Web Design: Validation is Important!
Last Updated: 14th February, 2010 at 7:50 pm
Are You Valid?
Designing a website can be tricky and in the last Web Design Post I mentioned how you as a designer should check your web pages work on multiple browsers rather than just one. I also briefly mentioned the W3C, World Wide Web Committee, and this post will go, hopefully, into more detail regarding the validation set out by the W3C.
When the web was created, well HTML anyway there needed to be strict rules to how it was laid out and written. Why? Well if there wasn’t a standard and you just slapped in bits of code in no order or regulation, how can it be understood by browsers?
It’s a lot like if I write “Today was a magical day, Cloud Bite actually got updated.” You can pretty much understand and read that clearly, well hopefully you can. However I wrote, “Tod’y. was a, Magicle day Cloud Bite. Actuly got updated”, it is probably a bit hard for you to understand.
Well in a way, browsers need html and all other code for that matter to be set out correctly in the way it was supposed to be. However like us, browsers are fairly cleaver some are able to understand mistakes you make. If you read that sentence that contains mistakes above if your English is good you can probably work out what it is meant to say. Well browsers do the same sort of thing. They look at the code see and error but display the page how it “thinks” it should. There is 1 problem with this though.
NOT ALL BROWSERS THINK THE SAME!
If your even bothering to read this your probably a person who has tried lots or at least a couple of browsers be it, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari (there’s lots more). You have also probably come across a website that works fine in one browser but not another, or looks one way in a browser or another way in another browser.
Now I’m not here to tell you which browser is the best, and you can find may sites that debate this, personally I find the best browser is the one that suits YOU, no one else, just you!
BACK TO WEB STANDARDS PLEASE!
Well, web standards “should” stop websites working on one browser and not another. You will probably notice i added the word “should” in that sentence. Nothing ever simple but simply put browsers should follow certain rules when interpreting code however some, no names mentioned, IE 6, oops mentioned one decided not to follow web standards and therefore can cause problems however Microsofts latest bundle of joy IE8 follows web standards far more than before and with IE 6’s recent press that it’s awful, full of security holes and even the German and French Government have said not to use it you can pretty much start saying bye bye to IE6.
HOW DO I KNOW IF MY SITE IS VALID THOUGH? IM NOT A PRO!
Well even pro’s make mistakes, sadly I can’t claim to be that pro but you only have to have a look on some of the biggest websites out their and there are lots of errors.
W3C, remember them, I mentioned them way, way up there. Well they have this cool little thing called a validator. You stick in a web address click the submit button and it will look through your whole page and see if its valid or not. Cool eh? Well it doesn’t end there, it also lists all the errors on your page and gives suggestions on how to solve the problem. Not only can it check HTML but it has the ability to test CSS too and even has the ability to see if your site meets the mobile web standards.
If your site passes you get a nice little image you can put on your site and show off you have a valid site. Now before you ask where’s Cloud Bite’s Valid images, well, er ok Cloud Bite isn’t 100% valid, yet, the CSS is but there are a few errors I need to fix, it’s mainly due to WordPress plugins. When uni has calmed down I will hopefully work on getting it all valid!
LINKS…
Is your site valid? Have any Tips? Comment below…
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