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After our article on how HTML will benefit web design, we thought that this week we’d have a look at another weapon in the web designer’s arsenal: CSS3. This is something that has been around for a couple of years now, but it has had improvements made to it so that it can work properly with HTML5 and further enhance the experience of web users.

What is CSS3?

CSS3 is the latest version of the Cascading Style Sheets, which is a web language used by developers to tell web browsers how a site should look and be formatted. It is usually used with HTML websites, although it can be used with other types of documents – and the capabilities of CSS3 are far beyond anything that came before.

It is the product of a group commonly called W3C, whose full name is the World Wide Web Consortium. They first developed CSS with the aim of promoting better standards on the internet and making sure there was a consistent approach to the development of webpages.

What are the benefits of CSS3?

One of the main benefits associated with CSS3 is that it allows web designers to create webpages that have fewer requirements in terms of coding. This helps to make pages load faster than before, a benefit that we have previously seen in relation to HTML5.

This means that CSS3 is good for sites that are content-rich as the code is streamlined and it can handle more visual effects than previous versions of CSS. Another benefit of CSS3 is that it is broken down into modules, such as Colour and Media Queries. The two versions that came before it both ended up being fairly complicated; by contrast, the fact that CSS3 allows web developers to update individual modules helps to make the whole process much easier.

Another benefit of CSS3 is that it is now supported by the vast majority of web browsers. Originally, many of its teething problems existed due to the fact it could not be supported on Internet Explorer – and when you consider that it first came about in 1999, it gives an idea of the scale of the issue. However, even though earlier versions of IE are still incompatible, IE9 now supports CSS3, as does Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera.

How does CSS3 relate to HTML5?

Even though CSS3 has been around for much longer than HTML5, it is only now properly supported by browsers and so there is a lot of talk about how the two platforms support each other.

One of the main ways in which HTML5 and CSS3 benefit each other is in relation to Flash applications. We saw in our previous HTML5 article that the new version of HTML is able to support much of the media that previously would have required Flash, which isn’t always compatible with some people’s operating systems. The combination of HTML5 and CSS3 works well here, as they make it easier for alternative apps to be developed and supported – which also gives web developers more options in terms of design.

Another reason for using CSS3 in conjunction with HTML5 is that even though web designers might not need all the features of CSS3 in order for the site to function, it does have capabilities that make it easier to give websites the ‘wow’ factor.  For example, it has excellent text and layout features that help to make websites look fantastic, which as we all know is vital for the user experience.

CSS3 has also benefitted from some updates to make it work better with HTML5, all of which is very positive for users. An example of this is the ability to create box shadows, which is a good way of creating the illusion of depth on a site. It is now also much easier to create rounded corners with CSS3 – this might sound like a really small update, but it is very often the little details that make all the difference.

The colouring module of CSS3 is another aspect that has received an update, making the colouring process much easier; developers don’t have to know huge amounts about hex colouring anymore, because CSS3 allows us to select the amount of colour to appear in a design.

One of the challenges for CSS3 and HTML5 is that not all of their features are available on all browsers at the moment, so there is still a bit of waiting around and further development to be done before they can be utilised to their full advantage. However, the combination of both CSS3 and HTML5 is already helping to make the web design process more efficient and is improving our ability to create exciting-looking websites. We look forward to the day when all the features are fully compatible across all browsers.

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By now, you will have heard about HTML5, the latest update to the HTML code that makes up so much of the web. HTML5 has been around for quite a while now, but it is just starting to really come into its own and so now is a good time to have a look at a few of the key features of it – and see what benefits it has to offer in terms of web design, as well as for web users.

What is it?

First, let’s go back to basics. HTML is the code that is put together and then read by web browsers, which interpret what has been written and use that information to display content on webpages. This is why we often talk about compatibility issues: sometimes, one web browser reads HTML code more successfully than another one, which can be the cause of many a web designers headaches.

This makes HTML code extremely important and a large part of web development is all about getting it exactly right. It relies on elements, which are written up as tags. These tags can be singular, such as <img>, or they can be in pairs, such as <h1> and </h1>.

However, up until fairly recently, HTML code was quite static: it was very good for webpages with static content and images, but if you wanted anything more complicated, you had to use a plugin or another application to supplement it. The big beneficiary of this was Adobe’s Flash software, which was developed to allow moving graphics and other complexities on webpages.

Arguably, this is what sets HTML5 apart from all the versions that have come before it. It allows for more interactive webpages than before, meaning that it is now possible to include charts, audio, video and 3D elements in HTML code – effectively eliminating much of the need for using other plugins.

What are the benefits?

In terms of web design, this brings us several benefits. One of the main benefits is that we are simply able to do more with it. Even though Flash and other add-ons will surely remain vital, HTML5 gives us more options. Also, since no single company owns HTML, it means that it is free for web designers and web users, unlike the Flash development toolkit, which can be quite expensive.

Another big benefit of HTML5 for web designers is that it is much more search engine friendly. This is due to the fact it offers a lot of good syntax features. This includes Semantics, which helps it easier for search engine scanners to pick up new elements in the webpage. So, if you design a site using HTML5, the search engines shouldn’t have any problems when it comes to reading it – although if you use other additions such as Flash, this could alter the ability to read the page.

As well as web design, HTML5 also has some good benefits for web users. One of these links to the above point; if search engines are able to scan websites more easily, web users should hopefully be able to enjoy more accurate search results and therefore a more relevant online experience. However, the main benefit for web users is probably speed. HTML5 helps to speed up the process of loading the webpage because it simplifies the system of browser request and server response.

Also, with many more elements able to be catered for by HTML5, it helps to streamline websites, which with any luck will also help to improve the user experience when they are navigating their way around websites. It also has some interesting offline web applications, such as the ability for users to continue working with some web documents even when they do not have a network connection. The fact that users will be able to play sound and videos without needing a plugin is another benefit, as it will hopefully save them having to download additional software.

Are there any drawbacks?

The big challenge in terms of HTML5 is the readiness of web browsers – again, we come back to the compatibility issue we’ve all heard so much about. It may or may not come as much of a surprise to many of you that it is Internet Explorer that was behind all of the other browsers in terms of HTML5 readiness when the new coding first started to be implemented – and it is still causing some compatibility headaches. Also, Flash is still excellent in terms of effects and arguably outperforms HTML5 in that capacity.

However, the growing capabilities of HTML5 and the convenience of it mean that it is an extremely important development in the world of web design. HTML code has come on in leaps and bounds since the beginning and HTML5 is a very good example of internet innovation. The fact it has multiple benefits for web designers and web users alike mean it is certainly a very welcome development.

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Often, when people talk about how the internet has revolutionised the world, they talk in terms of entrepreneurship and communication, and about how the internet allows us to be instantly global and able to access services twenty four hours a day. What people don’t talk about so often is the role that web design has played in online innovation over the years.

This is a shame because without web designers and developers, even the best online business idea in the world wouldn’t be able to take off. This isn’t to say that web design is the most important facet of the internet; the reason the online world works so well is because of the collaborative nature of it and the fact that many different people have a part to play. Entrepreneurs need to have ideas before a great web design can be created, after all.

However, if Facebook or Twitter didn’t have a good web design, for instance, it’s highly unlikely that those websites would be as successful as they are, no matter how good the ideas were in the first place. Plus, almost every single new business that launches now has its own website. Having a high quality website for your business is now seen as something you have to do – it’s almost a mark of professionalism and authenticity. More people now search online for businesses than look in the Yellow Pages. A website can make or break a company’s reputation.

All of this helps to demonstrate just how important web design is to online innovation and even the wider operations of companies. Another good example is the world of ecommerce: we are frequently told that we are spending ever more money online, largely because it’s a convenient to shop. Without good, easy to use web design, the process would be much more complicated and would have been much less likely to take off in the way that it has.

Also, branding is arguably more important now than it has ever been before. In particular, we can thank companies such as Apple and Google – which have extremely distinctive brands and have changed the way we do much of our business – for the fact that brands are now so vital. A large part of branding is about design and creating an image to represent a particular company or service. The fact branding is so essential means that web design is not just a commodity or service for hire anymore; often, web designers are partners in creating an online brand.

Web design becomes more important still when we consider how much has changed in the world of technology over the past few years. It wasn’t that long ago when Internet Explorer dominated the internet, which had a significant impact on how things were designed. Now, the diversification of platforms has in a way forced designers to be more innovative about how sites are put together; no platform can be neglected but sites have to perform to high standards across all of them. We cannot deny that this requires a special type of skill and ability to innovate in order to adapt to this new state of affairs.

This means that the world of web design is constantly evolving, in effect making the internet look good as it continues its development. Web design has to be responsive and adaptive to new developments in ecommerce and entrepreneurship; often changes need to be made quickly and new processes need to be developed. Web design is not just about aesthetics; it’s about the layers underneath, too. Other developments, such as Google algorithm updates, also need to be responded to so that sites can continue to perform highly and do well in the rankings.

All of these changes have led to web design developments such as HTML5, mobile sites and responsive web design – and things are still evolving, as they should. Online innovation is, in effect, a team game. It requires all the players to work together in order to create a working website that can be utilised by web users to benefit both them and businesses. Web design is not the only part of that but it is an important part of that. Without the user-friendly interface created by web designers, the internet would largely be just a collection of ideas struggling to properly be born.

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We have seen plenty of times before how the proliferation of new web browsers and new web-supporting devices has led to a fragmentation in how people actually view the internet. We have also seen before that this can cause something of a headache for web designers and developers, who need to make sure their websites display on a whole range of devices.

One tactic that has been developed to help deal with this is responsive web design. This is an idea that has been around for a while, but it seems that 2012 is the year when it’s really set to take hold. With this in mind, let us take a look at what responsive web design is – and whether it is a positive development for the industry.

What is it?

Responsive website design is essentially exactly what it sounds like. It is a way of designing websites so that they effectively ‘respond’ to different platforms and browsers, with the aim that those sites will display as they should without further interference from web developers.

This is in contrast to some other methods of web design, which can require a separate design approach for each device being catered for. For example, mobile websites often require a separate design to a company’s main ‘desktop’ website. There is nothing inherently wrong with this approach, but the idea behind responsive web design is to be more holistic.

The idea was originally developed and put forward in 2010 by a man named Ethan Marcotte. Since then, the concept of responsive web design has gathered momentum and gradually become more popular. You can read the original article on the idea here; it is slightly technical, but if you’re unfamiliar with coding, you should be able to at least get the general idea.

The debate

As with any development in the world of website design, there is a debate as to whether or not responsive web design is as brilliant as some proclaim (if you type ‘responsive web design’ into the Twitter search box, for instance, you should be able to get a decent sense of this).

On the positive side of the debate, responsive web design is a useful tool for designers and developers who need to cater for a wide range of platforms. It allows layouts to be more fluid, and some reports suggest that it can significantly improve user experience, due to the fact it helps sites to display correctly across a wider selection of browsers.

Responsive web design also arguably helps to address the issues raised by so many devices – namely, how to cater for all of them. With so many options for web users these days, designing a website is not the (relatively) straightforward task that it once was. So, on the face of it at least, responsive web design is a positive development and more websites are starting to adopt this approach.

However, there is another side to this. Some people argue that even though it might be nice to be able to display the same site on a mobile device as on a desktop, the needs of the mobile user are not necessarily the same as the needs of a desktop user. This argument suggests that people are looking for different things depending on the device they use and so websites should be tailored to reflect that – for example, some suggest that mobile sites should be smaller and tighter and stricter as to the content that is included on them, which requires a slightly different approach to their design.

This means that, for some, unless responsive web design can adapt to also alter the information that is displayed as well as how it is displayed, it is still worth being somewhat sceptical of it. There is something in this argument; screen size is not the only consideration when translating sites between devices (for instance, how will the mouse cursor work on a small, finger-controlled touchscreen compared to a computer screen?).

Despite this, responsive web design is definitely an interesting development in the world of web development. We can expect to see much more of it throughout this year and beyond as more web designers become familiar with it and more websites start to adopt the approach. However, the issue of content still needs to be resolved, which suggests there is still further work to be done before we can declare that we have cracked the issue of catering for multiple internet devices.

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We’ve known for quite a while that UK consumers are very keen on online shopping; even as high streets have been struggling and well-known names are worried about bankruptcy, online spending has been steadily growing. Now, with the figures for 2011 coming in, it’s clearer than ever before that, increasingly, we are a nation of online shoppers – and that isn’t about to change. If you haven’t yet got yourself an ecommerce website, now could be the time to invest.

A recent report from Kenshoo, a software provider, has found that paid search ads resulted in 50% more transactions in 2011 than they did the previous year, leading to significantly increased revenues. In terms of year on year growth for sales revenue, 26% of it came from search advertising in 2011, suggesting that this form of advertising is more popular than ever – SEO professionals might want to take note of this. Also, in the last couple of weeks of December, conversion rates were up by 75% and sales transactions were up by 66%.

Interestingly, even though UK consumers are shopping online more and more, the value of the average transaction has actually gone down, largely because people are looking for the best deals – and perhaps also because more frequent online shopping leads to smaller purchases on average.  Despite this, the total retail sales generated in the UK last year managed to top a massive £50bn, which accounted for around 12% of all spending, and is the highest figure in Europe.

This means that, last year, online shoppers spent just under £1500 each on average, spread out over 39 items. One estimate from Kelkoo calculates this to be a 14% growth in the online retail market. Another point of note from the 2011 studies is that consumers in the UK are much more willing to make purchases online than people in the US, with UK retailers seeing a significantly better return on their search advertising when compared to US data.

So what are some of the reasons for the increase in UK online shopping? One arguably, is that this is a trend that has been growing for a while. Another is that it is often possible to get better deals online than it is on the high street; for example, note the disparity in price that can often be found between buying books on the high street to (cheaper) Amazon. There is probably also an argument of convenience to be made; it’s simply often easier to go online and do a quick search for what you want to buy rather than going round the shops.

However, we can also put part of the growth in online retail down to developments in technology. In particular, smartphone apps and mobile versions of sites have played an important part in the growth of online shopping – at the beginning of 2010, purchases using mobile phones made up just 0.4% of all retail sales, but by the second quarter of 2011, this was up to 3.3%, and by the end of this year it is expected to top 12%-15%. One of the benefits of apps, for both consumers and retailers, is that they often allow for greater levels of personalisation. Also, a study by online retail authority IMRG found that nearly a quarter of smartphone users have used their mobile to access websites while they’re out shopping, suggesting that the internet can have an influence on purchases even when it is not directly used to make those purchases.

What can you do?

If you are wondering what you can do to benefit from the recent trend towards online retail, there are a few things you can do as a business. For example, a good quality ecommerce web design that’s easy to use, search and is attractive to consumers is a must-have in this day and age.

Also, as mentioned above, apps and mobile sites are becoming more prominent and more important in the world of online shopping. They can also be important for marketing, so developing an app or mobile site for your business is worthwhile especially as by the end of 2012 over 25% of searches are predicted to be carried out on a mobile device. Considering the above figure concerning people accessing websites on their smartphones, an emphasis on mobile web design must also surely be something to investigate.

Other recent developments, such as QR codes and mobile vouchers, are also interesting possibilities. A study from LinkShare also found that more than 40% of consumers had purchased something online that they would never have bought otherwise due to a well-timed offer or voucher. And, of course, don’t forget your marketing. The internet provides more options than ever before in terms of marketing and promotion; if you want to take advantage of the potential of online retail and in particular mobile ecommerce, then now is the time to do it. Contact us for more information.

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