design runs all the way through
another reference from Steve Champeon interview on page 3 [link removed] (must have missed it first read – I always have read things twice) – a quote about web design being more than just visual. I collect these as I believe it is so relevant particulary now and in the next couple years when the inevitable global shift to CSS means that web designers who daren’t look under the bonnet come unstuck:-
“design runs all the way through, it’s not just visual and it’s certainly not something you can hand off to the Photoshop wonk and expect to be able to “integrate” later. Anyone who thinks otherwise really needs to remind themselves of the medium they are working in.”
This isn’t an attack on graphic designers by the way, but a prediction that the market will improve for designers who are prepared to shift their thinking towards this new “CSS for positioning” paradigm. To design for this medium you need to know it. Just as you may have taken a while to get your head round thinking in tables, you will now need to start thinking in CSS. Those that do will be in demand, those who don’t will be left behind as this this new “craze”, becomes the industry standard.
It bugs me that there will probably be people out there thinking “well show me a CSS layout which looks good”, but the fact is there’s not many yet, because they haven’t been designed yet, because the majority of the talented designers are stuck in 1999. The comment that annoys me most is that “all CSS sites look the same” and/or just plain “shit”. Whilst there may be some truth in this, that’s not because of the medium, it’s because most of the decent designers haven’t caught up yet.
The irony in my eyes is that it is all the table based stuff which looks the same from where i’m standing.
non believing designers take note:-
1. You can do pixel perfect positioning in CSS like in photoshop
2. You can use layers like in photoshop
3. You dont have to base things around table cells (which I know you all hated until you got used to it)
4. But first you have to take your blinkers off and learn how to use it