Jon, of Monday By Noon chats about standards and accessibility:

Welcome, Jon.

I’d like to take a second to thank you Andrew, for giving me the opportunity to interview at fadtastic. The site is great and I’ve been a long time reader.

Thanks. Jon, for the few that haven’t heard of you, can you briefly introduce yourself and Monday By Noon.

Absolutely. My name is Jon Christopher, I’m 23 years old, and currently I am working as a Web developer in Albany, New York, USA. I work with a really talented group of people doing some great things for the industry and I can honestly say I love going to the office every morning.

Monday By Noon is a project I started in February 2006 as a way to start interacting with people who shared the same interests as myself in Web design and development. The site has come quite a way thanks to reader response, interaction, and 9rules. Becoming a member of 9rules has allowed me to interact with some of the most respected names in the field.

The site primarily focuses on Web standards, accessibility, usability, and best practices, but I’d like to start writing a bit more on design principles as well.

You write passionately about web standards. Where did this passion come from?

I can honestly say that my passion for Web standards came from work ethic.

For me, it’s about taking pride in my work. I see the creation of accessible, usable, standard websites as a true craft. Our profession is unique in that the work we do is on public display right down to the tiniest detail. To me, developers who don’t take the time and effort to produce the best work possible are short-changing themselves as well as their client by delivering an inferior product. Developing websites should be considered under the same light as many professions in that there is definitely a right way to do things.

My views have only been enhanced by reading as much as possible about accessibility concerns, usability studies, and alternative technology use. The convenience of the Internet should not be limited to those readers with the latest and greatest browser with every plugin available.

Additionally, it helps to advocate standards when the technology you use every day is considered to be the minority. I’ve been a Linux user for some time now, and while there are advancements in Linux all the time (such as an official Flash plugin), that wasn’t always the case. I spent quite some time being left out of site features due to a lack of alternate content beyond a message stating that my Flash plugin wasn’t up to date.

It has helped to see first hand some of the things you may take for granted in another environment.

In your view, what would be the main reason for businesses to embrace web standards and accessibility?

I think the main reason businesses should embrace standards and accessibility is respect for their clients. No matter what business you’re in, the idea is to please your client. Not having a standard, accessible website will result in an inferior experience to a number of customers. The businessman in me says that should be avoided.

Beyond that, businesses should embrace standards and accessibility for many of the reasons I stated in the previous question. A business should want a high quality website that caters to each and every prospective client. Beyond that, the financial reasons for having a standards based website should be an attractive bonus feature.

You’re obviously a great designer/developer - What aspects of your skills are natural and what did you have to learn?

Firstly I’d like to thank you for the compliment. I’ve always had an interest in programming in that it is very involved with problem solving and logical thinking. That seems to — in part — come naturally to me.

After discovering CSS, it seemed as though a door had been opened. I was able to combine the logical thinking and problem solving I enjoyed when programming with a design oriented process in CSS. I felt as though I had found my niche. It’s easy for me to compare developing a website to putting together a puzzle. Each project is unique, involving a wide range of variables that must be taken into consideration.

To answer the question more specifically, I think the problem solving aspects of development come naturally to me, while the details had to be learned. Things such as syntax, best practices, and accessibility concerns had to be researched and absorbed on my part. I’m continually engaged by many of the excellent articles written by the abundance of talent that chooses to provide their knowledge via blogs or magazines.

And finally, the classic fadtastic question: If you had a big red button in front of you that could eliminate any design trend in an instant, what would you choose and why?

I love this question. In all honesty, if I could eliminate any design trend with a big red button, it would have to be JavaScript implementations that aren’t bulletproof. Beyond taking the JavaScript into consideration, it’s frustrating for me to see websites that were developed while not keeping CSS in mind as well. It’s very common to see elements styled in assumption that the JavaScript will perform some fancy animation in order to make it visible. I’d love for all of those instances to be eliminated with the bush of a button.

Thanks for your words, Jon. All the best.

Again, thanks again for the opportunity, Andrew. I’m a big fan of the site, and I’m continually impressed by the content you and the other fadtastic authors produce.

Please feel free to ask Jon any questions that you may have.

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