Web Sites Go Naked Tomorrow

Dustin from Web Standards With Imagination has decreed April 5, 2006 to be the First Annual CSS Naked Day when sites should go sans style sheets for a day, in a sense, naked. So far, over 300 sites have signed up to take part and shed their CSS for the day. So what compels that many sites to turn off their CSS for a day other than trying to get that retro-web look that last I checked isn’t very popular these days?

The idea behind this event is to promote Web Standards. Plain and simple. This includes proper use of (x)html, semantic markup, a good hierarchy structure, and; well, a fun play on words. I mean, who doesn’t want to get naked?

Naked Day follows a formula similar to that of CSS Reboot which encourages site designers to simultaneously launch redesigns as a group on the same day. Two Reboots have taken place with the third happening less than a month from now on May 1. Although over 900 designers have signed up for the upcoming Reboot, expect only about half of those to go through with it if the first two are any indication. Having your site go naked for a day is pretty easy. Doing a complete site redesign requires devotion and effort — mostly it requires a lot of time.

The Reboots drive a lot of traffic to the participating sites — the first had 15,000 unique visitors to the official Reboot site during the first two days — because you get a chance to easily view some great designs in one sitting. In a sense, both the Reboot and Naked CSS are types of viral campaigns aimed at a very specific demographic, Web geeks. Not only can you gain a temporary traffic boost to your site, it also gives you a reason to keep your site fresh with an updated design. And, ideally, those sites have great content for those new visitors so they can convert them into regular readers.

While I appreciate the idea of promoting Web standards anyway possible, I’m not sure if your average Joe will truly understand Naked Day without more than a strange looking Web site to look at. But if it starts the conversation and educates even a few people, Dustin will have accomplished his goal.