Have you ever started working on something, only to have to come to failure? I know, I know…. It has been riddled into your brains since you were in elementary math when the teacher docked your grade for not writing out your solutions/methods when you simply answered the question!

It is a hard habit to break, and for one, am guilty of this through and through. However, when it comes to designing on the world wide web, this is a mistake that should not happen.

Especially in a development environment utilizing CSS, starting with a plan for your design is critical. Why? In CSS a design commonly utilizes a technique that floats everything left, like a twisted game of Bejeweled. To control this content, designers embed divs within each other. This gives the web developer the ability of control the outer div, while also manipulating the inner divs.

If you create a design and do not think out your div structure, you will have issues when changes are made! It is not always easy to add or remove items in CSS without designing with the ability beforehand. You can still make the changes work, but the Markup will be hased together and will appear as amatuer.

So, from one web guy to another (or woman), try to plan it out. Your headaches will be lessened. Yes, that is doctor approved.

Filed under: Design, Web Development by Nathan Blazek