Design Goals ‹ About Site ‹ meridian.net.au
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When designing this site, I had a few criteria in mind. Having these criteria helped make decisions as to how things were to be done. From the outset, I wanted a site that followed open, international standards, was sensitive to accessibility issues, fit all different screen sizes, and most importantly, quick to download, even over older modems.
The primary design consideration for this site is speed - it needs to be fast. As broadband becomes more widely available, this may change, but the principle is to only include what is necessary.
The speed goal really enforced this one, but it was still a matter of choice. I have always been a fan of fairly minimalist art and music, so it provided a good fit.
I wanted all the information on this site to be categorised and put in its place. I had toyed with some other more organic options, but in the end, I wanted this site to be more a reference site than anything else.
The ultimate goal is to have all the content in a database, and the pages generated on request. A hierarchical arrangement will help facilitate this desire. It also gives the possibility for some interesting ordering options, for example, sorting the topic indexes alphabetically or by popularity.
The web has evolved quickly. In an effort to keep up with the demands for pixel resolution control over the placement of elements within a web page, browser developers introduced many layout tags into HTML. This was less than ideal – HTML exists to describe the document, not determine its visual characteristics.
The goal, then, is to separate content from layout. This makes the HTML code cleaner, shorter, and easier to maintain. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) make this achievable, and changing the layout of the site becomes a breeze.
W3 Code Validators
MarkUp Validator
CSS Validator
It was my desire to ensure that each and every page and style sheet in this site was tested against the W3 HTML and CSS validators. This does not ensure the site will display on your screen exactly as it does on mine, but it is certainly a big step in the right direction. It also means I can point the finger of blame at the browser developers, as any inconsistenices are usually bugs.