[thelist] Are you designing with CSS and web standards?

[Mark Lee]

> When I'm building a house, I'd rather have a fairly good mason, who
> understands that when you're building houses you need to leave holes in the
> wall for plumbing, rather than a master sculptor who has never even
> conceived of the notion of plumbing.
> 
> That way the plumber doesn't have to waste time banging holes in the
> unadulterated vision so I can flush my toilet.

Marc has a good point here, that web sites are more "house" than
"sculpture". I see web design/development as a utilitarian art,
meaning that while "form" (in the visual design sense) is important,
function necessarily rules the day.

I'd rather work with the type of designer that understand that a web
site serves a purpose, and has a function beyond providing ooh-aah eye
candy. Of course effective visual design can help the site serve its
purpose, but if the toilet doesn't flush...

I personally try to stay as pure-css, standards-compliant as possible,
given the requirements and limitations of a given project (time, money
etc.), but maybe that just means that I'm more developer than
designer.

Mark