For those that are doing web design, if you don’t attend this event then you may as well leave university!
Those were the words from my lecturer at university while telling us about Andy Clarke visiting the university as a guest speaker. Thankfully, I had already booked my place and I am glad that I did.
The talk was a taste of what could be found in his new book Hardboiled Web Design. The talk started of by explaining the private detective theme (which was something that had puzzled me previously), and as much as I would love to go into great detail I can’t. This is because a weekend has past since completing this blog and I forgot (sorry Andy)…but in a nutshell it is something to do with the job of a private detective has similar attributes as a web designer. Plus, Andy has loved this genre since he was a kid.
But I digress as this wasn’t the main point of the talk. In fact the talk was about a change in philosophy on how web designers build sites for different browsers and platforms. As some of you know, there is different browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera etc) which all have their own limitations. Currently, the philosophy of designing a website is to try to make it look the same on all different browsers. This means that some useful tools within CSS3 are not being used because they are not supported by all of them.
As a designer, we look at building the basic site and then “sprinkling on the extras” to make it look good. However, Andy believes that we should be designing sites with the potential that is now available and then making an accessible version for those that can’t support it. The customer will see a suitable version for that browser, and they will be happy. As Andy points out, how many customers compare the site in different browsers?
With the invention of new ways to use the internet, smartphones, iPads and TVs becoming popular; the need for unity is slowly being waned away and replaced with desire to have an accessible site suitable for that specific platform. So why can’t the same behaviour be used for different internet browsers?
Overall, the talk was really insightful and a great change in the philosophy. It’s a shame that I couldn’t stay and have an informal chat with him after the talk, but I was too shy and secondly I had to get to work. But it is definitely another book that I shall be getting.
Useful links:
Amazon (to buy the book) Currently awaiting the book, but if you have an NUS card you could save 5% from Amazon orders
Five Simple Steps (Publisher)
