On 11/14/06, Susie Gardner-Brown <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I know exactly where you're coming from - I also have worked a lot with comp-only web designers.In the past (in table-based layout days), the graphic designer on the team would either provide me with a Photoshop layout file that I would cut up, or would sometimes cut it up themselves. I would then build the site using tables, to make it look exactly like the Photoshop layout file.
However, I tend to take a different approach. To me, the designer shouldn't be thinking about what can be done in terms of code etc at all - they should look at a computer screen and imagine the possibilities. As coders, it's our job to turn their picture into reality. When we were doing table layouts last century, there were often things that I used to tell the designers not to do - things that were difficult or just plain not possible. But with CSS layouts and good standards-compliant browsers (don't scoff, even IE6 is far easier to deal with than Netscape 4 ever was) I've never come across something a designer has suggested that couldn't be done - just look at the Zen Garden. These days I tell them to just go for it (I also like a challenge).
However, giving designers a better understanding of screen-design issues - colour and contrast, size, dimensions and readability, flexible widths, accessibility etc - is of course a great idea. For that I would encourage them to visit the CSS Zen Garden and some of the CSS gallery/awards sites and get ideas of what works and what doesn't from what other people are doing. Sometimes one tiny idea from a way-out "designed for designers" blog layout can add a touch of class to a business site.
Good luck with it!
K.
--
Kay Smoljak
business: www.cleverstarfish.com
standards: kay.zombiecoder.com
coldfusion: kay.smoljak.com
personal: goatlady.wordpress.com
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