I have recently read a wonderful article by Smashing Magazine about the Dying Art of Design.  The article is located at: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/04/08/the-dying-art-of-design/.  I found this article very interesting and thought provoking. It discussing how “fundamental skills and the craft of design have started to take a back seat” in Web Development.

This article came at perfect time for me because I have been learning how easy it is to fall into the category of placing importance in creating “Quantity” instead of “Quality”.  My goal has always been to provide my client with the best quality possible and when I my knowledge does not extend into the function or design they are envisioning, I offer to learn how to provide it or respect their decision to get it elsewhere.

In the past months though, I have seen how easy it can be to fall into the “trap” of the focus going from quality to selling as many designs as possible.  Let’s face it, we freelancer’s need to put food on the table and it’s very easy to fall into the trap.  So, what to do about it.  My solution is:

Set Aside Time for Training

With everything new I learn, the one thing that remains constant is “How much more there is to learn”.  Especially in the field of Web Development.  There are so many different faucets to it, not to mention how quickly things progress and change.  Setting aside a bit of time each week makes sense.

Scribble More

I am going to start carrying around a notebook just for scribbling my design idea’s, from coding to graphic design.  This reminds me of my Art School days when part of our requirements were to always carry a sketch book with us and we were responsible for providing one sketch per day.  It was a pain at times, but proved to be a good exercise.  Just like exercising, there are those days that we just don’t want to do it…. but we do it anyway and end up reaping the rewards of our diligence.

So, those are the two items that I am going to start with.  I am a firm believer in “baby steps” and setting too high a standard for me from the get go, has more often than not, deterred me from my goal.  They both sound like a good place to start.  Take a look at the article and let me know what you think and what possible goals you think that can be added to my list.

Recently, I have had the experience of completing a site that a previous Web Developer had started (I will not be mentioning the site to protect the innocent ).  I always find this to be an interesting and sometimes painful experience.

THE BAD

For good, or bad, I am one of those Web Developers that has to start out with clean code.  This can take several hours, if not days to do so.  There are several advantages to taking the time to do this:

• Asists in Search Engine Optimization.  The cleaner the code, the easier (and quicker) search engines will have in determining the content of your site.
• Organization.  Having clean code is like having a tidy desk.  I have a difficult time focusing when my desk is cluttered.  Instead of having the ability to take a quick glance at a page and determine where the bugs are (which all Web Developers have had to do, and most likely spent several hours doing it), it can take up to several hours.

Once the initial page has been cleaned and sterilized, I can then start duplicating code to the other pages.

THE GOOD

What I do enjoy about this type of situation is that I get to see the approach that another Web Developer took to tackle the same project.  Often there are items that I would not have thought of or a direction was taken that I would have considered differently.  Occasionally new techniques are learned and noted for future use.

The result is that I’ve had a wonderful learning experience, but will be very grateful when the project is completed.  Starting out with a fresh canvas is always more enjoyable that starting out with a cluttered one.

I have recently discovered an article written by Sjim Wagemakers Webdesign titled “How To Help Kill IE6″, located at http://blog.sjimwagemakers.nl/webdesign/how-to-help-kill-ie6IE6 has been a thorn in my side for most of the site’s I have created.  I’d get the site looking perfect in IE8, Firefox, Safari and then (using another computer), I’d check it in IE6 and everything would be all awry.  I loved running across this article and learning that I am not the only developer that has run across this problem.  The current Browser Statistics for October 2009 are:

• Firefox – 47.5%
• IE7 – 14.1%
• IE8 – 12.8%
• IE6 – 10.6%
• Chrome – 8.0%
• Safari – 3.8%
• Opera – 2.3%

Firefox is leading the pack, but IE6 is till 4th in the running… just amazing.  At least it is loosing popularity instead of gaining and soon should be out of the running altogether.