Sep 20

CSS

Author: s1n
Category: 01100011, Sector 7G

I work in the group called HCI or “Human/Computer Interface.” A new effort that I have been recently working on has required me to work with CSS design on a web interface to an existing system. I unable discuss many details about the project, but they actually have little effect on this post.

I have been learning to leverage the power that is CSS. CSS is an unbelievable tool/language when it comes to design. The only thing that I can think of that comes close to CSS’s flexibility are Xdefaults. Nothing beats redesigning an entire user interface without having to recompile, reconfigure, or recode anything.

First, I discovered CSS layout designs. That is one of the more amazing things since Javascript for the web. In fact, I’d say that this is probably the most useful tools/languages in UI design. Completely seperating the content from the design is truely the future.

Then I discovered CSS Zen Garden. I looked through all of the designs there and I must say that I am extremely impressed. Here’s some of the ones that I like the most:

Since I’ve been wanting to redo my personal website, now might be a good time to get started on coming up with a design. The problem is that none of those are “free as in beer.” That means that I have to contact each designer and ask for their permission to use the design on my site. Once I have designed my new site (content will be scarce for a while), I might work on reworking the theme for this blog.

Let me know if you like any of those designs. Also, if anyone knows of some more good CSS design ideas, feel free to share with me them. I’m also looking for someone to possibly do some graphics for the site since I am fairly incapable of graphic design. A logo/banner would be all I would need but that’s kind of above my capabilities.


4 Comments so far

  1. winningpose September 23rd, 2005 5:25 pm

    CSS is great and everything but most of this is designed with layers and absolute positioning. You have to be careful when you use absolute positioning because it might not be very friendly to the visually impaired. I rememberd one time there was an extremely blind person surfing the web and he has his font very big. If you use Firefox and zoom in with CTRL and +, you’ll get something like this: .

    Note the text overlaps each other.
    Using CSS to do your page style is perfect, but I advise against using CSS to display your page layout in absolute positioning (for the most part).
    You can do CSS layout in float or relative.

  2. winningpose September 23rd, 2005 5:25 pm

  3. winningpose September 23rd, 2005 5:27 pm

    WTF it doesnt display image, click here

  4. s1n September 24th, 2005 9:41 am

    Hmmm, I’ll have to look into why it didn’t post your image. What exactly did you do to try and put it in the comment (so I can duplicate the error)?

    About the absolute positioning, I agree, but then again, a smart web developer will design 1 CSS style for normal visitors and 1 for the visually impaired. Usually the absolute positioning usage on those examples exists due to the images they use to incorporate the style (require certain positions).

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