Standards and Best Practices

Posted by michael on October 5th, 2006.

I make the web work for you. I develop applications that make life easier by helping people be more productive; saving time and money. Also specializing in E-Commerce development using ASP, PHP, Javascript, XHTML, CSS, MySQL, SQL Server.

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I just finished Hackers & Painters Big Ideas From The Computer Age by Paul Graham. For those of you not familar, Graham was the co-founder of Viaweb, the web’s first online e-commerce store generator. Graham and Robert Morris sold Viaweb to Yahoo! in 1998. Hackers & Painters is a collection of Graham’s essays on topics ranging from the education system to the ideal programming language.

I’m not sure if it’s because this topic came at the end of the book so it’s freshest or because this is a big topic lately where I work but there’s a paragraph or two that’s been stuck in my head since I read it. It’s in the essay titled Revenge of the Nerds under the Recipe heading. It’s about “best practices” and “standards”.

Graham suggests that managers push for the adoption of best practices and standard technology because they’re safe choices. Any company can fail at any given time. Graham proposes that failure of projects that use best practices aren’t viewed as failures of management but rather as failures of technology and the industry that chose it (at least as far as those managers are concerned).

I know this topic is bound to cause some controversy so don’t get me wrong. I think standards are a good thing. I try to construct all my sites using and validating against W3C standards. In the 1800s, it was nice to know that railroad tracks constructed in the West using a certain gauge would match up with those constructed starting in the East using the same guage. It’s also nice for those building skyscrapers to know that a steel beam will support the same weight whether it’s purchased from Metal X or Y Steel. I also think usability standards are also important. Web users have come to expect certain behaviors from certain web controls and it doesn’t help anyone to deviate from them.

On the other hand, I think Graham’s point is that innovation doesn’t come from safe choices or doing what everyone else does. This is where small companies excel. Maybe nobody told them things aren’t done a certain way or maybe they have nothing to lose. Graham quotes Erann Gat as saying that “what industry best practice actually gets you is not the best, but merely the average”. I don’t think any company can afford to be average. What do you think?

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Interesting premiss, im on the fence with that idea. I dont think it fully applies how you are tring to make it. I think it fits better, or rather my understanding of the ieda is that best practices help to create a controled envirenment, but once controlled its up to the creators to then branch out and be different.

Meaning - to use one of your examples - its nice for those building skyscrapers to know that a steel beem will support the same weight whether its purchased from one place or another. those are the controls, those are the standards. now once said steel is brought to the site and the contruction begins its up to the architect to create a conventional building or something more creative. same steel, same bolts, same way of connecting one piece to another, but the over all structure or fasade can be wildy different and unique.

David B.
October 5th, 2006
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Please excuse my horrid spelling…

David B.
October 5th, 2006
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I’ve had similar thoughts myself about this seeming paradox. Standards and innovation are almost by definition at odds with one another.

What I think about is examples of successful companies in the offline world. Jetblue comes to mind. Why is Jetblue successful? Have they innovated everything about the flying experience? No, there are still six seats in every row. If you take the 10,000 foot view (pun not intended), Jetblue looks just about like every other airline.

What makes Jetblue stand out to me is what I guess I’d call “innovation at the edges.” They have six seats in every row like every other airline, but they tweak the standard model by offering more legroom in the back of the plane, balancing demand. They put TVs in every seat rather than having a few projector monitors scattered throughout. They take what’s standard and make it better.

Most standards are there for a reason and it makes good sense to follow them, no matter you’re industry. Innovation comes when we make tweaks at the edges or come up with a new way to combine standards.

I’m no business guru and I’m not sure if my point is 100% clear, but I believe if you think creatively, standards and innovation are not mutually exclusive.

Jim D
October 5th, 2006
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Great points!

I am a firm believer in the benefits of standards. However, it’s going to be very difficult to create something groundbreaking if you limit yourself to what the standards and best practices currently are.

This is such a great thing to bring up as standards seem to dominate how contempory sites are being made. This obviously is a very good thing many times, but we also have to accept the fact that it limits new and exciting things hitting the web.

Awesome post.

P.J. Onori
October 5th, 2006
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@David - Thanks for your feedback. I do see your point. Obviously there are industries such as construction where standards are a good thing and necessary (as a matter of safety) but you can still get creative.

@Jim - Thanks for the great example. It looks like even small changes can disrupt an industry.

Michael Murphy
October 5th, 2006
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Why on earth would anyone think innovation and best practice and standards are mutually exclusive? They all work together, and one would be foolish to leave any one part out.

There are plenty of people pushing the envelope and doing incredible and innovative things, while using best practices and standards — just look at the stars of the web design world for example. Valid, semantic markup and CSS combined with fantastic visual design and functionality.

In my experience, the people who don’t bother with standards and best practices are also the least innovative and most mediocre, or “average”.

Gerry Quach
October 5th, 2006
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> In my experience, the people who don’t bother with standards and best practices are also the least innovative and most mediocre, or “average”.

The problem is that when using eg styling for opacity or CSS3 selectors that it wont validate in the WWW validator. Or eg -moz rounded corners styling, the same thing. They are wonderful and inovative but are web standards in the present time. So would you use them anyhow even when it will not validate like eg Element {outline: none }to get rid of the *dashed* borders when focusing a linked element?

Johan
October 5th, 2006
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I love standards and strive to adhere to standards in my designs. But I also think innovation is important. A line has to be drawn somewhere and I normally keep websites standards compliant except where innovation doesn’t allow me to.

Some standardistas would argue that it shouldn’t be used if it isn’t standards compliant but if innovation adds to a design or increases usability then surely this is more important. After all, standards should be about empowering the user not someone nagging on about validators.

Andrew Faulkner
October 5th, 2006
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When it comes to webdesign and HTML you need to use standards since people won’t be able to see your sites otherwise.

You could go ahead and develop a new markuplanguage that was way better than html, but it wouldn’t matter since no-one would have a browser that could interpret it unless you made one.

I’m not quite sure what points you’re trying to make here.

Fredrik Wärnsberg
October 5th, 2006
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Fredrik - With that point of view, Flash would have never hit the market. Personal opinions of Flash aside, it has made a tremendous impact on the market and continues to grow in use.

Never underestimate an innovative technology’s power to create change.

P.J. Onori
October 5th, 2006
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The problem is that when using eg styling for opacity or CSS3 selectors that it wont validate in the WWW validator. So would you use them anyhow?

I think I would have to judge this on a case by case basis. There is no rule of thumb here. I used opacity in the footer text at the very bottom of fadtastic’s pages and also the hover selector on the div surrounding it. Result? In most browsers it works great and in others the effect simply can;t be seen. If nothing is lost, then innovate.

Andrew Faulkner
October 5th, 2006
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I think it partly depends on what you mean by standards. In web design, we talk about web standards. I think it is absolutely important to follow them. Do they stifle innovation? Maybe if you’re one of those people who believe that everything has to validate all the time (which I’m not), or if you don’t know how to use them properly. I think that following the standard in spirit is the most important thing. Once you know the rules you can break them IF you have a good reason to (such as new elements that haven’t made it into the spec yet).

There are other standards we come across to though. The logo goes in the left corner. This is a standard. Does it stifle creativity? Maybe. Is it a good idea to put your logo someplace else just for the sake of being creative? I don’t think so. However, there may be a good reason why the logo doesn’t need to go there. Maybe in your particular design it makes sense to deviate from the standard. That’s okay IF you have a reason for doing it.

Another standard in design is particular software that is known as the “industry standard”. Photoshop is the industry standard. Does that mean that you have to use it? I don’t think so. Sometimes standards get to be standards out of habit. On the other hand, sometimes standards are standards for a reason. The W3C specifications fall into that category IMO.

I was told by a design teacher once that once you know what the rules are you can break them. I think that applies here. I think that innovations comes from an understanding of what the standard is and why it doesn’t work for your particular project. You can deviate from the standard if your way is actually better and not just different for different’s sake.

This comment form is way too small!!

Megan
October 5th, 2006
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Megan,

Thank you for putting the effort into that comment. What you said there really struck a chord with me. It’s pretty much the way I feel about web standards.

I’ll see what I can do with the comment form when I update the commenting facility.

Andrew Faulkner
October 5th, 2006
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Thanks for everyone’s comments so far.

Again, I’m not taking a stand one way or the other. I like standards-based semantic markup that validates whenever possible. I’m just starting discussion and stirring up trouble.

I think someone’s example of Flash perfectly illustrates a point. I remember when using Flash was definitely not the standard because content couldn’t be indexed, people needed plug-ins, etc.

Now Flash seems to be the standard for interactive content because you know you can reach 95% or more of web.

Michael Murphy
October 6th, 2006
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Michael, if you believe the studies touted by Adobe, it’s closer to 97% to 98%.

P.J. Onori
October 6th, 2006
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