CSS is quite possibly the best visual design tool ever invented. Its ability to control an interface’s layout, type, color, and behavior “unobtrusively” — changing the way the interface is presented without disturbing the content — is, as far as I know, unparalleled in this industry or any other. CSS is the best tool for executing website design, but it is quickly finding broader uses (native apps, vector graphics, electronic books, and even print design, among others). It uses a syntax so simple you can learn its basics in a few days, but you can spend a lifetime exploring its nuances. Much of its power comes from the way it teaches you to think about how interface and content work together. A few months’ writing CSS and you’ll find yourself seeing your work in a different way.
The language, however, is in an interesting place these days. The web — and interactive design in general — has come a long way from where it started in the early 1990s. Where web pages were originally seen as