I have the knowledge

I found it in an orange book with some kind of pixellated smurf on the cover.

I feel like the blanks have been filled in now, it really is worth getting hold of a copy if you are a web designer or involved in web design projects in any way.

My web design knowledge so far has been gained by example and by being thrown into projects at the deep end, but this book makes you stop and look at the process of designing websites from the ground up. Many of the projects I have worked on in the past, particularly when working for a large fast moving agency, started with a graphic design in photoshop, then we used old skool “slice and dice” to deconstruct the design and the used string and gaffer tape to put it back together to masquerade as a web site.

It didn’t help that the team was divided into designers and site builders. The designers, though very good at graphic design, barely knew how to open dreamweaver, let alone use HTML and CSS. The site builders weren’t allowed to do any design. It didn’t work.

I have decided that I will stop evangelizing about using CSS from now on, unless someone pays me to do it in the form of consultancy. I think I am better off attempting to lead by example, (although i’m certainly not a brilliant designer so maybe that won’t work!). I am tempted to list a final rant about the misconception that sites designed and built using web standards all look boring, but I wont. It’s all in the book.