Teaching | Web Standards Documentary Project | Joe Kocovsky
Joe Kocovsky: My name is Joe Kocovsky. I'm a senior at The Art Institute of Atlanta. My experience with coding with Web Standards is varied in some ways - some for the bad, not so good.
Some companies feel that it takes more time to code with CSS, XHTML standards, as opposed to tables and Dreamweaver. One of the reasons being, when they maintain the site, they open it up in Dreamweaver. They want to see it in design mode, and sometimes CSS doesn't work so well.
Other experiences have been good, and people push it, enjoy it, and reap the benefits with 'find-ability' as well as just having lightweight code and bandwidth.
Aarron Walter: So where do you work? Where are you having good experiences and maybe...?
Joe: I currently work as a freelance designer and at Macquarium Intelligent Communications. At Macquarium it varies. With new projects, if you get the first hand in the pot, and you want to work with Web Standards, then you're the expert and they stand behind you.
But a lot of projects come in, and its messy code and you kind of have to follow it. I try to push a lot, as often as I can, to code wisely as opposed to messily.
Aarron: Are there situations where you get a new client, and another group might start a project, and they may not follow Web Standards? And it's just kind of down to whoever the main developer is for the project ends up following them or they don't?
Joe: Yes, that is true. Because a lot of times you don't have the front end developers. That is the smallest section that they're expanding on for the most part right now. You'll have designers and back-end developers jump on a project and start with the non-breaking spaces and all that good stuff. So, it's hard to keep people on a straight line.
Aarron: How important is accessibility in projects?
Joe: I feel it's very important, especially with the web taking on a lot of new possibilities and the way it's going with interactivity. It really helps just everything in general.
Aarron: Is it something that you guys are developing for? Are you building accessible websites following standards?
Joe: Yes. [laughs] I believe we are. We just actually wrapped up a Home Depot racing site, and that is following the Web Standards as well, as closely as possible.