One man with a club is a hooligan.

The title is a quote from Jeffrey Zeldman. If you are a Web designer and have never heard of this man, just drop it. Leave the field and try some other job. If you’re a Web company CEO, advisor, project manager or anything having some kind of responsibility in a web agency and have never heard of him also, just drop it. Its not an insult or anything of the kind of disrespect, Jeffrey Zeldman has written the one and only book you should ever read if you had to read only one on the evolution of the Web.

The full quote is the following:

We recognize that not every site can make this change now, and we don’t expect them to. But as more of us begin doing this, others will join. One man with a club is a hooligan. A thousand men with clubs are a regiment.

If you happen to read the source article you’ll see that it was written in February 2001 explaining that Web designing is taking a new turn and that standards compliant websites are the new black. In January 2009 more and more companies worldwide are turning towards standards and standards compliant websites. Web design agencies have understood that it is a quality deed that can be an added value to their sales department. Its not only saying it, it means DOING it.

Why am I saying this? Its just because I feel like that man with a club. I’m a web standards hooligan since I am leading a fight in a battle where I might be the only person doing this against a horde of Mauritian Web design companies oblivious of semantics or standards. Why are Mauritian Web companies so opposed to quality, native and basic concepts or even straightforward web designing? None are actually mastering what they are selling.

Let’s look at an example. Some person came round showing off a site on a Mauritian blog. That site is Ronde et Belle. This is a French based online shop with a lot of eye candy and has been set up by a Mauritian company Eservices.

First things first, just a quick site validation shows 147 errors. A quick CSS deactivation shows the horror of not mastering CSS and semantics as well as the use of tables in the markup. Case closed, this site is an interesting e-commerce site but lacks all the basic qualities of good website coding. What if the client decides to change the structure, the graphic layout or what not? This site can’t be changed that easily, the tables have to be redrawn to fit new structures. The semantics are quite inexistent, there’s only one H tag and it is lost in a table with a span in it.

So let’s look at what Eservices is offering. Web design services:

We provide a complete range of services to help you take your business online. Our team of technicians, graphic designers, copywriters, Web developers and programmers work in synergy to offer you a website that fits with your aspirations.

The group is said to have copywriters but their first page holds a enormous error being the word “referencing” which is a barbarism as in the context they could not find the expression “Search engine optimisation” as a service that they actually are selling. Eservices boasts of an extensive and up-to-date portfolio but all the sites present there have been built with the same lack of non-standard and non professionnal approach. Among them are the 3 new Attitude Resorts Group hotels websites which are ABSOLUTE CODING HORRORS!

This again shows the lack of professionalism of the Mauritian Web design companies. The Mauritian Internet community had quite a negative feedback on the new L’Express website back in December 2008. One thing that was held against La Sentinelle Ltd. was that an Indian company was hired for their site. Looking at Eservice’s, one of the biggest companies’, portfolio its not a surprise that the product has been outsourced. I’m sorry to say this but they get the same unprofessional code at a cheaper fare in India.

So this is how I find myself being a Web partisan for standards and CSS compliance which makes me a hooligan. I am convinced that in some years, people will follow the way I’m paving, and as Jeffrey Zeldman said, I might find friends in Mauritius to build up a regiment. Believe me or not. In some years even Eservices will have changed its way of coding and will be selling compliant websites, they are bound to do it!

More From webdesign

• 5 tips to a successful seo-oriented web project.
• Transforming the visitor into a customer.
• "Sex" is no longer a buzz word!

webdesign Recommends

• A Beginners Guide to Link Building  (Backlinks4SEO)
• What is a turnkey website?  (Brandon Hann)

Ask webdesign To Recommend Your Posts

Category: Web Design