Datasheet

CHAPTER ONE FUTUREPROOF SURVIVAL TECHNIQUES
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reader, and you’ll understand how your site can be interpreted by a machine, not a human
being; any errors a ecting it will certainly re ect in the output.
Here are some features that make for happy robots:
> Search engines may struggle with proprietary code.
> Social networks require meaningful, contextual data.
> Browsers demand well-formed code to render pages.
If you’re working for a client, you can’t just plan around the needs of your users and the
speci c devices they use or the automated solutions that exist; you must also plan around
the business or client. Clients may have certain niche requirements — if they are making
an intranet, for example — or perhaps they want the added usefulness of platform-
explicit applications (such as those in Android’s marketplace or Apple’s App Store).  ese
days, sites encompass many more options than they used to, and every site’s require-
ments will be di erent.
Note
Consider the client-user scenario as an adaptation of the “three laws” from Isaac
Asimov’s I, Robot. Sites cannot harm a user, must obey clients’ orders (unless it
violates the fi rst law), and must do the same for designers (unless it violates the
previous two). With this idealistic balance, the designer’s priorities should be set.
 e needs of a site depend on the factors described in this section. You’ll probably spend
as much time researching what is needed on an interface as you do building it. In a design-
er’s ideal world, people would conform to stereotypes, devices would be standardized, and
clients would jump for joy at the thought of accessibility. Unfortunately, you don’t live in
an ideal world, and it’ll be many years before widespread compatibility and ubiquity will
exist (if it comes to exist) because meeting expectations can be fraught with hurdles.
Changing dogmas or perceptions takes time.
Setting goals while dodging holes
As the Web has evolved, designers have found themselves playing a superhero-like role,
which you’ll understand if you’re a fan of fantasy and shows such as Bu y the Vampire
Slayer. Bu y worked her way through demons, taking on increasingly dangerous and
deadly foes (you can relate to this if you’ve coded for Internet Explorer 6), and ended up in
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