April 13, 2008
Structure and Style: On the rocks | 10:17 pm
The first time I read about separating style from structure in Web pages, I got hung up on the difference between using HTML for structure, and CSS for layout. I remember thinking, wasn't the structure of a document the same thing as its layout? In print media, such as newspapers, people often iron out the skeleton structure of pages based on how much space will be left over after inserting their sponsors advertisements. Articles can always be shortened.
But I may have been in a lonely minority of people for whom this wasn't an intuitive leap. I haven't come across any articles that were written in order to dumb down this concept. Nevertheless, once I realized what style sheets meant for Web-based media, a light bulb finally flickered on inside my head.
Toward the beginning of this month's blogging, I wrote that Web design isn't like riding a bicycle. But if there's any part of it that's hard to forget, it's that feeling of relief after learning how to restyle all of a site's pages by editing a single style sheet.
April 12, 2008
Areas of design study | 3:04 pm
I mentioned at the beginning of the week how, when I picked Web design back up, I made a plan to give myself all the time I would need over the course of several weeks (a few months), to reintroduce myself to the three areas most important to designing Web page layouts. These are Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and graphic production. Notice how I refer to the latter item as production, not design. I think, now, this is a somewhat important distinction to make, and I'll touch on it in more detail later.
These three areas may not be the most important for every Web designer starting out. While I can't see how HTML wouldn't be on someone's list, not all Web designers are super concerned about CSS, and many aren't interested at all in graphics. Many employers prefer specialists. There was a guy on the Web development team at my first Internet-related job who specialised almost completely in Macromedia Flash (now Adobe Flash). Flash can be used for static design (unmoving, not interactive), but is very often used for dynamic design (animated and/or interactive).
There are also graphic designers who got their start in print media, and moved over to the Web when it seemed like a valuable transition for them to make. Graphic editing software such as Photoshop, Photoimpression, The Gimp (no I'm not kidding) and others allow varying degrees of success when transferring images into formats that look great on the Web.
1:33 am
Sometimes, I'd rather be working on a novel. But it isn't that bad, actually sometimes I'm working on a novel anyway. What I mean is, Web design is a lot harder to romanticize than something like writing novels, or writing almost anything. The reason I don't think it's that bad is because, well, because it's a silly game to play. Especially at one in the morning, on a Friday evening (still evening, remember, I haven't slept yet), which is paradoxically the easiest time to play thought games with oneself. Why is that? I don't know, I'm not a psychologist.
Web design can take up a lot of time. It's not terribly difficult to pick up, for probably most anyone. But there's a lot of it to pick up, so maybe it's somewhat complex; But to hear it explained from the outside looking in, it may sound more complicated than it is.
Maybe, maybe not. In any case, it can be tedious. But so is any other job that insists you earn your money.
April 11, 2008
12:33 am
I began wrapping my day up for bed a few minutes before 11 pm. But as soon as I turned my bedside lamp off, I remembered telling myself not to let a single day pass this month without spending at least an hour practicing Web design. The day had started off different than usual, and then I'd gone forward from there-- all the way until bedtime, and I just hadn't gotten around to it. That's exactly the sort of thing I saw coming this month, and it's why I made that deal with myself.
The good thing is that I didn't have to grumble or fight myself to get away from my bed and in front of my book, notes and computer. The hour I spent just now, hammering out a couple new ideas, made me feel better, so I'll probably sleep better. What's an hour anyway? Out of one night in the week?
Tonight, I made some initial coding plans based on a sketch I made last night for what a splash page might look like. Splash pages are sort of like book covers. They introduce you to the look and feel of a Web site, usually while providing a big logo and a way to enter the rest of the site. They're not all that convenient for sites like mine, but if you look in your status bar on some sites (like Barneys New York), you might see images caching while you browse the menus on their splash page. This improves your shopping experience since you won't be waiting for pictures of expensive sweaters to load.
Tomorrow -- it's not really tomorrow until I've slept -- I'll have to remember to download SmartFTP, since I've been wanting to try it out. My 30-day trial of CuteFTP runs out within the next day, and since the average FTP program is going to cost about forty dollars, I should try a few different ones out to see which one fits best. FTP software is what I use to get files from my computer to the different servers that host mine and client Web sites.
April 9, 2008
Boring history lesson for bedtime | 11:56 pm
Over the past couple days, I've been reintroducing myself to the concept of cross-browser issues. Cross-browser issues refer to the problems that different browsers sometimes have rendering code into similar displays. When I lay out a page using HTML and CSS, I don't want you to see something widely different depending on whether you're using Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari or Netscape. (Netscape is deprecated, by the way.)
Back in the early 2000s (seems so long ago now), many designers relied primarily or solely on HTML to design Web page layouts. HTML, in its inception, and to this day, is a very utilitarian programming language. It was, as far as I know, the first computer programming language that wasn't aimed entirely at computer programmers. Its capability to display data into paragraph blocks, numbered and unordered lists, and especially tables made it an ideal choice for scientists and scholars wanting to quickly disseminate research data, news and essays to colleagues.
HTML isn't a programming language dreamed up by magazine cover experts; And I imagine its ability to turn Web pages into dazzling, well, magazine covers was a fortunate byproduct of its utilitarian nature, and the resourcefulness of designers. CSS, on the other hand, you'd almost think was designed by magazine cover experts.
But the solution of CSS was a problem for browsers that were designed to allow misuse (some might say abuse) of HTML for the sake of nice-looking layouts. CSS provides a strict set of rules that, when followed, are much more powerful than yesterday's design methods. Unfortunately, some browsers have been slow to adopt the full range of rules and standards, resulting in a situation where designers need to keep up with which browsers are behind in what ways.
April 8, 2008
Function and Facade: Made for each other? | 11:42 pm
There is some disagreement among designers about whether this medium is a form of art, or a form of engineering. I'm getting back into the business to make some money, so I see such discussions as a distraction from actually doing Web design.
I can tell you how I approach design, and how I feel when I'm in the middle of the design process: As I read or lay down code, I envision shapes, typography and colors. But while that is enjoyable sometimes, it never leaves my mind that someone has come here to do something, and I want them to be able to do it in as few clicks and with as little confusion as possible. This is the top priority for me, the most important part of the whole business.
But this can involve the psychology of audience types, and most people, I think, would prefer some aesthetics with their engineering. The goal for me is balance. I think that arguments about function versus aesthetics ignore the greatest achievements of both arenas. The phrase "elegant design" is often used as praise to describe phenomenal engineering. And art has always served a purpose, or a function, if not for its audience then at least for the artist.
What we have here is blindfolded men and women pulling on different parts of the same elephant.
April 7, 2008
8:13 pm
Saturday afternoon I wrote a little bit about styling the content of the Web page by using a CSS file. By style, I mean everything except the raw data. The shape of the boxes that all the paragraphs are in, and the different fonts of all the headings, dates and words, background colors inside and outside these areas, and so on. This can all be styled from a document that looks like a text file except for its file extension, which is easy to guess, and the particular format in which elements, properties, measurements and comments must be typed into the file.
This week, I have stopped working forward in my CSS textbook to review the few chapters I have inhaled over the last several weeks. There is a lot of design theory, and also a lot of code covered in what I have already read, and each piece of code has its own function. The only way to discover (in my case remember) the ways that theory and code are interelated is to practice.
April 6, 2008
Managing Time | 10:21 pm
Ever since I began to relearn Web design skills at the beginning of the year, my personal Web site has been slowly evolving as I applied various knowledge picked up along the way. It was a messy and clumsy process at first-- and that's fine because learning any complex subject usually is.
I dived right in, but I did make an effort from the start to keep my study time structured; I'm not approaching JavaScript, nor am I approaching any server-related programming languages at the moment. They'll require lots of time just for revisiting basic points. I set aside several days in a row to catch up on basic HTML skills, followed by CSS, followed by the bare minimum of some graphic design basics. I did that rather than try to catch up on all of these subjects in one week.
April 5, 2008
Getting some style | 4:52 pm
After finding that the Web site with the hosting issue was back online, I uploaded the file with the updated content, and shot a quick email off to the business manager.
Then I decided to finish taking a fine-toothed comb to my personal Web site. I made a copy of the Web page to work from, and then stripped out all the in-line styles, leaving only the bare structure of the document and its content.
Next, I'll clean up the cascading style sheet (CSS), a file that will apply the style to the Web page on modern browsers. Mobile phones and handicapped people with special browsers would only be able to see (or hear and/or feel) the bare document in logical order. But by using the style sheet, I'll be able to take the various sections of this Web page and squish, stretch and move them around for modern browsers by typing measurements into the style sheet.
Deadlines and dead lines | 1:24 am
And now I'm blogging a few hours later than I normally would. I've got a caffeine buzz going tonight and am staying up late to work on my novel. I'm also periodically checking the File-Transfer connection to a client's Web host. I had a request waiting in my email this morning for an addition to an update I made at the beginning of the week on one of their Web pages. I replied back that I'd have it done before tomorrow.
If an update will take less than an hour, I try to get it out of the way that day or the next. It took only about fifteen minutes to decide how I wanted to present the raw data the client had given me (event name and dates), both for marketing language and code. So after formatting and playing with ideas for a catchy tagline for the event, I tried to connect to the Web server that hosts the site.
And then I tried again. And again. After testing my FTP software on other Web hosts successfully, it was obvious. Still, every so often, I'd get in for a few moments. Like Tantalus, it would disconnect right before I could get the updated Web page uploaded. And then, the host and the client's site went out altogether.
The event is more than a week into May, and I know this client in particular isn't going to be frustrated about a small delay. But I sent a status report back anyway, to let them know exactly what was going on. As a Web designer, a great deal of my communication will be remote through phone conversations and email. Staying in touch is a good habit to develop. It can actually set me apart from many Web designers!
April 3, 2008
Finding time | 4:17 pm
I'm blogging a few hours earlier than I normally would. There are lots of things to do, and today, most of it is unrelated to Web design. But, some of those things can be done later without the Internet if a developing thunder-storm zaps my neighborhood's power out.
Whenever a day's schedule is fully in my hands, knowing exactly what I want to accomplish is important. There are all sorts of projects, responsibilities and obligations that will demand my attention this month, and hefty chunks of my time.
When I decided to pick Web design back up, it wasn't because I had so much free time floating around. I had known for a while that I should have stuck with it, even when the industry was saturated with undervalued designers. I began to acknowledge that there would never be a good time to start over; meaning, there would never be a bunch of days in a row with tons of free time to redevelop my skills. Instead, I would need to manage my time, so that I could find places to squeeze in some Web design.
There shouldn't be a single day when I decide, consciously or by default, that I can't spend at least an hour advancing my knowledge of Web design. Blogging doesn't count, but a few minutes to track my progress, or just my thoughts, results in something I can look back on and review later.
April 2, 2008
Web Design: Not a toy | 9:25 pm
Web design is fun, but like a car, it's not a toy. It can look and feel great, but maintenance can be tedious. Without proper maintenance, bugs remain hidden in code, content grows stale and links decay.
Web design is multidisciplinary. We call it Web design because we're designing Web pages. But we're also designing images, such as logos, and layouts with photos or graphic art, and producing articles for marketing and public relations. Many Web designers are also Web developers, programming dynamic interfaces that connect to databases to process credit cards, or show video games and movies right in the browser.
Web design is not like riding a bicycle. Like I wrote yesterday, if you're a Web designer with years of experience, I would probably learn more by reading your blog instead of writing mine. But there's one thing I can teach you. You can't just pick it up again easy. You should think twice before you let anything spontaneous pull you in another direction. No matter how much money is involved at the time, jobs come and go. You can only truly advance -- both personally and professionally -- in a career.
Web designers are information architects, but it's not really the Web that people use to experience digital information. If it can be seen, heard, touched, smelled or tasted, Web designers are able to design for some of our senses now, and will design using media for all of them in the future, probably within my lifetime. As technologies diversify and advance, it becomes almost harder to disbelieve this than to believe it.
The Web is quickly becoming ubiquitous. People will want access to the Web in their homes, cars, pockets, clothes, and even bodies. It's not the most horrible, boring job I could think of.
April 1, 2008
11:14 pm
I'm going to spend a month detailing bits and pieces of my rise to Web design infamy.
It's not going to be deep and dramatic like my rise to noveling fame. It won't be scrutinous like my adventure finding another way to pay the bills (a select audience was privy to that pickle). Just think of this as an April Fool's Day joke that lasts all month long. Except, maybe not funny; And maybe not as interesting (if you're already in Web design, I would probably learn more by reading your blog instead of writing mine; please tell me where it is).
So where do I start? I've got a good, self-deprecating opening above. Crucial for newbies. You have to be able to laugh at yourself, and do it quickly before anyone else can. It somehow transfers their cool points to you. Odd, yes, but I don't make the rules.
Actually I do make the rules. Which is bothering me right now, because if you look at the P tag for the time underneath the date, I'd like it to rest right beneath the date, which uses the H2 tag. I tried using the line-height property inline on the P tag, but the time barely budged. No laughing matter! I could cheat and use a different tag for the date. But it's probably bad luck to let a Web design blog degenerate into a discussion of HTML hacks on the first entry.
March, 2008
This has been a good month. Visit my blog next week for an update on the noveling front.
Last month, after catching up on foundational HTML with Webmonkey: The Web Developer's Resource, I dug through a closet for the classic reference, Designing CSS Web Pages.
Designing with CSS is better than using HTML alone, because forward compatibility means designs won't break when web browsers and mobile devices change and become more advanced. In most cases -- since you can't tell customers what browser or platform to use when visiting your site -- your site should be designed to cooperate with old, current, and future technology. This is an area where the future arrives early.
You want a Web site, right?
If you or your company needs a website designed, revised or maintained, Send me mail at jacob@lettucethink.com.
February, 2008
Web design involves more than HTML markup, SEO, and CSS layouts (You can mouse over those underlined acronyms if you don't know what they mean). So, I'm going to want to get familiar with some parts of graphic design again.
I'll show off a few pictures I made for practice recently. This first picture is my hand, scanned, and then edited with Photoshop 7, the most recent version I own (worksjustfine).
Web design also involves photography, typography, and audience types.
Typography, like color, can be considered contextual because different fonts convey different attitudes, sometimes even genders and classes. GQ isn't cursively flourished Monotype Corsiva for the same reason The New Yorker isn't Comic Sans.
This next picture is a dramatic, close-up shot of my small white-marble elephant. Broken trunk, blurred in Photoimpression 4 and saturated with color. Labeled with Visitor, one of my favorite fonts, by Brian Kent of ÆNIGMA Fonts.
This is a book cover I made for people who wanted to read "Myopia in a Popular Culture of Ascension", my first novel's first draft, written for National Novel Writing Month 2007.
I crumpled up a sticker sheet and used Photoshop to replace one of the smiley faces with planet Mars.
A two-chapter excerpt from the rough draft is available for reading. One day I might revise Myopia for submission to publishers.
Behind most good designs are several dozen ugly designs. Practice leads to perfect design, or at least to exuberant imperfection.
I find it helpful sometimes to practice making doodles in a program with almost fewer features than a sheet of paper, Microsoft Paint.
January, 2008
I'd like to take a moment to thank Webmonkey: The Web Developer's Resource 
for the best publicly available design resource on the web for designers who need to start catching up.