Reconstructing Jeffrey

“We are not amused.”, I can almost hear him say, while I sit here laughing wildly, surveying my latest CSS experiment. I think for these projects, CSS might stand for Celebrity Style Sheet. And actually, I’m sure Jeffrey would at least get a kick out of it. Especially the bit about the muffin.

You have no idea how much fun I am having with this little project. It’s become a bit like Halloween for me. Which, by the way, is my favorite holiday anyway. It’s allowed me to sort of dress up as it were, and play at being someone else for a few days. Trust me it’s fun. And the whole process is simplified by the use of CSS. Which is what the other half of this project is about for me. Getting a good handle on it all. Without CSS, It would be far more difficult to rearrange the elements of the page easily. And it’s an integral part when it comes to separating the content from presentation or style. I wind up spending more time recreating graphic elements than I do with the layout of the page. And I only hesitate to use the word style, unlike Jeffrey, because I feel it’s the presentation that inherently has a particular style. But it’s really just a matter of semantics. Choose your own word. In the end, the content is still separate from the form it takes on output. And that is a great thing. Now, on to the reconstruction.

zeldman.com is the benchmark for good website design. Good layout, readability, usability, and great content. It’s got everything you need from the Web. It’s probably the single most copied layout I’ve seen. I’ll be calling the Guiness people in the morning.

The layout itself seems to enter the browser with confidence. The background color says, “STOP, you need to read me!” The 3 pixel border surrounds the content and locks in the freshness. It’s basically a 2 column layout, with links on the right and the content on the left. The navigational elements at the top of the page are strategically placed above the title and the photo of the man himself. If you were to remove it, the whole structure seems to crumble. In fact, that’s a sign of a good design. The page is an ensemble of elements working together to create a greater whole. The bold title announcing the beginning of the content area. The photo of zeldman himself, staring you down, daring you to be bold in your own designs.

At the bottom is the footer of this virtual document, complete with counter. I’ve often wondered why this is there. You don’t see them as much anymore, but this is club zeldman, and he’s entitled to keep a head count.

What isn’t obvious when first viewing the page, is the attention to detail. Jeffrey is all about the details. And the clean lines and elegant minimalism belie the seriousness and intent of the design. There is nothing here simply for it’s own sake, or just because he can. There is no need for a page full of sliced up graphics or flash intros. The design is geared towards the presentation of the content. “We are content personified.”, he might say. A look at the code reveals just how much that content means to him. And how much it means to him that you be presented with its richness. The detail with which he ensures that it can be accessed simply shows that he is all about reaching people. My reconstruction, might make him shudder. It works, but that’s all it’s meant to do. Jeffrey constructs pages as if he is building pillars. They’re meant to hold up under any weight, and yet remain flexible enough to be accomodating. They don’t topple over just because some silly browser feels like pushing them around.

This is what web design is all about. This is design with far reaching roots. When all is said and done, and the smoke has cleared, zeldman.com will be the last site standing.