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How should a CSS framework be built? There are several possible ways to go about building a framework, but the most common and arguably the most useful is to abstract your common CSS into individual stylesheets that each cover a particular part of the whole. For example, you may have a stylesheet that sets up the typography and another that handles the mass reset. The beauty of the approach is the ability to selectively include only the styles that you need. You may end up with six or seven different stylesheets in your framework, but if a particular project doesn’t need one or two of them, they don’t have to be included. The framework we created in our office has five stylesheets: reset.css—handles the mass reset. type.css—handles the typography. grid.css—handles the layout grid. widgets.css—handles widgets like tabs, drop-down menus, and “read more” buttons. base.css—includes all the other stylesheets, so that we only need to call base.css from our (X)HTML documents to use the entire framework.

A word of caution This method works quite well, but there is a valid concern to be raised: it adds to the number of HTTP connections needed to render each page. On large, high-traffic sites, adding five more HTTP connections to every page view may result in angry system administrators. Two possible solutions to this are: Include everything in a single file, rather than breaking it into modules. The problem here is that you lose the ability to include only certain parts of the framework, and you also make maintenance more difficult. Have a server-side process that dynamically flattens the individual files into a single response. I’ve not seen this done, but it could be very efficient if done well. Using my example framework above, this dynamic process could occur when base.css is requested, but not when type.css, grids.css, etc. are. This way, the individual components are still available, but the entire framework is available in a flattened version, as well.

Architecture (the kind that uses steel and glass and stone) is also an apt comparison—or at least, more apt than poster design. The architect creates planes and grids that facilitate the dynamic behavior of people. Having designed, the architect relinquishes control. Over time, the people who use the building bring out and add to the meaning of the architect’s design.

Web design is the creation of digital environments that facilitate and encourage human activity; reflect or adapt to individual voices and content; and change gracefully over time while always retaining their identity.

Great web designs are like great buildings. All office buildings, however distinctive, have lobbies and bathrooms and staircases. Websites, too, share commonalities.

Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web and director of the W3C, has said it best: “Anyone who slaps a ‘this page is best viewed with Browser X’ label on a Web page appears to be yearning for the bad old days, before the Web, when you had very little chance of reading a document written on another computer, another word processor, or another network.”

Methodologies including layered development via progressive enhancement, Unobtrusive Javascript, and Hijax ensure that higher layers don’t disrupt lower layers. However, representative testing of the core experience is critical. If you choose to adopt a Graded Browser support regime for your own web applications, be sure your site’s core content and functionality is accessible without images, CSS, and JS. Ensure that the keyboard is adequate for task completion and that when your site is accessed by a C-grade browser all advanced functionality prompts are hidden.