Layout systems on the Web were designed mostly for the display of documents but are often used for display of user interface. Using current Web standards, it is often impossible to use both an appropriate layout system and appropriate markup; sometimes an appropriate layout system is not available given any markup. Some authors use tables for layout and sacrifice the correctness of their markup; others use absolute positioning and sacrifice the flexibility and device-independence of the layout. This presentation will discuss problems with the existing standards for Web page layout (such as CSS block layout, tables, floats, absolute positioning, and SVG) and potential improvements in two different areas: layout systems appropriate for user interface and mechanisms for “reordering” content to allow the author to use both appropriate markup and appropriate layout systems. One improvement under consideration, the box model used in XUL provides a good layout system (similar to a number of others) and very simple mechanisms for reordering content. Another proposal for CSS3’s box model provides a less powerful layout system along with more powerful content reordering mechanisms. Criteria considered in evalation of both new and old technologies include requirements they impose on ordering and misuse of markup, ability and ease of authoring device-independent layouts (primarily under variation of viewport size and font size) including the fragility of the most obvious authoring techniques under such device variations, ease of authoring, and ease of implementation.