Web Design Techniques

Why Mitch uses web standards design & CSS 'tableless design'

Web standards are a new approach to an old ideal. Ever since the web got popular, designers (including me) have been using tables to create great-looking websites. However, there was one problem; it made for some ugly code. This over-sized clumsy code made sites slow to load, took up band width and were terrible for blind users. Yes, there are special browsers that read websites for the blind. Why is that last item important? Well, for one, to be ADA compliant — Target was recently sued and lost over an ADA compliance issue, and secondly, because there is another blind user of the web... Google.

When Tim Berners-Lee created the web, it was for sharing plain text documents that had headlines and tables. It was plain looking and boring, but it worked. Designers have been exploiting odd tricks to make things visually attractive. Also, during the browser wars during the turn of the century, the browsers didn't play well together. Now that the wars are over, a group called the W3C is trying to standardize how browsers draw pages. The best browser out there now is Firefox; it renders pages really well. Microsoft Explorer is catching up, but the old versions (IE5, 5.5 & 6) are still out there and causing problems. But, as the browsers get better, a lot of sites are moving to standards.

What are Cascading Style Sheets?

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a way of 'separating content from markup'. That means that all the instructions to the browser on how to draw the web page are put in a different file. This file is kept in the browsers' memory and doesn't have to be reloaded as the viewer moves throughout the site. This greatly speeds up the site and leaves the individual pages much lighter and only containing the content. Google and the other search engines & spiders love this; sites move up the rankings quickly just by being written using CSS.

Another big benefit of CSS is that it is much easier to change a CSS based site. The pages are much easier to read, harder to mess up and since all the design information is in a single separate file, changes to that file are made site-wide. CSS code is also very precise; fonts and elements can be specified to the pixel, exact color and position.

Search Engine Optimization or SEO

Optimizing a site for search engines is basically writing and designing a site in a way that makes it attractive to search engines. Easier said than done. It involves knowing what the engines are looking for and accommodating them. There are lots of tricks that people use to rank high, but that is a dangerous approach. If the engines determine that you are 'cheating' they can black-list you and your site will disappear from their listings. The proper way to practice SEO is to make the site as user friendly as possible and write good code. Good manners and politeness are rewarded on the web as well. Having the right guide and translator certainly helps, so give me a call and let's talk.

eCommerce

eCommerce is about marketing and completing transactions online. There are several options that are quite affordable. Simple transactions can be completed using functions created for a few hundred dollars with about 3% processing fees. Other options with slightly higher fees can allow for custom shipping pricing and an integrated user experience. Can I be more specific? Yes, but I need to know about your project, so contact me and I can provide the information you need.

What is Hosting and DNS Registration?

DNS registration is how you own the web address you use (i.e. mitchrossow.com) and hosting is how your site is connected to the web. It's two separate steps and both are required, there are lots of traps and pitfalls out there, let me help you figure it out. For example, several 'free' registration sites are almost impossible to work with and the URL is hard to get back.

Hosting

MRDI provides hosting with extensive statistics and information that will help interpret your site's performance as well as how people and search engines are experiencing your site. Armed with information, your site can be tuned for maximum performance. Oh, and it's not expensive either.