CSS WG Blog About the CSSWG Redesign

This is a page from the Cascading Style Sheets Working Group Blog. Some other places to find information are the “current work” page, the www-style mailing list, the Future of CSS syndicator, and the issue list on Github.

Do you want to know how the CSS WG works? Fantasai has written about:csswg, An Inside View of the CSS Working Group at W3C.

About the CSSWG Redesign

By fantasai June 8, 2011 (Permalink)
Categories: general

Along with the CSS2.1 Recommendation, we just went live with a new design for the CSS Working Group home page!

To give credit where it’s due, I thought I’d go over the history of the design and how it’s changed hands over the years.

The old design — cutting edge, when it was created.

Originally, the idea for a redesign came from Jason Cranford Teague who was AOL’s rep on the CSS Working Group back in 2008. He drew up the design briefs, while I worked out a new information architecture. He aimed to create a mood that was flowing, transparent, layered, professional, and informed. Jason sketched wireframes for a new front page, and later, with feedback from the WG, several iterations of a
new design. This was before the W3C redesign, and so there wasn’t any concern for integration with the rest of W3C.

An illustration of Jason’s design

But the project, being a side-project for both of us, didn’t move very quickly. Then AOL pulled the plug on its W3C membership, leaving the CSSWG without a designer and Jason’s design work incomplete. In the meantime, W3C went live with its redesign.

Fast forward to late 2010, Bert Bos, our W3C Staff Contact who is in charge of the CSSWG website, was getting tired of the old design. In the process of setting up a new localizable templating system for the static pages that were there, he redesigned the site and pushed it live.

A screenshot of Bert’s design

Shortly after this, Divya Manian realized the CSSWG could use some web design help and offered to implement Jason’s redesign. I forwarded her Jason’s earlier work and she worked those ideas into a new design that integrated better with W3C’s redesign. We worked together to improve the rendering on various screens sizes, using new CSS3 technology such as Media Queries to create a fluid layout that remains beautiful and readable at any window size. (Try resizing the design.) When it was finally presented on April 13th the CSSWG unanimously resolved to adopt Divya’s redesign.

A screenshot of Divya’s design

Since then Bert, as the webmaster, decided the design needed some improvements. He reworked Divya’s redesign and, to mark the publication of the CSS2.1 Recommendation, pushed it live on June 7th.

A screenshot of Bert’s reinterpretation

« Previous article Next article »

[Photo: group photo of the CSS working group in San Francisco] Contact: Bert Bos
Copyright © 2020 W3C®

Last updated 2011-06-08 15:07:15