With work on Pro CSS Techniques winding down, I’m starting to have a bit more spare time on my hands. Don’t get me wrong — I’m still busy with the day job and a few other projects — but I’m finally able to stop and take a breath every once in a while, which wasn’t the case a few weeks ago.
So, what am I doing with my new found spare time? Well besides the obvious answers (spending more time with Michelle and Haley, consuming more booze, and watching more TV), I’m trying to get better at web design. So, in no particular order, here are five things I’m either doing or planning to do in the next several months to hone my craft.
- Experiencing more design on the web. This might seem silly or obvious, but the fact is that RSS has largely killed the web design star. Don’t get me wrong — I loves me some feeds and I consume more of them at a faster rate than anyone I know — but the truth is that I spend a lot less time browsing the web and experiencing great design than I ever have before. This is a bit sad, and definitely not something I’m proud of, so I want to make a conscious effort to seek out, enjoy, interact with, and consume more web design on a daily basis, just like I did in the good ‘ol days.
- Getting over web standards. Again, don’t take this the wrong way — but I’m over web standards. Web standards, as a movement, was much-needed thing that has made great inroads and has drastically improved the state of the web (and yes, there’s still plenty more web standards adoption to be done around the web, too). But I don’t want to be so narrow-minded about tools and technologies that I can’t enjoy great graphic design on the web simply because it was done in Flash, in tables, or with generally disgusting HTML. Inspiration comes from everywhere around us, and the fact that a huge majority of the feeds I read are written by standards advocates tells me I might be missing something in my life. I think I’ll always be an advocate for web standards, but I’m kind of tired of talking about them, reading about them, and focusing on them. It’s time for me to move on a bit.
- Finding ways to bring more print/traditional design techniques to the web. The web is not print. We all know it. Fine. But, forgive me if I don’t want to puke every time I think about all the great things print designers can do that are difficult, if not impossible, on the web. We’ve got a long, long way to go, folks. Web design still basically sucks. I’ve been doing a fair amount of reading, trying to learn more about graphic design outside the web scope (remember, I’m not a formaly trained graphic designer, and I’ve basically only done graphic design on the web). I’m not terribly interested in working in another medium, but I am interested in trying to figure out practical, real-world ways to bring to the web some of the techniques we see every day in our newspapers, books, magazines, and so forth.
- Building systems that let me design every page. Somewhat relatedly, I often find myself lamenting the fact that web sites are so incredibly templated. On most sites, nearly every page uses the same basic layout. We rarely design pages — we design templates. Those templates then get applied to lots of pages. On most sites, this is necessary for practical purposes. I find it limiting. When we run a feature in Sunday’s paper and it’s got a beautifully done custom layout that totally fits the story, and then I see that online it’s running in the same template as everything else, it really makes me want to cry. At least part of this problem is the fault the system we put in place (CMSes, workflows, policies, etc.) I want to find ways to re-work these systems such that a designer can give specific design attention to any page of the site without having to recreate the template every time. It’s not practical for me to write a new story detail page template every time we run another feature — I need ways I can quickly, but effectively, put together a page as unique as the story running on it. You should begin to see some of the fruits of this effort whenever I manage to launch the next version of jeffcroft.com (read: not terribly soon).
- I don’t know yet. I haven’t quite decided what number five will be. Some candidates include: learning Flash and ActionScript, doing more writing, trying to speak at more conferences (note that I’ll be participating in a panel at SXSW 2007 — see you there!), learning more Python, getting really good with Adobe Illustrator, doing more photography, and…well, the list goes on and on. There is never a shortage of things I want to do. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in 2006, it’s that I need to learn to say no sometimes. So, maybe there is no number five. We’ll see.
If there’s a trend amongst these, I guess it would be “more design, less tech.” Maybe it’s because I’ve spent the last six months working on a book about CSS, or maybe I’m just not as nerdy as everyone else (hah!), but that does pretty much sum up how I feel. I’m tired of code and software — can’t I just draw pretty pictures all day?!
What are you guys doing to hone your craft (even if that craft isn’t web design)?
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001 // Fernando Lins // 10.16.2006 // 8:42 PM
“Getting over web standards”! Aleluia, brother! Oh man, I’m so happy I’m not the only one tired of all of this CSS-AJAX-Ruby thing. I know, they’re great technologies, I could not live without them, but people got so absurdly caught up in this “coolness” wave that they forgot that there is a right tool for everything, and that you should explore every tool you can in order to deliver the best results - and not use this or that because they’re “cool”.
I also agree on the templates issues. I think that comes mostly from the fact that nowadays CMS and BMS are so popular that pratically no one designs their own pages anymore. You have a model, you change it’s CSS and that’s it. For my new site I built my own CMS from scratch and I must say it is hard to get rid of the good old template scheme, it is so much easier. I wish there was an easy way to integrate variety and unity when it comes to CSS. Working on a CSS for each page would be very complicated and time consuming.
002 // Keith // 10.16.2006 // 9:52 PM
I’m doing lots of similar things; reading more about non-web design, spending more time designing and less time coding and worrying about things like standards. I’ve been trying more drawing, writing and trying to take more photos.
Journaling is something I think has brought me a ways creativley. I suggest reading The Creative License by Danny Gregory, that will probably help you be a better designer, regardless of medium.
003 // Luke Fretwell // 10.16.2006 // 10:57 PM
I think about this also. Recently, I picked up “The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life” by Twyla Tharp, “ones of America’s greatest choreographers.”
It’s interesting that she advocates establishing a routine or ritual that allows you to be more creative, which sounds counter-intuitive. Most of us do this and don’t even know it.
Reading a philosophical perspective specifically about creativity from someone who banks her livelihood on it is pretty inspiring, and I’m the last person you’d find on a dance floor.
004 // Egor // 10.16.2006 // 11:36 PM
The web could do with a bit more #3.
005 // Fredrik Wärnsberg // 10.17.2006 // 12:51 AM
I agree with you on lots of points you make. When I found myself caring more about the markup of certein sites than the design I just sat down and thought “What on earth am I doing”?
After that I’ve started paying less attention to webstandards, and nowdays I don’t read every artcile available on CSS or AJAX. I think that has more to do with that I think that there are very little new things written about standards-based webdevelopment, most articles is just another author/blogger saying the exact same thing as another did two weeks ago, which I consider to be a problem. I’d like to see more interesting articles on CSS, things it can be used for (that CSS for print article on ALA was awesome) and more appliances for XML (I just found out that IE6 actually is capable of parsing XML with some hacking, which makes for great capabilities).
006 // Kevin // 10.17.2006 // 1:05 AM
I like number three, a lot. There is so much we can learn from print design, especially with regards to typography. I know we lament the lack of typefaces we have, or the lack of, but I really think we can take what we have an keep pushing it.
One thing I’ve been trying to do more is listen to my instincts more. I can sometimes over think things and block ourselves off from the creative flow.
007 // Fredrik Wärnsberg // 10.17.2006 // 2:45 AM
Kevin, sIFR can really help with typography on the web (flash has a penetration rate of about 99% of the visistors, and sIFR is un-obtrusive anyway), at least for headlines.
I get the feeling that lots of webdesigners, myself included, focus too much on the graphic part of the web rather than the actual designpart (typography, grids and color theory). Compare the amount of detail from a printed magazine to a e-zine. Which has more going on in terms of gradients and drop shadows?
These things are important to have as a designer, but I feel that some designers focus on the graphical parts too much. Designers shouldn’t stop using graphical elements, but they shouldn’t be the main part of the design (this is were I’m a real hypocrite, have a look at my site).
I think that this site combined with ALA are the two best sites around when it comes to very stylish simplicity (the typography colors and margins make up the entire design by themselves, not flashy reflections). A plead to you Jeff; don’t deviate from this concept in your next design. It’s great and I really think it s the right way to go when it comes to most webdesign; focused on theee content and not the graphics. This is also what sets many professional webdesigners apart from the rest (great post about this http://www.cameronmoll.com/archives/001266.html)
The web offers lots of new possibilities that printed media doesnt (mainly interaction), but we must use it responsibly. The vast majority of the web shouldn’t be about experience design, but rather getting the information across to the user as smoothly as possible, let’s not forget this!
008 // Nate K // 10.17.2006 // 8:22 AM
Thanks for sharing your list, Jeff. Though I still have a somewhat busy schedule, I have contemplated a few of the same things you have.
First off, I have put down my ‘web standards sword’ and decided to jump in and help where I can. I am working with a local developer who finds he spends a lot of time having to re-build things over and over (with tabled design). He has been giving me his designs, and then I build them out with CSS for him to work with. Before now, I would have just been upset and preaching to him - but it is much better diving in and helping (teaching) someone an easier way to do things.
Second, I have been doing a lot of reading lately. I am looking more and more towards some design driven books - typography, building interfaces, using colors, etc. I have read many CSS/DOM/Web Accessibility books lately - and I need a refresher (Don’t get me wrong, I will be getting your book as soon as it ships - he). I want to jump out of the boundaries for a bit, learn something new outside of ‘web design’.
Though I want to be a great web developer and build to standards, I am getting weary trying to pound it into people’s heads. I have found a new approach that is working better - where my actions speak louder than my words (or code…).
009 // Baxter // 10.17.2006 // 8:33 AM
While I agree with 3, I would suggest looking even further afield. Inspiration is everywhere.
010 // Nick Dominguez // 10.17.2006 // 9:03 AM
Some thoughts.
Regarding point number 3. I think the problem with the whole standards movement/discussion is that somewhere down the line we stopped talking about how web standards can liberate and enhance our design and we became restricted by the rules and restrictions of building standards based design.
This brings me to point number 4, somebody or some people need to design a CMS that inspires creativity, not restrict it. I refuse to believe that with all the technology that has come on the scene in the past 3 years that there can’t be a CMS designed that gives designers and even developers many options on layout, typography, etc. on a per page or section basis “on the fly”.
I think the developers that build these systems just have to change their frame of mind and pardon the cheesy term, but “think outside the box”
011 // J Phill // 10.17.2006 // 9:18 AM
I have also beeing trying to read up more about print design, since I didn’t have that formal training either. I’ve also never been too strong with logo design, so I am trying my hand at that as well.
012 // Jeff Croft // 10.17.2006 // 9:57 AM
Not really. sIFR can help with font selection on the web, which is definitely not the same thing as typography.
The next design for this site I’m working on for this site is even more stripped down of “graphic elements,” as you call them (I’m not sure that’s the right terminology — type, images, and whitespace are all graphic elements, as well — but I understand what you were getting at).
013 // Nate K // 10.17.2006 // 10:09 AM
RE: Nick Dominguez I think the real issue there is time and money. There are MANY things that COULD be done - but is it worth someones time to build it? Is there a return on their time and investment? This is more of a business decision - but one I am sure many developer think about (which is why there are so many different CMS’s targeted to specific businesses).
I don’t think it should rest on the CMS - I think it should rest on the developer. Why wait for someone else to build a system? If it will be beneficial to you - then put your time into creating it. Yes, we have plenty of technological advances - but maybe the reason you haven’t seen a CMS like that, is because there is not a need or request from a large amount of people?
Im not dissing your idea - I just think if you see it as benefical - BUILD IT!
014 // Nick Dominguez // 10.17.2006 // 10:50 AM
Nate K: Giving designers and developers tools to empower creativity does make business sense.
How? A higher quality end-product, produced in less time means a better return for your money.
I simply used a CMS as an example, but this could apply to any tool that helps you produce something.
No doubt, money is the engine that drives most innovation, hopefully I wrote somewhat of a cohesive answer to your point.
015 // Fredrik Wärnsberg // 10.17.2006 // 11:03 AM
@Nick: there are very sophisticated in-place editors that allow you to design every single page in a CMS (google for TinyMCE which is basiclly word in a textarea but with better positioningtools), the problem lies within the freedom this creates. If you allow the user to post HTML-tags you’re open up serious vurnabilities in the form of XSS attacks. Since I can’t think of any way to verify that the actual markup comes from an editor such as TinyMCE and not from a cURL-script uploading nasty HTML including javascript, the only solution I see is to create a huge list of bbCode which you customize the javascript to provide which you change replace with the correct html server-side. All other tags such as < > need to be converted to &;’s
@Jeff; well imagery would have been a better word, my apologies. Enligsh isn’t my mother tounge (unless you haven’t noticed that already) ;)
016 // .sara // 10.17.2006 // 11:15 AM
Our system is a bit of a mess right now, though. We were solely relying on JSP (…), but we’ve moved on to a CMS that, while I actually kind of hate it, allows for much less painful customization than JSP templates and tiles ever did.
017 // Jeff Croft // 10.17.2006 // 11:19 AM
That’s not at all what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the ability for a real web designer to be able to create an individual layout, within the structure and style guide already defined by CSS. Rich text editors like TinyMCE are great for giving non-web desgienrs the ability to do some basic formatting, but no serious web designer is going to be happy doing web designer within TinyMCE, are they?
I’m talking about extensible, flexible templates that allow for hundreds, maybe thousands, of different layout options without the designer having to re-write the whole thing every time.
No problem — I understood what you meant! :)
018 // Jeff Croft // 10.17.2006 // 11:23 AM
Yes! That’s that’s what I’m getting at. Most CMS template systems I’ve run across offer very little flexibility for the designer. I want something that makes throwing together unique layouts within the construct of the site design quick and easy, but also something that lets me completely start from scratch if I so desire.
I’ve basically been able to do this with the Django template system and the changes I’ve made to the CMS for this personal site — so hopefully I’ll get it done sometime in the reasonably near future so I can show it off. :)
019 // Fredrik Wärnsberg // 10.17.2006 // 12:03 PM
Jeff, that depends on how big changes you speak of. If it’s within a pre-defined “content box”, like the space an article gets on this very blog, then TinyMCE is absolutley capable of microdesigning things, it might not be perfect but it has some pretty powerful layout tools which gives room for absolute positioning etc. I wouldn’t be surprised if you can load modules that would give you even better flexibility to specificly style the content you’re publishing (with floats, marings, paddings and backgrounds).
Are you talking about customization inside a given space, or for the entire page-layout? If it’s a given space then I’m sure you could get a rich text-editor to work kind of like a WYSIWYG editor for things you publish, and if you wouldn’t you can always write your own javascript driven that gives you even greater flexibility (adding classes to objects etc), but I’m guessing you’re already going for something like this? :)
020 // Wilson Miner // 10.17.2006 // 12:04 PM
I think you know I’m right there with you, especially on 3 and 4 lately.
021 // Jeff Croft // 10.17.2006 // 12:27 PM
Unless that pre-desfinied “content box” is pretty much the entire page, then I’m talking about bigger changes than that. :)
Entire page layout.
Something like that, yeah. :)
022 // Fredrik Wärnsberg // 10.17.2006 // 12:39 PM
I’m looking forward to see what you’ve been cooking together, then :)
023 // Jonathan E // 10.17.2006 // 4:07 PM
Hey Jeff, I know what you mean about RSS changing your web browsing tendencies. I actually wrote about this recently and have always tried to make a point of using RSS purely as a tool to let me know when sites have been updated. It’s easier said than done sometimes though, especially when I’m busy.
024 // Natalie Jost // 10.17.2006 // 4:41 PM
Such beautiful words to read today, Jeff. :) Seriously, some days I get stuck in this stupid office so long I start to think I’m all alone in the world, and then you go and read my mind and type it all up on your blog. [sigh].
025 // Dustin Diaz // 10.17.2006 // 5:41 PM
Re: Comment #1: What does “CSS-AJAX-Ruby” have to do with Web Standards? I too agree with Crofty on this. Standards as a whole and a movement had to happen… and it did. And it’s done (for me at least (not others)). I think people need to understand them and regard them as a good thing before they can move on. Other than that, I’m a bit thrown off on how ajax and ruby ruined web standards..?? Or.. relates… or… yeah. The comment almost sounds like this:
“Getting over vegetables”! Aleluia, brother! Oh man, I’m so happy I’m not the only one tired of all of these dishwashers, restaurants, and recipe stuff.
026 // Michael // 10.17.2006 // 6:27 PM
This is my favorite blog ever now. You always seem to write about things that are so true in the field of web design, you tell the facts too.
About your first point…. I have always embraced RSS and used it, but I don’t like it that much. Sure, there are some instances where RSS would be great, but in many situations I enjoy the actual browsing of the sites (which I guess you don’t do too much of hehe) just as much as the content, if not more.
About the web standards… I’m getting sick of it too. I think the best design can be defined as someone doing something that most others can’t, or have never attempted. If that means you have to think outside the box, an use a table, I guess go for it. I don’t like tables or flash much, but I do think the word “web standards” is putting the web design process inside a conservative “cage”. Let’s break free!
About building systems that let you design every page… I totally hear you there! I was a Wordpress loyalist for quite some while, thinking it was the best thing out in the world. But, now that I have had a chance to work with Kindfish, I am really loving the way Django’s templating system works.
Good post, You’re definitly going in the bookmark bar right next to Digg. Forget the feed reader. =D
027 // Dan Mall // 10.18.2006 // 11:32 AM
Great post Jeff! I’ve love the discussion that has happened in response to your article. However, I have to disagree with you on a couple of points.
Maybe I’m getting this wrong, but it sounds to me like you’re saying that web design doesn’t allow us to do the things that print design does. You’re right! And that’s the beauty in it. Web is not the evolution of print; it’s a completely new medium. The web has a lot of limitations that print doesn’t, but the inverse is also true. For instance, the web allows you to design over time, something that print could never approach (unless you’re talking about things like lenticular covers, which is just black magic anyway). I understand what you’re getting at, but I’m a bit offended that you’re insinuating that the web sucks when compared to print. They’re two different things. Apples and oranges, man.
I’m with you on the theory, but I’m not sure I sense the practicality on this one. Why build a system that lets you design every page when you can just design every page? At the end of the day, the value of a CMS is automation, and inspired design can’t be automated. The reason why designers will always have their jobs is because a machine can’t experience the emotions and logic that inspires someone to create.
I definitely wish there was a way to art direct every page, something that I know you, Khoi, and countless others have been very vocal about. But how do you get through a system? It seems like a tradeoff for me; either I spend the time to design every page, or I live with the limitations imposed by my publishing platform. Sure, we can push the boundaries of those platforms, but the bottom line comes down to how much effort we’re willing to put into microdesigning content.
028 // Jeff Croft // 10.18.2006 // 11:52 AM
Dan, I understand that. But, there are still a lot of design techniques used in print all the time that would incredibly useful on the web, but are difficult to impossible. Among them:
These are just a few. I’m not at all saying that the web sucks compared to print. And I’m certainly not suggesting that a designer should approach both of them the same way. I’m just saying that there are certain layout techniques, stylistic nuances, and so forth that would be just as effective online as they are in print — but we can’t do them (at least not without resorting to very ugly hacks).
I think you took what I said a bit more literally than I intended it. :)
I don’t at all agree with your statement that “the value of a CMS is automation”. The value of a CMS is clean, organized storage of data, effective workflows, and the ability to put a pretty, usable face on the front of a relational database, such that one can relate one piece of content with another.
I don’t think the front-end has to be automated at all. Use of a CMS is a completely separate matter from templating and automation of the front end. For example, my understand is that Apple designs every page on apple.com, and does not use any real automation or templating of that design (other than the obvious header and footer, probably). But, I’m sure they still use a CMS. If they don’t, where else do they store all that copy, those pretty pictures, and so on?
Right. And that’s why I want to design every page! But, this doesn’t preclude the use of a CMS at all — hopefully I’ll be able to prove that in a the near future. :)
Unless, of course, your publishing platform didn’t have those limitations. :)
Indeed, but I think a balance can be struck to where it’s practical to design almost every page in a typical news or magazine site.
Thanks for your comments, Dan! You know I have tremendous respect for you, so don’t take the fact that we disagree as anything personal! :)
029 // Dan Mall // 10.18.2006 // 12:50 PM
Of course not! This is all in the spirit of enlightened discussion, and I’m certainly not offended at all if you have a different opinion. Hopefully, we’re all learning from each other :)
Agreed, but, while easy soft wrapping, kerning, and columns would certainly make for a more beautiful web, the fact that it’s not easy is what separates the passionate ones from the Frontpage users. These things are being done, and the people doing it are at the forefront of the technology, pushing the boundaries of what we can do. The web is young, but that’s the cool part :) If everyone could do multiple columns and text wrap anything they wanted to, the ubiquity would water down the result.
Then again, maybe I am taking what you said too literally :)
Ok, point taken. I’ll amend my statement and say that one major value of a CMS is automation, and your point about workflows fits right into that.
I’m glad you said that. It brings a bit of closure to your article (at least for me). I think one of our goals as service providers is to encourage clients—the true content creators—to make the extra effort to spend time on that content. I truly believe that it will, in turn, empower the designer to be passionate about designing or even art directing that content. I know when I get a client that really spends the time to communicate a message, it motivates me to create a solution to present that message in as understandable a format as possible. Whether that means extending the functionality of a CMS or designing as many unique templates as will facilitate that communication, it gets back to why I believe you originally wrote this post: perfecting your craft.
Thanks for your responses, Jeff!
030 // Adam R. Smith // 10.18.2006 // 1:40 PM
I suspect that the very concept of a CMS has helped produce this world of excessively templated pages (not counting the fact that very few web users understand how to really layout a page — just consider how many myspace template systems actually make money). Maybe the next generation can be a CDMS: a Content and Design Management System? Where templates/designs are just as organized and flexible as the content in a CMS, and the content can be voluntarily linked or unlinked with any of the available designs. I would expect this to be not that difficult to create anymore with the new web engineering frameworks like Rails and Django (whereas an older PHP CMS would have to be thoroughly reworked before such a thing could even be considered).
031 // Jeff Croft // 10.18.2006 // 1:52 PM
Adam, that kind of solution would be pretty painless with Django anyway. I’m not sure it’s exactly the solution that I personally want, but it would probably suffice for many cases. There are two levels of “customizability” we’re talking about here:
I personally am more interested in number two, but I think practically, we’ll probably have to strike some kind of balance between the two in order for it to work well on news sites, which require a great deal of timeliness. For my blog, I’m leaning towards number two.
Bottom line, I guess: number one is pretty simple to implement with most systems and would be a marked improvement over the “every piece of content has the exact same template” situation most people are in now — but it’s still limited compared to where I’d like to be. :)
032 // gizo // 10.19.2006 // 12 AM
I am a layman, so take it easy on me. Jeff, are you saying that you want a CMS that allows you to take a story or piece of information, and use the site CSS to format the font/heading/:hovers and whatever, BUT that has the ability for you to say “this story has a unique layout, as defined by XXXX”? If so, can you make XXXX a page of customisable div’s that you can visually tweak (positioning and size, etc) and then tell your content “I want you to start in div#1, and then flow to #2, skip #3 and #4 (they’re for images and related links) then flow through #5-#9”?
As I said - Layman. (feel free to delete me if I make so real-world sense)
033 // Jeff Croft // 10.19.2006 // 12:26 AM
gizo-
I think you might be over-thinking it a little bit. I guess what I’m really getting at is that content management is a totally different matter than content publishing and art direction. People seem to combine the two, for some reason, but content management is simply the process of manage your content — it has nothing to do with presenting it. It’s only a matter of convenience, really, that most of our content management systems also handle content presentation.
Let me try this example: for the website for Pro CSS Techniques (a book I’m finishing up), I’ve built a content management system. It allows me to enter things like author bios, reviews, similar/related books, chapter excerpts, etc. It not only allows me to enter this content, but also allows me to manage it. Management,” as far as I’m concerned, means easily updating, deleting, and adding content, as well as establishing relationships between various pieces of content (i.e. “this chapter excerpt is from this book which is related to these authors which are associated with this publisher who has also published these other books” … and so on).
Now, I haven’t built out that website at all yet. There’s no template, no design, no presentation of content whatsoever — but there is a content management system, and I am actively managing content. So, clearly, content management and presentation are two totally different matters.
Now, the simple, and typical way of presenting that content would be to take each type of data (for example, a chapter excerpt), and create a template which which those are displayed. Each chapter excerpt would basically look like the next. Depending on the nature of the content, this may or may not be desirable.
Assuming it’s not desirable to have every item look the same, what are some ways we can go about making the presentation different for each one? Well, here are a few ideas:
if...thenstatements in your templates to change the look and feel based on the attributes of the particular piece of content. For example, if a story has an introduction, then use a different presentation from a story which does not have an introduction. If a story contains four photographs within it, use a different layout than a story which contains only one photograph. Etcetera.034 // Jeff Croft // 10.19.2006 // 12:27 AM
Continued…
And i’ve got a few more ideas that I’ll keep close to the vest for now. The content presentation system I’m working on for the next version of my personal sites uses all of these methods, and then some, in combination. So, the process for creating a presentation for a particular blog entry might go something like this:
So you can see, with a system like this, how one could either get a story up very quickly (by only doing step one), or take a bit more time and create something very unique (by doing some combination of the other steps). The result would be a blog which didn’t look so damn templated.
At least that’s the idea. :)
035 // gizo // 10.19.2006 // 1:08 AM
Thanks Jeff. I reckon I get what you’re saying. I understand the idea of content management - it’s information management. It’s the django admin. It’s organised data (does that sound like Mr Holovaty speaking?). I am starting to understand the appearance aspect, or representation of that data…. Thanks for the reply….
036 // Candice Harris // 10.20.2006 // 5:46 AM
Oh, nice decision, Jeff! There are so many unexplored things in the world that’s why if the person knows a lot it’s not enough for being a professional. Only those know enough who study all the time and try to find out more and more about the interesting issue.
037 // Niall // 10.20.2006 // 8:33 AM
It is funny actually because some of the points you have covered are exactly how I have been feeling over the last couple of months.
I have been spending the last month or so getting to grips with Actionscript and Adobe Flex. Some of the web apps I have seem produced using these have been nothing short of superb.
I have pretty mixed views on some of your thoughts about print design though. I have almost daily fights with print designers who hand me designs that while they look pretty on paper they just won’t work on the web.
The print designers I work with are great at what they do but but it is an education process to get them to evolve their designs to suite the web. Maybe the work should be able to display their designs as they appear on paper on paper but right now the twos things are very different although I can totally see what you are saying about some things that are done on print design would be great if they could be repeated on the web. Maybe over time the two will merge but for now I think they are fairly far apart.
038 // Jeff Croft // 10.20.2006 // 9:22 AM
I think they’re fairly far apart to, and I think they probably always will be — but that doesn’ mean there aren’t things we can learn from, steal, and repurpose from that field (and lots of other design-related fields, too!).
039 // Chris Kavinsky // 10.20.2006 // 9:51 AM
Maybe #5 should be salvaging your fantasy football season. Seriously, great post. I particularly agree with #3 as well. My background has been in traditional/print design, and as I get better at the web side of things, I’m looking for ways to incorporate more print design disciplines into it. Also, congrats on the SXSW panel. Looking to catch up with everyone again.
040 // Andrew // 10.22.2006 // 6:03 PM
I think numbers 3 and 4 are entirely doable with the technology at hand. It’s simple to still keep the same “content” but design a different “wrapper” around it. Using django, one could setup a series of base templates and create a custom tag that extends a particular template based on the page’s template defined in the database. If you’re really good you could do it all in css, and not even both writting the custom tag. I don’t know for sure as I’ve never tried it, but it may even be possible to do this using the ‘base’ tag. And if all else fails you could define templates from with the admin and create a custom view that applies that compiles the template on the fly from the database.
041 // Jeff Croft // 10.22.2006 // 6:27 PM
Well, number four is for sure. But not many people have taken the time to do it. Django’s template system certainly simplifies the matter, as you’ve noted. Like I said, I’ve got something in store for this that I’ll showcase whenever I finish the next version of my blog.
But number three? That all depends on what you mean. There are a lot of pint design techniques that simply aren’t possible with HTML/CSS, and there are several others that are only possible by using really ugly hacks.
I hate to be a party pooper, but anyone that thinks graphic design on the web is on par with graphic design in print is dreaming.
042 // Reclame // 10.23.2006 // 2:29 AM
I agree on the fact that we webdesigners in general need to start taking a closer look at print designers to get there designs to a higher level.
Although I have to say that what is currently done by most full Flash designers even tops the general print design. (incredible designs including motion)
043 // Trevor Pierce // 10.23.2006 // 9:16 AM
Jeff:
I really enjoyed your post, it’s interesting to see what other people are doing to sharpen their craft.
That said, I’ve got one major snark with Flash: A lot of the best (usually streaming) content is never seen because the end user gets tired of waiting for it to load. Case in point, the Saw3.com site. Sickeningly beautiful, but what’s the point if you only get half the goods?
Flash is what it is, and a lot of people will pay a lot of money for an experienced Flash designer, but it’s a tool used far too often.
044 // Jeff Croft // 10.23.2006 // 9:19 AM
Can’t argue with that. It’s definitely overused and used in circumstances where it needn’t be. But, there is still a lot of great design done in Flash that we can be inspired by and learn from, and there are are plenty of really good uses for Flash.
It’s not the tool’s fault that some designers abuse it.
045 // Grant Blakeman // 10.23.2006 // 1:29 PM
As someone who designs both print and web I feel like the immaturity of the web industry is very apparent. I don’t mean that in a bad way - but if you think about it, in the early days of printing presses design was very limited by what the typesetter could do with a page. Now I fire up Adobe’s CS suite and my options are nearly limitless. The web isn’t even close to having the mature tools and publishing techniques that print already has and that will take time. However the challenge of using today’s web technologies to contribute to #3 and #4 really excites me and I think that’s a huge part of why I continue to work in both mediums.
046 // Dylan FM // 10.24.2006 // 4:36 AM
Why not assign css files to different categories within your blog/site. That would promote individual pages, while still not requiring a new file for each new page…
047 // Jeff Croft // 10.24.2006 // 8:50 AM
One could certainly do that, but it wouldn’t be the solution I would personally want. First, I don’t have categories (I use tags). Second, I want to design each blog entry individually. I want to lay each one out differently based on the nature and type of content. If a blog enry contains three images, I want to lay that out differently than one that doesn’t contain any images, for example.
So, for me, it’s not about what category the post is in, it’s about the type and nature of the content.
048 // Ron // 10.27.2006 // 5:37 PM
Flash is nice to use but if you get the movies to load fast. I love flash but it has been a while I worked with it.
049 // Tor Bollingmo Løvskogen // 10.27.2006 // 8:16 PM
Trying to get better at visual designing, should spend some more time inside Photoshop I guess.
050 // Markus // 11.02.2006 // 7:55 AM
I understand your desire to individually craft each page to accomodate different contents pulled from the database.
Of course this requires some hacks when using CMSes focused on automation, such as WordPress, Textpattern, Drupal and many others.
Frankly speaking I can’t see what difference there is between the two levels of “customizability” you’re talking about: it’s only a conceptual distinction; in practice they are satisfacted (or not) at once. Art directing each story individually implies the choice of a different template and/or css.
I have spent the last few days exploring the Django and RoR documentation and I really appreciate the fact they are MVC frameworks and have very flexible template systems. Unfortunately they require some serious programming skills. As a consequence they are more suitable for development teams with professional programmers and designers. Instead most personal site are… personal and it’s very rare to find a person with great programming and design skills at once. You see, most brillant web designers use CMSes (especially EE, TXP, WordPress and MT) and never thinked of building a web application from scratch. Of course a day someone could build the definitive CMS using Django or RoR… (Hey, why not open source the different Django applications built for JeffCroft.com? They should be pluggable in other Django projects/sites…)
However someone looking for greater publishing freedom should try the latest development version of a new open source CMS called MODx (modxcms.com). In fact it let you chose a different template (and more) for each single story (if you want) and its templating system is very flexible. I’m not yet totally convinced but in my opinion MODx is even superior to Expression Engine, a widely used commercial CMS.
P.S. I’ve just pre-ordered your forthcoming CSS books on Amazon. I have great expectations!
051 // DaveEv // 11.06.2006 // 7:31 AM
to Keith: CSS for every page = easy. Give each body tag a unique ID and you can depart from your site-wide CSS as much as you like. Just put the unique stuff after the regular CSS, or import it last.
052 // Jackie // 11.08.2006 // 10:45 AM
Stumbled across this blog and love your point about the Sunday paper and its interesting non-templated layouts. Also that I’m not alone in the effort to keep up, know the next thing, the next acronym magic remedy in the thousand ways to create a website. I remind myself all still boils down to basic input-output, screen design, and worth of the content. I don’t follow any blogs but comments on this post taught me a lot. Here might be in virtual form the creative team I wish were sitting around my desk at 1 a.m.
053 // J.D. Hollis // 11.13.2006 // 5:51 AM
For number 4, allow me to recommend Tinderbox. Tinderbox is incredibly flexible and has uses well beyond content management for the web. Tinderbox’s only shortcoming is that it has no way of natively handling dynamic content (such as comments and trackbacks), though that’s not too hard to implement separately and integrate via Ajax. Tinderbox encourages focus on how content is interrelated and makes it easy to combine and recombine content in different (and dynamic) ways, ways other than a straight chronological listing.
Certainly, Tinderbox is not the best choice in every case, but it provides some directions to explore for getting beyond template-driven designs. There has been a lot of discussion about typography in web design of late, and I find the thought of hand-crafting individual pages to be inspiring. We just need tools that enable us to better develop our craft’we’re too used to extensive templating.
054 // BilleeD. // 11.18.2006 // 11:58 AM
There are so many things that I wish I had the time to do. Exploring more unobtrusive JavaScript techniques would be my “techy” choice. Recently I have been enjoying color theory and how certain colors affect mood and presence. When I need a bit of color inspiration I check out Colour Lovers (*note: this site can be SLOOOOW at times! :)
I have also been exploring more typographic solutions for Web-based content. Sure, we’re confined to a set of base “Web fonts,” but it is fun to try out different effects on those typefaces using CSS. I have also been really enjoying image replacement using the Gilder/Levin technique (which still has drawbacks, like text resizing showing the underlying font). Can’t have everything, right?
I agree that spending more time reviewing all the great design out there is a nice way to stay inspired and creative. Sometimes, even in our jaded little “Web Standards” world a talented person will do something that makes me say “Wow!” I too had to put away the newsreader in favor of finding inspirational/educational design stuff naturally (via Google or social bookmarking).
Thanks for sharing your list with us. You have certainly mirrored quite a few sentiments!
055 // Greg Paulhus // 11.19.2006 // 10:03 AM
I realize this response is a bit late, but on the issue of content systems that let you design custom pages, I worked as part of a team from about 1996-ish to 1998 and we did exactly this. My background is in newspaper production, so I took the same concepts and applied them to the Web. We designed a kind of framework template, that is, the template was a header and a footer. So the primary site navigation existed in the header (a lot like Apple’s site), and we could then design and code whatever pages we wanted, then we would upload the pages along with custom icons and text summaries and headlines from our page, and voila! the page became part of the flow of the website.
It’s actually not very hard to do this, and in a few years we moved away from it, I think mainly because we found the practical application of the idea wasn’t all that useful.
Of course, this was before blogs. I can see now that the idea would have some use for online magazines, newspapers, blogs, even some business sites.
Again, it’s not hard to do. A newspaper is really a template, you only change what’s between the header and footer. I look forward to seeing your implementation of the idea.
You know, a middle ground would be to design 30 to 50 page layouts as part of the system, to cover the majority of possible layouts, then you add content and choose a layout (the page is still sandwiched between your header/footer template) and you get ‘custom’ pages but without the extra work of custom design.
056 // Angel // 11.22.2006 // 3:34 PM
I don’t agree with most of the comments and article view on web design. I have been a graphic designer for 10 years and got tired of it until I found the web. Most of the time creative graphic design is just a guy trying to impress their collegues instead of communicating a message in the best way.
I don’t like flash as a web user. I don’t specially like completely different web layouts with no menus but a superb cool look. When I am surfing I am looking for information, I am reading an article, bidding on ebay, reading my mail or watching photoblogs. But never ever I have turn on the computer to visit cool web designs. Web standars offer more than necessary for me. Creativeness should be in the little details. Graphic design should take type face design as a model and look for inspiration in the tiny details that make good typefaces original without lossing a bit of their meaning and usefullnes.
And apart from all that, what I probably hated the most as a graphic designer was the feeling of being part of a big machinery of advertising dedicated to convice people to buy things they don’t need and that don’t even are what they think they are. I am bloody tired of cool graphic design.
057 // Dimi // 03.02.2007 // 5:10 AM
I’m looking forward to see how these rules will be changed regarding the Web 2.0 where seems that technology is first and the can come design, standards and etc. This is not OK but it’s fact
058 // Shelley Arnold // 04.18.2008 // 6:48 PM
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