CSS Zen Garden Review

This week's review is based on the website CSS Zen Garden. As listed in the site's about section on the home page, it is a resource that shows the true power of CSS within a web page. The site aims to excite, inspire, and encourage participation. The side bar of the site demonstrates different CSS style sheets that were created by designers who submitted their work, while keeping the HTML of the original page completely intact.


Review Questions:

What is the site's URL? Why is it your favorite?

The site's url is http://www.csszengarden.com/ It's my favorite site out of the list to pick from because it truly intrigued me the most. I don't think I understood before how much CSS influences the overall look and feel of a website. I found it mind-blowing how in all the designs the HTML structure remained exactly the same. This is both inspiring to me and intimidating. I hope to one day be skilled enough in CSS to make a web page look as beautiful as the ones submitted to this site.

Does the site's home page validate?

No.

Find any other page on the site. Does the second page validate?

Unfortunately, I was unable to validate any other pages on the site. Despite my attempts at troubleshooting the problem, the links in the sidebar for resources, FAQ, submitting a design, etc. do not work.

Document how many validation errors and/or warnings may exist on each of the two pages you validate.

There exists a total of 4 errors/warnings on the home page.

How would you rate the site's design, on a scale of 1(horrible) to 10 (fantastic)? Why?

I would give the site a rating of 10 for design. I think the page is beautifully designed and the content is written in a way that quickly grabs the reader's attention and interest, while easily summarizing the site's purpose. I could immediately discern what it was about and was intrigued by its concept.

How would you rate the site's usability on a scale of 1 (horrible) to 10 (fantastic)? Why?

Although I really enjoyed this site, I would rate it a 3 for usability. While the links for the various designs worked, the links for the other information listed in the site came back with an error message for the server not being found. This hinders the site's usability.

Does the site meet its purpose?

Absolutely. After taking time to read the page and click through the various designs, I was inspired. It easily demonstrates by example the true power of CSS.