[HTML] Feedback Forms Tables/CSS

[agmorgan]

I haven't done any HTML for about 3 years.
What is currently the recommended way of creating a feedback form?

Are tables getting frowned upon to be replaced by CSS?
All the layout vs content arguments have got me a little confused about what to use where!

[AIS4U]

agmorgan:

No one seems to be to anxious to post a response to your question, so I will give it a shot.

I think if 100 people responded to your questions you would end up with 100 different opinions.

The fact is, there is a lot of truth in the old saying "The more things change, the more they stay the same."

By that I mean, if you look around at the Web sites that have been up for quite awhile and have been successful you will see that they pretty much stick to the basics. Just good clean uncluttered sites. And yes, I think that content is still "king."

Flash seems to be one of the latest and greatest thing to come along, but again, you don't see the tried and true Web sites scraping their old sites and replacing them with Flash.

Broadband and wireless are suppose to be the "in thing", but approximately 60% or more of your potential audience is still using dial-up, so go figure.

There are people out there who are spending a small fortune to have a Web site built with all the latest and greatest bells and whistles. Then they turn around and spend another small fortune to have someone optmize their site so it will appear in the top 10 listings of Google, Yahoo, etc..

The problem with this is that they don't realize that 75% or more of their potential audience can't view their Web site because they (the potential viewers) don't have the latest and greatest operating systems or Web browsers.

Macromedia just came out with a new release of their line and Microsoft is set to release a new UpGreeded version of Windows. I am sure they will both sell millions of copies of their new software. But, there are many more millions of people who won't upgrade or buy the latest and greatest widget with all the bells and whistles.

Feed back forms, tables, CSS, layout, content. ! ! ! !

What do you want when you go to a Web site?

I mean, just the other day I was walking down the street and this guy came up to me and said "Hey Buddy, you know I went on the www.abc.com Web site last night and they had the worst feed back form I have ever seen, so I logged off and I'll never go back to that Web site again."

And then about two blocks further down the street another person came up to me and said "Hey Man, have you ever heard of www.def.com? That Web site has some of the worst tables I have ever seen in my life and I decided to never go to that Web site again."

And, yup, you guessed it! Another block and a half and another guy came up to me and said "Man you just won't believe it. I was on this Web site last night, www.ghi.com, and I right clicked on my mouse and then clicked view source and guess what? Whoever designed that Web site didn't use CSS. So, you can bet I'll never go to that Web site again."

I would venture a guess that 90% of the people who use the Internet don't know and don't care anything about feed back forms, tables, or CSS.

So, that just leaves layout and content.

People are not going to go to a Web site if it doesn't have something they want. Again, content is king. And once they get there they won't stay around too long if they can't find the content they are looking for even if it is there, layout.

So find your little niche in life. Build a Web site filled with content that is informative and kept current, lay it out in an intuitive manner, and make is accessible to the largest number of people in your potential audience and sit back and enjoy your success.

Good Luck

[agmorgan]

Thanks for your opinion

[ninjanutz]

AIS4U is my hero

[visualAd]

From the web developers perspective, it is better to use a CSS based layout in place of tables.


Using CSS makes it easier should the need ever arise to change the layour of the site. You simply change the stylesheet and leave the underlaying HTML the same.