Why CSS Should Be Mandatory When Looking To Hire A Designer and/or Developer

The value of hiring a web designer or developer can certainly reach the automobile pricing range, but if the site is being built beyond a handful of pages and especially for professional purposes, the use of a Cascading Style Sheet format as the template is mandatory if true value is to be built into the site.

A designer is obligated to build a site in good faith that should there be need for updates, the architecture of the site cannot artificially shackle the client to the designer.  A CSS format allows for both the designer and the client to leave wide open the ability to quickly swap in and out a high percentage of layout features in a global manner…or at least amongst the pages attached to the CSS file.

So let’s say you have a 64 page web site and you’re tired of the color scheme.  In fact, you want to be able to rotate the color scheme based on a variety of calendar-driven holiday’s throughout the year.  Without a CSS file setting the foundation for each of those 64 pages through the editing of just one file, you would have to manually open up each individual page to perform any changes.

So the one change you want to make around Independence Day to a red, white and blue scheme is a double time whammy.  The first round of time sucked away is the process of changing each individual page versus changing the same number of lines of code within one file.  The added smack is if you change any data on any individual page after your changing the color scheme.  Once you modify the current site, you cannot simply revert back to your old style by simply taking down the modified one and replacing it with the original design.  That means additional work to copy/paste the new material into the old pages and if this step is forgotten, then unrecognized and un-quantified loss of site value occurs, such as the loss of a current listing of products in exchange for the old listing.

So when you are shopping around for a designer or a developer, make sure they know how to work with CSS formatting.  Although there are exceptions to every rule…even the mandatory ones…don’t settle for a site that sticks you with such great potential for extensive labor-intensive costs for even the smallest of changes…

Like the color scheme of a site.

I can’t imagine what it would be like if I had to change each individual page within my WordPress entries the few times I have adjusted my choice of template used!!  OMG!

Remember this acronym the next time you go shopping for a web site designer and/or developer and remember that the cost of producing the first public version should not set the purchaser in a position of excessive costs if they want to re-decorate their site.  This potential for minimal time investment improvements are of benefit for all parties since a designer does have the right and perhaps obligation in many cases, to charge a fee for such an effort and the end-user is treated to a visually entertaining site (hopefully! ) that appears to have had some sort of update or improvements performed to it since their last visit.