The real world value of proper web development
Filed under: Rants
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This isn't really a full blown article but just some random thoughts and an invitation to some discussion. I'm very interested in how fellow web developers are feeling about the matter I'm about to bring up.
I feel I've come a long way in web development even if I say so myself. After having developed primarily backend oriented websites in the pre-CSS era I've embraced modern web development and gradually managed to get at a level I feel is pretty much 'expert level'. In my professional life I'm working with awesome people. They are all at this same expert level where you can pretty much get anything you want done. Some things will take a bit more time, some a bit less, but you'll get it done. And if given the time to do so, done WELL too. Done WELL in my opinion means: proper semantic markup, a strict separation of markup, style and behaviours, proper care about accessibility, maintainable code, good performance, anyway, I could go on. I'm probably preaching to the choir with this anyway. The bottom line, sometimes I feel like me and my fellow web developers are on some sort of isolated island with no proper communication lines to the outside world except for the bare necessary messages.
The thing I'm really concerned about is how many people (clients, companies, employers / managers) actually care about things being done WELL. Some often heard phrases:
What do you mean users who don't have javascript? Everybody has javascript!
You know what? First get this product out of the door and we'll worry about accessibility / non-javascript users / SEO later! (read: never)
This (badly done) site works fine! What could be wrong with it? I think you have an attitude problem young man!
Accessibility? You mean for blind people and stuff? Don't worry, we don't mind if the blind people can't look at our products. I don't even think blind people have interest in our work.
We'll just do something like <div onclick="handleEverything()"><failsome b-value='name:joe;age=47;'>datablock</failsome><div> and it will all work! What do you mean that's not valid? It works in all browsers I know! And what the hell is unobtrusive Javascript? Stop complaining so much!
The list goes on and on. So... how many potential clients / employers that YOU work for actually care about the quality of what's being built for them? And what do you feel the perceived value of a quality frontend developer is these days? Does our expertise really MATTER?
I'm interested in your thoughts!
At 13 July '08 - 05:10 Matthijs wrote:
I’ve had more problems (working) with other developers, who “just want to get it done”, in other words don’t care that much.
At 13 July '08 - 05:49 Marco wrote:
Yes, I suppose that’s the most frustrating scenario of all.
At 14 July '08 - 09:03 Adriaan wrote:
I also think that in most cases there is simply not enough money for frontend. If you charge a client a week or two for only frontend, because all you pages support WCAG...they die of a heartattack. Atleast with the types of projects I do as a freelancer. Most of the time I simply don’t have time/money to test
At 14 July '08 - 18:35 jleveille wrote:
“I’m old school”.
“Old habits die hard”.
And my favorite …
“What do you mean you want to do the build? We’ll just cut it up in Fireworks/Photoshop and send you the templates”.