The New Professionalism
As a web developer who has spent way too many hours writing bloated websites full of nested tables, 1-pixel spacer GIFs, hacked together JavaScript, and all flavors of nasty tag soup, and then spent many more hours trying to maintain and update those same websites, web standards and other modern web development techniques — semantic markup, CSS, unobtrusive JavaScript, etc. — have been one of the most exciting aspects of my job.
Discovering and mastering those concepts has been comparable to the first time I posted an HTML page on a real web server, typed in the URL, and saw something that I — little old me — had made pop up in the browser, knowing that it was accessible by the entire world. In many ways, it’s opened up a whole new world of web design. New possibilities that couldn’t be realized before, and simply knowing that I’m designing the right way, taking advantage of technology, not just because it’s new or cool, but because it’s simply and truly better, and it makes me feel good doing it.
But I also know that there are many great and talented developers out there who are still doing things the old-fashioned way, who are still relying on the same frustrating techniques and as a result, are spending way too much time doing work they don’t need to be doing rather than doing what they ought to be doing — designing and creating.
There’s a slow but sure movement among developers to embrace a new professionalism. In short, those who don’t seek to upgrade their skills, who don’t at least try to incorporate modern design techniques into their skillset are not, in fact, web professionals. It’s a terribly elitist-sounding thing to say, but there’s some truth in it. We wouldn’t trust a mechanic who wasn’t up on the latest tools of their trade, or a doctor who didn’t know the understand the most recent breakthroughts in their field, right? And yet, by not learning and using modern web development techniques, we’re asking our clients, customers, and users to do that exact thing.
We’re asking clients and users to settle for an inferior product, a product that’s not as good as it could be. A product that baffles search engines and anyone who is disabled or using a non-standard browser. A product that requires many more resources to maintain and update. A product that costs them more. A product that causes more headaches, both for us and them. A product that becomes a timesink, that might have been cool and fresh once, but has become stale and a pain in the ass to work with.
The most exciting thing about this all, is that it doesn’t have to be this way. Not anymore. Modern web development techniques such as CSS are no longer “pie in the sky” wishful thinking. They exist here and now, and can be used right now. I won’t lie, however, and say that it’s easy, that you’ll get everything right off the bat. There is a learning curve, and it does require thinking differently when it comes to picturing websites and how they fit together. But once you’ve made that shift, once you’ve reached that plateau, believe me — there’s a reason why people become evangelists for this stuff. It’s that great.
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