Hello All,
 
        We are currently in the midst of redesigning our sites in 
XHTML/CSS and so far no tables.  We are doing this for two reasons. First, 
we felt that as a national institution we need to be able to get our 
information and collection out to the world no matter where they are or 
what system they are using.  Secondly, we know that at some point the 
Canadian Government will be coming out with guidelines and rules for 
accessibility in government and crown corporation websites and we felt 
that getting in ahead of time was the best move.  We should be launching 
sometime near the end of February, so stay tuned.

For those thinking of doing the switch to a standards based layout, not 
only can you comply with 508 (U.S. Government regulations) but will have a 
faster site and one that is much easier and cheaper to maintain.  Make 
sure you find a design company that is up to date with the latest 
information about standards based design, even a site written in XHTML/CSS 
can be a bad one if the designers don't know how to implement such 
technology.  Standard based design is more than just writing a site using 
a style sheet and coding in XHTML.  It is about creating a site that is 
coded efficiently, accessible, created so that the site can be viewed 
using any technology (whether that be Windows, Mac, Palm Pilots, etc.) and 
that the code is semantically correct (i.e. a paragraph is a paragraph, a 
table is for tabular data, a list is used to list things and so on). 

        If you want other books to read about this (aside from 'Designing 
With Web Standards") try "Building Accessible Websites" by Joe Clark, 
"Don't Make Me Think" by Steve Krug, and "Web Design on a Shoestring" by 
Carrie Bickner.  There are also lots of websites out there that you may 
want to visit.  From this small list  you can find many, many more.

http://www.webstandards.org/
http://www.zeldman.com/
http://www.mezzoblue.com/
http://www.simplebits.com/
http://tantek.com/log/
http://www.stopdesign.com/
http://www.webdesignpractices.com/index.html


These should get anyone started on the road to a standards based website.


Andrew Macdonald
New Media Officer / Agent des nouveaux médias
Canada Aviation Museum / Musée de l'aviation du Canada
Phone / Téléphone : (613) 998-5689
Fax / Télécopie : (613) 990-3655
Website: www.aviation.technomuses.ca
Email: amacdon...@technomuses.ca




"Erik Christman" <e...@nixonlibrary.org>
07/01/2004 12:47 PM
Please respond to mcn-l

 
        To:     mcn-l@mcn.edu
        cc: 
        Subject:        Re: Web standards and museum sites


 For all interested,

Source code will contain the following at the very top of the page showing
what version of XHTML or HTML:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd";>Also in the
source code this will be below the "title tag" showing that the page is
using a style sheet, and if need be how to get it.<style type="text/css"
media="screen">@import "/c/ala.css";</style>

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="print" href="/c/print.css"
/>_________________
Erik W. Christman
Exhibition Designer
The Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace
18001 Yorba Linda Blvd.
Yorba Linda, Calif. 92886
(714) 993-5075  ext.243
fax (714) 528-0544
email:
e...@nixonlibrary.org
website:http://www.nixonlibrary.org
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "quigley" <squi...@panix.com>
To: <mcn-l@mcn.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2004 7:18 PM
Subject: Re: Web standards and museum sites


Erik,

Being ignorant, how would I recognize an 'XHTML/CSS' website?

Suzanne Quigley
Head Registrar, Collections & Exhibitions
Whitney Museum of American Art
945 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10021

v: 212 570 7795
f: 212 570 7784
E: suzanne_quig...@whitney.org
RARIN http://www.panix.com/~squigle/rarin/01rcsite.html
OnConract  http://www.panix.com/~squigle/OnContract/menu.html


On Jan 6, 2004, at 8:59 PM, Erik Christman wrote:

> Dana
>
> XHTML is the next logical step to XML,, read Mr. Zeldman's book
> twice,, hit his site once a week.
> CSS is also a good way of separating your content from your design,,
> so redesigns are not so painful.
> Haven't seen any good examples of XHTML/CSS museum sites to speak of...
>
> __________________
> Erik W. Christman
> Exhibition Designer
> The Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace
> 18001 Yorba Linda Blvd.
> Yorba Linda, Calif. 92886
> (714) 993-5075 ext.243
> fax (714) 528-0544
> email:
> e...@nixonlibrary.org
> website:http://www.nixonlibrary.org



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