the 200ok weblog

Some articles are groundbreaking. Some are good reminders about simple things. Some illustrate how far we haven't progressed by remaining relevant years later (in IT that should never really happen!). Still, these are all well worth reading :)

• I'm disappointed that this article still needed to be written, but that probably just shows how long it's been since I was a copywriter: A List Apart: Articles: Attack of the Zombie Copy. To paraphrase: stop talking shit and start writing English. Call a spade a spade, not a manually-operated micro-scale earthmoving apparatus.
• Why tables for layout is stupid: problems defined, solutions offered. An amusingly-illustrated presentation giving the run-down on why tables are bad, mmkay. Prepared back in 2003, depressingly there are still many people who need to see it.
• Stop with the Jargon // Ordered List by Steve Smith. Don't use jargon with clients. If you want to explain something technical, even if you say you're going to explain something technical simplify what you say. For example, don't say you're going to use a PHP/Oracle backend with a CSS+XHTML presentation layer. Just say you're going to give them a dynamic site which can be updated quickly. Give them the what, not the how. Only give the why if they ask.
• Hopefully this didn't surprise many ALA readers: A List Apart: Articles: High Accessibility Is Effective Search Engine Optimization. 2005 and we still have to dangle carrots like SEO in front of the people with the money, just to get them to build accessible websites. Still, people do respond when I say search engines are blind, deaf, mobility impaired users with scripting and plugins turned off... so who am I to complain about a tactic which works? :)