Why does this site look so plain ?

Chances are that you are using a browser that is more than a few years old (probably Netscape 4, IE 4, or an older version).

This site has been designed so that any web browser or web device can access the content quickly and effectively. Older browsers can still access the content on each page, but they will not be able to display the contemporary design of this site.

If you have a version 5 browser (or better) and the site still looks plain you may have style sheets turned off.

Q. Why have we done this?

A. For a number of reasons:

  1. Cost. A large proportion (more than 50%) of the design costs of a small site like this can be spent trying to make the site appear similar in older browsers which now make up only 6% of the market(and shrinking) . We'd rather spend our money on improving the content we publish.
  2. Maintenance. The techniques that are used to create a consistent design in most browsers are a nightmare to maintain and require constant tweaking every time a new browser version is released.
  3. Download speed. The techniques mentioned above dramatically increase the size of pages. The size of our pages has been reduced considerably. For example, our home page has dropped in size from over 100k to about 25k, and much of this is cached for re-use on other pages on the site. This take less time for you to download and uses less bandwidth.
  4. The site is more accessible to people using assistive technologies, Cellular phones, and PDAs.

Q. How have we done this?

We have used the Internet coding standards recommended by the World Wide Web Consortium and promoted by the Web Standards Project. These are XHTML 1.0 and CSS 2.1.

Q. What do I have to do?

A. If you are happy with you current browser then nothing. Many people use an older browser because of Operating System limitations or personal preference.

However, if you wish to upgrade you browser then the The Web Standards Project has an explanation of what you need to do.

Personally, we recommend the latest Mozilla based browsers such as Netscape, or Opera 7.0 as these have the best support for Web Coding Standards.