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Style guides ensure consistency. They define accepted practices. They codify expectations, helping different teams anticipate and arbitrate points of conflict. Most important, style guides constitute a knowledge base. As new people come onto a project, style guides instruct them in project standards and methodologies. As veterans move on, their strategies are retained.
What kind of style guides do Web projects generate? On the information design side, you might see guidelines on:
- Usage (grammar, spelling, abbreviations)
- Prose style and readability
- Page layout
- Graphical elements
- Use of internal and external source materials
- Editing cycles
On the information technology side, you’d see:
- File naming conventions
- Directory structure
- Coding standards
- System architecture
- Programming specifications
- Testing cycles
Then, there are areas of overlap:
- Interface design
- Navigational structure
- Image file formats
- Content conversion
- Evaluation cycles
Next: Page 2 — Establishing Style Guides for your Project
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