[UPHPU] "design standardization" thoughts

[Ray Hunter]

> I've been thinking about "design standardization" for a while now.
> The basic idea is to create a set of definitions for different
> elements and IDs, such that developers can mark up their pages using
> the standard and then put any design that obeys the standard on top of
> their markup. Some examples of what might go into the standard:
> 
>    * h1 is used at the beginning of a distinct block of content. An
> h1 always denotes the beginning of a new distinct block.
>    * h4 is used within a distinct block of content, and does not
> denote the start or end of a distinct block.
>    * The #submenu ID identifies a secondary navigation block, which
> may or may not be present on any given page. It should only be applied
> to a ul or ol.
>    * The .quote class represents a pullout quote, and should always
> be within a p tag that's inside of the #content div.
>    * Any p within the #content ID should be considered as primary site
> content.
> 
> These examples are contrived and the list is incomplete.  It's meant
> to demonstrate the idea, not to serve as an actual spec.  But it
> should give an idea of how such a spec could let content authors
> create sites that can use more than one design and designers create
> stylesheets that can be applied to more than one site, without
> specifically tailoring their markup or design (respectively) for each
> other.

One thing that I'll throw in there is the use of xml and stylesheets. You have
the ability to define the standardization of the page flow and then you also
have the ability to define the design as well based on xslt. Additional changes
(styles) can be handled by the css that is implemented with the xslt. This
allows the developers to use create a standard that will be propagated
throughout the entire process and it enforce the rules that have been defined.
This goes along with some of the other comments of perhaps having SEO standards
that must be enforced.

But I do agree that standards need to be defined and flowed when dealing with
websites that have 1 or more developers on it. This will always help in the long
run with maintenance and upgrades.

--
thebigdog