[thelist] updating an old table-based design

Joel D Canfield joel at spinhead.com
Mon Sep 4 18:47:01 CDT 2006


As of 11 Oct I'll be back to full-time self-employment; not sure if it's
a blessing or a curse. One of my tasks is to bring the design of
http://IntranetIntelligence.com/ into the new millenium.

It uses tables. I have zero confidence in my visual design skills. Who
knows what else is wrong with it. I haven't seriously pursued it since
it was built three years ago. It works as expected in IE; it's fairly
ugly in FF, Opera, NN.

Getting another full-time job, while simple, is problematic due to
family issues, so I need to do what I can to make a go of it freelance.

Looking for advice about redesigning the site. Reproduce the existing
design with CSS instead of tables? Seems excrutiatingly complicated; not
sure it's the best place to focus right now. Redesign from scratch,
using latest best coding/thinking practices? Probably easier, but I
actually like the existing look. I'm torn.

Is having a table-based layout (temporarily) going to cost me business?
Do you see this as a critical step toward being taken seriously as an
intranet specialist? I *know* I need to update my skills. Am I just
indulging in avoidance tactics to even ask these questions?

thanks for any and all feedback. just be nice; I've had a rough year.

joel

ps: http://spinhead.com/ has been due for a redesign, soup to nuts, for
some time. after some discussion with Shirley '101 Lists' Kaiser, it's
in the works. Unless you're a fan of antique web design or Dr. Seuss,
it's not really worth a look right now :(



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