After the atrocity that was the Disney Store UK redesign, a fresh wave of articles on professionalism have popped up. Each are very important reads for those of us in the Web development community.
Accessibilty, The Gloves Come Off (Interview with Andy Clarke)
There are now so many web sites, blogs or publications devoted to helping people learn standards and accessible techniques that there are now no excuses not to work with semantic code or CSS. Those people still delivering nested table layout, spacer gifs or ignoring accessibility can no longer call themselves web professionals.
Molly Holzschlag: Web Standards and the New Web Professionalism
Between the blogs and various sites, lists, wikis, meetups, geek dinners, and conferences there simply is no excuse to not reach out and help each other understand the difficulties, nuances, and challenges of our craft.
A Web Professional Can Never Stop Learning
Some will call me an elitist for saying that. But think about it. Why should web professionals not be required to know their craft? I find that attitude – which is held by many in the industry and by many more outside of it – insulting to those of us who work hard every day to keep up with current best practices.
Ours is a constantly changing media. Even the “Gurus” in this field can never sit back atop their lofty mountain, or holed up in their ivory tower and think that they now know all the answers. There are still so many questions without answers, so many problems without solutions. Ours trade is still in its infant stages, and is evolving rapidly.
We must keep up, or go the way of the dinosaur. In our field, that means reverting from professional to ametuer, as so many Web design shops have already done.
It’s not about the “cool” way of building Web sites, it’s about the right way. The best way. Take a look at my reading list for some good places to start.
Professional, Web, Design, Standards
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