Designing With Web Standards, Second Edition

Introduction

There was a time not that long ago when many drivers thought nothing of tossing empty bottles out the windows of their cars. Years later, these same citizens came to realize that littering was not an acceptable way to dispose of their trash. The web design community is now undergoing a similar shift in attitude, and web standards are key to this transformation.

The history of our medium has been to solve today’s problems at tomorrow’s expense. This book will show that the build-now, pay-later approach is no longer productive or necessary, and that today’s problems can be solved without generating worse dilemmas downstream. It will also lay to rest the notion that designing with standards means leaving some users behind. In fact, it ...