After a long hiatus I’ve finally decided to start developing again. Of course, as with any technology field, there are many new changes that I need to understand and use. You do not need a degree or license or any other accreditation to do web development. The only thing you really need is a computer, connection to the internet and a text editor. Credibility is established through your work. And the work of a web developer can vary greatly. For me it is important to me to have work that follows the guidelines set up by organizations like the world wide web consortium (w3c).
The wild and wooly web is a vast, unregulated space but if there is consensus about certain technologies that would ensure technical and editorial quality than I think it is important to follow those endorsements. So, I think that when one starts developing after a hiatus one should make sure their choice of technologies are endorsed by w3c, which I plan to do. The current recommendation appears to be html5 for structure and css (maybe css3) for the layout. Okay, good. Also, the world is accessing the internet in all sorts of ways so designing sites that scale and load quickly will definitely be a priority. I’ve done a little research and there seems to be a buzzword for a site that can look good on all devices – responsive web design – which according to smashing magazine is the approach that suggests design and development respond to the user’s behavior and environment based on screen size, platform and orientation. I like that.