Persona

Posted at: 4:14 PM by Mark

In the last few weeks I've done something I never thought I'd do, or even think I'd be interested in doing... I've joined the dark side! That's right; I've taken my first few tepid steps into the strange and daunting world of code.

Until now, developers have always been those geeks at the other end of the office, non-creatives permanently docked at their little PC stations consumed in page after page of coloured dots, colons and squiggly brackets. Like well oiled machines, they endlessly create, edit and refresh pages of code, only surfacing from their online havens and engaging in the real world for the occasional service or refuel. The distance between them and us has been understandably well observed and any contact confined to email. This is simply the way it's always been and is best for everyone concerned, right?

Okay, so maybe I'm exaggerating a little. After all, the pursuits of the two professions cannot be fully realised without our harmonious collaboration. Despite our fundamental creative and technical differences, we rely on each other for the success of each and every project we undertake. Without us creative types, developers have no page layouts to code away at all day and without their technical skills, we designers have no one to turn our works of art into something useful! Yet the journey of creating a web site always remains a process of two distinct and separate phases, design then development, in which the intricacies and limitations of both fields inevitably arise, occasionally causing friction and frustration for either camp dealing with the ignorance of the other. It is this lack of understanding about the each other's field that has prompted me to do learn more about the dark art.

I've realised that I will never fully understand the restrictions of the web and how that effects my precious design until I actually get my head stuck into some code and try to see things from the perspective of the poor old developer. For too long, I've just has to grumpily sigh and resign myself to defeat when Lewis comes and tells me that some part of my design just isn't possible to recreate or the primary font I've used will just look terrible in IE6! My well thought out and balanced response that "the web sucks" simply won't cut it anymore.

So with the Lewis' help and complete disregard for my previous bad experiences with linguistics (GSCE French and German), I've set about studying the languages of HTML and CSS, in a bid to broaden my horizons, understand how to code a web site and ultimately learn how to best optimise my future designs for web.

So far, I've been surprised how much I've enjoyed learning about elements, attributes and divs. At first it plays havoc on the eyes and is pretty taxing on the brain, but like with anything, putting the theory into practise and repeating tutorials is proving to be working well. I so far understand everything these languages have thrown at me and can rustle up a pretty basic but solid web site from scratch.

My only previous experience in building websites has been through Dreamweaver's "Design view" and that has always been a pretty frustrating one, with elements on a page jumping around when previewed, no matter what changes I seem to make. When creating pages using code, everything feels that little bit more deliberate and stable.

Needless to say, the time I've spent in code view has helped me appreciate the restrictions of the web in terms of the way different elements display on a page and how the medium is much more fluid than that of print design. I can't necessarily make every bit of design sit precisely where I want like I can in print, simply because of the organic nature of the web and the sheer number of variables there are (browsers, fold lines, anti-alias's etc). With each new web site I come to design, these are the sort of factors that I can keep in mind to make the whole process run a bit smoother and improve Lewis' quality of life.

Not only does my foray into uncharted technical territory help with the efficiency and enjoyment of the design and development process in the studio, it also helps me to expand my skill set and improve my employability in an industry where the role of the designer is becoming ever broader.

When studying graphic design at university, there is very little mention of designing for web, in fact there are entirely separate degrees dedicated to digital and multimedia design. My course focused entirely on conceptual "ideas" based print design, occasionally venturing into the worlds of advertising or packaging design. Yet this separation in design courses is not really mirrored in the real world, where many design/marketing agencies strive to meet the needs of clients wanting a range of services: branding, printed literature, web design and search marketing for example. Unless you happen to join a huge agency which has a team covering each of these bases and thus employ you solely for your branding abilities, then you're going to have to be able to branch out somewhat and adapt to the requirements of each individual project.

Many job descriptions for designers these days specify requirements for candidates to have experience and skills in both print and web design, and the relevant computer software for each. It would seem that knowledge of HTML, CSS and Flash etc. is becoming just as important as that of Adobe's Creative Suite and the print industry for those employing the next wave of graduates. For the purist designer who ignores this trend though, preferring to stick to their guns and the world of print, the opportunities may well become that little bit harder to find. This is an industry changing to meet the needs of those wanting to communicate their message, and with the web being at the forefront of the communication age, I for one am not going to rest on my laurels.

Labels: creative, css, persona, web design

Posted at: 2:56 PM by Lewis

I often try to keep up-to-date with the latest developments at the W3C, and in particular with CSS. There are many useful and promising features outlined for CSS3 (the next spec for CSS standards, which are in development as I speak) that have already got me excited probably more than is really necessary. One of the more obviously inspiring advancements though, will be with web fonts.

For years web designers have been mostly stuck in a rut with web typography; restricted to a only a handful of fonts because developers such as myself have to keep a tight reign on what's possible, knowing that fonts on one particular computer will not be the same on another's. Although the solution to these restrictions has traditionally been to create imagery to represent such fonts, this and other methods present their own set of problems and required work-arounds for developers, and in general we remain restricted - stuck in the past. It's amazing how little progress (though some would say obvious given the circumstances) has been made with web typography over the years, despite the capabilities being there for some time.

CSS3's font selector should eradicate all of that. With it, it will be possible for developers to specify not just another boring old font, but actual TrueType fonts. How? By simply referencing the location of the font file itself in a CSS, so if the user has the font installed on their machine or not, it won't matter because the CSS can pull them in accordingly and render them on the page (providing they are using a web browser which supports CSS3, of course.)

Currently, only the latest version of Apple's Safari browser has implemented the spec - but it's there, and it works. Both Opera and Firefox plan to include the selector in upcoming versions of their browsers.

Problems? As always, Microsoft (in their own non-standard ways) are unlikely to be keen on such a method, and instead propose a font format of their own. Although they are beginning to demonstrate better understanding and willingness to comply to standards with their upcoming Internet Explorer 8, only time will tell if the specs are properly implemented. Hey, we can hope, right?

In the mean time, we can all declare support for features like this by supporting, using and actively promoting the use of standards-based browsers such as Firefox and Safari, which do take the time to follow these exciting proposals, and in turn send out a clear message to those who don't. Because in the end, designers, developers and the general public want feature-rich functions like this, making the web just that little bit more engaging to use in the process.

Labels: css, css3, safari, technical, web, web typography