Interview with Chuck Villard, Developer, VeriSign

I recently interviewed Chuck Villard II, über Web Developer, at VeriSign whom I worked with on the re-design of the VeriSign.com homepage. Chuck and I have a healthy mutual respect and admiration for each other's expertise and crafts which makes for a highly synergistic relationship, crucial in any project, but especially so for a high-visibility project such as this. I thought it would be beneficial to share some of what went into this re-design from a development perspective, which some of you may find useful in your own re-designs. So here goes.

Q: What were some of your goals in the development of the page?

A: I would say my goals fit into two groups - team and personal. As a development team, we wanted to have a home page that grabbed the user's attention and presented them with content in a more attractive and interactive manner. We also wanted to be able to continue to present one unified home page globally, across all our sites.

Personally, I wanted to challenge myself to create a homepage that was cross-browser compatible and standards compliant, all while taking advantage of some of today’s hot topics like DHTML and CSS.

Q: What, if any, were some of the challenges you encountered with the development and why?

A: I think the biggest challenge was trying to create an interactive homepage in a content driven business. I think this actually tends to be the most challenging aspect of development on a regular basis. Our development team wants to be challenged and push our own limits, however, when content is king it can be quite difficult. I feel Web 2.0 practices are about finding a sweet spot. That spot where you can make an eye catching web page but still be able to speak to the customer and not distract them.

Q: The new home page is a deviation from the previous iteration of the page from both a Web 2.0 design as well as functionality perspective. Can you describe the Web 2.0 technologies you used and how?

A: As we were preparing for the home page project we talked about how to present the content and how we could come up with a sexier look. The page was created using XHTML for content and CSS for the presentation.

To keep the news headlines concise and clean we used a DHTML news ticker. Following along that line we used DHTML for a hover system that allows the user to view all of the products and services without taking up too much real estate. This also worked out excellently for SEO purposes.

We have a flash piece that tells our story, but our biggest change is the top level navigation. We are now using a DHTML hover menu system that gives users quicker access to the sub-level pages of content that they may be looking for.

Q: Standards based development practices has gotten a lot of web airtime recently. How did you incorporate coding best practices into your programming of this page?

A: It’s tough at times trying to keep in mind that every browser displays differently, and there isn’t just one major internet browser anymore. Attempting to comply with W3C standards is often more of a challenge when it may not benefit an organization financially. The first few times trying to use this process can be, developmentally, time consuming. The time spent on it may cut into other projects or budgets but the benefits are worthwhile when perfected, especially when considering scalability.

Standards have been a passion of mine as of late, and despite technological issues we may have internally, I wanted to implement a 100% compliant home page. When I started development, I laid out the content in XHTML before thinking about what a border might look like or what size the text might be. After this process I started to create the CSS, laying out the content and checking and making adjustments for major browsers issues. After the major page is laid out, we add all the fancy stuff.

Q: What steps were taken programmatically to improve the web accessibility of the page for users utilizing assistive technologies to view it?

A: Along with the separation of content and presentation, making sure that the page degrades well without CSS and Javascript was a focus. Part of my development process is to also use a text based browser to try and make sure all users are considered when putting the page together.

Q: AJAX has gotten somewhat of a bad rap for encumbering accessibility. What has been your experience with this and what would you advise on this issue?

A: I think some people see flashy, slick interfaces or applications and automatically think "Ajax". However, this can just be the presentation which is mostly DHTML. Ajax refers mainly to the data requests behind the scenes without those pesky page reloads. My thought process is; use DHTML and Ajax where it’s not going to greatly affect content and where it just makes life easier. There is a great article over at StandardsSchmandards.com that talks about some of these issues.

Q: Newsweek has declared 2007 the "Year of the Widget". What are your thoughts on this as it relates to the widgetization of the web and/or future revs of the homepage?

A: With the addition of services to the web, and user generated content, widgets and mash-ups are the next big thing in the future of the internet. You can view the stock market, the weather, the news and have them available to your PC, phone, and now on your TV. At this point I am not sure how VeriSign’s home page will fit into the mix, but we are constantly trying new things to enhance the usability of our site.

Q: What are some of your favorite developer resource sites?

A: With the introduction of sites like iGoogle, I use RSS feeds to read all the great articles in one place. I regularly read Ajaxian and A List Apart (great CSS resources), as well as, the truly Geek site - Slashdot.

Q: If you had to do it all over again, what, if anything, would you do differently?

A: I don’t feel I would do anything differently; however, I would love to have other resources like PHP available to make a more dynamic home page. We are working on a more dynamic environment while keeping security in mind, which is time consuming. At this point, I just look forward to the next redesign.