Using Tables As Website Design Elements Have Been Done A For Long Time - It's Time To Stop!

Not only is the act of using tables as a website design element outdated, it can also hurt your website. The main reasons for this include slower load times, less flexibility for later updating, it alienates an entire section of your market, and may also violate the law. Thankfully there are many more effective and usable methods to create the same layouts without the need for tables. Methods that provide all of the same benefits, without any of the drawbacks or issues associated with tables.

There's a good article about this on about.com called Web Page Layouts Shouldn't Use Tables

In today's market there is only one reason to use tables when it comes to websites - to display data in tabular form (what tables were designed for originally). Even though this can be achieved in other ways, you ideally want to use tables for this purpose as people are used to this method. That is as long as you follow website design principles and use tables correctly. This means adding Table Headings to let others know what the purpose of each column (or row sometimes) is for so people can easily understand the table's information.

The number one accepted replacement for tables is the use of Div Tags and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). These two elements allow you to create the same types of layouts you can do with tables (if you want to do things that way). Plus, it not only removes all of the limitations and issues that occur with the use of tables; it also makes the site easily alterable later on. All it takes to make changes to a website built with Div Tags is to change the way it's displayed through the CSS. There is no need to re-create the entire page from scratch or fight to try and get the exact layout you want.

We talk about the basic of using Div Tags and CSS in the section Website Building Basics.

Even though there are many website design people and firms that continue to use tables, it's best to avoid them. The main reasons people continue to use tables in website design is because of three things:

1. They are working on outdated website design theory and don't know that tables have become obsolete.
2. They don't understand how to use Div Tags and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to create the same effects.
3. They want to ensure you can't change the website without them so they made is prohibitively complicated.

Tables can also have the negative effect of alienating entire sections of your market. This is because in every market there are people who use alternative technology to surf the internet. A great example of this come from people who are blind and use Screen Readers. As soon as a Screen Reader reaches a table anywhere on a website things become complicated. If they are used to display tabular data and are set up correctly with tables headings, the screen readers can figure them out. Take away those same table headings or start nesting tables inside other tables and they're lost. Not only does this make it hard, if not impossible, for someone who's blind to use your website, you may also be breaking the law.

Many countries have laws in place to assist people with disabilities. All of these laws essentially require that websites, as well as real-world businesses, be fully accessible to everyone. As soon as you're website becomes inaccessible to people with disabilities there can be trouble. Not only will you make it hard for these people to do business with you, etc., you can also be sued because of it. A prime example of that happened in the US with the chain store Target. Their website was not accessible to people with disabilities and they were taken to court because of it. You can read the details about the case by clicking here.

Not only is using tables outdated, can slow down your website, and cost you business; it can have many other unforeseen consequences. So before you have a website built, make sure the people building it will be using Div Tags and CSS (and not tables). If you already have a website built with tables it's probably time for an update anyway. In the event that you have a new website that was built with tables in the last year or so (it does still happen) you may want to talk to the people who built it; you may also need to seek other legal advice. That's too complex an issue to even begin discussing in this type of forum.

As a final thought on this issue, you should know that no matter who built the website you're liable for it and it's contents. This means that it's you that suffers the risk (and liability), not the website builder. That is why we wanted to let everyone know about this issue. Even though many people treat it as something minor, it can become something major (especially if you're a big company or firm like Target). So protect yourself and your website - don't use tables for anything except displaying tabular data.