Validation: coming soon to a web site near you

Ben Buchanan discusses the challenges involved in a recent project to re-write the homepage of Australian IT so as to make it standards compliant, in an interview with Maxine Sherrin published at Web Directions.

Ben points out that the bigger the website, and the more third party advertising involved, the greater the overall lead time of the task.

I think persistence is the key. It took 15 months and an entire rebuild to get the Aus IT homepage to validate. Being a standardista in a large organisation is a long game, not a quick win. If you’re running a blog or a small project website, you should be able to make it validate since you’re in control. But when you don’t call the shots, it’s a whole different game. The ad code thing ultimately came down to building trust with the various stakeholders. I think it’s often the case that technology isn’t the biggest issue, it’s the human factor. You’ve got to get people to agree to things before you can do them.

It’s interesting to note that Ben and his team were able to win support for the rebuild by selling the prospect that the website would be eligible for The McFarlane Prize, an award for excellence in Australian web design, once it validated.

This is something standardistas in other organisations may be able to take advantage of when trying to convince website stakeholders of the value of standards compliant design.