The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) advocates specifications and guidelines for web technologies, setting the stage for standardization of the web and all the benefits such an endeavor might incur (interoperability, unified progress, etc.). Aside from 'joining the cause', web sites built on standards bring other benefits - they are more likely to render correctly and consistently by the various web viewers, easier to update, and sometimes make for smaller pages that are downloaded faster. Whenever possible, I encourage standards-based web design and development.

Unfortunately, the use of web standards comes with a price; often, one must comprimise on the depth or complexity of something to standardize it, beyond which the standardization takes extra time. A good developer can lay out a site using older technologies (HTML tables) in a fraction of the time it takes them to use modern standards (CSS). Moreover, contrary to popular belief, using older technologies can often lead to a greater interoperability - some older viewers don't support the newer standards. The trick is knowing how much to use, and when to use it.

As you explore my portfolio, you'll notice that many of the sites I've developed the past few years have strange buttons on them that say things like "CSS" or "HTML". If you look towards the bottom of this site, you'll see them as well. When clicked, these buttons lead to the W3C validators, confirming that the pages I build are in fact standards-compliant.

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