Web standards checklist
Web standards checklist
Web standards – more than just ‘table-free sites’
The term web standards can mean different things to different people. For some, it is ‘table-free sites‘, for others it is ‘using valid
Web standards checklist
Web standards checklist
Web standards – more than just ‘table-free sites’
The term web standards can mean different things to different people. For some, it is ‘table-free sites‘, for others it is ‘using valid code‘. However, web standards are much broader than that. A site built to web standards should adhere to standards (HTML, XHTML, XML, CSS, XSLT, DOM, MathML, SVG etc) andpursue best practices (valid code, accessible code, semantically correct code, user-friendly URLs etc).
In other words, a site built to web standards should ideally be lean, clean, CSS-based, accessible, usable and search engine friendly.
About the checklist
This is not an uber-checklist. There are probably many items that could be added. More importantly, it should not be seen as a list of items that must be addressed on every site that you develop. It is simply a guide that can be used:
- to show the breadth of web standards
- as a handy tool for developers during the production phase of websites
- as an aid for developers who are interested in moving towards web standards
- Quality of code
- Does the site use a correct Doctype?
- Does the site use a Character set?
- Does the site use Valid (X)HTML?
- Does the site use Valid CSS?
- Does the site use any CSS hacks?
- Does the site use unnecessary classes or ids?
- Is the code well structured?
- Does the site have any broken links?
- How does the site perform in terms of speed/page size?
- Degree of separation between content and presentation
- Accessibility for users
- Are “alt” attributes used for all descriptive images?
- Does the site use relative units rather than absolute units for text size?
- Do any aspects of the layout break if font size is increased?
- Does the site use visible skip menus?
- Does the site use accessible forms?
- Does the site use accessible tables?
- Is there sufficient colour brightness/contrasts?
- Is colour alone used for critical information?
- Is there delayed responsiveness for dropdown menus (for users with reduced motor skills)?
- Are all links descriptive (for blind users)?
- Accessibility for devices
- Does the site work acceptably across modern and older browsers?
- Is the content accessible with CSS switched off or not supported?
- Is the content accessible with images switched off or not supported?
- Does the site work in text browsers such as Lynx?
- Does the site work well when printed?
- Does the site work well in Hand Held devices?
- Does the site include detailed metadata?
- Does the site work well in a range of browser window sizes?
- Basic Usability
- Is there a clear visual hierarchy?
- Are heading levels easy to distinguish?
- Is the site’s navigation easy to understand?
- Is the site’s navigation consistent?
- Does the site use consistent and appropriate language?
- Does the site have a sitemap page and contact page? Are they easy to find?
- For large sites, is there a search tool?
- Is there a link to the home page on every page in the site?
- Are links underlined?
- Are visited links clearly defined?
- Site management
A doctype (short for ‘document type declaration’) informs the validator which version of (X)HTML you’re using, and must appear at the very top of every web page. Doctypes are a key component of compliant web pages: your markup and CSS won’t validate without them.
If a user agent (eg. a browser) is unable to detect the character encoding used in a Web document, the user may be presented with unreadable text. This information is particularly important for those maintaining and extending a multilingual site, but declaring the character encoding of the document is important for anyone producing XHTML/HTML or CSS.
Valid code will render faster than code with errors. Valid code will render better than invalid code. Browsers are becoming more standards compliant, and it is becoming increasingly necessary to write valid and standards compliant HTML
You need to make sure that there aren’t any errors in either your HTML or your CSS, since mistakes in either place can result in botched document appearance.
Basically, hacks come down to personal choice, the amount of knowledge you have of workarounds, the specific design you are trying to achieve.
I’ve noticed that developers learning new skills often end up with good CSS but poor XHTML. Specifically, the HTML code tends to be full of unnecessary divs and ids. This results in fairly meaningless HTML and bloated style sheets.
Semantically correct markup uses html elements for their given purpose. Well structured HTML has semantic meaning for a wide range of user agents (browsers without style sheets, text browsers, PDAs, search engines etc.)
Broken links can frustrate users and potentially drive customers away. Broken links can also keep search engines from properly indexing your site.
Don’t make me wait… That’s the message users give us in survey after survey. Even broadband users can suffer the slow-loading blues.
Use style sheets to control layout and presentation
The aim for web developers is to remove all presentation from the html code, leaving it clean and semantically correct.
Provide a text equivalent for every non-text element
Use relat