Thoughts on Design

456 Berea Street linked to two brilliant posts by Andy Rutledge yesterday on the subject of web standards. Rutledge is writing about something that has been a point of interest with me for quite some time. Web standards, and why designers are not embracing them. Personally, I’ve always thought of standards compliance as a way of making sure that my websites are reliably viewed by as many people as possible. If a site falls short of modern standards in some way, there is likely a group of people who cannot view the site correctly because of this deficiency. Web design is about communication. If you are excluding people from receiving your message because you’re refusing to work towards standards compliance, you’re failing in your task.

“For when characteristics of Web design and development quality are mischaracterized or when search engine optimizing/indexing purpose is perverted or improperly approached, the fabric of the Internet is damaged.”- Design View / Andy Rutledge - Web Standards: it’s about quality, not compliance

I make no secret of the fact that my career has primarily been spent in graphic design. While in some sense this doesn’t benefit me as a web designer, in some sense it does. Print design always has limitations and specifications. If the client wants to print in one color, a perfect four-color design doesn’t gain me anything. On the same theme, if my perfect design is supplied to the printer in a less than perfect format, or fails to meet the printer’s specifications, it doesn’t gain me anything.

For instance at present, the Internet can no more offer a tactile experience than a print magazine can offer a video on its pages. What that means is that designers have to respect the strengths and limitations of the medium and work to communicate within the relevant context. - Design View / Andy Rutledge - Web Misunderstandards

Just as I do a disservice to my clients when my design falls short of the printer’s specifications, I also do a disservice to my clients when my web design falls short of web standards. Good design is about clearly communicating, within the limitations of the media chosen.