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I hate the term "Website Designer". Aparently this is what I do for a living but I wouldn't see myself as one!
I've been creating sites since before the dawn of WYSIWYG and Dreamweaver spending ages coding by hand in Notepad and debugging in IE3. I originally started out at 17 as a Designer engineer creating drawings for the construction of recyclying machinery in AutoCad. After about a year of this, I got bored, I wanted to continue with what I did best... Graphic Design.
I eventually landed a job as a Graphic Designer at 18 for a small firm in Oxfordshire. The job was great, I spent all day creating Corporate Identities, brochoures, computer graphics and at one point I was invilved the the creation of Sony's WebTV interface but again I found the medium boring.
Whilst all of this was going on, I discovered the internet. I had previously come across HTML in it's more complicated form SGML in the creation of text and could see the future of online media. the other thing that attracted me was the ability to constantly push the limits of the technology, something you can only do so far with paper! Eventually i became the companys only website designer looking after the 4 sites that they hosted. There previous work was abismal, badly designed and badly put together. A company who prided themselves on 15years or graphic design had no idea how to use this new medium and how to egt the tecnology to work for you.
After 2 years, I landed a job with the Worlds largest academic publisher as a website designer. When I joined, they had just discovered MSFrontPage and where building average sites using it. but this point I had mastered HTML and discovered Dreamweaver2 and convinced them to change.
Anyway, the point of this post...
I hate those poeple out there who claim to be "website designers", the type that do it for friends at home in their bedroom and call themselves "website designers" just because thay can slap a couple of pages together in a WYSIWYG tool and get it to look "cool" in IE5... This isn't website design... Creating a website is more than just this, much more...
Making a site look cool is only the start. Anyone can do this, this was the mistake many of my fellow graphic designers made in the transition, they focused too much on making it look cool with pixel perfect images and layouts and then complained because it looked awefull on Mr. X's lynx browser...
The internet was design to allow people to access information from anypoint in the world on any device capable of reading HTML, something it has managed quite successfully but something a lot of people have forgotten.
There is an underlying technology, one which needs to be understood and nurtured. So many of you slate HTML for being too basic, but how many of you have gone farther than this and pushed it to see what you can do? To many of you fall into the trap of jumping on the "Latests Trends" bandwagon?
How many of you understand the differences between browser types and platforms and why they exist?
How many of you think about coulor depth, scaling and scaleability?
How may of you know what CSS elements work where and why?
and how many of you understand degridation?
How many of you test your sites?
The most comon questions I get these days surround things like...
Why does my table structure fall apart in NS6 and not IE5?
Why doesn't my CSS work all of the time?
What the differences between IE3 and IE6?
Your sites should be viewable on ALL browsers whether it be the latest version of IE or the 1994 Mozilla engine. This was the aim of the internet and buy understanding the tecnology behind it all, you can account for all of these differences... That is true Website Design.
When you next create a site, ask youself questions...
who is the intended audience?
Is it accessable by all?
Is it useable?
What's the point?
What will it support?
What support do you offer?
Anyone can create a site these days and a majority of those people are responsible for the 85million pages of twaddle that exist out the on the WWW. These day's I refuse to accept anyone who claims to be a website designer just because they can use Dreamweaver... I can use Quark, but this doesn't make me an author! Agencies won't employ you just because you know how to create a page in Dreamweaver, they're looking for much more these days, one of those being an understanding of the technology, the history and the future...
I changed my job title after a year, I nolonger want to be seen as a Website designer but more of an Website technology and Graphic Designer... It maybe cool to say to your friends "I'm a website designer" but when you get into your 20's, you watch people cringe and grimmace at that term, it's almost embarracing!!
Learn, Understand, Experience and Learn again...
I've been creating sites since before the dawn of WYSIWYG and Dreamweaver spending ages coding by hand in Notepad and debugging in IE3. I originally started out at 17 as a Designer engineer creating drawings for the construction of recyclying machinery in AutoCad. After about a year of this, I got bored, I wanted to continue with what I did best... Graphic Design.
I eventually landed a job as a Graphic Designer at 18 for a small firm in Oxfordshire. The job was great, I spent all day creating Corporate Identities, brochoures, computer graphics and at one point I was invilved the the creation of Sony's WebTV interface but again I found the medium boring.
Whilst all of this was going on, I discovered the internet. I had previously come across HTML in it's more complicated form SGML in the creation of text and could see the future of online media. the other thing that attracted me was the ability to constantly push the limits of the technology, something you can only do so far with paper! Eventually i became the companys only website designer looking after the 4 sites that they hosted. There previous work was abismal, badly designed and badly put together. A company who prided themselves on 15years or graphic design had no idea how to use this new medium and how to egt the tecnology to work for you.
After 2 years, I landed a job with the Worlds largest academic publisher as a website designer. When I joined, they had just discovered MSFrontPage and where building average sites using it. but this point I had mastered HTML and discovered Dreamweaver2 and convinced them to change.
Anyway, the point of this post...
I hate those poeple out there who claim to be "website designers", the type that do it for friends at home in their bedroom and call themselves "website designers" just because thay can slap a couple of pages together in a WYSIWYG tool and get it to look "cool" in IE5... This isn't website design... Creating a website is more than just this, much more...
Making a site look cool is only the start. Anyone can do this, this was the mistake many of my fellow graphic designers made in the transition, they focused too much on making it look cool with pixel perfect images and layouts and then complained because it looked awefull on Mr. X's lynx browser...
The internet was design to allow people to access information from anypoint in the world on any device capable of reading HTML, something it has managed quite successfully but something a lot of people have forgotten.
There is an underlying technology, one which needs to be understood and nurtured. So many of you slate HTML for being too basic, but how many of you have gone farther than this and pushed it to see what you can do? To many of you fall into the trap of jumping on the "Latests Trends" bandwagon?
How many of you understand the differences between browser types and platforms and why they exist?
How many of you think about coulor depth, scaling and scaleability?
How may of you know what CSS elements work where and why?
and how many of you understand degridation?
How many of you test your sites?
The most comon questions I get these days surround things like...
Why does my table structure fall apart in NS6 and not IE5?
Why doesn't my CSS work all of the time?
What the differences between IE3 and IE6?
Your sites should be viewable on ALL browsers whether it be the latest version of IE or the 1994 Mozilla engine. This was the aim of the internet and buy understanding the tecnology behind it all, you can account for all of these differences... That is true Website Design.
When you next create a site, ask youself questions...
who is the intended audience?
Is it accessable by all?
Is it useable?
What's the point?
What will it support?
What support do you offer?
Anyone can create a site these days and a majority of those people are responsible for the 85million pages of twaddle that exist out the on the WWW. These day's I refuse to accept anyone who claims to be a website designer just because they can use Dreamweaver... I can use Quark, but this doesn't make me an author! Agencies won't employ you just because you know how to create a page in Dreamweaver, they're looking for much more these days, one of those being an understanding of the technology, the history and the future...
I changed my job title after a year, I nolonger want to be seen as a Website designer but more of an Website technology and Graphic Designer... It maybe cool to say to your friends "I'm a website designer" but when you get into your 20's, you watch people cringe and grimmace at that term, it's almost embarracing!!
Learn, Understand, Experience and Learn again...
Page:
In the not too distant future, everyone will be a web designer. It's the job of the future. But that means there will be page after page of monstrosities created for a quick buck. I couldn't think of myself as a web designer. I like to do things that are useful and inventive, but I've only ever made a few web pages for people. Check out my Monkeynet thing (http://www.lukenet-v1.co.uk) it was meant to sit as your windows background and you'd get updates and stuff automatically. Anyone that can draw is able to make sites using packages like Front Page, but like you say, they won't obey any of the rules. But then who sets the rules? You? Me? If it's just someone's homepage then I think that it's perfectly acceptable that it will only work in a particular browser. Although it's not good practice if you do it for a living. Going back to what you are saying though, the point of the internet is to share data and it SHOULD be avilable to anyone, anywhere. Maybe they should have a society for competent web designers, like they do with Doctors. Also, it's down to the people that go to get sites done. If they took time to go through someone's portfolio and check it in different browsers then they'd probably find tons of things that don't work.
back to the topic.......
I AM A WEBDESIGNER! :-D
(Im guessing this topic came from inspiration from this mornings discussion we had?!)
I AM A WEBDESIGNER! :-D
(Im guessing this topic came from inspiration from this mornings discussion we had?!)
Turbonutter wrote:
> PS The site is now located at http://www.justmenbarbers.co.uk/ . This was a long time ago, mind.
You charged £60 for that?! I would have charged £60 for that Flash Animation alone, it looks quality! :-D
> PS The site is now located at http://www.justmenbarbers.co.uk/ . This was a long time ago, mind.
You charged £60 for that?! I would have charged £60 for that Flash Animation alone, it looks quality! :-D
I agree. I know lots and lots of people who "claim" to be web designers. I was commissioned to revamp a site for a barber's shop. I went to their existing one and I thought "Hey, this guy's obviously slapped something up in Front Page and uploaded it. There was no AA on the images, the animations were awful, the code was a mess and was breaking rules all over the place, but I'll forgive him." However, when I was going through the FTP I found an invoice. INVOICE! HA! Someone had charged him £300 for this pap! Hell, I was only going to charge £60 for the re-make.
Although I'm not a proffessional webdesigner, I still know a hell of a lot about the subject and I'm a damn sight better than some of these cowboys.
PS The site is now located at http://www.justmenbarbers.co.uk/ . This was a long time ago, mind.
Although I'm not a proffessional webdesigner, I still know a hell of a lot about the subject and I'm a damn sight better than some of these cowboys.
PS The site is now located at http://www.justmenbarbers.co.uk/ . This was a long time ago, mind.
I hate the term "Website Designer". Aparently this is what I do for a living but I wouldn't see myself as one!
I've been creating sites since before the dawn of WYSIWYG and Dreamweaver spending ages coding by hand in Notepad and debugging in IE3. I originally started out at 17 as a Designer engineer creating drawings for the construction of recyclying machinery in AutoCad. After about a year of this, I got bored, I wanted to continue with what I did best... Graphic Design.
I eventually landed a job as a Graphic Designer at 18 for a small firm in Oxfordshire. The job was great, I spent all day creating Corporate Identities, brochoures, computer graphics and at one point I was invilved the the creation of Sony's WebTV interface but again I found the medium boring.
Whilst all of this was going on, I discovered the internet. I had previously come across HTML in it's more complicated form SGML in the creation of text and could see the future of online media. the other thing that attracted me was the ability to constantly push the limits of the technology, something you can only do so far with paper! Eventually i became the companys only website designer looking after the 4 sites that they hosted. There previous work was abismal, badly designed and badly put together. A company who prided themselves on 15years or graphic design had no idea how to use this new medium and how to egt the tecnology to work for you.
After 2 years, I landed a job with the Worlds largest academic publisher as a website designer. When I joined, they had just discovered MSFrontPage and where building average sites using it. but this point I had mastered HTML and discovered Dreamweaver2 and convinced them to change.
Anyway, the point of this post...
I hate those poeple out there who claim to be "website designers", the type that do it for friends at home in their bedroom and call themselves "website designers" just because thay can slap a couple of pages together in a WYSIWYG tool and get it to look "cool" in IE5... This isn't website design... Creating a website is more than just this, much more...
Making a site look cool is only the start. Anyone can do this, this was the mistake many of my fellow graphic designers made in the transition, they focused too much on making it look cool with pixel perfect images and layouts and then complained because it looked awefull on Mr. X's lynx browser...
The internet was design to allow people to access information from anypoint in the world on any device capable of reading HTML, something it has managed quite successfully but something a lot of people have forgotten.
There is an underlying technology, one which needs to be understood and nurtured. So many of you slate HTML for being too basic, but how many of you have gone farther than this and pushed it to see what you can do? To many of you fall into the trap of jumping on the "Latests Trends" bandwagon?
How many of you understand the differences between browser types and platforms and why they exist?
How many of you think about coulor depth, scaling and scaleability?
How may of you know what CSS elements work where and why?
and how many of you understand degridation?
How many of you test your sites?
The most comon questions I get these days surround things like...
Why does my table structure fall apart in NS6 and not IE5?
Why doesn't my CSS work all of the time?
What the differences between IE3 and IE6?
Your sites should be viewable on ALL browsers whether it be the latest version of IE or the 1994 Mozilla engine. This was the aim of the internet and buy understanding the tecnology behind it all, you can account for all of these differences... That is true Website Design.
When you next create a site, ask youself questions...
who is the intended audience?
Is it accessable by all?
Is it useable?
What's the point?
What will it support?
What support do you offer?
Anyone can create a site these days and a majority of those people are responsible for the 85million pages of twaddle that exist out the on the WWW. These day's I refuse to accept anyone who claims to be a website designer just because they can use Dreamweaver... I can use Quark, but this doesn't make me an author! Agencies won't employ you just because you know how to create a page in Dreamweaver, they're looking for much more these days, one of those being an understanding of the technology, the history and the future...
I changed my job title after a year, I nolonger want to be seen as a Website designer but more of an Website technology and Graphic Designer... It maybe cool to say to your friends "I'm a website designer" but when you get into your 20's, you watch people cringe and grimmace at that term, it's almost embarracing!!
Learn, Understand, Experience and Learn again...
I've been creating sites since before the dawn of WYSIWYG and Dreamweaver spending ages coding by hand in Notepad and debugging in IE3. I originally started out at 17 as a Designer engineer creating drawings for the construction of recyclying machinery in AutoCad. After about a year of this, I got bored, I wanted to continue with what I did best... Graphic Design.
I eventually landed a job as a Graphic Designer at 18 for a small firm in Oxfordshire. The job was great, I spent all day creating Corporate Identities, brochoures, computer graphics and at one point I was invilved the the creation of Sony's WebTV interface but again I found the medium boring.
Whilst all of this was going on, I discovered the internet. I had previously come across HTML in it's more complicated form SGML in the creation of text and could see the future of online media. the other thing that attracted me was the ability to constantly push the limits of the technology, something you can only do so far with paper! Eventually i became the companys only website designer looking after the 4 sites that they hosted. There previous work was abismal, badly designed and badly put together. A company who prided themselves on 15years or graphic design had no idea how to use this new medium and how to egt the tecnology to work for you.
After 2 years, I landed a job with the Worlds largest academic publisher as a website designer. When I joined, they had just discovered MSFrontPage and where building average sites using it. but this point I had mastered HTML and discovered Dreamweaver2 and convinced them to change.
Anyway, the point of this post...
I hate those poeple out there who claim to be "website designers", the type that do it for friends at home in their bedroom and call themselves "website designers" just because thay can slap a couple of pages together in a WYSIWYG tool and get it to look "cool" in IE5... This isn't website design... Creating a website is more than just this, much more...
Making a site look cool is only the start. Anyone can do this, this was the mistake many of my fellow graphic designers made in the transition, they focused too much on making it look cool with pixel perfect images and layouts and then complained because it looked awefull on Mr. X's lynx browser...
The internet was design to allow people to access information from anypoint in the world on any device capable of reading HTML, something it has managed quite successfully but something a lot of people have forgotten.
There is an underlying technology, one which needs to be understood and nurtured. So many of you slate HTML for being too basic, but how many of you have gone farther than this and pushed it to see what you can do? To many of you fall into the trap of jumping on the "Latests Trends" bandwagon?
How many of you understand the differences between browser types and platforms and why they exist?
How many of you think about coulor depth, scaling and scaleability?
How may of you know what CSS elements work where and why?
and how many of you understand degridation?
How many of you test your sites?
The most comon questions I get these days surround things like...
Why does my table structure fall apart in NS6 and not IE5?
Why doesn't my CSS work all of the time?
What the differences between IE3 and IE6?
Your sites should be viewable on ALL browsers whether it be the latest version of IE or the 1994 Mozilla engine. This was the aim of the internet and buy understanding the tecnology behind it all, you can account for all of these differences... That is true Website Design.
When you next create a site, ask youself questions...
who is the intended audience?
Is it accessable by all?
Is it useable?
What's the point?
What will it support?
What support do you offer?
Anyone can create a site these days and a majority of those people are responsible for the 85million pages of twaddle that exist out the on the WWW. These day's I refuse to accept anyone who claims to be a website designer just because they can use Dreamweaver... I can use Quark, but this doesn't make me an author! Agencies won't employ you just because you know how to create a page in Dreamweaver, they're looking for much more these days, one of those being an understanding of the technology, the history and the future...
I changed my job title after a year, I nolonger want to be seen as a Website designer but more of an Website technology and Graphic Designer... It maybe cool to say to your friends "I'm a website designer" but when you get into your 20's, you watch people cringe and grimmace at that term, it's almost embarracing!!
Learn, Understand, Experience and Learn again...
Page: