HTML5 – The End of PSD to HTML Conversion Providers?

In 2009 the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) decided to concentrate their efforts on HTML5, a new revision of HTML, rather than XHTML2. HTML5 is strongly supported by Apple, Opera, Mozilla, Microsoft, Google and other leading IT companies and web browser developers. All this means that HTML5 is becoming a mainstream of the Internet.

Among peculiarities of HTML5 there are backwards compatibility and forbearing error handling. In other words, with HTML5 websites written in previous versions of HTML/XHTML-CSS will not need an urgent update to be correctly displayed by even the most modern browsers.

Now the main question for PSD-to-HTML conversion providers:

Doesn’t this all indicate that PSD-to-HTML services will lose their importance?

Really, PSD-to-HTML companies declare “Code compliance with the latest W3C standards” as one of the main promises and advantages, but with HTML5 there will be no need in such a strict validity.

We believe that in the era of HTML5 the role of the professional PSD-to-HTML conversion will only increase.

Firstly, backwards compatibility and tolerance in error handling absolutely don’t imply indulgence towards and support of an ugly – unformatted and unstructured, garbage, hard to understand and maintain, and so forth – xHTML/CSS code.

Secondly, HTML5 puts special emphasis on semantics and document structure and introduces a number of new “semantic” tags.

The aim is to make the Internet more understandable and transparent both for people and search engine robots. A benefit for website owners is that the more correct search engines interpret and assess a website content, the higher the website is ranked, targeted and, as a result, more visible to its audience.

Proliferation of the best xHTML/CSS coding practices and web standards is and will always be among core tasks of professional PSD-to-HTML conversion services and the main reasons for designers to use them. And new HTML standard HTML5 strengthens this role even more.

One more important question is
Will the PSD-to-HTML services remain the same in the era of HTML5?

Our answer is “No”.

Let’s compare the Internet in 1990s and now – it is like apples and oranges:

1990s: In the early 1990s typical Web pages were written in the so-called academic style: it was a simple text decorated with the help of h1-4, b, i, ul/ol tags and a couple of images; technologies – HTML. Then more advanced approaches emerged: table-based websites with distinctive design and color palettes (now they are usually described as obsolete); basic technologies – HTML/CSS plus some JavaScript.

 versus

2010: The Internet is presented with stylish, poly-functional and usable websites with strong interactivity, interoperability, and built-in multimedia components and social media connection; technologies – XHTML/CSS2, XML, AJAX, open source CMS (content management systems) and blog platforms, etc.

It is quite clear that HTML coding for the Web of 1990s and 2010 requires different sets of skills and even different sense of beauty and good design. HTML5 could be a solid background for a new qualitative leap of the Web too.

HTML5 is developed not only as a theoretical platform. First of all it is a generalization of the 20-year hands-on Web practice and is conceived as a flexible tool for building the Web – as we know it now and as it could be in the near future. That is why HTML5 will strongly influence the PSD-to-HTML services and stimulate a new level of:

HTML and CSS technical expertise;
Understanding of web semantics;
Skills to integrate multimedia and social media components/channels;
Usability and website look and feel.

As a result, one may predict appearance of specific PSD to HTML5 conversion and

Deeper differentiation between design, HTML coding and other segments of the web development industry;
More emphasis on new development platforms and CMS including cloud platforms, social media, etc.;
Stronger specialization of PSD-to-HTML conversion companies;
More exacting requirements to coder training and quality assurance.

Whether HTML5 will be the end of PSD-to-HTML or just the beginning of essentially new PSD-to-HTML5 services – time will show. However, what is absolutely clear now is that there will be a lot of exciting work for designers, HTML coders, and back-end programmers.