Web Design With CSS and XHTML

In the spring of 2005 Mesh Innovations developed the redesign of the new corporate site for Kuoni Travel Ltd., Switzerland's largest tour operator. Kuoni's corporate site contains information such as the annual report and press releases from the corporate headquarters and it is targeted primarily at investors. One of the main objectives of the project was to build a site that was fully integrated, meaning that only CSS and XHTML compliant code would be used on the site.

The decision on whether to use fully integrated CSS on a website is not always an easy one since there are still older browsers around that do not render sites built in CSS properly. Nonetheless, Kuoni took this leap for good reason. Sites built with CSS have much more streamlined code which makes for pages that are much better optimized for search engines. The separation of design and content is adhered to rigourously and thus makes for easier maintenance for both content and design. In addition, pages built with CSS generally represent bandwidth advantages over the bulky code with all the table tags used for the layout of the pages.

Whether or not to use this type of approach when building a site has to be decided on a case-by-case basis. It may not always be the best approach, especially if the users of the site still use older technology. However, looking ahead, the trend to use CSS in web development will certainly continue since it makes the integration of content managment systems (CMS) more straightforward and it facilitates deployment of content and design across multiple platforms.

Mesh can help you make the right decision from a strategic as well as from a cost perspective. We will not only support your decision process but we will also develop the best possible solution for you.