Wondering why so many of your web colleagues are sharing photos of themselves in blue caps on their blogs, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook?
And why they’ve added a blue cap to their Twitter profile photo?
Today marks the celebration of Blue Beanie Day!
Web folks around the world—designers, developers, accessibility advocates, programmers, anyone involved with creating content on the web—will spend part of their day focusing, writing, and talking about the importance of web standards.
As I have done in the past, I’m glad to spread the word about this special day.
What is Blue Beanie Day?
Launched in 2006, Blue Beanie Day is named after the blue beanie worn by Jeffrey Zeldman on the front cover of his Designing with Web Standards book.
For many web designers and developers in the mid-2000’s, Zeldman’s book was their first introduction to web standards.
It was one of the first books I read to learn about accessible web design and creating websites that everyone can use.
Along with dozens of other designers, Zeldman was a member of the Web Standards Project: people who wrote, taught, and published websites as well as articles to raise awareness of the importance of semantic code and best practices to design usable, accessible sites.
Show Your Support
Want to share your support for web standards?
- Update your social media avatar or About page portrait to include a photo of you wearing a blue beanie, hat, or even a scarf
- Use the #BlueBeanieDay hashtag to share your support and show off your social media avatar
- Publish a post on your blog or share a tweet about web standards, what you’ve learned, or are learning, to create more usable websites and web applications
Don’t have a blue beanie or hat to wear?
Download the blue beanie Photoshop zip file (45KB PSD) and update your social media avatars.
Learn About Web Standards
You can still purchase copies of Zeldman’s Designing with Web Standards book, to get a background on web standards and practices used in mid-2000’s.
More current resources I recommend for learning about web standards include:
- The Web and Web Standards from MDN Web Docs
- Web Standards: The What, the Why, and the How
- Web Standards & Happy Blue Beanie Day! [seven-minute video]
Hope you’ll join me in celebrating Blue Beanie Day today!
