A web design impossible to create.
The winter months have wearied of their sovereignty over our humble land, and a sense of change awakens us, dreadful and florid.
Recently I was working on the design of this site. I wanted to implement a certain combination of features. Eventually, I would learn, such a web site cannot exist. It is impossible with current standards. This impossible combination of (X)HTML and CSS requires:
- a three column layout with header, each column stretching all the way to the bottom;
- a footer always at the bottom covering the full width of the page, no matter which of the three columns is the longest on any one page;
- no use of Javascript;
- no CSS hacks
- no use of tables for laying out the columns;
- and the columns appearing in any order in the (X)HTML. For example, if the columns were numbered from left to right as 1, 2, and 3, the columns must be able to appear in the (X)HTML in the order of 2, 1, 3, or in any other order without affecting the look of the site. This is important for accessibility. A “skip to content” link is an undesirable kludge.
Only if you subtract a feature might you create such a thing. Someday the Internet powers that be may see fit to bless us with an enhanced set of standards that allows this humble design, and then at long last the web browsers will support it. Storm clouds will then disperse, birds will chirp cheerfully, flowers will radiate vibrant colors, and cries of “Huzzah” will fill the sweet spring air. Until then compromise will substitute for joy.
March 10th, 2004 at 16:20
I have always found it frustrating to design something great in
in Adobe Photoshop (where I typically begin my designs) and then
try to duplicate it for the web: compromise is the name of the game.
It’s kind of like one of my recent Moveable Type desires: I wanted
to break my posts down by category, and further break each category
down by weekly archives. Couldn’t do it: I can have one or the
other, but not both. It’s hard when your eyes are bigger than
your stomach.