Re: W3C Home page switched to full CSS layout

Greetings all

I would firstly like to congratulate the W3C and all related parties on 
their decision to move towards a more structurally correct design. The 
move is, no doubt, a very large decision and one which requires thought 
and planning. The transition to the new design appeared very smooth.

I would like to address a trivial (at least, at this stage) issue that, 
nonetheless, deserves some attention. I would first like to start with a 
conceptual page structure:

h1 (Banner)
   -links
   -descriptions
   h2 (News)
     h3 (Headline)
     -story
     h3 (Headline)
     -story
   h2 (Navigation)
     -links
   h2 (Search)
     -search
   h2 (Contact)
     -links
   h2 (Involvement)
     -links
   -et cetera with other h2 elements

This type of layout would make sense to a browser which must make do 
with only the text flow of the page, as opposed to the positioned and 
correct rendering.

Right now, to a browser that does not support CSS (or even a browser 
that supports CSS, but not properly) the ‘W3C A to Z’ section appears 
first. Structurally speaking, this is not quite ideal. While the largest 
audience will be able to see the site properly, it would be better for 
the news to take precedence. This, unfortunately, is not possible with 
this layout and positioning combination.

To achieve this goal with absolute positioning, however, would be 
simple. Setting percentages for each section’s width would ensure 
scaling would be possible. The floats would be guarded against being 
pushed ‘onto the next line’ when the window is very narrow in IE. Also, 
it would remove the feeling of unevenness, as the floats have caused an 
unsighly larger gap on the right side of the page (tested in Gecko and IE).

I am certainly very excited about the new design. I will continue to 
read comments regarding the site, and I certainly hope to hear any 
comments regarding my message.

Wes

Received on Tuesday, 10 December 2002 03:37:02 UTC