Practice Makes Perfect

No web site is perfect. For that matter, no development team, management methodology or project workflow is perfect either. Cosmic forces are working against us to keep projects firmly rooted in the real world, reminding us that our lofty ideals are simply unachievable. Does that mean we stop striving? No (well, most of us don’t). We push for excellence because we know that if we fall just short of it, we’re still in pretty good shape. Doing a good job is not just important for keeping customers happy, but it gives our work and our life more meaning. For interactive agencies, doing a great job translates to developing with best practices. But what are best practices? According to California State University (2006), best practices are “processes and activities that have been shown in practice to be the most effective.” In other words, ‘doing a great job’! For web developers, doing a great job typically means building solutions that are:

* Easy to maintain * Easy to find * Easy to use

To achieve these goals, development teams have finally started warming up to the following practices because have shown consistent effectiveness over time. The concepts aren’t new, but widespread adoption would be.

h2. Separate concerns.

The main concept behind separating concerns is to reduce dependencies between an application’s different features and functions, as well as the dependencies between the people who administer these different aspects of the application. You’ve probably heard the terms “presentation layer” or “data tier” before. Jesse James Garret offers this accurate breakdown of concerns as a PDF on the elements of user experience. This “Separation Anxiety” article introduces the idea of separation of concerns from the perspective of the developer.

h2. Optimize content.

Web site users and search engines are after the same thing—relevant content. In this ALA article, Andy Hagans describes how to leverage accessible content for optimization efforts. In this complimentary article, the author explores some of the specifics of execution.

h2. Design with web standards.

The Web Standards Project provides this informative introduction to the topic of designing with web standards. Additionally, Jeffery Zeldman’s Happy Cog Studios offers this great presentation, putting web standards into a rich historical context.

h3. What’s your take?

Does your organization take web standards seriously? Are best practices considered a newfangled concept, a nice-to-have item, a competitive differentiator or a virtual necessity for survival in today’s dynamic web?

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References
California State University. 2006. Retrieved on December 19, 2006 from http://it.csumb.edu/departments/data/glossary.html