Usability, XHTML, DOCTYPE, and HTML5

The first article we had to read on usability was very easy to follow and helpful information. It was full of tips that will help when we go to make our own websites that I might not have thought about otherwise. It talked about what you should include above the scroll, what color your links should be, differentiating between ads and images, and much more helpful information. It was pretty straight forward and I understood all of it.

The second article about XHTML was a little bit trickier to understand because we haven't learned how to write HTML code yet and it referenced the difference between XHTML and HTML. What I gathered from it that it is a stricter version of HTML, DOCTYPE is mandatory, and the elements must be closed, lowercase, and properly nested.

DOCTYPE=huh? I understood that it is used to declare what kind of HTML is used in the document and that it is found at the very beginning of an HTML document, but that's about it.

The last article about HTML5 was just as confusing for me seeing as I still haven't grasped HTML. I don't know what HTML5 Boilerplates are at all so I really got a whole lot of nothing out of that reading.