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

• 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