There are design principles that translate easily from print media to digital media, and some of the same creative processes make the transition easily. For some time, though I think it happens less often now, I've seen graphic designers utterly resist the flexible nature of web design because they're conditioned to want absolute control over presentation. I've been guilty of it myself.
That way lies madness. The jury is out as to whether the madness manifests more deeply in the designer or the user, but it's a foolish path to pursue. Pursue it if you want to try to prove me wrong. Some otherwise very good web architects and designers are oblivious to how their designs will be presented to a text-only browser, a screen reader, a Blackberry or some other small-screen browser ... or even how it will display on a standard Postscript printer. That needs to change, because smaller devices and adaptive devices will proliferate and become cheaper in a very short time. The power of this medium is in its flexibility, portability and extensibility. Use it! People always think that issues of accessibility, like rape or alcoholism, are about somebody else. The vision impairments that will cause people to use screen readers are increasingly more likely with age. You may have noticed that this "baby boom" generation is aging, and substantial wealth is concentrated in this market segment. Businesses soon will be taking note of this and targeting that audience, and those businesses will expect us to know how to reach them even if they're using adaptive devices. Structural elements are necessarily more flexible on the Web, and we have to think about how a design re-flows into different containers. Designers and editors for the Web must understand this flexible virtual world as well as designers of yore understood modular layout inspired by people like Piet Mondrian. This virtual digital world is more liquid than solid. As a designer you can work with that. In engineering terms, it's more like building a floating pier than a fixed pier. The challenge now is not to create a changeless work of art, but to design a flexible structure that will flow easily across different digital media. Jakob Nielsen once said something brilliant about developers inevitably creating complexity, and I think that's true of developers who work for other developers. It's been true of designers who seek the approval of other designers, too. You've heard this before, but good design assists in conveying the intended information quickly, effectively and clearly. Whatever else may change, that will not. Jeff Seager _________________________________________________________________ i’m is proud to present Cause Effect, a series about real people making a difference. http://im.live.com/Messenger/IM/MTV/?source=text_Cause_Effect ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
