The Adobe Work-flow – I hate it

I really hate web designers who use the adobe work-flow to complete web projects! That’s right, from start to finish – the use Adobe, no hand coded CSS or HTML, but just Adobe…

I know your like “Steve, that’s a bold statement, why so?”

My response would be
“It produces lazy designers. How can a person who is all about the web know none of the BASIC scripting languages, it’s mind boggling to me. If you say your a WEB designer, know something about the web. Today, I went on colleague website and it was crap (This was the spawn of this post), complete crap and it looks like he made it today, within two hours! This is unacceptable”

I think it shouldn’t be a choice if a web designer should learn HTML and CSS, it’s necessary that they know it. For those who don’t know what I’m talking about.

This is the usual adobe work-flow. First, they create and slice their design in Photoshop. Next import to Fireworks to fix up their design, create rollovers, ect… (optional) Then they import it into Dreamweaver to put the content they desire on the website and you have yourself a slow, awful site!

So what’s wrong with that?

I have yet to see a site made with the adobe work-flow that is worthy of kudos.
Using the adobe work-flow is convenient but it creates a new generation of so-called designers that create crap. I agree with Elliot Stocks if your a web designer you should at least have the knowledge of the front-end languages (HTML, CSS, & Maybe javascript). The adobe method is outdated and I think it needs to be banned from the web!

Pro’s and Con’s

• Pro’s

• fast to make a site
• Makes it possible for lazy people who don’t want to learn html/css (which is easy btw) to get by.
• wysiwyg

• Cons

• Develops site in Tables (Out-dated)
• Makes it hard to make changes
• If you mess up it’s back to square one
• Can’t really push limits
• slower sites
• Horridly coded sites.
• Less control of your sites.
• They become depended on it.

I’m not going to say that the pro’s outweigh the cons. This post is completely bias and I’m not afraid to admit that. This is just a rant!  But for me to change my mind I would have to see a kudos worthy website has been made using the adobe work-flow

“Go head, i’ll wait” -Kat Williams

Daze of Design- June 24

How to Write Effective Web Copy

The 960 Grid System is Genius

So currently I decided to use a library to cut time on the devlopment stage of my designs. I decided to use the 960 grid system found on http://www.960.gs and I have to say that I am pretty impressed. For the last year I have been using the psd framework to design my sites but I never utilized the actual gs until last week. I gave it a test run while developing the PROJECTHAITI template. I cut down dramatically on time and I had to ask myself, Why the hell haven’t I been using this ? Then I had to think, if I did I probably wouldn’t know how to use it with it’s full capabilities. It’s pretty advanced stuff so I really wouldn’t recommend beginners to use it. Why? In short when things go wrong (and it will), you will have to now how to get around or fix those things, and knowing these things come from experience.

Well , I just wanted to keep this short and sweet. So take a look at my 960 experiment and tell me what you think about the system.

http://stevenstephenson.com/clients/ProjectHaiti_beta/

Experience Themes: An Element of Story Applied to Design

My new favorite website is Slideshare.com. I’m always on this website. It’s pretty cool. I think its easier to learn from slideshows because their really simple and they get to the point. I like that . Well, I found this slide on applying story to design. I am actually working on my new site and I’m researching and studying alot of things on story. I think applying story makes all the difference from good design, to great design. I am also reading THE ART OF FICTION. I figure the better I am at writing fiction, the better “digital storyteller” I will become. Well check it out and tell me what you think.