There’s yet another technology buzzword floating around the internet these days: POSH (Plain Old Semantic HTML).   It rather nicely encapsulates the idea of writing HTML that is valid, well-structured, semantic, and accessible, all into a cute little acronym.

Over the past couple of weeks, Amber and I have taken on the task of redesigning the TRMS corporate website, and I’ve had the chance to really dive into what it means to be POSH-y.  In his post, Roger Johansson describes the path towards divine POSH-iness:

• Validate your HTML
• Stop using tables for layout
• Use semantic elements and attributes for their intended purpose
• Use semantic class names and id values
• Use as little HTML as will get the job done

I’ve known about the virtues of semantic html for a long while, but only in a somewhat theoretical sense.  I’ve never really gotten the chance to practice it, as it’s been a long time (relatively speaking, using internet time) since I’ve done any sort of web design.  But after spending time in this space once again, I’ve decided that I really like the idea, for several reasons:

1. Constraints are liberating.  I suffer from NADD.  Severely.  I constantly want the next newest best-est thing.  Sometimes it’s nice to be only given a small set of tools.  I might actually get some work done.
2. Content is king.  It’s easy to spend your days playing with fonts and colors, while neglecting the thing visitors to your site are there for: information. Forcing yourself to use POSH puts your your actual content in the spotlight.
3. Universal Grammar.  When discussing particular elements of the site, it’s much easier to say "Oh, that’s a second-level heading," instead of "Well, that’s a title of a thing, but it’s not as important as this other title over here, so maybe let’s make it smaller…"  You get a lot farther when you have the same names for things as everyone else does.
4. People Web vs. Machine Web.  This is the classic "separation of content from presentation" theme with a different name.  People want to see beautiful layouts and images, whereas machines want clear, unambiguous data.  POSH allows you to satisfy both, which makes your website extremely powerful.  (This is a huge subject, worthy of several blog posts.  Reading about it absolutely changed my world.)

I have no idea if the term "POSH" itself will fizzle out or become mainstream,  but I can say that for me, the concept has made web design fun once again.  Acronyms can be fleeting, but creating valid, well-structured, accessible, semantic HTML, while indeed a mouthful, is definitely here to stay.  I look forward to seeing where it will take us next (plus, it’s just fun to say "POSH-y").