South By Southwest, the coolest Web conference on the planet that takes place annually in Austin, TX, has let loose it’s panel picker. Rather than creating a schedule of discussion panels and presentations that may not interest conference goers, the SXSW organizers have devised a democratic way for people to vote on what they want to hear discussed.
It can be a tough task trying to convince your boss that the company or department should adopt Web Standards when building projects. Change is often seen as time consuming, inconvenient, tedious, expensive, and not worth the effort. Chances are that if you are trying to make the case to follow Web Standards to your boss by arguing from the “moral high ground” by saying “it’s the right thing to do”, you are not going to have much success. If you want to make real change in the industry, you have to speak to the bottom line: Profit.
Jeffrey Zeldman provided us with some compelling examples in his book Designing With Web Standards that can be presented to head honchos to convince them to make the change. Jeff Veen has also made a strong case that would convince most any business to get on the band wagon. Andy Budd has done a nice job of arguing the business case for Accessibility. Though all of these guys have said most of this already with precision and eloquence, here are the arguments I hope you are using to make a change in your company, school, or organization.
In my mind, the most compelling arguments relate to SEO, as every company wants to be found by new customers, regardless of your business goals. Web Standards are a huge part of achieving optimal SEO results.
None of the above arguments are new, but yet there are still so many businesses and schools that are not on board. That means either the case is not being made to them, or it’s not being made effectively. Although you may encounter opposition to your initiatives to make change, persist, and make your arguments clearly. The argument that it’s “the right thing to do” is nice, but it’s not going to get you far with those who don’t want to be convinced. Speak to how the organization will profit, and you can make a change. We each have the power to make changes in our own way, all of which add up to larger benefits for the Web. If you share in the spirit of altruism, people are generally pretty receptive to what you have to say. If we try to make changes by forcing it upon people, or condescending, people will not react well to your advice. Think from their perspective. How would you feel if someone told you you were building pages “the wrong way”? You’d probably be put off. Remember your grandma’s advice.
“You catch more flies with honey than vinegar.”
- Your wise ol’ grandma
I have been recording some of the stories of my students in the Interactive Media Design department at The Art Institute of Atlanta and how they are introducing their employers to Web Standards. The project is called The Web Standards Documentary Project. Our program has been teaching Web Standards since 2002. Throughout the curriculum students learn the benefits of separating formating from structure, building pages with semantic markup, and following Accessibility guidelines. Many of our students have made some significant changes in the industry, and in some cases have successfully converted their organizations to following Web Standards, sometimes teaching courses to their entire team.
It’s not always all smiles and giggles, though. Sometimes students make the case to their employers for using Web Standards, and they are met with significant opposition. I see the stories of failure as important as the stories of success, as it indicates to us what is really causing the slow adoption in the industry. In some situations, we can teach our students how to overcome the opposition by appealing to the business’s bottom line. There are some situations, though, where it’s very difficult to convince an employer that making the change is in their best interest, as the immediate financial costs may be prohibitive.
If you are one of my students, or an alumnus of our program and you have a story to share, positive, negative, or otherwise, please get in touch with me so I can record your story. If you are no longer in Atlanta, I can record you via Skype. If you are an educator teaching Web Standards at your school, I’d love to hear from you too. Perhaps this endeavor could become a larger repository of stories of change.
I have had the pleasure of teaching many bright, talented students as a faculty member in the Interactive Media Design department at The Art Institute of Atlanta, many of whom have influenced companies and organizations in the industry to adopt Web Standards.  I am attempting to document this influence upon the web design industry by recording the stories of as many current students or alumni I can who have a story to share about the conversion they helped bring about. If you have helped an organization of any size adopt Web Standards, I want to interview you and record your story. If you are not in Atlanta, we can schedule an online interview via Skype. I hope to compile these stories to be published here and shared with influential members of the web community (to be announced should the project go well), along with a link to your portfolio site. If you are willing and able to participate, please drop me a line.
