The Entry Archive
Explaining CSS to Your Clients With Five Simple Answers
When I’m not doing freelance work for clients, I’m usually on the internet learning more about my craft from the people who I consider to be the real masters of their domains. At the start of my coding days, I practically ate for breakfast the websites CSS Zen Garden, A List Apart and Position is Everything. And today I can’t get enough of Vitamin and SEOmoz.
What all of those websites have in common is that they speak directly to me, a web developer. What they also have in common is that they read, at times, like Greek to the casual observer, who is, incidentally, the most important observer. Moms, pops, and potential clients alike are arguably the most important people when it comes to web development. Why? Because they are the reasons developers exist.
An Ode To The Flash Nut
The continued existence of web development is fueled by the needs of the consumer, the client-slash-opportunist, and the technologically unsavvy swagger jacker who demands that their band’s website has a five minute flash introduction about kittens. These people keep designers, developers, and programmers in business, and I heartily appreciate them for it.
Standards compliant (CSS/XHTML) web design has become such a hot topic that a number of my clients directly ask for table-less websites before I even bring up the topic of tables and why I only use them for tabular data. But the acronym “CSS” has not become as ubiquitous as the acronym “HTML”. I frequently get asked what CSS is and I almost always find myself one breath away from regurgitating some of the points made in the mission statement of the Web Standards Project.
Be Easy
The problem with this approach is that people don’t want to hear textbook explanations of difficult concepts like semantic markup and why it matters. They need simple answers to difficult questions in a short amount of time. With that frame of thought in mind, I use five answers with potential clients when I am asked why CSS, or table-less layout is so important.
Depending on the client and their needs, I may or may not exclude one of the following answers to the question: What is CSS and why do I need it?
CSS Helps The Blind
“The reason you need CSS, Madame, is because without it, a lot of your disabled customers wouldn’t be able to access your online information.”
There’s a reason business officials are such sticklers for requiring wheelchair ramps at major venues or businesses. They know that nothing says “dickish” more than limiting the opportunities for disabled people to have a good time like their able-bodied counterparts. From a developer’s standpoint, mentioning the visually disabled when discussing the layout of a client’s website is a surefire way to help them see past CSS as simply a means to make things look shiny.
On a humorous side note, the website for the Society for the Blind fails validation miserably and is table-based.
CSS Will Make You Money
“Sir, I’d be more than happy to go into the details, but for the moment understand this: by using CSS you will rank better with Google, get your message out to lots more people, and bring in way more business.”
Little says “Giddy Up” like the prospect of making money to a potential client. The reason they have hired you to design their website is because they believe that their presence on the web will translate into real world earnings. Where they fall short in their understanding of the web is that they believe all websites, at their inception, are created equal.
This is simply not the case. Cleaner, semantic code that separates presentation from content is more valuable than a designer’s portfolio that was built purely on sliced image tables. Tell your potential clients that CSS will make them money and you will have their ears.
CSS Will Save You Money
“Ma’am, you have mentioned that your long term budget is limited. CSS will save you tons of money in the long run. What were previously hours of website changes can with CSS be minutes, or even seconds, of website code tweaks. You won’t have to spend a lot on future website maintenance.”
Making money is fun but saving money can be even more fun. If I’m lying, then why do we love the value menu at Wendy’s so much?
You’ve got 10,000 pages of content and want to change the size of your headers from 10pt to 12pt. Imagine having to drop a wad of cash on a website developer to have to go in and make FONT changes on all of those pages or any other page-specific changes that could have been controlled with CSS. Bottom line: CSS can save you hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars on future website upgrades and maintenance.
CSS Enables Your Company To Be Forward Thinking
“Sir, you’ve just told me how important longevity is to your business. The World Wide Web changes ultra-fast and browser capabilities change even faster. CSS will insulate and protect your website from becoming rapidly outdated.”
CSS has just begun picking up steam on the tongues of casual web goers and potential clients alike. To be sure, CSS is not new, but (as I stated before) the acronym “CSS” is not nearly as ubiquitous as the acronym “HTML”. If you can convince a potential client that CSS will carry them throughout the next decade without too many headaches, why wouldn’t they want to go with CSS?
And, as far as “forward thinking” goes, what business doesn’t want to be the cool kid on the block that has all its ducks lined in a row for painless future growth?
CSS Creates Visually Stunning Websites
“Ma’am, with the exception of a few, more expensive technologies, there is absolutely nothing better or more cost-effective than CSS for creating a website that serves up a stunning visual experience.”
I don’t care who you are, what you do, what kind of music you listen to, or what kind of clothes you wear. You like being told that you’re beautiful, and you like having beautiful things associated with you. And the same applies with websites.
Although this answer is a bit of a “gimme”, it’s one of the most powerful answers that you can give to a potential client. The appeal of CSS is not simply about making text bold, red, or italicized. It is about getting a design to do things that regular tables just cannot do.
Before I knew much about CSS, I used to spend hours on CSS Zen Garden scratching my head and thinking “How’d they do that?!?!” Show a potential client that website or any variation of that website and say “This cannot be done without CSS.” You shouldn’t have to wait more than a millisecond to hear “I’m in!”
Final Thoughts
Keep in mind that these answers work well with people who have had limited to no exposure with CSS. They need simple answers to complex questions and getting into the Nitty Gritty of CSS will tune them out, fast and hard. They don’t even need to know what the acronym CSS stands for or how it ties in with (X)HTML. All they need to know is that CSS creates accessible websites that are cost effective, revenue generating, a step ahead of the game, and absolutely beautiful.
And you don’t even have to say the phrase “Cascading Style Sheets” when giving any of these answers. Isn’t that nice?
Post Date: March 20, 2007
3 Responses to “Explaining CSS to Your Clients With Five Simple Answers”
Shane:
March 21st, 2007 at 2:18 pm
Couldn’t have said it any better.
Rock on
Shane
Philip Arthur Moore:
March 22nd, 2007 at 9:59 pm
Hey Shane,
Thanks a ton for dropping by. I thought I’d whip something up for people who deal with clients who ask about CSS a lot. Unfortunately, getting a potential client’s attention when it comes to CSS is sometimes hard. You’ve got to hook them with something, right?!
I’ll be keeping an eye on Tubetorial, bro. I can’t get enough of those videos.
Cheers,
Philip
Matthew Hunt:
February 9th, 2008 at 12:44 am
Hey Philip, I’m digging your blog. I am also a freelance web designer. I find that most clients have no idea how you are building a site. In some cases, they assume you are using tables and are not even aware that tables are not how site’s are built these days. I completed a site for a client recently and he asked me to add something to a table. I laughed to myself and explained to him how his site was build and what ‘automatic’ advantages he has now. He was pleased. Overall, it seems that because the profession resides in it’s natural place (the world wide web of course), clients seem to have some exposure to the word CSS or HTML. I also do not even bother to explain css. At most, I will tell them the benefits they get and that css controls layout, styles and colors etc,. Nice blog man, I’m pleased I found one with some wordpress articles.
-Matt
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