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Forums > Web Design
Written by Andrew Shalat on February 27, 2008
Now, I'm no slouch in the design department, but I still can't get my mind around this CSS based, no table web design. Am I just a dinosaur? Or is there something else going on here? I don't find the homogeneity of the CSS designs that compelling. They all look like drapes to me. Is there anyone else out there who feels I'm right? Or feels I'm just a fool (wouldn't be the first time for either, or both).
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I agree with Terri.
I agree with Terri.
www.csszengarden.com
Thats the site I always drive people to, to see the beauty of CSS and what can be done. Same HTML on all the pages, just different cascading styles throughout.
Compromise
I would not blame CSS for design issues. More often than not I find myself making compromises with web designs due to browser shortcomings.
If anything CSS has helped by giving more (and better) control of positioning elements and typography. Using tables still has its benefits, but for the most part are not needed.
Take a closer look at what CSS can do. I think you might be attributing the ugliness of Web 2.0 with CSS.
Convenience
Imagine designing a print document without master pages. That's the web without CSS. :) It's really a convenient technology -- you can make modifications to your entire website, no matter how many pages, just by editing the CSS file.
Powerpoint is not a design application
flikworld.com
Still looks like drapes to me.
What I really think happened is that the movement of web design has been wrested again by the code-oriented generation. I'm a visual priority designer, so I start from the visual. This format starts from numbers and you watch the effect on your design. It's numbers priority, not visual-priority. Those sites you cite are still of a type: draped and overlapped, but not really designed. I always said that web design is a function of how much compromise you're willing to make. I think we're in transition again. If you remember back when we first started working with nested tables, and the first WYSIWYG apps for the web, it was pretty much the same issue. I'm not looking for distinction just for its own sake. But I want to figure out how to get back to design first, (which means form, function and versatility) rather than becoming a glorified surveyor.
Andrew Shalat
i'll agree with disagreeing
I know the look that you view as drapes... it's this whole web 2.0 movement. Large type, bland gradients and mass use of prototype.js.
BUT, i don't think you can blame this on CSS but should direct it more towards the people who designed the pages. CSS for me has helped to make html as open to possibilities as working with print.
I gotta disagree
Sure, CSS has its limitations, as does any technology on the Web. (Make that any technology anywhere!)
But the homogeneity comes from the people using CSS. Instant proof of that is at http://www.mezzoblue.com/zengarden/alldesigns/ . 206 designs, most very distinct from each other, and all using the same underlying CSS.
Terri Stone
Editor in Chief, CreativePro.com