May 15, 2004

Structure in Web Design

Two recent articles touch on how web pages are structured (from a code point of view).

Michael Cohen, writing in A List Apart, "Separation: The Web Designer’s Dilemma":

With all the discussion about separating presentation from content (and structure), it’s easy to lose track of the goal. So let’s step back, define our terms, and take a look at why it matters.

Andy Budd, "An Objective Look at Table Based vs. CSS Based Design":

Over the years there have been many great articles extolling the virtues of CSS based design and bemoaning table based design. However there have been very few articles looking at things from the other side of the fence. This is probably because you really have to understand and use CSS based design before you can criticise it. Yet once converted, few (if any) people go back to the old way of coding.