CSS WG Blog CSSWG Proposes W3C-wide Spec Redesign

CSSWG Proposes W3C-wide Spec Redesign

As per our action item from TPAC, the CSS Working Group has prepared a spec restyling proposal that we feel captures the mission of the W3C, which we have sent to the W3C spec-production mailing list for comment. I’ve archived a preview applied to several of our CSS specs on www-archive: CSS3 Images, CSS Flexbox. Below is an explanation of the motivations for our changes:

Futuristic Look

In keeping with W3C’s mission to “lead the Web to its full potential”, we wanted to emphasize that W3C is creating the Future of the Web. To show that, we chose a deep space background, which gives the design its futuristic feel. To preserve sufficient contrast with the background in keeping with the WCAG, we chose a bright yellow text color.

Passion and Creativity

People have the impression that creating specs at W3C is a boring, beaureaucratic, process-laden process. They rarely get to see the passionate dedication to a better Web that our Members bring to our discussions, such as the vibrant discussions of longdesc and of video formats in the HTMLWG. To better reflect the passion and creativity of the standards process, we propose a new W3C logo creatively designed with animated flames.

Diversity and Dynamism

Symbolizing the diversity and dynamism of the Web, we chose animated rainbow horizontal rules to set off headings from the body text. A defining characteristic of 90s web design, this also gives us a more modern, up-to-date look by hooking us into the “retro” trends of some of the latest and most fashionable designers. (And by choosing the 90s rather than an earlier decade of visual design, we expect to remain ahead of the curve for awhile. Future-compatibility being one of the design principles of CSS, we felt this was an important consideration.)

Under Construction

Of course we wanted to address the concerns that people don’t take the “under construction” nature of our specs seriously, referring to Working Drafts and Candidate Recommendations (and even Editor’s Drafts!) as if they were a done deal. To that end we added an “under construction” logo to the background of the text. So as not to interfere with the readability of the spec itself, this logo is only placed in the marginal gutters on either side of the spec. But to make sure that even people landing on URLs with fragment IDs see it, we gave it a repeat-y value so that it shows up on all sections of the spec. (Of course for REC, the “under construction” styling would be removed.)

Preserving Symmetry

Tying the design together, and upholding the the classical ideals of symmetry—which represents our commitment to logical design decisions—we center-aligned all the text.

We hope you like the new design! As you can see, we’ve already deployed it on all of the CSSWG editor’s drafts. We’re looking forward to seeing the new design adopted W3C-wide~

Finally, I’d like to thank Tab Atkins for his tireless work preparing this design in consultation with various members of the W3C community.

For the CSSWG,
~fantasai

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