Alan Coleman's

I wrote earlier this week about the rebranding process we’re going through at work, and the problems that have surfaced regarding static legacy pages. The curse of the WYSIWYG has reeked havoc amongst the ranks, the files now stand in line like badly disciplined soldiers that refuse to obey the CSS, no matter how much they scream and shout… Or maybe that’s stretching it a bit far.

There is another enemy at play, tables. Not only that but nested tables and loads of them too, with those 1px high images that push the cells open. These are the most time consuming hurdles, trying to figure out what sits within what and why. Almost all of them serving no purpose apart from contributing to the endemic code bloat.

It’s sometimes difficult trying to balance time between doing what I think I should do, and what I actually have time for. To a certain extent rebranding an old website, built by someone else with no regard to any sort of standards, is an exercise in damage limitation.

There are busy times ahead. The company I work for as a web developer is changing its name, brand and identity. It is, to say the least, a task that involves an incredible amount of commitment and organisation from every aspect of the business.

The initial meetings of a few months ago seemed like a formality, just do this then that then everything else should slot into place, that was the plan anyway. Everything seems so easy when scribbled down in a flow diagram with arrows in yellow highlighter, and I’ve always found that approach to be quite good for holding back from getting stuck in.

There comes a point, as with anything in life, when the talking stops and the physical activity has to begin, which is usually the point where the scale of the undertaking is realised. The web site in question has evolved over a number of years and apart from some basic product titles and codes it is entirely static. It does however employ some fairly cool code that communicates with our CRM and back end on the fly, this is its saving grace.