introduction
chapters
web design philosophy
web standards
I am persuaded by the arguments of web design professionals, including Jeffrey Zeldman, Eric Meyer, Rachel Andrew, Craig Grannell, Dave Shea and Molly Holzschlag, among others, that web standards should guide our contemporary design efforts.
By web standards, I mean using XHTML (Extensible Hypertext Markup Language) for the structural (semantic) markup of web pages and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) for the presentational aspects of the site. Additionally, web standards suggest that web pages should validate, that is, contain no errors when submitted to a validation service such as the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium).
Web design professionals provide several reasons for designing with web standards:
- makes it easier for search engines to access and evaluate information
- separates structure (XHTML) from presentation (CSS)
- pages load faster
- pages are more accessible to users with disabilities
- pages display more precisely in hand-held devices
- programmers can easily check their work using a validation service
While I agree with the claims by web professionals about the advantages of designing with web standards, let me offer another reason from a pedagogical point of view. 
Think about your first college writing course. Perhaps, it was English 101, College Rhetoric and Composition. Now, think very hard and try to remember. Did your professor care about grammar in your writing assignments? How about noun–verb agreement or sentence structure? Did clarity and coherence enter into the picture at all? I thought so.
I teach using web standards because it matters. If your essay contains a dozen grammatical errors, it reflects poorly on your writing ability. Likewise, a web page with a dozen errors in the XHTML markup reflects poorly on your ability as a web author. But wait, you say. My professor sees my grammatical errors in my essay, but web users do not see the errors in my web page. It displays fine in their browser. Thus, your analogy fails. Not so fast.
Remember, this is a course in crafting a digital portfolio using XHTML and CSS. When I look at a page you have authored, I will submit the page for validation and if it does not pass validation I will allow you to resubmit the page with the necessary corrections. It’s like many professors do when they allow you to rewrite your essay and turn it back in for further evaluation. The botom line is this — I require web standards because it’s good practice and it enhances your credibility as a web author.
usability
The second principle of my web design philosophy is usability. This involves user interface, navigation, search capabilities, and so forth. In other words, how efficient is the site in terms of users being able navigate and locate the information they are seeking? A somewhat unique quality I possess in this area is my background in rhetorical theory and argumentation, fields that focus on arrangement of informative and persuasive strategies used in discourse. Many of the ideas and concepts are applicable to usability and the web.
accessibility
The third principle of web design I follow is accessibility. For me, this idea has two important meanings. First, it means users with disabilities can access the content of your website. Thus, I always check my pages with an accessibility validation service. I am familiar with the requirements of Section 508 and attempt to follow those guidelines in my work. Second, accessibility means making websites and content available to dial-up users. There are currently millions of people still using 56k modems because of cost, location, and other factors. Some websites built in Flash, HTML files laden with presentational markup, or pages containing large graphic files hinder users with traditional dial-up from accessing information.
