Hvassing.com

What happened? Why are so many pages broken? And on purpose! Today the followng text could be seen on a whole variety of websites;

What happened to the design? To know more about why styles are disabled on this website visit the Annual CSS Naked Day website for more information.

Why would anyone do such a thing to their site? When the user accesses your site they have a vague notion of what to expect. Removing the stylesheet of the site the users get something different from what they expected, alienating them and bringing them out of their comfort zone. The navigation they just had gotten used to is gone and the content suffers from horrible formatting. In short; the site is as far from appealing as it gets.

The visitors will be taken out of their comfort zone, partly because they don't know what CSS is, nor do they care. And, let's face it; why should they? A website is only there for its visitors, if it hadn't been for the visitors there wouldn't be much use in having a site. Now, this is when some might argue that it is their site and was created for them by them and as such they should be able to do whatever they like. Fair enough, but there isn't really much use in talking to someone who isn't there -- which in essence is what a site without any visitors would be like.

The thought behind «Naked Day» is good, but it's only good in theory. Users on a quest to find information about the theory of evolution or the works of Jane Austen are not very likely to stop and say; "Hey, this site is not semantically correct" and then leave. Content is one thing, but to use the birthday analogy: people get more excited about the gift if it the wrapping is done carefully. Removing the wrapping (the stylesheet) and some of the interest disappear.