Opinion: If the folks writing the checks are on the standards clue train, don't you think it's time to stop debating the merits of standards-based design?It started about a year ago. I began to come across potential clients who were asking about tableless design and standards.
Now, to be clear, just because a site is tableless and using CSS for its presentation layer doesn't means it's standard.
As well, a site that uses tables can be totally standard. It's something that's confusing to many, and often clients equate Web standards with tableless design.
Which to me is just fine. They're lumping best practices together, which, when you don't know better, works out well.
The point is that the clients I've been seeing, almost all of them, are much more educated, much more savvy then they were just a few years ago.
They know about CSS and some of the benefits. They might ask about Section 508 or bringing their site up to compliance with W3C Validation.
This from marketing managers. Don't laugh; it's true.
Advocate for change
I've been an advocate for Web standards development for years now. As recently as a few years back, it was something of an "early adoption" topic.
Many Web designers and developers were reluctant to make the leap to standard compliant code, especially when it came to newer technologies like XHTML and CSS.
We're still debating some of these issues today, which sometimes really amazes me.
Despite all the benefits, there are those out there who think standards are a waste of time.
There are those who think CSS is for the birds, and there are those who think validation isn't at all important.
Even more troubling to me is that many people just don't know there might be a better way.
If you were to look at many schools that teach Web design, you'd find they're just now catching up.
Take it a step further and look under the hood of most professional Web sites and you'll find standards-based Web design and development a rarity.
Despite all of that, I've noticed a trend that might change the minds of even the strongest of heel-dragging developers.
It's a good chance that your client cares now and if you don't get with the program, you might be out of work.
Scoff if you must, but if they're serious about the Web and if they don't care now, it's just a matter of time.
Standards-Based Design Is Still Relatively Uncommon
I recently worked on a project where the primary stakeholder, the director of marketing, was adamant that we didn't use tables for layout.
She had heard about the benefits, I assume in real world dollars and cents, or maybe had come across a content contributor who had trouble making simple updates to a ridged image and table-based site.
As well, we recently won a gig because our competition was more concerned with convincing the client that they could support deprecated browsers than if they could separate the content from the presentation.
You may be up on standards and thinking to yourself, "Yeah, man. We know. We've heard it all before."
However, I assure you, if you've made the jump to standards, you are still in the minority—especially if you're looking for a job.
It's hard, hard, hard to find good designers and developers who are standards-savvy.
Why is that? The people who are in the know have good gigs already.
People who are looking for good work recognize the value of someone who does things "the right way". Quality Web development starts with standards. Sure, it doesn't end there, but you've got to start somewhere.
And, hey, I'm a practical Web professional.
I believe you should strive for 100 percent standards compliance, but I recognize that you have to make sacrifices.
Even though Firefox is slowly becoming the world's most used browser, and it's got great support for standards, we still have to deal with the ultimate standards nemesis—Internet Explorer.
But that's all going to change soon. Either Microsoft will get IE 7 out soon enough or Firefox will have grown to the point that it won't matter near as much.
Either way, any excuse you might have for not going with standards is fading fast. My advice is to catch up quick if you're not there already.
When it comes to standards and best practice for Web development, the hardest part for many is picking up CSS.
It does take a bit of time, but once you've got a decent handle, it's really not all that hard and it'll save you loads of time in the long run.
I can't see any other way to work, personally, and frankly, in surprises me that there are still so many designers and developers out there who are working like it's the late '90s.
Times have changed. You can bet if the folks who write the checks are starting to notice, there's been an irrevocable shift.
Web Design 
