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Just a quick blurb that I am sure will be as much for myslef (as a reminder) as it is for other web designers out there! Running a web / graphic design business is first, and foremost… a lot of fun! I feel that needed to be said right off the bat so that the rest of this post doesn’t sound like I am whining!
I would dare say, more than almost any other field, with the possible exception of medicine – being a web designer requires one to be on their toes at all times in terms of learning new things (and re-learning things you have not visited in some time). Where do you want me to start? Well, how about W3C web standards for starters? All in all an AWESOME thing….and no doubt, the work done by the W3C is absolutely necessary. Standards are a good thing! Perhaps we can get the idiots that write the Internet “ExploDer” browser to some day agree! So, we’ll just say item 1 would be learning about web standards. Of course we can break standards down into a million sub categories, but if you’re already a web designer you know that what I am getting at!
Okay, so what else are we as “web people” expected to know…whether those expectations come from ourselves or our clients? Well, for starters how many different types of languages and mark-ups could we talk about? Hmmmm. Well, there is of course javascript, which may only be a “scripting language” but contains a world unto itself – and that doesn’t even count all of the new javascript libraries out there (jquery, motools, dojo etc) which are fricking amazing but, again, require a slight learning curve to use. Of course a “web guy” or “web gal” should know a bit about PHP and mySql databases if only to know how to set up a custom WordPress blog (like the one being used here), not to mention the real power behind the two. Of course we could even lump learning blogging software into the mix while we’re at it couldn’t we? Say for example your client wants a “custom blog”…, 9 times out of 10 you’ll use WordPress, AND, 9 times out of 10 none of the predefined free templates will be exactly what your client wants. Need I say more?
What else could I mention quickly? How about figuring out how to use Cascading Style Sheets (css) in new and creative ways? We could talk about using javascript (and its corresponding libraries) to change css on the fly too. How about if your client wants media in their web design…you’d probably need to know a little bit about editing and compressing video using the myriad of software packages out there not to mention audio. Lets see, there is also podcasting which might require you to know a bit about syndication and xml,,,Oh Yeah, xml, I forgot about that! How about the ever increasing use of “cool audio playing widgets ” available. I bet if I wanted to I could even remind you that we need to be fairly proficient with all of the software that comes with the Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat etc) but, hey, why bring that up too?
Oh, and do I need to remind you that we are primarily DESIGNERS? So in other words you gotta make all this stuff look good too! Of course if you work at a firm you may only need to be good at 2 or or 3 or 5 things, but I know there are many, many out there like myself who are always doing their best to stay ahead of the curve and learn it all….so, to all of you…..HATS OFF!
Interesting! Always looking for useful SEO tips and software.
I really enjoy reading A “Chin Up” for other Designers! » . It’s very interesting. Hope you will post something like this again.
Thank you for doing me the favor of bringing in web traffic. I am not surprised that you don’t like my web site, as I am like the Catholic Church in my ability to “finish” it, but please do give me some constructive criticism, instead of leaving me to wonder what it is to which you are referring. Please also fix your sentence so that it is a complete sentence.
As mentioned in the heart of the blog itself, my comment was not intended to be mean if for no other reason then for the fact that I don’t know you….thus I would have to reason to be mean. As far as constructive criticism goes…where do you want me to start???
One immediate example that comes to mind might be to get away from designing your site(s) using html tables…tables should be used what they are intended for which is data storage and perhaps content that requires a perfect grid. CSS was invented for a reason – and looking at your source code, I can at least tell that you know CSS exists so you should USE it. Secondly, you have a photograph on your index page that takes a good 14 seconds to load (and I have a blazing fast connection and a fast machine) so you must actually have the image sitting in a directory at full size and probably at a high resolution, I shouldn’t have to tell you that this should NEVER be done. Also, in your contact information you have your phone number and email address spelled out…if you are doing this to be wary of email harvesters then you should write (or borrow) a javascript snippet to scramble these in the background and unscramble them by the end users browser. All of the links on your “possibilities” page are broken and don’t go anywhere, not only that they take you to a 404 error page on yahoo which I am guessing based on this and the absolute path of your url you are using some type of free web hosting (though I admit I could be wrong).
These things that I have mentioned are technical issues that don’t even begin to touch the design aspect of the site. If you are doing this sort of work on your own site I can only imagine that you are doing similar things for CLIENTS…and charging them money to do it!
I will say that some of your logos are decent. Maybe this is where your talent rests? Nothing wrong with that…if you are good at logos and corporate identity, that is very respectable. You should perhaps focus on that and maybe partner up with a good web person.
I hope this was the type of constructive criticism you were looking for. Keeping up with all aspects of web technology is all but impossible (see my post “a chin up for other designers”), it, in and of itself is a full time job! So, nothing to be ashamed of. I wish you luck, and apologize if I offended you.
Best
Marc