For people outside of computing, or even who aren’t directly involved in some way with web development, it can be very difficult to understand the different levels and roles of various members within a team and who become responsible for creating their website. Of course there isn’t any set-in-stone roles, many developers transcend and have skill sets expansive enough to cover more than role, but it’s usually the case that if you want the very best, you don’t necessarily want one person who claims they can design and develop your website for you. You might find you end up with a technically perfect website with a nice, but not a visually amazing design. Equally back-end developers don’t generally like the front-end stuff, or don’t have the same level of skills that a front-end developer (should) have. So the problem is conveying this to non-developers (and most commonly: clients and potential clients). I’ve found myself trying to explain the concept of three different roles (design, front-end, back-end) in a variety of ways but over time I’ve developed my “Highstreet Store Analogy” and I’m not saying it’s perfect, but I’ve helped a lot of people grasp the concept of different development roles using it: Read more
Not even a year ago, I spent a couple of days wrestling with Mark Davidson’s sIFR in an attempt to find a cross-browser compatible method of embedding custom fonts into a website I was developing, which the designer absolutely insisted could not use a normal web-safe font. Of course I very quickly gave up and reverted back to a PHP dynamic text replacement module - for all the great things that sIFR has done for the web developing community (and especially in reducing arguments between designers and front-end developers), it’s an absolute pig to get to work reliably across browsers and can really reduce the usability and loading of your site. Not good.
I came across this whilst browsing through Google News this morning (of all places!), a take on the most popular, influential and notorious typefaces in the same style as the tired and ancient periodic tables hanging in classrooms across the world.
Created by Cam and posted to his portoflio on Behance Network, I’ll be waiting in line if he ever decides to sell prints of this…!
Paul Boag (founder of Headscape) published an incredibly insightful article on the Smashing Magazine website earlier this week entitled “10 Truths About Corporate Websites“. I’ll not steal any of his content, but suffice to say having been a pixel pusher myself in the past, I could not agree more with any of it, especially point 8. One of my previous employees in particular could learn an incredible amount from what’s written on those pages.
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John Cooper Works Mini is now sitting proudly in my garage. I'll be returning to track days later on in the year. Anybody want to co-drive?
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