Using Css3 Appropriately To Design User-centric Websites

By Author: Karan Singh
Total Articles: 3
Comment this article

CSS3 has been an exciting tool for the designers and developers. The day it was launched, for some designers it felt that finally they were unable to tap into the potential of the website design completely. This style sheet language enables faster web page response time as it reduces the images that are needed for such things like the text effects and web buttons. It would also cut back the dependency on the JavaScript for the use of animation effects. The result is less code and improved page performance.

When developing a website we hire developers who would use the CSS for their benefits. Before understanding the process to use CSS3 appropriately, we need to understand what the term denotes. The CSS or the Cascading Style Sheets is a style sheet language. This is used to describe the presentation semantics of the document. Written in mark-up languages, it is one of the most common applications used to design the web page. The web page can be written in HTML or XHTML, XML document, plain XML, SVG, or XUL. The ability to separate can improve the accessibility to content, provide more flexibility and enable improved control ...
... to presentation characters. Implementing CSS would allow multiple pages to share formatting and reduce complexity and repetition. This is also extensively used to allow the web page to display it according to the screen size and in the device, it is being viewed at.

The new CSS3 can be used extensively just like any other web technology. It is used to support the user-centric design and attain the objective of the website. However, if the CSS3 is applied otherwise, it becomes a dispensable component.

It is important to understand that the CSS does not alter the design principles or visual presentations. Nothing has been modified or altered with the CSS3 even when there have been fancy transitions, typography effects or other transformations. These things existed even before CSS3. From the user’s point of view, these cosmetic properties do not matter. The users mostly do not notice the subtle effects like the links changing into some other color. These are all aesthetic components and do not count for the user-experience. The exemplary shift appears in the approach and execution of website design process.

Let us consider an example, CSS3 provides better support to media queries. This enables the hired developers to produce flexible or responsive web designs that would optimize the user-experience depending on the used browsing device. With the new CSS3 selectors, the developers can target the HTML elements and execute various animation effects without using any JavaScript or Ajax library. The style sheet language does not care about the text shadows or gradients. It is all about enhancing the user experience. It aids in the process of creating websites in an efficient manner.

Since, as developers there are multiple tools at dispense, it is much easier to begin the design with interactions. All the features existing with the CSS3 can be applied to improve the overall experience and make the website more user-friendly. The CSS3 can also be used for the detrimental effects wherein the web page is loaded with features that are extraneous or does not have any value. It is important to exercise control and not do any design just because we are adept in the field. When using CSS3 features, it is important to keep in mind that its functionality is more important than that form. The CSS3 should be used by the hired developers, when there is an absolute reason to do. The text shadow can create visual content hierarchy, but it is important to pay heed to the other important textual elements. The three things that come in the forefront of the web design process are usability, accessibility and user-experience.

Other than this, implementing progressive enhancement could be applied to make the website appear decently on the browsers and thereby provide seamless experience similar to those who choose CSS3/HTML5 supporting browsers. The CSS3 should be used to support and never hold back usability, accessibility or UX. It should improve the web performance, and speed up the development process. If it is unable to do any of the above, the developer should consider whether CSS3 is actually appropriate for the job. It depends on the developers to use the CSS3 tool responsibly.

Author Bio:
The CSS3 is just like another tool available to the developers although it should be used only when contextual. To hire developers, who would be adept in the web development process, it is important to do thorough research. Click here to know more about the process.