Interesting point Gary.  Coming as I do from a one-man-shop environment, I
rarely think about developer/designer roles. I have to do it all. 

But the reason I pointed out the zengarden site was because several people
referred to the font tag in their critique of Rob's site, and there's a
wonderful example of what can be done without using font tags at all.  And
without a whole lot of other code too.

Every site has to undergo reskinning once in a while and depending on how
you've written your code, it can be simple, with all the work on the
designer's shoulders, or it can be hard, with the easy stuff on the
designer's shoulders and the developer spending tedious hours going through
code implementing the new design.

You can fold your arms across your chest and say "that's not my
responsibility - I'm a DEVELOPER not a DESIGNER" but I think you'd be wrong.
It's all interrelated and I think developers can't be good at developing
without understanding design issues.  Just as designers cant be good at
designing without understanding dynamic pages and what's possible.


Cheers,
Michael Kear
Windsor, NSW, Australia
AFP Webworks.




-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Gary Menzel
Sent: Wednesday, 12 November 2003 10:03 AM
To: CFAussie Mailing List
Subject: [cfaussie] RE: my first cf page

> Take a look at the zen garden project

While I absolutely LOVE csszengarden I would just like to point out here 
that the site is primarily devoted to designers, not developers.  Even the 
guidelines on the site say this.

And while I agree we must (as developers) have a better handle on design - 
especially how to facilitate easy design changes - I also feel that we 
need to be careful about critiquing sites purely on how they look.  The 
code behind the site may be absolutely flawless (but most of us just look 
at the trimming).

As a developer I first focus on making sure the site actually works 
properly and is built in such a way so as to make changing the design easy 
(without breaking any of the code behind it).

Rob's efforts in design (as Mike has just said) are better than most of us 
did on our first go's.

AND - I don't remember Rob saying he was aspiring to be a designer - but 
more a developer.

So, Rob, take the comments from everyone on board and add to the "good" 
outcomes you are already producing, aim past "excellent" for 
"outstanding", and you will be up there with the best of them!


Gary Menzel
Web Development Manager
IT Operations Brisbane -+- ABN AMRO Morgans Limited
Level 29, 123 Eagle Street BRISBANE QLD 4000
PH: 07 333 44 828  FX:  07 3834 0828




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