A Raw Approach to Styling Webpages
At the end of a recent weblog entry, I said that I had given myself the challenge, “Forget that you’re using ASP.NET. If you could create a user interface from scratch that allows a website owner to update both content and design, how would you do it?”
I started by drawing the user interface by which the website owner can compose an article. Mocked up in Photoshop, the user interface looks like this.
As an aside, the reason I have used Apple-like bubbles is that I am thinking ahead to the final user experience. The idea I am toying with is that when such a button is clicked, the icon animates to show that something is happening. This will be doubly-important if I introduce AJAX elements. So I’m using bubbles simply because that is where my thoughts are presently. This style may or may not find its way into Charlie’s final user interface.
Coming back to the topic of this weblog entry, you will see the Show Template button at the bottom of the article editor. Clicking on it will reveal the following additional interface elements.
This was the idea I had when I put aside my preconceptions of master pages, templates, skins, themes, and everything else. As you will see, it is a very “raw” approach to styling a website. My contention is that anything less raw will be less flexible. It is also my contention that anything less raw will be less simple. In other words, I believe this raw styling mechanism represents the most simple and the most flexible option available. I’ve given this idea a lot of thought, so I’ll dedicate a few weblog entries to this “raw” approach to styling.
by Alister Jones | Next up: The Raw Approach is Simple and Flexible →
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