Design guidelines
These are some guidelines as to what we expect from designers.
CSS
- Always use CSS for webpages
- Name classes sensibly, don't use dreamweaver default names e.g. style1, style2 etc.
- Only use classes when you need to. Redefine HTML elements when you can.
- Use external CSS
- Only use tables when you need to or if it's tidier to do it that way.
Nested DIVs and extraneous mark-up can be worse than a simple table.
- Use formatted text instead of images/ especially in headers or navigation and anything that will be content-managed.
Dreamweaver
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Tabs are easier to work with and helps to make sure code lines up properly.
- Avoid using dreamweaver templates
- Avoid using dreamweaver generated javascript - it is very messy.
Structure
- Always name files .php instead of .html/ .htm
- Images should go in /images
- Call the logo, logo.gif and put it in /images.
- Javascript in /js
- CSS in /style
- Flash in /assets
- Leave all .php files in the root and I will move them.
Mailer
When designing a mailer for an email campaign we need to go back to basics.
- Use inline CSS
- Use table layout instead of CSS layout.
- Avoid using backgrounds/ js/ flash/ forms