I see a lot of references to sites that look like they were designed in the 90s. When I look at them, they look a lot like the kind of web sites I put together.

So, what are the new approaches to web site design that make them contemporary and up-to-date?

From what I can see, here are a few:

• No tables
• A header that doesn't contrast with the rest of the page
• Keeping link colors the same as the text, whether they've been visited before or not

Do you agree with my list, and can you add anything else.

One question about the link colors - is the idea that people don't want or need to know if they've they've already visited someplace, or is it to keep the text clean looking?

Nice topic - I'll be watching this with interest as I'm beginning to think about redesigning my sites.

I would suggest that you take a look at some of the galleries such as www.cssmania.com, www.stylegala.com, www.cssremix.com, or www.csszengarden.com to get good idea of what contemporary site design patterns are.

Someone sent me a link to some sites this morning - and I know the person building the sites is no pro, but still.. these sites were right out of 1995 ... table-based layouts, lots of beveled buttons and graphics, tons of stuff all centered on the page, lots of stuff blinking and moving.. made my eyes bleed it was so bad.

More throwbacks to 90's design: beveled borders, raised borders on tables, scrolling marquee text, big beveled button navigation that is all images - and more awful stuff.

Thanks LadynRed, I checked out a few of the links you suggested, and they were useful. I'll get back to them all in time.

Originally Posted by tucsonsam

• No tables

Just remember CSS3 Tables are back. Tables make lie easy and shouldn't be rejected.

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/css3multicolumn

Just remember CSS3 Tables are back.

Yes, except that CSS3 is still probably 10 years away (at the rate the W3C moves!) from full support, and there is only minimal support for even part of it's features in current browsers.

Originally Posted by LadynRed

Someone sent me a link to some sites this morning - and I know the person building the sites is no pro, but still.. these sites were right out of 1995 ... table-based layouts, lots of beveled buttons and graphics, tons of stuff all centered on the page, lots of stuff blinking and moving.. made my eyes bleed it was so bad.

I don't suppose you still have the links? I'm quite curious as to what sites were like back then, I didn't even really know what a website was in 1995 since I was too busy playing with Pog's haha.

To get some ideas of the current look of web sites, I would go your local bookstore or library and check out Design Annuals that include award winning designs. Also check out magazines like HOW, which usually has an annual awards issue for the best in design. In fact, now that I mention it, I might do that myself!

Sure.. here's the link:
http://oldbluewebdesigns.com/mybeautifulamerica.htm
That particular landing page isn't a problem - except for the background music (another annoying 90's holdover), but look at some of the sites that are referenced. One or two are ok.. most are very old-school.

You could also have a look at The Internet Wayback machine -- lots of old archived versions of web sites.
http://www.archive.org/web/web.php

Wow they are some pretty nasty websites. That internet Wayback machine is really addictive aswell!

Thanks for the way back link - I found my site from 2001 (September). It took a long time to load, but I still like it. Same link as my present site, which I don't want anyone to look at - it's presently a placeholder for links to my other sites. But take a look at the 2001 version: http://www.tucsonsam.com

I think it is interesting that tables are coming back? wasn't there the first time round so the thought of designing a layout in tables seems a bit backwards, interesting that it was decided that tables were not the way and now it has done a circle. Is there something I can read to ger more information on tables coming back?

There is a HUGE difference between the old tables for layout method and CSS 'tables. The old <table> method should NEVER be used for layout - it was meant for DATA and should stay that way.

Tables, as you think of them, are NOT 'coming back' -- heaven forbid!!

Amen to that.