> The desire for semantic purity is only one of many factors when > deciding how > to mark up a page. Other factors include (but are not limited to) UA > support, the user experience, the time available to implement the > design and > the expected life of the website. I would expect a professional > designer to > balance these appropriately, taking into account the best interests of > their > customer. > The ability to find the appropriate balance is what sets professional > apart > from hobbyists. It's easy to go to one extreme - it saves you having to > think. Anyone can write semantically perfect code that validates if > they > don't care how long it takes, what the user experience is like and what > it > looks like in browsers that are not standards-compliant. > > If you're designing your own site and you're on a mission to embarrass > UA > vendors into making a better product then go right ahead. But if you're > designing websites for real people to use with real user agents, you're > doing them a disservice. If you're being paid for that design I would > say > you have no right to follow your personal preferences rather than make > a > professional judgement, unless your customer has given informed > consent. > > The average life of a website is only a couple of years before it gets > redesigned or scrapped. Designing for non-existent user agents is > therefore > futile because there's little likelihood they will come into existence > within the life of such a site. To then make compromises that are to > the > detriment of existing user agents is absurd.
"The average life of a website is only a couple of years". That doesn't seem much, where does it say that? FWIW, mine is almost 6 years old... and I'm a web designer. Also, may I ask you if you've ever thought of using a DOM solution to give SR users a "better experience" instead of replacing every DL with headings and paragraphs? Because, imho, that's part of the job too, assessing issues and trying to come up with solutions that do not imply to cut corners. Isn't progressive enhancement the real answer to this problem? -- Regards, Thierry | http://www.TJKDesign.com ******************************************************************* List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *******************************************************************
