The leader has to be practical and a realist, yet must talk the language of the visionary and the idealist.
—Eric Hoffer
So, what does it take to make structured markup and CSS work in the real world of web design? While there’s very good support for modern web browsers these days, there are definitely legacy browser issues that many people designing websites must deal with, as well as a whole host of problems arising out of other technologists and designers still using old-school presentational markup without CSS. So, undertaking a large-scale, CSS-oriented site is a complex project indeed.
What’s more, there’s also the fact that we’ve used CSS in a limited way, and now we’re really just getting our big toes in the water—getting our skills wet a bit at a time. But each time we go deeper, we find new things to explore, and new ways to design using our growing collection of skills.
At this writing, there is perhaps no more daring a working website in terms of visual design, markup, and CSS than Wired News. The project was headed up by designer Douglas Bowman, whom you met in Chapter 8 while enjoying his personal website, and the site is a fascinating study in contemporary, cutting-edge design in the real world.
In this chapter, you’ll explore the process that Bowman took to create the Wired News site, including:
Motivation to move toward standards
Accessibility initiatives
CSS methodologies
Color schemes and use of color