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Upgrading Websites to CSS

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are a popular and versatile way to keep your browser-based applications lightweight and maintainable. Ideally, websites are designed with CSS from the beginning. From then on, changing colors, fonts, or other presentation attributes is as easy as changing one style sheet file. Think about changing your theme to suit the season, all in 5 minutes!

Unfortunately, websites are often not designed with future maintenance considerations in mind. Eventually, when the time comes for a design change, the sub-optimal design requires excessive time to change. This additional maintenance work is greatly reduced when a website is designed for CSS.

Fast, Clean Code

CSS websites are faster because less HTML code is used. A non-CSS website typically employs large numbers of redundant font, style, and layout tags. A CSS website, consolidates these common tags into a style sheet, or .css file. All pages then have one line added to reference this style sheet. The net result is eliminating hundreds to thousands of characters from the page.

Two benefits emerge: first, the page loads faster due to its smaller size. This benefits your users in many ways. Second, the page is now cleaner, due to the lack of all those redundant tags that the style sheet has eliminated. The code is easier to read and to maintain. Fewer bugs exist. Developers are more productive with, and take more pride and ownership in clean, well-designed and organized pages.

One Site, Many Presentations

One interesting aspect of a web-based application is how to brand it. For example, an application may have the basic functionality of a storefront, but may be used by several unrelated websites. Each site would want their own graphic designs, colors, and layouts applied to suit their tastes. Using CSS, one basic set of files can appear very differently by changing only the style sheet.

Changing to CSS

The process of revamping a website to use CSS can be tedious. Fortunately, experienced developers can factor out common aspects of a website into a style sheet. This process requires a careful review of the entire website, a creative eye, and attention to detail. Good search-and-replace skills are a must.

On a large website, the CSS changeover can become complex and time-consuming to those who are unfamiliar with CSS or who are not experienced with the inner workings of the website. This is not a task for webmasters who primarily write and maintain content; rather, the tasks require software developer skills.

Accurate Estimates Likely

An experienced CSS developer can probably provide an accurate estimate of the time, and hence, the cost, of this upgrade. Estimates are particularly accurate when no additional functionality or design changes are being made, other than to put the websites presentation into a style sheet.

Note however, that a website with a fundamentally poor design will require more time to update than a well designed site that simply does not use CSS. Additionally, to meet business requirements, the website may need further design work or enhancements beyond the scope of the CSS update. An experienced consultant can assist you by providing an accurate estimate of the work involved.

Consider Hiring and Expert

An experienced consultant can work faster and more accurately than a less-experienced developer. When time is of the essence, or when highest quality work is vital, consider obtaining assistance from a consultant. Your consultant can bring a wealth of experience to your application.

Productive Technology has the experienced consultant to rapidly get your website the benefits of professional CSS design. Contact us today for more information on how we can help.