Archive for the ‘Web standards’ Category

IE8 and stopping IE7 compatibility mode

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

With th release of IE8 you may habe noticed a small button called “compatibility mode” in the browser. By clicking this button it allows users to view your website in IE7 compatability mode within IE8. Now this might be a useful feature when the website owners either can’t be bothered or haven’t had the time to test and fix their site in IE8 but for those who have tested and fixed their site for IE8 it can cause problems because it turns out that IE8 in compatibility mode isn’t the same as IE7 ( thanks Microsoft) so this effectively leads to another browser to test in, as if testing in IE6, IE7 and IE8 wasn’t already enough browsers from 1 company to test in.

There is however a meta tag that you can add to your pages that will disable the compatabiliy view mode, so your nicely coded sitre that works perfectly in IE8 will continue to work as it should in IE8.

<meta http-equiv=”X-UA-Compatible” content=”IE=8″ />

Its probably worth noting that the default setting in IE8 is to render the pages as IE8 and not in compatability mode, but why allow users the choice when, if working correctly in IE8, there should be no reason to use the compatability button.

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Posted in Web standards, browsers | No Comments »

Why we should develop to web standards

Sunday, April 5th, 2009

I was asked to submit a report stating why we should use web standards to design and develop websites. Below is a list of reasons why we shoudl use web standards to make the web better.

1. Code Efficiency:

The larger the files are, the longer they will take to download, and the more bandwidth they will use. By separating content for styles and using good clean semantic xhtml and efficient CSS we can save on bandwidth and provide customers with faster loading, more efficient pages. It also allows code to be re-used more easily across the sites.

2. Ease of maintenance:

By separating style and content any change requests can be carried out with minimum of effort. By using well coded CSS, site wide changes can be made by changing the minimum amount of code and can therefore be completed quicker. Standardising the layout of pages and stylesheets for each site will make working on different sites easier and quicker and will also allow promotions be rolled out across each site with minimum effort.

3. Accessibility and usability:

Web pages created using web standards mean better accessibility to customers with disabilities and users of alternative devices such as screen readers. An accessible site also complies with the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA). There are 8.5 million disabled people in UK meaning a potential 8.5million more customers to an accessible website. A site coded to web standards will also aid usability.

4. Search Engine Optimisation:

Using semantic xhtml for mark-up and following best practice guidelines will allow for better organic SEO. Well-coded web pages make life easier for web crawlers. Correct use of meta tags, pages descriptions, headers, keywords etc in the development phase of web pages will greatly improve search engine rankings by default.

5. Mobiles and devices:

Because the content and styles are separate it will be easy to create dedicated mobile stylesheets if the requirement is there. Use of mobile devices for Internet access is on the rise and shouldn’t be ignored. Device specific stylesheets can be created easily should there be a need.

6. Good practice:

Using current web standards for developing websites is good practice and helps to future proof the sites and make future development both quicker and easier.

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Posted in Web design, Web standards | No Comments »