Is it faster to do the pages first and CSS second, or should I do them at the same time?

Question

I have been tasked with building a new web project from scratch, with the exception of reusing CSS files (the look and feel) from an existing project.

In the past I have always completed development of the functionality and the web-ui before considering the appearance. This is mostly due to CSS development overlapping with the tail end of the project.

I now have the opportunity to integrate a static set of CSS as I build the application. I have no experience with this circumstance.

Would it be faster to develop the project and web-pages first, then integrate the CSS; or would it be faster to integrate the CSS as part of page development?

Answer 1

For non-trivial pages, both factors should be taken into account as you develop the page. You should at least think about what CSS you're going to use while you're developing markup. If you leave that until the end you are going to get yourself into situations where you need to do a lot more work to integrate the CSS.

Answer 2

In cases where I've had to do this, I've found it easier to consider the CSS from the start. It would be nice if we could consider them completely separate, but as anyone who's done real Web design knows, the markup and the styles are almost never completely divorced. You don't need to feel ruled by the CSS when you're writing the markup, but know the styles so you know what sort of stuff will work well with the layout that's going to be applied to your pages. That way you can avoid having to redo lots of work when you realize, "Oops, that doesn't work right with the CSS."