Sent by Marilyn Matty on 26 April 2002 15:03
on 4/25/02 10:21 AM, Hassan Schroeder at [EMAIL-REMOVED] wrote:
> Ben Nunn wrote:
>
>> The problem is that the vast majority of employers, and the clients with the
>> money to pay them/us, don't think CSS matters very much.
>
> And I'd suggest that they shouldn't be concerned with that, per se.
>
> What they /should/ be concerned with, and what a sharp CSS-oriented
> designer can demonstrate, is cost-effectiveness and time-to-market.
>
> It's simply easier and faster to create, maintain, and expand sites
> that use clean /logical/ markup and external CSS files. This means
> cost savings -- something /every/ business owner can relate to :-)
>
> If you're a consultant, you can be more flexible with your clients
> as you explore possibilities -- "don't like that color? try this",
> clickety-click, one file changed and done -- and fine-tune designs.
> You can bid cheaper, because development is less manually intensive.
>
> If you're in-house, you make your boss look good by shortening the
> turnaround time on changes and additions, as well as improving the
> site's visual consistency.
>
> Don't sell technology to non-technical people, sell /benefits/.
>
Again, I'm playing devil's advocate here, and from the many clients I work
with as a recruiter, their main concern, particularly in this bottom line
oriented market, is turning a profit as quickly as possible, and therefore,
having as much assurance that the visitors' experiences work well under many
browsers and platforms.
They are acutely aware that one of the factors in some multi-million dollar
dotcom flameouts, like Boo, Pointcast, Quokka, Pseudo, DEN, was that they
used cutting edge techologies and created bad user experiences directed at
the digerati, and that companies like marthastewart.com and landsend.com,
with lowest common denominator front ends, started delivering black ink
quickly.
CSS offers great promise, I think, but if you're looking for a corporate
type development job right now, consider it one part of your portfolio of
skills that is not in hot demand at the moment.
Marilyn
Marilyn
