HTML Semantics

I’m currently working on HopScotch 3 and it involves a lot of revising the HTML markup of content structure plus a lot of structural class names.

In relation to this HTML refactoring, I’d like to share with you some notes on writing the HTML markup of web sites:

1. Text. Begin by writing in plain text all the important content your web site has. For example, you might have a web site logo – translate it into words; if you web site has a tagline or description, write that too.
2. Tag. Follow it up by wrapping each text content in its semantic HTML tag. Avoid using div or span just yet. For example, your web site name should be wrapped in a heading tag like h1 since it is the title of your HTML document; your tagline could be wrapped in a p tag. At this point, all heading tags could be in h1 since we have not put these objects in context yet. Eventually, we would be arranging the hierarchy of these tags – from h1 to h6.
3. Group. This is where div and span will come into play. You will have to group and segment the objects based on semantics and not on visual appearance. For example, you could wrap both the web site name and tagline in one div.
4. Classify. Put the class names into the grouped structure of the objects. For example, the div that contains the web site name and tagline could be classified as “web-product-name”. The test for its semantics is if the name is true to the objects’ nature – something that isn’t tied up to visual appearance or layout.
5. Format. To add another level of semantics and structure to the objects, we could use Microformats. It uses a vocabulary of class names that give structure to common content such as a person’s information, a movie’s information, an organization’s information and much more.

Related Reading

• Notes in Front-end Design
• Elements of CSS V2
• Layers of Front-end Design

Further Reading

• HTML5 semantic markup for blog post tags and categories on Stack Overflow
• hCard Authoring Tips on Microformats