As a web designer, there are plenty of different web design standards one must master. The two most important in the industry today are HTML and CSS. What are these methods all about and how much time and money will you need to invest in order to learn them?

What is HTML?

Since the early days of web design, HTML has been the standard for professional websites. It stands for Hypertext Markup Language and can be quite confusing to someone who has no experience using it. HTML is the language, or code, used to edit and position the text, images, frames and other web page elements. If you go to your web browser and select View and then Source – the code used to design that website is available for anyone to see.

Those who have used HTML will tell you that it is not difficult to learn. There are a few basic tags (codes) a designer has to learn and a simple webpage is at their fingertips. The more complex the HTML, the more you can do with a site.

Efforts have been made to dumb down the process even further so that anyone, even those who have no knowledge of HTML, can create their own website. These are typically called WYSIWYG (What you see if what you get) editors. They allow you to create a webpage without using code and the editor assumes what HTML you need and does the work for you. Some software programs now include an option to convert your document to HTML. These are great tools for newbies. Unfortunately, the processes of guessing what code you need breed mistakes and errors in design that can lead to further frustration.

What is CSS

CSS is a newer animal and is not as familiar to beginning web designers as HTML. CSS was created to allow designers to have even more creativity and control over their designs. Today there is more than just one type of Internet browser to design for and this can be tricky and time consuming for HTML designers. These saves users time, effort and most likely money when they are creating sites. Also, CSS encourages less effort by allowing designers to create style sheets. This means when an edit is made to one page, all other affected changes are automatically made. This keeps designers from having to make multiple edits for large, detailed websites.

HTML vs CSS

CSS is not really taking the place of HTML. It is generally used as an enhancement, not a substitute. HTML is still the perfect type of coding for the main structure of a site.

CSS excels when it comes to how a webpage will look. The outward appearance including backgrounds, colors, content and image placement can all be handled by CSS. Anyone who is familiar with the Microsoft Office version of style sheets has a good handle on the purpose of CSS.

While a webpage can certainly be accomplished still only using HTML, CSS allows designers to do things like set different page margins for all sides of a page, overlap words, better position page elements, and set a font for a whole table instead of just pieces. These make all seem like minor adjustments but these CSS tricks free up time for designers to worry more about overall layout, design and navigation.

Training

There are plenty of places where new designers can go to learn both HTML and CSS. If you are a manual type of student, the library has an abundance of tutorial manuals for these techniques. Any establishment that teaches computers classes will more than likely include these basic web approaches as well for the visual learners.

Of course, many a web designer learned their craft by simply jumping in and messing around. If you have the discipline, this hands-on method of learning is not only effective, but free.

With the popularity of today’s world wide web, it seems like everyone is designing a webpage these days. From the free online editors to full blown ecommerce Internet giants, there is a market and need for web design that is not going away any time soon. Whether you decide to take it slow and target small businesses or get serious and starts designing for large corporations, design fundamentals are the place to start your journey.

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The most common mistakes made in designing a website are:

Too Much, Too Soon

Ever opened a website and felt dizzy seeing too much content, color, intricate borders and graphics? The top web layouts always have just one or two focal points, nothing more. In the first place, you don’t have to limit the website to just one page. However, you should also not bombard your main home page with too many directional guides and links to the other pages. If a web design has too much going for it, it will be its own worst enemy. Remember that a visitor to the website has a million other site choices, and so your window of opportunity to keep him interested is so small and be just a matter of seconds. The general idea is that a person should be able to tell within 4 seconds after opening a site what it’s all about.

Using The Wrong Design Elements

You may know a lot about web design, but you do not have to use them all at once. Neither should you be random about which design elements to use.  For instance, if the website has products to sell, then do not let design detract from the product so much so that the person looks at the design rather than the product. Neither should you have elements that stop a person from buying by using “come on,� “wait,� or “there’s more� kind of tactics.

Getting Drunk on Contrasts

The use of contrast is a great design technique, but it can get in the way, especially if you try too hard to create a visual smorgasbord battling for attention. On the other hand, many designers tend to disregard the use of contrast because they know the content by heart, and fail to look at the design from the angle of a visitor.  Thus, they look at the overall effect, and end up using too light text color that affects visibility and readability.

Inconsistency From Top To Bottom, Side to Side

Often a web design gets attention because it has no focus, which means it’s not a compliment. Think of it as a room – you cannot have gothic mixed with country because they do not work together at all. It’s wrong to have a different theme for every page in your website, just as it can get to be too much if you keep changing the color scheme.

Creating a Navigational Maze

Web navigation refers to links to different parts of your website. An inconsistent web design uses different kinds of navigational designs in one page, or even in the entire website. Again, you need to maintain consistency. At the same time, the navigational keys should be concise and simple. This is the wrong aspect of the web design to “decorate.� It should be as easy for a 10 year old as it is for a 70 year old to figure out how to get to the Home Page or About Us page.

Making Web Design More Important Than the Content

Unless you are creating a design or artsy website, then content should reign supreme. The web design should not be the main selling point. It should be whatever the main focus of the site is. If anything at all, design should enhance content, and by doing so, get its due recognition.

Using Flash Techniques Improperly

A web design that incorporates a video that automatically pops up when a person goes to the Home Page should always have a Skip option. Making visitors go through the same Flash animation every time is abusive and inconsiderate. It will also cause a drop in interest. The same applies with music, especially in game sites. Not everyone wants to listen to the same tune again and again. There should be the option to lower the volume or put it in mute mode.

Playing Around With Text

Adding design to the fonts is generally a bad idea. People just want to read the content, not be impressed with its font, size, or color. It will also cause a problem with optimization. Thus, it is important to choose a font that is easy to read, and not be too small or too big.

Web design can easily go overboard, so the best way to avoid this problem is to have an objective independent person give you his or her point of view. If you get several opinions, you can come up with a consensus. Just choose your critics well.

Amateurism

A common mistake in logo design is creating something that looks cheap or unprofessional. If you are using clip art or stock, it will send the message that you are not original or unique. If the images are blurry or distorted because you are using the wrong software or file format, people will be put off by your logo. Once they are put off by your logo, they will judge your company by their first impression. Not all logos designed by amateurs will look poorly done, but it is imperative to show your new logo off and get valuable feedback on its quality before finalizing it.

Mistaken Symbolism

(This symbol could easily be mistaken for a crop circle or alien hieroglyph)

A logo is your company’s first elevator speech. It is the first attempt at marketing. What goes into your logo matters. Sometimes your logo could showcase something inappropriate and you not realize it. It is best to show it around to trusted individuals to see if they get an interpretation you were not expecting. Optical illusions can be tricky and people can see different things. Incorporating people or stick people images? Pay close attention to position and placement to avoid being inappropriate. If people are able to locate something ‘dirty’ or sexual in nature anywhere in your logo if it is not supposed to be there – then you need to go back to the drawing board. The same is true for showing your product in use in your logo. This can backfire when perception and customer impressions get involved.

It is just as important to think about the wording of your logo as there are many phrases or words that could have double meanings. Sausage can be sexual if used in an improper context so unless you own a sausage company it is best to avoid it. Same for names like Johnson, Peter, and John. Be cautious if incorporating words that can be different things.

Sketchy

It is always great to start off with a hand drawn design, but when it is time to go to print the logo needs to look more professional. Hand drawn artwork can be cute and quaint, but a mainstream logo needs to be able to compete and your competition is most likely not using a cute design.

Spacing

If you are going to use multiple words without proper spacing, you better be certain the words cannot be misinterpreted. A popular example of this is using Kidsexchange instead of Kids Exchange. This method can be used effectively like in Petsmart where either Pet Smart or Pets Mart are both appropriate. Be certain to really pay attention to your wording if you intend to omit spacing.

Being Too Personal

Inside jokes and personality quirks that are unrelated to your business should be left out of your logo. If you are overweight but are running a bakery, your logo does not necessarily need a fat guy or gal in it. Instead of being a nice representation of you as an owner, people will be reminded that if they eat your goods they will gain weight. This is the opposite of what you want to accomplish. If you like to drink a lot and your friends all call you Lush for fun, this does not mean you need to add this charming bit of your personality into your business brand. Your customers do not need to know that much about you in order to spend money on your products or services.

Multicultural

This one can get tricky because no one is an expert in all cultures. However, something that seems perfectly appropriate to you may be majorly offense to another culture. If you have quite a few Indian customers, it is not a good idea to advertise cow slaughter or to even poke fun at cattle. The cow is sacred in India and this will run your Indian customers away. If you want to ensure you do no offend anyone accidently, ask people of various cultures what they think of your logo. You never know when something fairly innocent to you will send another family running in he opposite direction.

Quality fonts are easy to come by, if you are willing to pay for them. However, signing up for the right blogs and forums could help you build your font database for free. There are plenty of websites that deliver all kinds of free fonts as long as you remain a subscriber.

Who doesn’t love free? Even if it is not a font you have a need for right now, having it in your font library could be beneficial for designs in the future. Even if the font is not attractive at first glance, there could be a design at some point that the font is the perfect accompaniment for.

Of course, for every positive there is a negative. The danger with storing and using free fonts is that a free font is much more likely to be overused than a font that designers need to invest in. An overused font is one you can recognize at a glance. If you see a font and can label it as Times Roman, Arial or Verdana, then that font is too common.

There are also fonts that are ridiculed in the design industry. It is important to understand what these are as well. If you are going to use a font like Comic Sans, you better have a really great reason. This font is evokes unfair, but fairly common disgust in the design community. Research a font before you use it to get some feedback about how the design is perceived in the community. Just because someone states that the free font is fun, new, creative and unique – does not make it so.

Also there is some confusion regarding just how free a font really is. There is a difference between a font and a typeface. The font is often offered as free, which means designers are allowed to use it in their designs. However, the typeface is still under copyright protection for the designer who created it. This means the font should not be edited or changed in any way. Some of the free fonts might have a licensing agreement that allows it to only be used privately, which means commercial design for the font is not okay. The majority of the freeware fonts are only free for personal use. Understanding the terms of usage for each font, free or not, is an essential part of using fonts in graphic design.

Another challenge that needs to be taken into consideration is the availability of free fonts. Even with millions of fonts available, it can be difficult for graphic designers to be free to use whatever font best works for them. The reason is that design is often restricted to fonts that the audience has available on their computer. If the targeted audience does not have the font loaded on their machine, the design might not be able to be read or will display incorrectly. Spending hours selecting the right colors, symbols, text and font might come to nothing if the end user is seeing something different than what you have designed.

So, now you are stuck with choosing between fonts that are readily available to your audience but that are not overused and tired. This makes selecting a font not only important, but also potentially frustrating. A great designer can find a way to include the chosen fonts as images so that they show up regardless of what fonts are installed on the receiving computer.

For graphic designers who do not understand the intricate nature of typesetting and font design, it is important to spend some time studying fonts. Designers need to understand the differences in serif and sans serif fonts, what makes a font and a typeface, what fonts are overused and how to balance different fonts. Without this knowledge, the fonts you think are wonderful may not send out the impression you were going for. There are plenty of free fonts available and adding them to your collection for future use is a good idea. However, understanding fonts and typography will stretch out the value of those free fonts even further.

And it did. We see the top website design for 2010 consistently across the board as having one or two main focuses on its main page, and not a lot of text. In fact, some of the hottest minimalist website designs have but a couple of words, some of them just the name of the product coupled with an amazing product shot.  Nothing over the top, stark simple, but it gets your attention in a snap.

Another website design that has been capturing the imagination of internet users and web designers is the use of the magazine-style layout. This kind website design recognizes the fact that eventually magazines will be overshadowed by magazine websites, mainly because of the paperless drive to save the environment from further abuse. This type of website design looks like your typical stylish print magazine with a lot of catchy headings and subheadings, links, and content previews – just like what you can expect from the front cover of your favorite magazine.

Looking at this website design, you notice it tries to re-create that magazine feel that most avid magazine readers have gotten used to. As a website, it appears to be overcrowded, but not for its target audience who prefers to get all the information and teasers it needs in one page.

Most hand-drawn website designs belong to artists or website design companies, and they use the first page of their website to dramatically emphasize their skills and creativity. The website below is a restaurant which means that artistry is starting to spill over to the mainstream websites. You can tell that a lot of thought has been put into creating this restaurant’s website, and it looks a little like a menu. You will also notice that it appears to be crowded, but really isn’t. Because of the dark background, there is a mystic that surrounds the website, as if beckoning one to call in for a reservation.

You will notice that the top websites of 2010 are more than just a business website. It  combines aesthetics with the personalized touch, before merging with the online business perfectly. This is a website trend that was not visible at all a few years ago.

The next top website design for 2010 is the retro look.  You may also call it vintage, but it basically refers to an understatement in web design, almost like an unfinished work of art.  Retro web designs can date back as early as 20 years ago, or go even further back to the days of black and white TV. In the example below, the product is a beer from Portland, Oregon, and one would assume from its web design that the company has been brewing since the 1960s. Except, this original brew from Oregon began selling beer only 24 years ago, in 1986.

The website is a testimony to their marketing angle that they have been brewing the best Portland beer for a long time. And it works superbly.  If you notice, this design also tries to be minimalist by not putting too much information on its top page. The graphics zeroes in on the product, and not much else. By all accounts, it appears that from now on, retro is making a strong comeback in design, this time evident in many website designs all across the globe.

Other 2010 top website designs veer towards the use of large graphics, large fonts, oversized footers and headers, and bold typeface and fonts. For 2010, and into 2011, the attitude towards website design has gone from trying to squeeze everything in one page to a more relaxed and subtle approach. Although, there is still the in-your-face design that can make anyone stop and stare. Generally speaking though, the approach remains minimalist and artsy.

For now, there are many websites that carry more than just website design. One example would be the Von Dutch website that incorporates the hand painted top border, large graphics, and textured background.  It also has the retro look, as well as an interesting black and white image, which is something you might see in a magazine-style website.

For web designers and business owners, the spectrum of design has gone explosive. There are no more barriers or inhibitions in creating a unique impression that could help drive traffic to the website simply on the basis of its extraordinary design. And therein lies the reason why it is called a trendy website design for 2010, and one to watch out for in the coming months.

What is Negative Space?

In terms of graphic design, negative space is the part of the design that is not being used. In design, there are three plain elements that make up the framework of the piece. These include the subject (positive space), the frame and then the negative space.

Negative space is referred to as white space when working with print design. It is considered the space of the design that is empty. The use of white space is encouraged and the more, the merrier. It can be tempting to fill a page with all kinds of meaningful design, but this is often overwhelming and frustrating for customers. The idea is to make the focal elements of the design and have the white space draw people into the focal areas instead of distracting them away.

The Importance of Negative Space

With any piece of design there must be negative space. A piece that contains no negative space will be too busy. A viewer’s eyes will be all over the place, unable to focus. This keeps your audience from receiving whatever message the design intended to deliver.

Negative space is a great way to achieve balance or symmetry in a design. This makes the design look better and achieve a greater appeal for viewers. The proper use of white space allows the objects in the design piece to co-exist, even if they would not normally match or go together. The right use of space can connect both similarities and design differences.

Resist the temptation to fill an advertisement with all sorts of marketing jargon and information. Just because there is space that could be filled, does not mean that you need to fill it. Place your website address on the advertisement. Customers who want to learn more will click through to the company’s website.  An advertisement should be a teaser, a movie trailer – it should not only intrigue but also entertainment.

How to Incorporate Negative Space

First, you will need a good idea of what negative space is and what it is not. Do some research on negative space and look through some design examples in a variety of mediums to get an idea of what works well with negative space, and what does not.

Occasionally, the focal design element of a piece could be knocking out an area of the design as negative space. Leaving the area empty will draw attention to it in ways that your ordinary logo does not.

Using Negative Space for Emphasis

Also negative space can be used as a tool to draw a viewer’s eyes where you want them to go. If there is an element or design piece that is the focal point, then using the right kind of negative space will help the eye drift onto the design’s main point. The more negative space that surrounds the subject, the stronger the visual pull will be toward the design’s focal object.

Too much clutter in a piece is a recipe for frustration. Customers do not want a Where’s Waldo activity in their advertisement. They need you to quickly get to the point – which is where designers are falling behind. The world runs quickly these days and you will only get seconds of a potential customer’s attention to win them over.

If there is more than one focal point, use a hierarchy of design to direct viewers eyes to the right ad elements. This means balancing design elements so that a viewer’s eyes follows the path set before them into whatever the final design wants to be.

Different Mediums

The strategic use of negative space can be utilized in a variety of different mediums. Not only is it great for marketing pieces, but should also be practiced in logo design and even photography. Understanding negative space when snapping or editing photos can turn a great photo into a spectacular photo.

Cost Savings

When it comes to design, the fewer colors you use the better your pricing will be. More colors equals more ink and makes it tougher on the printer. However, it is important not to skimp out on the design just to save money at the print shop.

Currently most of the browser supports CSS2.1 and HTML 4.01. But as CSS3 and HTML5 are mostly launched, every browser making company is highly considering these two for their next version launch. And probably in IE 9 most of the features of CSS3 and HTML 5 would be compatible. Mozilla Firefox already supports many features included in CSS3 and HTML 5. The same way Google Crome and Safari too supports many features of CSS3. So it is really good news for present and upcoming web designers. These both provide less write more gain kind of stuffs. One would need to write very less line of code and would be able to get more features. If you are not much interested about your website’s user friendly GUI and attractive design then it does not matter much to you whether it is CSS2.1 or CSS3 and HTML 4.01 or HTML5. But if you are very much precise about the way your website look then you definitely got to know that what’s there in CSS3 and HTML5.

If we talk about CSS3 first, let’s see why it became a buzz in the arena of World Wide Web. It’s the features provided by CSS3 which is making it popular before even fully launching it. It provides highly dynamic and decorative features to the simple HTML page. It is providing stuffs like rounded corners, multiple background, direct web fonts, wrapping to the text, stroke and shadow to the text, 2D transformation to the object, animations, gradients, opacity, HSL and HSLA colour, background clipping, outline, box-resizing, box-shadow, top-right-bottom-left navigation, attribute selector, and overflows-x and y etc. These are all the features you can play with, which were not there in the previous versions of CSS.

These features can be used to make the web page and its content load faster and accurate. As CSS is always embedded it would load simultaneously with the page loading and hence would not take any extra time for loading. Now take a simple example of box-shadow, if we use a previous version of CSS there is no option to give a shadow to a div or span any other attribute. So what the programmers do is—they put the shadow image at the bottom of the div to give the shadow effect. This extra image takes extra time for a page to load. Now, think about a shopping cart website which have around 100 products in a single page and every product div have shadow image. See, how much time and load would it cost to a single page? This is Just an example of box-shadow. The same example implies for the rounded corner div, Where there would be a background image to make a div rounded cornered. Giving a shadow to the text was never possible in the previous versions of CSS except you use jQuery which again would take more time to load. Previously, only RGB and Hex mode colours were supported but now one can use HSL (Hue-Saturation-Lightness).

Take another example where you need two images as a background of a single div. Is it possible to set two backgrounds? No. So what do you do? Take two div and putting overflow and then set the background of one to left and one to right, this is what you are doing for just giving two backgrounds. Isn’t this process too lengthy? That’s the reason CSS3 provides multiple backgrounds. Even background clipping is also possible. You can also use direct web fonts. And there are many more you can trick around. One can find out all the features and syntax for implementations at http://www.css3.info/preview/.

HTML5 which is also in a development phase is having some amazing features too. Have you ever thought of playing your video on your webpage without using any script of API? Do you think it is possible? With HTML5 it is. Even you can play video on the background and in front you can have a signup form and Text. HTML5 have introduced elements called ‘video’ which makes this possible. And even it is easy to implement and maintain. There are many other elements too, which are being embedded into HTML5; few of them are audio, footer, header, canvas, progress, time and the list is long. Again, these all elements are embedded in HTML and hence do not need any extra process of API to load these elements, so ultimately saves the load time and memory of the client machine. To know more about HTML5 elements, features and usages and maintenance you can refer to the given website: http://www.w3schools.com/html5/html5_reference.asp.

In simple language jQuery makes the tasks done by JavaScripts easy, fast and understanding. One can manipulate css, content, images, HTML attributes and even the server side data by implementation of Ajax with jQuery.

Before jQuery, whenever it comes to animation or sliding, the only thing came into everyone’s mind was Flash. But after jQuery, one is totally ignoring using flash wherever possible. The main reason behind this is not that jQuery is the best over flash, but the implementation of jQuery over flash is better, easy and quick. Whenever one needs to place any flash content in their website, the client browser must be supportive to show the content of the flash. i.e. A Flash player is always needed. Now, as the flash player is needed, what would happen is that the control for that content is given to the flash player by the browser and hence the third party comes into existence costing the speed of the website. So if the browser is not fully able to load the content of a web page by its own, and requires some other application to show some part of the page, it will definitely take more time to load the page. And what about the users who do not have flash player in their browser at all? They will first need to download it as an add-on and then only they will be able to serf the page fully, which definitely lessens the interest of the visitor.

Where as in jQuery every kind of animations are possible as the Flash gives and need not the third party application to load or run a code and content. It is because most of the browsers introduced till date in this world which supports JavaScript, also supports jQuery, remember – jQuery is the framework for JavaScript. Look, how easy it is! One more benefit of jQuery over Flash is that any naïve developer or programmer can easily handle it with little sweat, but Flash is not any Tom-Dick-&-Harry’s cup of tea. Hence, the ultimate benefit of jQuery is less men power, as the developer himself can create the animation and scripting. To use jQuery is also very simple, one just need to add only a single file called jquery.js (jQuery Library) and little code in the HTML page where the magic is to be done. jQuery provides slider, menu bar, image rotation, image fading, text animation, interaction between client side and server side data, and whatever you can think of.

That’s the reason you would see the jQuery more and flash less in the recent websites. Flash is totally becoming or I can say became obsolete from the world of Web. Now days one would prefer flash only if they have a special requirement of the flash action scripts. Other than this don’t expect the anymore use of the Flash in the websites now.

Few advantages of jQuery over flash are:

1) jQuery is compatible with every browser.

2) jQuery is also compatible with iPhone, iPad, cell phones etc. which Flash is not.

3) jQuery is very less in size and a single jQuery can create as many animations, sliding and other effects. But in the case of Flash you will need individual flash files for every animations and sliding.

4) jQuery is a freeware where as if one want to develop something in Flash one would need to purchase a Flash Development Suite.

5) Flash files are always large in size. On the other hand jQuery file is less than 60kb in size.

6) Flash always need the upmost skill to create even a single simple stuff, but in jQuery any one little familiar with HTML and JavaScript can easily create anything.

These are very few, but the list is very long. There are only two disadvantages of jQuery over Flash, which are:

1) jQuery does not give high 3D effects and,

2) JavaScript can be disabled from the browser which will disable jQuery too.

Few examples of the jQuery artwork like flash are given below:

1) http://webdesignledger.com/tutorials/13-excellent-jquery-animation-techniques

2) http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/web-development/jquery-animation-tutorials/

3) http://www.queness.com/post/1942/10-stunning-examples-of-jquery-animations

What does AJAX do? Basically, it makes it possible for a group of techniques to have interactive web applications to use Javascript to process XML/XHTML, with CSS, in a browser without having to reload the entire web. In other words, AJAX allows the browser and web server to synchronize the exchange of data, making the interaction and reloading of each web page faster.

One of the problems with Ajax is that its updates often contain information retrieved from a script running on the server side. It is very common for a browser to not display any kind of visual indication that any portion of AJAX is loading. The developer can’t see this interaction first hand, so it’s difficult to see exactly where to go in the application to be able to determine whether the client-side JavaScript is correctly communicating with the server or not. A solution for this is why it’s imperative to insert a visual indicator that will allow you to know something is occurring. You can use a visual swirl very similar to the ones used when a light box image is loading.

Another solution is to use Firebug to monitor HTTP communications. Let’s say that the page did not load as expected, or didn’t render precisely. By using the Firebug feature you’ll be able to determine if the HTTP communications flow is processing properly as the page loads, followed by including the jQuery library and the correct interaction of the server-side-script with the inclusion of the JavaScript mechanism. By using Firebug you will be able to see if the HTTP payloads between the client and server are communicating properly.

Another problem with AJAX is the problem of getting the “Back Button� on the browser to work properly in the JavaScript application. Developers asking for problems in their web applications if they fail to install a way for their content to reload automatically if the user tries to use the browsers back button. This happens when developers over use AJAX without trying to balance with other technologies.

Many developers and designers forget that despite the advanced technologies and the amazing evolution of the web, there are still some users that do not have a strong and stable internet connection. A good example of this is seen if you have ever played internet poker and noticed how many delays there are because other players keep losing their internet connection. There are still users that have small monitors and dial-up modems. Not everyone has a Mac Pro Quad-Core Intel Xeon “Nehalem� processor with a 30� monitor.

As a web developer or designer, there are times when you might consider using other means of interaction with your users to allow you to reach a wider audience. AJAX requires interaction with XML and JavaScript which will leave users with poor connections out in the cold.

As I mentioned above, a designer or developer to be successful and be able to reach a larger audience needs to have a balanced platform. I am not suggesting that you need to eliminate AJAX technology, because it is a super way to develop intriguing JavaScript applications. What I am saying is you must make sure your code is efficient and clean and you use AJAX sparely, or as needed. You also need to make sure you have all your bases covered and that all of the AJAX support information needed is in the proper place. Remember, the more AJAX running, the slower the web pages will load, which is completely opposite of the reason AJAX is so powerful.

One final point – search engine spiders have extreme difficulty trying to pick up content when AJAX is trying to load large amounts of text. Hence, the content isn’t published and indexed properly. Spiders need static content to be able to read it.

Ajax developers at times might need to develop almost two types of applications if they want to build an online application good for Firefox and Internet Explorer browsers that could require a lot more time for application development. The end result however, is well worth it. A highly efficient Ajax based application does not only provide eye catching features but could easily provide a highly effective application with processing speed that almost rivals any simple web-based application.

I imagined where designers might discover easier ways to code, and developers would find easier ways to design, to the point where they would become synonymous with one another. I dreamed of ways that cumbersome HTML coding could be replaced with efficient and quick CSS code allowing cleaner, yet more stylistic website pages.

Web developer gurus have traditionally used PHP, JavaScript and Ruby as the languages they regularly use. Now there are some folks that are simply taking PSD and converting it to XHTML and CSS, and proudly declaring themselves web developers.

Not all dreams are good dreams. One of the fears I had is there would be designers and developers over using CSS variables and constants as found in PHP, to the point where they re actually making their style sheets longer. They also face the problem of being able to write their code that can be easily understood when reading it. As long as designers and developers make sure they are always efficient in writing their code and knowing when to use CSS variables, or when they should be using selectors.

I liked being able to use CSS to define colors as word-colors like blue, yellow, green and such. But then I noticed that during W3C validation, it would produce error warnings. W3C ants every color defines by numbers. Normally that isn’t a problem, however if you are designing a page that has extensive colors and shadings, it becomes difficult to remember what each code represents. It is very difficult to track. However, if you write your code as below, it is then a simple matter of reading your code if you need to make a change.

• $tan = “B7722D”
• $cream = “F5C350”
• $menuUp = “E9AB54”, // lite tan
• $menuDown = 473729”, // dark gray

SEO optimization is being discussed on everywhere, from individuals to design studios soliciting customers, and most of them skip over CSS as a simple and free solution. There are actually several websites that offer CSS Optimization tools. Some of them are relatively easy to use, and there are those that are fairly complex and harder to use. Most of them produce incredible results. Basically what they do is compress CSS files to allow them to load quicker, by merging similar classes, removing useless properties and whitespace, etc., will make some of the code harder for you to read. However, with larger CSS files it can condense the file that it really makes a difference in page loading times.

Even if it only saved 10% of the standard loading time, that alone would be significant over a course of a month or a year. Any time savings is beneficial considering there is a good chance of saving a viewer from leaving the site and going else where on the net. It is recommended that the designer or developer always keep a copy of the readable CSS code so that if they ever needed to make any changes it could be done quickly and easily to find what you need to change, and then it can be re-optimized.

Many broadband users might not think this matters much, as most websites seem to load fast for them, but if each site you went to loaded even 10% faster, think of all the time it could save you over the course of a week, a month or even a year. The bandwidth savings for the website operator can also be immense. I would recommend that you always keep a copy of your human readable CSS code so that if you ever need to make any changes it does not take you a long time to figure out what you need to change, and then you can re-optimize it.

The CSS optimizer that appears to be best is “Icey’s CSS Compressor” which out performed all of the others, with the added benefit of displaying the compressed code in color making it easier to see the changes that had been done.

All in all, CSS is here to stay, and is actually only limited by our dreams. CSS can be what you want it to be, or it can be something you want to avoid. However, that would be your loss. If you are new to CSS, read and experiment with it all you can, so it is truly an amazing tool for website creation and esthetics simplification.