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Criteria & Judges

Criteria

The Web Standards Awards aim to highlight the best in standards-compliant web site design, therefore there are some checks a site must pass before we will consider it for an award.

Mandatory criteria:

Main pages should validate as HTML 4.01 or XHTML 1.0 compliant using the W3C validator. Some exceptions may be given for obvious typographical errors and the inclusion of rich media, such as Flash.
Pages must maintain — in spirit — a separation between data and presentation, such as that enabled by the coupled usage of XHTML and CSS.
Appropriate tags must be used to mark up data i.e. tables are for tabular data.

While assessing a site, the judges will consider the following points:

Visual appeal
Degree of separation between data and presentation
Quality of code
Usability
Accessibility
Uniqueness

Weekly Judges

Cameron Adams :: Melbourne, Australia: Cameron's five years of experience in building web sites as a freelancer and a corporate lackey have taught him that content and usability are always more valuable than a non-compressed JPEG. In his spare time Cameron likes to scrawl on the wall of his web site, The Man in Blue, then check the visitor logs to see if anyone noticed.
Andy Clarke :: Wales, UK: Andy was making web sites for food when the dinosaurs roamed the earth. These days, he pretends to work hard as Creative Director at Stuff and Nonsense, but according to his wife he actually has rather an easy life. He is also a director of Karova. In his spare time he dreams of having a misspent youth and writes his personal site at And All That Malarkey.
Johan Edlund :: Malmö, Sweden: Johan is a freelancing web developer that runs his own web design shop Snow Interactive. He's enjoying life, art and 3-Cushion Billiards in the beautiful city of Malmö in the south of Sweden.
John Oxton :: Cotswolds, UK: John has been developing web sites since 1999. He quite literally stumbled upon web standards whilst looking for a way to make hyperlinks pink on rollover, he hasn't slept much since. When he isn't building sites for clients, or posting to his personal site Joshuaink, he can generally be found leaving inane comments on other people's blogs, claiming to be too busy to talk right now or watching Futurama.

Monthly Judges

Andy Budd :: Brighton, UK: Andy works as senior web designer for Message Digital Design Ltd. In his spare time he runs SkillSwap.org, a project that provides FREE training for his local new media community. He also occasionally posts to his blog.
Robert Ford :: Herts, UK: Rob is used to seeing great sites. As founder of the Favourite Website Awards — the industry recognised daily source of inspiration for Flash designers — and Well Vetted — a monthly online gathering of the world's leading web design portals and community sites — he has his finger firmly on the pulse of cutting-edge Web design.
Carole Guevin :: Montreal, CA: Carole is a communication designer, new media pioneer, theorist, creativity coach, philosopher and founder / editor of netdiver.net — a new media design portal and digital culture magazine. Championing the value of design, she has been internationally recognized as a driving force behind digital culture since 1995.
Makiko Itoh :: Zürich, Switzerland: Originally from Japan, Makiko is an adopted New Yorker who somehow ended up in Switzerland. A designer for the past 12 years, she is a principal at PRODOK Engineering – a Swiss company providing PDF and XML-based solutions – and uses her spare time to author guidebooks for web designers, document her food obsessions and record various random thoughts.
Eric A. Meyer :: Cleveland, USA: Eric is an internationally recognized expert on the subjects of HTML, CSS, and Web standards. A widely read author and sought-after speaker, he is the founder of Complex Spiral Consulting, a company that aims to help clients save money and increase efficiency through the use of standards-oriented Web design techniques.
D. Keith Robinson :: Seattle, USA: Keith is a Web designer based in Seattle, Washington, USA. His thoughts and ideas — as read on Asterisk* — have earned him the respect of innumerable Web Standards devotees, as well as influencing the direction of Web design across the Internet.
Dave Shea :: Vancouver, CA: Dave is a graphic designer for his own Bright Creative in Vancouver. He's the creator and cultivator of the highly influential css Zen Garden, as well as being a member of the Web Standards Project. Dave writes about all things web for his daily weblog, mezzoblue.com.
Russ Weakley :: Sydney, Australia: Russ has worked in the design field for over 18 years, the last 9 as a Web designer. As well as running his business Max Design he contributes selflessly and extensively to the development of Web Standards by writing articles on Web design and co-chairing the Web Standards Group.