POSH Your Site Up!
There has been some talk around the Cleveland web scene of late asking the question: What standards should we be promoting?
The consensus in the comments of the Refresh Cleveland article, mine included, was that there is a real need to focus on the basics. By "basics" I mean Plain Old Semantic HTML or simply POSH. The idea of POSH was born from the Microformats movement as a way of promoting best practices in markup. By implementing POSH practices when designing or developing your sites, you are ensuring that the foundation is standards compliant. And that is what we are all striving for here, right?
In his article on the Clear Function blog entitled Applying progressive enhancements to your website, Nate Klaiber makes some POSH points:
HyperText Markup Language is the core of how web pages are constructed. HTML is used to define structure and give semantic meaning to your content layer. It is important to understand the tags you have available to you and when and where they should be properly used…
Get your content structured and in place. Here you are building the foundation for the rest of your website. Be sure to keep your HTML clean of any presentational tags or attributes…
Nate's got it right. Make sure the foundation of your site, the content, is properly contructed. Only after you have a semantically rich site that validates should you then move on to enhancing it with CSS, JavaScript and Microformats.
How does one make sure that their website is POSH? I'm glad you asked. On the POSH section of the Microformats wiki, there is a checklist:
- The first rule of POSH is that you must validate your POSH.
- Second, drop the use of TABLEs for purely presentational purposes, spacer GIFs, and presentational-html in general.
- Next, fix your Bed and BReakfast markup.
- Eliminate Anorexic Anchors.
- Use good semantic-class-names.
By following these suggestions, and implementing best practices in your HTML authoring, you will be well on your way to creating semantically rich, standards based websites. You really should visit the POSH wiki for more information on the subject. It has a wealth of resources that will help you in your efforts to make the web a better place.
Comments on this Post
Brendan Cullen
August 29, 2007I think it’s very telling of the Cleveland web scene that some of the links you provide go all the way back to 2002.
And I’m just going to leave it at that because I just caught myself writing way too much for a comment and I’m not about to hijack your post into my own personal soapbox :)
Brad Dielman
August 29, 2007I agree. The web industry in Cleveland, as it is now, really leaves something to be desired. Hopefully the efforts of Refresh Cleveland, the Cleveland Web Standards Meetup and various individuals in the area (you included) will change things for the better.
As for using this post as for your own personal soapbox, please feel free to speak your mind. That’s what comments are for! :)
David Mead
August 30, 2007I hope that now we’ve all started talking about getting back to (what we see as) basics, more and more firms in Cleveland will jump on the bandwagon.
If I can make the next meet-up (still tentative) I’m looking forward in chatting about this very subject.
Brad Dielman
August 30, 2007That’s my wish as well, David!
Hopefully you can make it to the meetup so we can discuss this further.
Eric Wiley
September 03, 2007That’s right, future clients. Before signing on with a new agency, check the code from previous projects, or PLUSH.
Please Look Under Suit’s Hood.
Brad Dielman
September 03, 2007@Brendan - I agree, the typical agency is just going to continue with the status quo as long as the client doesn’t ask the tough questions or demand a standards-based site. What is their motivation?
@Nate - Very well said. You summed it up nicely. No apologies for the lengthy comment. I was hoping to get a discussion brewing. :)
@Eric - I’m going to include that acronym that in all of my proposals from now on!
Nate Klaiber
September 03, 2007@Brendan
First off, I agree with what you are saying 100%. This boils down to ethics and doing things the proper way. However, this will always be a challenge.
Truth is, not all clients will start asking. Not all clients will care about tables vs. css. Not all clients will care about SEO. Most clients will take the word of an agency, even though they may be completely and totally off base. Who suffers in this situation? The client. Period.
This is something that happens in virtually every profession. There are people only wanting to get more money, not to help clients or do things the right way. They have to pay the bills and find a way to live, so they will sell themselves as a ‘web developer’ in hopes someone will pay them big money.
Take a look around at some of the other professions out there, and you will instantly see the hacks. Look through a phonebook. Watch some commercials. You can tell there are some people simply in whatever profession they are in, solely for the money - not to create quality or help a client.
Web standards are even harder, because we can’t just enforce standards and instantly break 95% of the web. The browser makers have to be lenient and allow for the crappy markup. So, what is to inspire a web developer to get up to speed - if the browsers render their crappy code just the same?
You and I know the difference between a quality site and one that is scraped together without any thought - but you would be hard pressed to find a client interested in looking at the code and breaking it all apart. The barrier of entry to calling yourself a ‘web developer’ is very small. All it takes is Microsoft Frontpage and paint, and you can start selling your professional services.
It will continue to be a challenge. I have found it almost easier to just step away and focus on building quality websites. The more quality websites out there, they will begin to drown out the fakes. Not only that, but as time goes on - smart clients will start to ask questions like ‘why doesn’t my site show up in search engines?’, or ‘why do I have to pay so much to have small alterations done to my website?’
All of this is very tough. Very tough. It is easy to let ourselves get caught up fighting the bad that we forget to focus on doing good. Both are needed, though. What’s the solution?
(Sorry for hijacking, Brad)
Brendan Cullen
September 03, 2007What I wanted to say, before I got all fired up and started typing up a novel, was that I think the needed changes are not going to come from the agencies.
Like I said, those links are 5 years old and the techniques are still ahead of most of the websites Cleveland agencies are churning out. If there’s going to be a sea change it’s going to come from informed clients asking for it, and not accepting the crap the suits are selling to them.
Until clients start asking “Why are you still using tables?” I don’t think any agency is going to jump on the band wagon.
The benefits of using standards and POSH have been proven over and over, and it hasn’t been enough. Until agencies start losing business, they aren’t going to change.
JD Graffam
September 07, 2007What an interesting conversation to come across. What kept coming to mind as I read each of the comments was how client-driven the best salesmen are and how work-driven the best designers are. This should, and often does, add up to well-crafted sites.
The problem with our industry is that web sites are perceived as a commodity by most clients. Even worse, our own salesmen and designers often feel the same way (I’ll admit I’m guilty of giving in when the effort or budget isn’t worth it), seeking the path of least resisitance when trying to close a deal or project.
I don’t know what the answer to this problem is. It certainly isn’t as simple as educating designers on best-practices the knowledge is available. Getting clients on-board seems like the best place to start. But to do that we’ve got to learn to say no to them, and their money.
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