Very often I find myself in the middle of a debate about design processes. While I tend to prefer using a content management system (CMS) like WordPress, which uses PHP templates and CSS based design, with XHTML layouts - there are people out there who see nothing wrong with sticking with old table-based layouts and font tags. I’ve even found companies who claim to be “modern” and are less than a few years old doing such things!

Why are CSS based layouts so important?

A one word answer:
Simplicity.

The long answer:
The reasons are many!

Changing font faces, sizes, or colors takes seconds instead of hours, because you only have to change it on one place, on the stylesheet, and not on every single page in every single paragraph of the entire website (Don’t forget, many websites out there have 20, 30, or even 100 pages!).

Continuity is another factor - If for no other reason, your site’s pages will all lay out identically with CSS based layouts.

Page file sizes - Including 30 font tags and 50 span tags and a dozen table tags is no doubt going to increase your page file size. Search engines need to see what the “meat” of your site is (the content, for those of you wondering) quickly and efficiently. Site visitors want to see that very same “meat” just as fast and easily. A page that takes longer than a second or two to load is going to leave quite the bad taste (rotten meat?) in the mouths of search engines and site visitors.

So what’s this “Design for your audience” thing, then?

Well, upon many discussions I’ve been a part of, I’ve learned that what I know about browser specifications and abilities is limited only to technologically advanced countries. There are many countries where Internet Explorer 4.0 is “the latest” and their computers are 512s with 256 color (or less!) monitors and 800 x 600 screen resolution is the biggest they can get. The sites I design will break on those computers. Fortunately, I’ve yet to have to design for that type of target audience. The majority of visitors to sites I design are using IE6 or higher, or better yet, Mozilla’s FireFox, and are typically on resolutions of 1024 or better.

However if you do find yourself designing a website for senior citizens, or for people living in a less-than-technologically-advanced country like Poland or some such - keep in mind that you’ll need to toss your “regular” style of design pretty much out the window. Seniors need larger fonts, and tend to view their sites in 800 x 600 or less. Computers, browsers, and internet access in other countries may limit your abilities to even use CSS all together, and require table based layouts only.

Bottom line is to determine your target audience, and design for them. Not for yourself.

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