Hollis Bartlett Web Design

Happy New Year! I decided to flush the old website and start over. The old site was all Wordpress driven, including the pages - I opted to run a regular site instead, and use Wordpress as a blog only (the intended use). Plus, I was tired of the old design, and there were just too many words… So, I now have a nice fresh simple site. I’ll keep the word-i-ness for this blog, which is something else I have been ignoring. Ah yes, another new year’s resolution - keep up with the blog…

About the blog - I deleted the old one altogether (after backing up the posts, of course), it was the older version of Wordpress, and started fresh with the new version which is quite a bit different. It will take some getting used to I think, and it wasn’t without glitches - for whatever reason, the themes didn’t ftp over. Anyhow, we’ll see how it goes. And I promise, there will be pictures in future posts too!

This is the first post I am writing using the new Google Chrome browser. Given Google’s unique position in the marketplace, I see this new development as more than yet another web browser, it’s more like another step in a big shift in the model of personal computing.

Google has been busy building more and more web applications, so much so that it is now possible to have nothing but a web browser on your computer and be able to perform just about any normal day to day productivity tasks outside of normal web page viewing, including document authoring and editing, photo storage and manipulation, mapping, groupware calendaring, spreadsheets, presentations, email - you name it. These apps work amazingly well, with the bonus that you never have to worry about updates, viruses, patches, inter-compatibility, etc. Beyond Google there are more and more web based applications as well for things like billing & invoicing, and many industry specific applications being built every day. There are fewer and few reasons to be concerned about installed software on your business computers anymore, just about everything can be handled via the network, which also gives you the peace of mind knowing that your data is not vulnerable to localized problems like hard drive crashes, viruses, incompatibility problems with new hardware, fire, theft, etc. 

The business computing model is moving away from the old days. You can set up an office with nothing more than whatever computers you choose and an Internet connection, and nothing else - no longer are localized software or local servers necessary. It is this fundamental shift in thinking that I believe is one of the main motivations behind Chrome. It is entirely conceiveable that within a couple of years Google will come out with it’s own computer, probably a low cost unit with no operating system as we know it, and probably not even a hard drive - it will simply have Chrome. Everything else will be done on the network.

Of course, there are exceptions. Designers, developers, engineers etc. will still require a computer with localized software and data for performance. Servers will obviously still exist, probably moreso, however they won’t be office file servers anymore, they will all be web servers. Gamers have been moving more and more towards consoles like Xbox, that trend will continue. However, for normal day-to-day office operations and home computers, a network Google computer will be more than sufficient, and will likely be desireable given that things like viruses, disk crashes, slow startups etc will be a thing of the past. 

Microsoft should be very concerned about this trend, as it leaves them out of the equation, no longer perceived as necessary. In reality you don’t actually need any Microsoft products now, however that perception is still there. Microsoft never did get a stong enough foothold on the web server market, and probably never will (Google’s 100,000+ servers all run Linux). Their office software has been their bread and butter, but that could change easily unless they make an attempt to move it into a subscription based web app. Their operating systems really haven’t had any fundamental changes since Windows 95, at least as far as the user experience goes. However, they did not get to be where they are by stupid business moves, so you will probably see some major changes with Microsoft products in the near future. They are working towards embedding their operating system in devices other than the normal PC, such as cars (Ford), phones and hand helds. However, it may be too little too late. They never dominated in the graphics industry, Adobe has that one locked up. For hand helds, phones etc there is no public perception that Windows is better. They only have a tiny share of the web server market, that one belongs to Unix variants. Perhaps they will turn into the Xbox corporation, they seem to be doing well in that market, but are not without competition.

I don’t know for sure what’s going to happen, but from my observations I think you will see a major shift in the way we think about computers within the next couple of years, perhaps it’s time we did.

On many designer community websites, I see discussions about design process. For web design it would appear that there are different approaches, and the one you take normally probably comes from your background. There are pros and cons to each, I think.

Web Designers

The common approach that I see discussed with designers is the Visual Design first, then fit the site to the visual. The designer either sketches out the design on paper and transfers it to Photoshop, or does it straight in Fireworks and/or Photoshop. Once the visual layout is deemed suitable, the design is then ‘cut up’ and made into html code or fitted to the blog or CMS theme.

Web Developers

This group comes from programmers and system administrators putting together websites. Their approach is different; design the html first (or the programming that will output the html), then fit styling and graphical elements to it.

You can usually recognize the difference in the end result. The designer’s website will look as if it was a poster or other printed media, one big flowing design, all the graphics integrated nicely. Flash sites also fall under this category. If there are flaws to this approach, it’s that the designs are sometimes too strict to allow changing needs for content, and in extreme cases the content takes such a back seat to the design that the whole purpose of the site becomes diminished. The developer’s site on the other hand will have a different flavour; the design will look ‘cut up’, as though different elements were simply stuck here and there. The visuals take a back seat to the content. Quite often the result is perfectly functional, however in some cases the graphics and styling are poor enough that they take away from the purpose of the site.

Me?

I was starting to wonder if I had been doing it wrong when I see the different processes discussed, my approach is neither one and both at the same time. Whenever possible, I design the html document first, without any graphics or styling. Although plain looking it should be quite functional, make sense, and be totally useable. At that point I make the design, taking into account the content (how many pages, purposes of different pages, size, etc) as part of the decisions of the design itself. Many times I have to go back to the original step and make changes, because it just isn’t working out in the design. Quite often this process results in going back and forth between the html, css and graphic steps, hence my ‘holistic’ approach to design. The process is no different whether it’s a straight static html site, or based on a CMS or blog site.

Web design is not graphic design, it’s not programming, it is a different animal altogether. You are designing an electronic document, which may or may not have dynamically generated components as well.  The big challenge of web design is to make an accessible document that will be logical in it’s presentation across different computers, and lately other devices as well such as hand helds. The flow of information must be such that the end user is at no time confused about where they are and what they can do. Your user should know within 4 seconds of getting to your site who you are, what you do, and how to use your web site. Your visual presentation should be professional and a representation of your company, and the whole thing, content, styling and presentation should work as a single harmonious entity in the end - IMHO.

Recently, Smashing Magazine posted a contest looking for guest authors to their online magazine. I figured why not, it was worth a shot. The entry proved to be a little more difficult that I first imagined, because the rules stated that you could either write a 1200 character post or a top 10 list. I elected to write the 1200 character post. Anyone that has done any writing will know how hard it is to keep within 1200 characters (not words, but characters) and say anything meaningful, but it was an excellent excersize for me in being brief and to the point. Too many words just clutter things up.

Because the target audience of the magazine is other designers, freelancers and self-employed, I decided to write about what would be dear to all of their hearts - my secret to getting clients. So far it’s looking OK, there are a couple of other entries that were posted that are also pretty good too so we’ll have to see. It would be nice to win, because the prize is a new Apple Macbook Air! I’m not a Mac user myself, nothing against them and I have used them in the past, just never got one because PC’s were always a way better deal, and I’m used to them (especially from a previous career of being a PC Technician). However, I could be made into a believer yet…

Anyhow, if you want to check out my post it’s here.

Smashing Magazine has a very good article today on the 7 Essential Guidelines for Functional Design. Although the article was aimed at website design, they also reference the fact that these principals apply to design of everything including screwdrivers.  Here’s a summary:

1. Consider the product’s goal - Remember specifically what the intended use of the product will eventually be.
2. Consider who will be using it - Bear in mind who mainly will be using the product and design for them. For example, if children are expected to use it make sure they will be able to understand how.
3. Consider what your users intend to do with it - If they want to accomplish a certain task with your product, don’t make it too difficult. Smashing makes the analogy of programming VCR’s, and how Tivo was able to make that process much more intuitive.
4. Is it clear how to use it? - Your users should know how to use your product without a manual. If your users are tech savvy, then it’s OK if it’s at their level, but if your users are not, it had better be simple.
5. How does your user know it’s working? - A good example of poor design is not having an indicator to show that the button pressed worked, like indicator lights on gadgets or confirmation emails on website forms.
6. Is it engaging to your users? - A well designed product makes you actually want to use it, to build something, to drive it, to taste it, etc.
7. How does it handle mistakes? - End users will make mistakes in using it without fail, make sure that mistakes are not fatal to the product, it’s intended use (or the user!).