Today we are going to debunk a few of our favorite web design myths. Certain things keep popping up that we think every designer and client should know.
1. Tables are evil and should never be used.
Tables are one of the most vilified aspects of HTML. While for quite some time they were over used and abused, they do have a place in modern, semantic web design. Gasp! It’s true. Tables deserve to be used! But, they deserve to be used correctly and responsibly. Tables are meant to hold tabular data, go figure. Your site will indeed be XHTML/HTML compliant, even if you use a Strict doctype and tables. Because you used them properly.
2. IE6 doesn’t work with transparent PNGs
I know there are a million IE hacks to make the PNG files that you made in Photoshop work with IE6. But did you know that you don’t need that fancy workaround? What doesn’t work in IE6 is PNG24. But I am guessing that you didn’t know that PNG8 supports Alpha transparency. It is Photoshop that doesn’t support the Alpha transparency in PNG8. What is a designer to do? Make their transparent PNGs in Fireworks! You can make your PNG8s have Alpha transparency. No hacks required to make them transparent in IE6! Which is good, because as much as I hate it and do not support it in my work without additional charges anymore, it is around. And it always comes back to bite you when you least expect it.
3. Flash is not SEO compliant.
Ok, so this is an iffy one. Flash is definitely not accessible to screen readers, and to be 508 compliant you need a text version of the information on your site. But there is an initiative between Adobe and Google to help search engines crawl all your fancy schmancy Flash designs. So, as I have said before, Flash in small doses is OK. Flash on an enterprise level is OK. I have changed from a Flash hater to ambivalent, but yes, it does (sort of) talk to search engines.
4. Small fonts make your site look “designer”
Please. Don’t. Do. This. Yes, in print, itsy bitsy type makes you look luxe and high class. On the web, your 9px text looks ridiculous on my wide screen. Creating white space shouldn’t be done only by making text smaller. It should be done by creating vertical rhythm and adding enough padding to your text blocks.
5. There is no such thing as good typography on the web without replacing text with images.
Web typography is tough. But we aren’t chained by simply using images any more. There are @font-face and Cufon. There are sIFR and FLIR. Some of these are easier to implement than others. And some of these give you more control than others. But the important thing to remember here is that your line spacing, vertical rhythm and general typography can (and should) be controlled.
I know there are other misconceptions about the web, but these are some of the most pervasive, and I thought it was time to set the record straight.
(Header image credit: Imformatique)
