ASD Web Design Guidelines

Part 5: Things to Avoid

There are some things that just shouldn't be done. It's a short list, but an important one.

Proprietary Tags

Microsoft and Netscape, in their zeal to make the Web cooler, added some tags to their browsers outside the HTML specification. These include <blink> (Netscape) and <marquee> (Microsoft). There are significant problems with both of these tags, especially if your page design depends on their correct display. The <blink> tag in particular can make large blocks of text extremely difficult to read. They have also caused seizures in people with autism. They may be snazzy, but they're not that snazzy. Some of the tags have been incorporated into the HTML 4.0 specification, but aren't supported by one browser or the other.

Here's a complete list of proprietary tags.

(This list was cribbed from Web Design in a Nutshell by Jennifer Niederst, published by O'Reilly. I can make an unqualified recommendation that you get this book.)

That's not a very long list, is it?