One requirement of a good web site is the ability to change the look and feel without much difficulty. There are at least two broad strategies for accomplishing this. One strategy is to use templates to generate the HTML for a page. Changing the template(s) changes the site.

Within the last few years, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) has become a popular method to create radically different looks for the same HTML. The CSS Zen Garden is the poster site for this technique. By submitting a new CSS file and associated graphics, web designers can radically change the presentation of identical HTML.

It is no small task to create clean HTML which is properly prepped for this technique. Web browser compatibility complicates the process further.

Tasks like this require the development of a framework to simplify the decision making process and avoid the need to reinvent the wheel for every site. I believe the use of microformats is one way to tackle the underlying HTML structure.

Google has also come up with an interesting approach called BlueprintCSS, which deserves some consideration. They have addressed some of the common layout and flexible design issues by creating screen and print CSS stylesheets which act on a standardized naming convention for HTML classes. They have also included a “Plug-in” architecture which really make their solution interesting.

The result is a feature set which includes: “an easily customizable grid, sensible typography, relative font-sizes everywhere, a typographic baseline, an extendable plugin system, perfected CSS reset, a stylesheet for printing, compressed version, no bloat of any kind”

This seems like a good starting point and at the very least it can serve as guide when creating a custom framework for your own site.

Well, every week is typically pretty good here at Elexicon but this one stood out quite a bit. On Monday we welcomed two new team members, Naima and Calvin. Then, later in the week we learned that our design work on the Spectrum Health web site won several 2007 Greystone.Net Best in Class Awards and 2007 eHealthcare Leadership Awards. (What’s the big deal you ask? If you have a health care system web site trust us, it’s a big deal.) Of course, our design work was given a tremendous boost from our amazing client team within Spectrum Health. Can’t wait ’til next week!