Design
Urban Ninja Launch
I don’t normally talk about work here, but I thought this was a neat project that came out pretty good. We do a lot of work for Ford at my job and we were given the task to create a series of websites aimed at the young asian crowd. The Fusion portion just re-launched today, and frankly it was a lot of work. I’ll bet noone knew I was fluent in Vietnamese.
Designing with web standards
The summer months get kind of slow at my full-time job. That’s never good, but it does give me a chance to catch up on technology. Last summer it was advanced javascript, PHP and Flash video techniques. This summer it’s going to be parenthood, above all else, and also designing with web standards.
The web is a weird and wonderful place. Web browsers are forgiving as far as software applications go. There is no governing body to keep an eye on all us damn kids. This leaves the door open for anybody to do whatever they want, which is great. What’s not so great is that we can do it however we want. Writing code in whatever manner usually suits the situation. Doing the best we can at the time. I’ll admit I’m guilty. I’ve put together a project in whatever manner will meet the deadline. Well, it’s time to take a step back and put some thought into the manner in which I’m building. I like what I’ve read so far about the current set of standards. I say current, because like most things web-related, the standards are constantly evolving and being re-evaluated. I may never reach a point where my code is absolutely flawless, (I did start out life as a designer after all) I will be able write, quicker loading, more efficient pages, using XHTML and CSS.
There is at least one book on the subject in every room of my house, but I’ve kind of warmed up to the way Jeffrey Zeldman tells the story. He was one of the founding members of the Web Standards Project, and is considered to be the leading authority on standards in the web community today. I pre-ordered his book ‘Designing with Web Standards’ from Amazon and received it today. So far it is putting this whole thing in perspective. The only question that is really still bugging me is, ‘Why did I wait so long?’
I am already comfortable using CSS for text styles, table styles, background images, etc. But laying out pages entirely with styles fells a little like sitting in the passenger seat of a car being driven by a blind person,and it’s your job to describe to him how to parallel park. I guess like everything else in life, you’ve got to start somewhere, and with struggle I’ll get through it.
But to put it in a different light, it’s got to be one hell of a lot easier to build on familiar knowledge, than to learn how to be a parent from scratch. Yikes!
Finally Going to the Wordpress Blog Format
I know that creativity rarely begins with conformity, but I was just so jealous of all of the other out-of-box features that conventional blog software provided. I also have a bit of a problem getting items up on the site. Blog software makes it much more convenient for me. So I will get in line and moo along with the rest of the bloggers and abandon my custom ways.