PHP, Python, CSS, XML, and general web development." He's always on top of web standards and how they relate to other aspects of web development.

Brainstorms and Raves

www.brainstormsandraves.com

Shirley E. Kaiser, a Steering Committee member of the Web Standards Project, writes "almost daily notes about web design, development, standards, typography, music, and anything else."

Living Can Kill You

www.saila.com/columns/lcky/

In addition to "bits of a life in Canadian new media—from online journalism to Web building," Craig Saila's weblog dishes out quality information regarding web standards. Oh, and the name is cool.

Books

I need to mention a few books as well. All of these are fantastic books that will be nothing but indispensable resources for any practicing web designer.

Designing with Web Standards

By Jeffrey Zeldman (New Riders, 2003)

This book is essentially a "manifest destiny" for the web designer. Jeffrey Zeldman meticulously explains web standards, their benefits, and why you should use them, and gets us all on the same page. You must read this.

Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide

By Eric Meyer (O'Reilly & Associates, 2000)

Here's an authoritative reference on everything CSS. Get an understanding of how all CSS properties work.

Speed up Your Site: Web Site Optimization

By Andrew B. King (New Riders, 2003)

Portions of this book will show you how standards-based markup and CSS can optimize your websites for speed, size, and search engine indexing.



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Web Standards Solutions. The Markup and Style Handbook
Web Standards Solutions: The Markup and Style Handbook (Pioneering Series)
ISBN: 1590593812
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 119
Authors: Dan Cederholm

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