Web Site Design Design Methods

The methods that we are currently using to build our custom designed web sites consist of two main components - XHTML 1.0 and CSS. XHTML (Extensible Hypertext Markup Language) is used for structural markup on the web pages, and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) are used for presentational aspects of the web pages. CSS is a standard layout language for the web - one that controls colors, typography, and the size and placement of elements and images. XHTML and CSS are part of current web standards which are supported in mainstream browsers and authoring tools and are changing site design methods for the better.

Benefits of Building with Web Standards

Designing and building with web standards lowers production and maintenance costs, makes sites more accessible (available on a wide range of browsers, platforms and devices, and to people with special needs), and is forward-compatible (will continue to work as new browsers and devices are invented). Because standards are inclusive by nature, people using old browsers and devices can be accomodated as well, but in a forword-compatible way. Web standards help to ensure that web sites work for more people on more platforms.

Benefits of Using XHTML

The following are benefits of using XHTML vs. HTML:

XHTML is the current markup standard, replacing HTML 4.
XHTML is more consistent that HTML, so it's less likely to cause problems of function and display. It provides clean, semantic markup that is not cluttered with "junk" markup.
XHTML is designed to work will with other XML-based markup languages, applications, and protocols - an advantage that HTML lacks.
Old browsers are as comfortable with XHTML as they are with HTML. New browsers love XHTML (particularly XHTML 1.0), and many give it special treatment not granted to pages authored in HTML 4. This makes XHTML more predictable than HTML in many cases.
XHTML works as well in wireless devices, screen readers, and other specialized User Agents as it does in traditional desktop browsers.

Benefits of Using CSS

The following are benefits of using CSS:

CSS reduces design and development time. A single CSS file can control the appearance of an entire site. By using external style sheets (styles listed in a separate file and imported or linked by web pages), all pages that use a particular style sheet can be updated quickly and easily by editing a single style sheet file.
CSS is bandwidth friendly. Since external style sheets are cached (stored once they are first requested and loaded), they help to conserve user bandwidth and page load time. They also reduce owner server an bandwidth overhead, thus saving money for the site owner.
CSS allows for greater freedom with design while increasing the accessibility of the site's content for viewers. In many cases, it removes the need for creating special markup versions of web sites (i.e. wireless versions, text-only versions, printer-friendly versions), and allows sites to reach more visitors with less work and at lower cost.
CSS allows web sites to be tailored to both old and new browsers. Using style sheets allows the designer to control the order in which content is displayed in a non-compliant browser without compromising how the site is displayed in compliant browsers.