Log
CSS and Minimalism
So there’s this raging debate on the new css-discuss mailing list about this article. There have been some fairly well articulated opinions as to why most CSS-only designs are quite similar and possibly boring.
While I agree that most sites that use CSS for layout are pretty damn lousy from the design perspective, I would suggest comparing them to similar pages that use tables for layout. Non-aesthetically inclined people tend to make non-aesthetically interesting designs, regardless of the techniques used to create them. Ugly graphics and ugly layouts are still ugly, regardless of whether or not they are done with table hacks or with valid XHTML and CSS.
By their very nature, CSS and valid structural markup have the democratizational effect of accessibility. Not only are more people publishing independent content, more people are able to access that content.
What appeals to me about CSS is the ease with which minimalist designs can be executed. My design aesthetic is certainly fairly minimalist, and many of the sites that appeal to me have a very minimalist feel to them—plenty of white space with an apparent use of the grid. That’s not to say that I don’t think that a more expressionistic approach doesn’t work. It does. The two approaches just serve different purposes. It’s a question of audience and of intent. The question that needs to be asked is “Does this design serve the purpose for which it was created?,” not “Why are all these designs created with this particular technology boring?”
01/29/02 09:54AM Design
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