Interview

1. What industry sites and blogs do you read regularly? How have you applied new ways of doing things on the web to some of your recent work? I visit daily Favorite Web Site Awards (http://www.thefwa.com) along with a lot of other award web sites to see what is new and what is going on with the industry, I visit frequently sites like AdWeek (http://www.adweek.com) and regularly read forum sites like Ultra Shock (http://www.ultraschock.com). I apply new ways of doing things by reading about and following the current trends and techniques that I can use to apply to projects that I think would be appropriate.
2. Do you prefer to work alone or on a team? Team! You can achieve much better results working in a team. I do work alone sometimes, and sometimes I like it, but even then I still need to collaborate with my peers or co-workers about the project I’m working on.
3. What is W3C and how have you used it in the past? W3C is the World Wide Web consortium a group where members combine to make a better Internet. The W3C does a lot of things; most importantly it creates the standards that developers need to be aware of and comply too. I have used W3C in the past for research of new techs and for its validators, which now commonly are built into most WYSIWYG editors i.e. (Dreamweaver) or you can use stand alone validators or plug-ins.
4. Do you write table-less XHTML and do you use CSS? Describe the validation process. Yes, as of about 3-4 years ago most web sites I write are table-less XHTML with the combination of CSS. I do still use tables to display tabular data, forms, and sometimes I will use tables for work a rounds in layout issues but that’s rarely. My validation process starts with making sure the pages display properly in all the major browsers, Internet Explorer 6 & 7, FireFox, Safari, and Opera… (Because sometimes the older browsers themselves do not adhere to the W3C guidelines as much as they should). Sometimes I will need to write multiple css sheets depending on the audience of the current project and/or to display properly in across several mediums. I will then validate them against what ever I have declared the page i.e. (XHTML TRANSISTIONAL 1.0).

5. What are a few of your favorite development tools and why? I would have to say my most favorite tool is Adobe Fireworks which I insist is the best design software for initially creating mock ups of web applications and web sites. A lot of people in the industry would argue that Adobe Photoshop is better for initial design concept, but more now then ever since Adobe and Macromedia merged I feel that Fireworks has a clear advantage when it comes to designing layout. I would also have to say Adobe Flash is my #2, followed by Dreamweaver, Photoshop, or Illustrator. It’s always fun to use After Effects when I get a chance to in a project, and definitely Visual Studio or Eclipse is a must on the list when it comes to IDE. And a slew of 3D applications topped by Lightwave 3D or Maya.
6. What skills and technologies are you the most interested in improving upon or learning? Over the past couple years or so I have been researching MXML and ZAML, the xml based user interface that combines with JavaScript for a powerful interactive user experience. Microsoft is pushing SilverLight similar to the flash player plug-in to use with its WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation). I have personally taken over at least 200 hours of training on these subjects and have been experimenting with Flex and SilverLight (Microsoft Expression) http://www.microsoft.com/expression but yet to use these technologies in a real project.
7. What are a few personal web projects you’ve got going on? Hmm… well I have been trying to get a web page up for myself (http://www.worldpyramids.com) to display my portfolio but have not really had time to. If you check it out, it’s not really my version of complete at all. It needs some work to have better usability lower file size and better motion design. I also have a blog site and belong to a few creative communities like i.e. Coroflot (http://www.coroflot.com/bradford1). I have been working on a personal project creating a full screen live television or streamed video website using Flash Media Server 3 and the H.264 encoder taking traditional streaming feeds such as .asf .ra and converting them on the fly to a compressed format like flv and actually very quietly have made a lot of ground and hope to put something online late 2008.
8. How did you get into web design? I started a career that began in AutoCAD and quickly learned that my true passion was web site design. I have always been into computers and obviously had a background in design, a friend approached me to make a web site, everything came easy to me, the web site was successful and it really was just perhaps my calling in life or something. Around 1998-1999 I took various technical courses and spent countless hours and sleepless nights teaching myself the do’s and don’ts of web site design.
9. Describe a time when you were not sure what a customer wanted. How did you handle the situation? It happens, first I would read over specs for the project, if I can’t find what I need I will contact the client directly, if for some unknown reason the client is not going to be available (which has never really happened to me) I would probably use my best judgment meanwhile till I could get feedback from the client and more times then not the client is satisfied. I use technology as much as I can to help make life easier, so a while ago I started recording audio in some meetings(if allowed) along with taking written notes, so these types of situations don’t occur as often.

10. What process do you use in solving problems/troubleshooting issues? Give an example of how you recently used this process to solve a problem. GOOGLE! Ha-ha… joking… But not really. The last time I can recall I had to trouble shoot an issue was with the project that I am currently working on now. The video quality of our live chat platform was very poor, and I had to use a check mark system to eliminate all the possible problems that could be causing it. After I finally tested all the possible scenarios on my list, there was one possibility left. The problem actually was not the software at all… it was a hardware issue!

11. Describe the biggest work-related problem you have faced in the past six months. How did you handle it? Well the biggest work-related issue not really a problem was that a colleague was leaving the company. The thought of it was overwhelming at first, but I have used the situation in a way to greater my strengths and overall self-management, to name of a few of the personal traits I have improved for myself.

12. What have you done to make your department/group/team more efficient or organized? Give me an example. I introduced software to my team that streamlines our work flow process, and makes communications between project contacts easier. Also very simply my experience has benefited my team. I have experienced a lot over the past 7 years, so more times then not I when an issue arises I have seen it before and have a solution, and sometimes multiple solutions.
13. How do you handle conflicting priorities? I hope to not have any conflicting priorities, but If and when conflicting priorities come about, I would definitely have to ask the question what is really a priority and what isn’t. In my current team environment we use work flow management software a queue system, which arranges tasks, projects into a high, low priority system.
14. How do you deal with conflict? I deal with conflict rationally. Close mouth and think before you speak is very important. Ha-ha… I have a documented IQ of like 145, but that doesn’t mean I have an equal emotional intelligence, or that I am always correct and I understand that. I am for the most part very reserved, not arrogant at all and I portray a very down to earth personality. I would listen first when dealing with conflict in the work place, then rationally speaking argue my point if I strongly felt that I needed to. Oh yeah, and conflicts between the client well that’s a whole different thing, the client is always right…
15. If you were coming up on a deadline and unsure you were going to meet it, what would you do? I would sleep under my desk until I was sure that I could meet it. In a more real world situation I would approach the project manager or the client contact and let them know that I was unsure if I would be able to meet my deadline.
16. Give me an example of a time when you had to make an unpopular decision that was for the good of the team. How did you deal with that? This is a really good question, I have made a lot of decisions for our team, and I am trying to remember the last time when I had to make a decision like this… The last situation that arose was a project priority issue. We have favorite projects to work on, and projects that aren’t as intriguing if you know what I mean. Well for the sake of hours, deadlines, or milestones I had to take the team off their current project which we all loved and were heavily into it. I knew that taking us off the current project would not jeopardize the moral of the team, and that we could accomplish a huge milestone for the client on the other project in the matter of only hours.

17. How do you manage multiple projects or tasks? I use software of course… I prioritize myself and my projects. I am a very organized person, technology is my secret… The web based software I use to organize my contacts, schedule, tasks, and projects is synced with my Outlook, and then my smart phone/pda is synced with my Outlook… It makes it easier to stay organized.

XML Based Web Sites

What is on the horizon for web site design? Faster less complex pages that will compile universally for a wider range of platforms including the smart phones? Will it continue on the same path expanding on html (the worlds most universal language) and css? More web sites utilizing flash for the high speed internet that is growing more saturated every year? Well in my opinion I would definitely have to say all of the above, but with a little twist.

HTML has been the dominant presentation layer solution for web since its existence. CSS made it even more powerful. The combination of JavaScript / CSS / HTML commonly referred to as dynamic html (DHTML) yet again made it even more powerful. Now what is popular is using XML and JavaScript (AJAX) “behind the scenes” to present more interactive web sites.

Meanwhile, running parallel with HTML – Flash the embedded objects within an HTML page grew fast in popularity when it was announced in 1996 due to the amazing compression it introduced that enabled animations and interactivity. It has continued to grow in use amongst the web site design industry. XML and Flash became popular around 2000 and continued to grow in popularity delivering most of the music you hear on the internet via Flash/XML mp3 players. Flash in my opinion has always been in competition to replace HTML, but never had any real world situations where this technique could be used. So most developers/designers choose to use hybrid Flash/HTML web sites. Or typically the wider the audience the more html, the more advanced the audience the more flash. And don’t let me mistake you flash could never replace HTML until only recently.

The Future

MXML came into existence around 2004, an XML based user interface markup language combined with Javascript to create rich internet applications. Flex is the framework that compliles the MXML and ActionScript on the fly into Flash or swf files. The beauty for the end-user of these applications is that it loads only once!
Thermo
http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Thermo

XAML also pronounced ZAML

MXML
OpenLaszlo
CookSwing
SwiXML
SwixNG
Thinlet
Ultrid
Vexi
XAL
XSWT
ZUL
XAML
XUL
XHTML
XFDL
XForms
Curl 5.0
GladeXML
HTMLR
UIML
PSML
Gul
XWT
QuiX
XML Sapiens
Bindows
BXML
Boxely
VTML
XHPD
XAL
MyXaml
XRC – used by wxWidgets
libavg
GNUstep Renaissance

Creating a Blackhole?

Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is a particle accelerator and collider located at CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider

May 2008 the most complex and expensive(over $6 Billion) scientific instrument ever built will be switched on. The Large Hadron Collider promises to recreate the conditions in the early universe. By revisiting the beginning of time, scientists hope to unravel some of the deepest secrets of our Universe.

Within these first few moments the building blocks of the Universe were formed. The search for these fundamental particles has occupied scientists for decades but there remains one particle that has stubbornly refused to appear in any experiment. The Higgs Boson is so crucial to our understanding of the Universe that it has been dubbed the God particle. It explains how fundamental particles acquire mass, or as one scientist plainly states: “It is what makes stuff stuff…”

Large Hadron Collider – The Search For The Higgs [1 of 3]

Large Hadron Collider – The Search For The Higgs [2 of 3]

Large Hadron Collider – The Search For The Higgs [3 of 3]

Myth’s about web site design

Smashing Magazine, published September 5th, 2007

First Three Questions

Here are the first three questions we’ve asked. As in the first survey, one single text line would have sufficed.

• What is one typical myth about web-development (which is not true)?
• What is one bulletproof method to get over creativity block?
• What is one thing you wish you knew before you’ve started programming/designing/… ?

1. One typical myth about web-development (which is not true)

There are dozens of myths about web-development; all of them are usually based upon humans’ intuitition, but doesn’t hold in reality. These typical misunderstandings usually confuse both beginners-developers during their work and clients willing to get an effective and visually appealing web site. It’s time to debunk some of them. Let’s take a look at some of the wide-spread myths about web design and web-development – myths prominent web-developers had to cope with.

1.1. Myth: web-development simple, and anybody can do it.

• Myth: Web development is for boys. Truth: Web development is for Spartan warriors.[Oliver Reichenstein, Informationarchitects.jp]
• That web designers spend most of their time snowboarding. This may have been true in 1998, but it is far from the truth now. Most of us are chained to our computers 16 hours a day knee-deep in responsibility and to-do lists. Or is that just me? I hope not. I’ve never been snowboarding.[Simon Collison]
• Easter bunnies are amazing at CSS. No, really. They’re absolutely amazing.[Jina Bolton]
• That it’s a simple process. More often than not I’m surprised by developers and designers who don’t understand everything that (should, at least) go into planning and preparing for a website. Through measurable goals, IA, copy-writing, launch, evaluation and every step in-between, there should be some sort of plan and process.[Steve Smith]
• People still underestimate the amount of effort that goes into creating a great site or application. The various components are easy, but putting them together in the right way takes time and experience.[Andy Budd]
• Anybody can do it. All you need is to buy the tools that the “pros” use. Aka “Why should I pay you, when Dreamweaver costs less, and I can do it myself?”[Nathan Smith]
• You can build websites without having any knowledge of code. You can, but you’ll run into trouble quickly and when you don’t know what’s causing it you won’t be able to fix it. By understanding the underlying technique you also are in a better position to grasp semantics.[Veerle Pieters]
• That it’s easy.[Dan Rubin]
• The intention of Tim Berners-Lee when he invented the ‘hyperlink’ was to make sure that vast bodies of research work (documents) would be easier to drill down by reinforcing and expanding the presupposed affirmations by hyper linking them. This way researchers would/could find more meaning and sense of the chaotic sources, thus enhancing endlessly their value.Keep in mind that the key word here is content. When the World Wide Web became (graphical interface over the Internet), visual communication was done through ‘tables’ which were extensively used for presentation of content. With the rise of the W3C recommendations and theorganization of the ‘web’ professions all deemed tables.. failing this primal directive of this principle of content ruling over presentation. CSS was then crowned the ‘way’ to go.Fine, but didn’t take into account the difficulty of creating complex user interfaces, how alieniating it would be for ‘designers’ to break the layout in lines of code, get absolute positioning, float content and dealing with lack of browser support. Tables were complex but in comparison, infinitely simpler.My myth busting: creating a website using CSS is easy.[Carole Guevin, Netdiver.net]

1.2. Myth: successful web sites can/should be designed completely in a couple of days.

• The biggest myth is that you can get a site fast, cheap AND good. You can’t have all three. You can get it fast and cheap (but it won’t be good), good and fast (but it won’t be cheap), or you can get it good and cheap (but it won’t be fast). That’s the designer’s triangle of truth.[Larissa Meek]
• That the best approach is to throw something up as quickly as possible and see if it sticks. In fact, you can save large amounts of money by only launching things that have a better chance of succeeding because they have already been refined through several rounds of user testing, including paper prototyping which can be done in a day.[Jakob Nielsen]
• Professional web sites can be designed and built in just under a couple weeks (or similar timelines). While yes it’s true that a site design could be done a matter of days and CSS/XHTML can be generated in a heartbeat using the various HTML editors on the market. The fact remains, that even when using open source frameworks to build sites, a truly custom design integration into a customized or even standard CMS is not a task that can be done properly in just a few hours. Often times clients of any size seem to discount the effort required to design, produce and implement and custom design into a system that they can easily maintain and support on their own.[Frederick Townes]
• Myth is that there’s a point when you are done designing. Because we are designing for people and people are “time bound entities moving from cradle to grave” (to quote Bruce Sterling) people’s problems are always changing. So really, design is never done.[Luke Wroblewski]
• That web design is finished with an image comp. Many design shops and ad agencies still believe this and pass on comps to their coders to flesh out. The truth is that there are more decisions to be made in the XHTML/CSS stage about layout, color and typography than in Photoshop.[Jason Beaird]

1.3. Myth: Usability + CSS are boring, visually appealing designs are effective.

• Usable websites have to be simple and boring.[Lucian Slatineanu]
• That CSS-driven designs are all boxy and boring. You’d think that one would have died years ago, but I keep on seeing it.[Eric A. Meyer]
• Accessible web pages are visually dull. This is a myth that has been battled against since people started to think about web accessibility. Unfortunately it is still perpetuated by accessibility consultancies tasked with designing websites, but who don’t employ actual designers.[Richard Rutter]
• The view that visual design deserves more time and effort than the content. I don’t know if I’d call it a myth, but it’s definitely a common misunderstanding. The content is where it starts and is the reason for the design to exist, yet, so many designers still view copywriting and content creation as “not my job”. On projects where there’s a dedicated copywriter, that may work. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case.[Garrett Dimon]
• A nice looking site is a successful site.[Jason Santa Maria]

1.4. Myth: Standards-compliance guarantees a good web site.

• That programming with webstandards automatically generates good websites. There are many young developers out there caring so much for code that they seem to forget everything else, while to be true, a good designed website (form & function) with bad code still works better than a bad designed with an awesome code.[Markus Stefan]
• The myth that by writing valid, standards-based code, you are automatically creating accessible, SEO friendly sites.[Mike Davidson]

1.5. Myth: design and best design practices are (too) expensive.

• “Web Development is far too expensive. Even I can do a neat little page with Microsoft Word. Why should I pay x thousand Euros for a professional designed website?”[Wolfgang Bartelme]
• That it costs more to do things right, i.e. follow best practices. In my opinion it can only be true if you haven’t yet learned how to develop accessible sites with web standards, in which case it’s time to start reading.[Roger Johansson]

1.6. Technical myths.

• Myth: one aspect of web design is dominant over all of the others.The most common example of this is with usability. Usability is often seen as reining supreme. Although it is incredibly important it needs to be tempered by business objectives, technical constraints and even accessibility considerations. Some see design as more important than anything, others well written code. The truth is that web design is about balance. It is about making the different aspects (development, usability, accessibility, aesthetics, business objectives and content) work together in harmony. No one aspect can reign unchecked.[Paul Boag]
• Myth: absolute separation is possible. I’ll have to quote Jeff Croft on for this one…”One of the hallmark attributes of web standards-based design is the concept that proper use of semantic (X)HTML and CSS completely abstracts the presentation of a site from its content. One key real-world benefit of this separation is that come redesign time, one only needs to change or replace the CSS stylesheet, and needn’t lay so much as a finger upon the hallowed grounds we call markup. I’m here to say that this mantra isn’t much more than a fairy tale.”I’ve thought this for awhile, but didn’t have the guts to say it publicly in fear of being flogged.[Jesse Bennett-Chamberlain][Myth that] absolute separation of structure, presentation and behavior is possible.[Shaun Inman]
• Myth: feature X is “not possible.” As web developers we need to remember that just because it hasn’t been done, doesn’t mean it’s not possible. We’ve got dozens of tools (HTML, CSS, Flash) at our tooltips — don’t let anyone tell you that it can’t be done. It just hasn’t been done yet.[Kyle Neath, Warpspire.com]
• Myth: IE is an absolute nightmare to develop for.I don’t mean to ruffle too many feathers here; but it’s really not that bad. Sure, it requires a little perseverance to get it there 100%, but with a little compromise (graceful degradation , you can have it looking pretty much (95%?) the same as it does in other browsers. For those things that are just impossible to do reasonable, compromise and do something slightly different for IE.[Oliver Beattie]
• Myth: the “necessary” abundant use of hacks.It still comes up. If your HTML is well structured and you understand how CSS is supposed to work as well as how it does work in different browsers, you need few, if any hacks.[Patrick Griffiths, HTMLDog.com]
• Myth: keeping the various layers of a website is too difficult and requires too much effort for very little return.I know from my own experience building websites alone and on teams that if you start with a strict focus on keeping all the layers (database, server-side code, html, css, javascript) separate that in the long run you will save yourself a lot of time developing and prevent a lot of headaches too.[Christian Montoya]
• Myth: Internet Explorer 7 is an improvement over IE6.We all had high hopes that Microsoft was going to deliver a product that would make our lives as web developers easier, but its done nothing but add more garbage to the pile.[Matt Brett]
• Myth: “JavaScript is not a serious language.”It might not be the most elegant language but it’s extremely powerful. The fact that it can used by novices and gurus alike (in obviously different capacities) makes it very flexible. It’s ability to power PDFs, web pages, desktop widgets, and web servers has definitely shown it to be a flexible language.[Jonathan Snook]
• Myth: CSS = Design.CSS is *not* the same as design.[D. Keith Robinson]
• Myth: testing on Mobile Devices requires a separate site.The need to create a separate site or use special code to for a site to work on mobile devices.[Meryl K. Evans]
• Myth: development process is a wholly internal one, unaffected by outside circumstances.The idea that the web design and development process is a wholly internal one, unaffected by outside circumstances. The truth is, web professionals get their ideas from the same places that anybody else does: anything from the way their favorite coffee shop operates, to an impressive service offered by their home city. Web professionals are more connected than we think.[Phil Renaud]

1.7. Developers can’t be designers, designers can’t be developers.

• You’re either a designer or a developer. It might seem there is a clear divide between the two, however there are people out there who have no problem being both. A great example is Shaun Inman. CSS/XHTML is a great middle point, from there you can progressively go either way.[Ian Main]
• Web developers don’t understand design, and vice versa. It can be true, but it’s not always the case. You should consider that maybe a developer or a designer started off as something else. And even if they haven’t, the good ones usually know at least a little bit about the other side of the fence, so don’t count them out entirely.[Patrick Haney]
• One person should do one job. I think that having individuals whose knowledge and skills span across different areas (e.g. programming *and* design) produces a much more balanced result. That isn’t to say that one particular person doesn’t have ownership over their particular area. But when everyone can contribute to different areas of a project, you get a much more informed and coherent whole.[Cameron Adams, Themaninblue.com]

1.8. Human factors.

• Myth: college degree should be demanded for web-developers.Employers should demand a college degree of some kind from the people they hire to create websites.[Carolyn Wood, Editor in Chief of Digital Web Magazine]
• Myth: there are no women in web design.I’ve heard it said that there are no women in web design. I attended An Event Apart in Chicago this past week and can say that that certainly isn’t true.[Ryan Masuga]
• Myth: client constraints and complaints always result in a compromised, inferior design.[Carolyn Wood, Editor in Chief of Digital Web Magazine]
• Myth: I can help you get to the top of Google!Don’t get me wrong, I am always learning about SEO and reading those blogs, but my focus is primarily on coding an SEO-friendly site. Past that, it’s simply not what web developers do. I personally consider them to be two very different worlds. Most people that say they do development and SEO are probably not that great at either, simply because you can only be an expert at so many things. We work with an outside company that is fabulous to handle SEO for our clients, and I am thrilled to not have to worry about it.[Nick Francis]
• Myth: Graphic Designers = Excellent Writers[Myth that] Graphic designers should be great writers, too.[Carolyn Wood, Editor in Chief of Digital Web Magazine]
• Myth: Number of validation errors correlates with your gender.The myth that the total number of validation errors in your code is inversely related to your degree of manliness/womanliness.[Mike Davidson]
• Web developers cannot program VCRs.Web developers cannot actually program VCRs. That’s the Webmaster’s job.[Craig Saila]

1.9. Usability Myths

• Users don’t scroll further than the fold. There was an interesting article written about this quite recently: Blasting Myth of the Fold.[Andy Peatling]
• Where do you start… My favourites have always been: – “content must be above the fold”, – “content must be accessible within three clicks”, – “external links must be pop-ups”. All of them are myths that have caused far more harm than good.[Russ Weakley]

1.10. Underestimating the power of ideas.

• [Myth that] “Un-design” sells. Whomever suggested that should retire. Ideas sell. Ideas that look great sell more.[Daniel Mall]
• [Myth that] Bad ideas are useless. Even after you arrive at a what feels like a good solution, you’ve got to push yourself to keep thinking. Every idea — no matter how dumb — is a potential breakthrough or could lead to a breakthrough. You’ve got to document those bad, random ideas. Plus, you get to save them and revisit them for future inspiration.[Bill Keaggy]

2. One bulletproof method to get over creativity block

How to get started? How to get things done till the deadline? What is a bulletproof method to get a new creativity spark? World leading designers not always know the answer, and many answers are quite obvious — however, not all of them.

2.1. Change the perspective: go away.

• Go someplace “different” from your usual haunts, away from places where you take every object, interaction or decoration for granted. Ride your bike or take a walk through back alleys, unfamiliar neighborhoods or industrial areas. Bring a few old magazines picked up at a flea market or yard sale (maybe circa 1920s-1960s) and take a break to page through them. Make notes. Sketch. I am always surprised how much inspiration I get from things completely unrelated to the problem I am trying to solve.[Bill Keaggy]
• Go for a walk outside. My office sits a block from a river, and if I just can’t think of anything to do, taking a walk along the bank clears out my head every time.[Steve Smith]
• Get out more. There’s beautiful design all around us that we take for granted every day; we just need to open our eyes a little more when searching for inspiration.[Oliver Beattie]
• Spend time in nature. Alternately, simply wandering around the city without any particular destination does wonders.[Adam Greenfield]
• Step away from the computer. Go for a walk, head to the gym, or just sleep on the problem. You’ll come back refreshed and with a new outlook on the task at hand.[Andy Budd]
• In my case stepping away from the computer is often the answer. Sometimes I believe that computers literally suck the creativity out of us. I find going for a walk, flicking through a magazine or visiting a gallery far more stimulating than surfing the latest web design gallery. I believe looking beyond web design for inspiration does more to aid innovation and creativity than anything else. I don’t believe there is one bulletproof method of overcoming creative block. We are all different and our creativity is expressed and stimulated in different ways.[Paul Boag]
• Take a walk. For me, getting away from the screen can be very refreshing. Have you ever had a problem that you can’t fix, walked away from it, and then come back and fixed it straight away? Same principle.[Andy Peatling]
• Walk away from your computer and leave your PDA at home – sometimes all you need is a new perspective.[Larissa Meek]
• Replace your current environment/surroundings with something new and fresh. If that means changing your location, do it.[Dan Rubin]
• There are no bulletproof methods, but one that often works for me is going for a walk outside.[Jason Santa Maria]
• The 11th hour is surprisingly effective at inspiring some unique work. Often though, the first thing I do is create a skeleton template and begin hacking at it for about half-an-hour. If that doesn’t work, I’ll grab a coffee down the street.[Craig Saila]

2.2. Change the perspective: do sport.

• Go for a long walk, better still, a run. Having to focus on something else for a while will get the creative juices flowing again.[Mark Boulton]
• Sport as a displacement activity. Go to the gym, go for a run, go for a swim, or in my case I go for a bike ride. Half an hour’s normally enough to empty the mind of panic and fill it with that spark you need.[Richard Rutter]
• Don’t leave one screen to go sit in front of another and watch TV. Go workout, take a run. Or do some errands. Just do something active for at least an hour that does not require you to think about work or look at your crackberry.[Nick Francis]
• What helps for me is to do some sport to clear my head or to leave the office and go out in nature to sit their for awhile. Both things aren’t bullet proof.[Veerle Pieters]

2.2. Get inspired: read and look around.

• Be a continuous feedback loop. That means continuous input: reading books and blogs, attending talks and conferences, using the medium you design for. It also means continuous output: writing books and blogs, speaking at conferences, designing.[Luke Wroblewski]
• Get up and leave your computer. If you are looking for a good book on inspiration, I’d recommend Curt Cloninger’s “Hot-Wiring Your Creative Process”. I hate the title and the cover, but the book’s a gem.[Carolyn Wood, Editor in Chief of Digital Web Magazine]
• Look through galleries of design online, in books, or in real life.[Mike Davidson]
• I find that music, art, and design magazines are very inspiring, so that’s where I always turn.[Jina Bolton]
• Research. Two places I like to look for inspiration: magazines and architecture. Make a trip to the bookstore or to the library and just flip. Look at how they present information and structure the design. Then, integrate those elements into your own design.[Jonathan Snook]
• Looking around websites, design books, magazines. I have a wide range of website screenshots that I look through before starting design projects. Some would call this “stealing”. I prefer the term “inspiration”. [Russ Weakley]
• Collect inspirational design and go back and look through it. There’s a reason I started my Web Design Inspiration set on Flickr a while back, and it wasn’t for fame or fortune (I’ve gotten a tiny bit of the former, but I assure you, none of the latter). Sometimes, when I need some ideas, I’ll just browse through all of those screenshots I’ve taken, and something will just click. When you look at inspirational design, it makes you want to go out and create something cool.[Patrick Haney]

2.3. Listen to music.

• Pick up a guitar and strum a view chords (at least this works for me). You might instead want to take a short walk or have some diner but the point is: stop working. Even just 5 minutes of doing something totally different gives the distance you need. Coming back to my Mac it’s often clearly visible what to do next.[Markus Stefan]
• Listen to music. Music is an equal blend of emotion and analysis. If you let yourself be inspired by it, you’ll often be astonished at the results.[Daniel Mall]

2.4. Observe the world.

• Go lie down in the park and just stare at the world. I find that once let my mind truly relax and forget about things like the bills, calling my Mom back, and the rest of it all — suddenly my creativity kicks into overdrive.[Kyle Neath, Warpspire.com]
• Go somewhere that you can observe creativity in a different aspect than your day-to-day environment. For instance, go to a museum or a attend a play. Gain an appreciation for artfulness beyond the confines of your profession, and this will breathe new life into your work.[Nathan Smith]
• Take a deep breath, stand up from your computer, and go somewhere you’ve never been before — a cafe, an exhibition … Prague.[Cameron Adams, Themaninblue.com]

2.5. Do something entirely different.

• Drop what you’re doing and find a happy place. Whether it’s listening to music, reading a book or playing a video game. Whatever will get your mind off of work temporarily and give you time to yourself that you thoroughly enjoy. When you sit back down in front of the screen, you should feel refreshed and ready to jump back in.[Matt Brett]
• Take a long shower and get yourself a cup of coffee… just do something completely different.[Wolfgang Bartelme]
• Do something else entirely. Look at things that have nothing necessarily to do with web design. Get inspiration off-screen. I have a quarter-sized basketball hoop in my office, and if I’m stuck on something, I’ll shoot hoops and let my mind wander and quite often something useful will pop in there at some point.[Ryan Masuga]
• Just do the complete opposite. Don’t fall into the trap of following current trends or gallery websites. To maximise creativity and different thought patterns, find other sources that may inspire or invoke an idea. Such sources could be simply taking a walk, photography or looking through different types of magazines.[Ian Main]

2.6. Seek for a new approach.

• Sketch as you go.Take some pencil and paper, go somewhere you feel comfortable, and brainstorm ideas. Sketch as you go. I usually come up with my best ideas when I am far away from a computer screen.[Christian Montoya]
• Beat favourite sites in simplicity.Copy your favorite website and beat the original in simplicity.[Oliver Reichenstein, Informationarchitects.jp]
• Start over.If I’m stuck on some element of a design, chances are that I’ll agonize over the element for hours when it’s really something else in the design that isn’t working. Continuing to try to make it work at that point is like putting lipstick on a pig. When I get to that point, it’s best to just start over with a blank canvas.[Jason Beaird]
• Consider what would other designers do?Something that I’ll do is think to myself, “what would ___ (insert favourite designer’s name here)___ do in this situation? How would they handle the design of this nav? Would they use 2 or 3 columns for this layout? When I start asking those questions, ideas immediately start coming to mind and ideas start flowing.[Jesse Bennett-Chamberlain]
• Design from the inside out.[Lucian Slatineanu]
• Observe other people using a similar service you’re designing.Watch a few people using a competing or similar service to the one you’re designing. Users have an infinite capability to astound you with unexpected behaviors that will give you ideas for things to do on your own project.[Jakob Nielsen]
• Refresh your canvas.Design SlumpbustingMy favourite one from that article: “Lose the lorem-ipsum: Looking at a page template that has the same mundane text on it that you’ve seen on a bajillion other page-templates over the years will lead you to think that your page will be no better than mundane, either. When context is lacking, content is king.” [Phil Renaud]

2.7. Put creative work on hold.

• Just get something down without worrying whether it’s perfect or a great start. Once you erase a blank canvas, it gets easier to move forward.[Meryl K. Evans]
• Put the task or project down and either take a break from work altogether or perform some tasks that require no creativity (like bookkeeping or organization tasks) and distract your conscious mind from the challenges. Later return to the task, make a simple list of objectives and start working again to address the creative problem by creating elements that solve the respective problems (divide and conquer).[Frederick Townes]

2.8. Communicate.

• Go off the grid. Talk to human beings. In person. Do something out of the ordinary, out of character. Give your brain a chance to regroup and hit it with some fresh stimuli.[Shaun Inman]
• Definitely getting up on one’s feet, making a cup of tea, and gathering colleagues or the client team together and getting it all out into the open. A creative block is nearly impossible to shift if one works in a vacuum, so throw sketches, wireframes, magazines and books onto a big table, and open a discussion about the aims and objectives. The very, very last thing I think anyone should do is browse the web when struggling with web design or development inspiration. Get away from the screen and find it elsewhere![Simon Collison]

2.9. Train your creativity.

• Force yourself to *do* something creative every day. It can be anything: writing, drawing, shooting photos, etc. The idea is to get into the habit of being creative every day.[D. Keith Robinson]
• I can’t say what will work for others, but what works for me is lots of hard exercise. The longer I try to get “into” a creative project, the more I dwell on detail and begin to miss the forest for the trees. Technical design elements are not creativity and I like to step way out of the creative process into a very physical process in order to get back into creative thinking from the outermost extremity and with the right perspective.[Andy Rutledge]
• Hah! You’re asking the wrong person. I would like to have something that works every time, but I don’t. What I try to do when I get a creativity block of some kind is force myself to just get started. That often helps.[Roger Johansson]
• In case of doubt, jump! Hey, I don’t say it’s easy (I near panic every time), but since we are problem solvers, there is a moment when we temporarily become the ‘problem’ because facing this new challenge.Start working! That’s it! And everything we did in preparation (research, brief objectives) will start to fall into place.. at some point. But if you freeze and stare… good luck. NOTHING, will be the end-result.[Carole Guevin, Netdiver.net]

2.10. Relax.

• Do something relaxing. “Relaxing” is different for everybody, but for me that creativity block is usually self-imposed because I’m trying to hard. My best ideas never come to me when I’m looking for them. They just kind of sneak up on me when I’m doing something else.[Garrett Dimon]

3. One thing I wish I knew before I’ve started programming/designing

Before starting to learn the basics of design and web-development, it’s nice to have a basic idea of what you need to learn properly and what you should prepare of. 50 things you should know before starting programming / designing.

3.1. Professional skills.

• Grids.Planning a design based on a grid helps create a structure that flows from page to page while keeping a set plan fixed when building upon or updating the design. Khoi Vinh has a great presentation on how to set up grids step by step.[Ian Main]
• Working with frameworks.Building sites on systems or frameworks. I used to hand-make every website, until I found WordPress. Then I moved to ExpressionEngine, which I now use for all my projects. Developing on a system allows you to do so much more than you could just cobbling together 3rd-party scripts on your own.[Ryan Masuga]
• Formalized design training.More formalized design training. I’ve picked up what I know just based on analyzing what I see but it would have been infinitely more helpful to understand what it all means. I still think I have plenty of growth left in me in both programming and design. That’s half the fun of it![Jonathan Snook]
• Semantic markup.An understanding of semantic markup. The concept was brought to my attention after years of hacking sites together using tables and spacer gifs. If only I had known! [Russ Weakley]
• Removing the unnecessary.The power of “removing the unnecessary” so the necessary can speak.[Luke Wroblewski]
• Taking more design history classes.I wish I paid more attention in my design history classes.[Jason Santa Maria]
• Taking more art history classes.I wish I had taken more art history classes in college. I truly believe that the more you understand the history and genealogy of visual communication, the more successful sources of inspiration you’ll have as a visual designer.[Jason Beaird]
• Web standards.I wish I’d known about web standards and CSS when I started, partly because I could have written “Designing With Web Standards” instead of Zeldman, but mostly as it would have saved me considerable time from 1999 to 2002 when I was lost in table layouts and font tags, thinking there had to be a better way.[Simon Collison]I wish I had grasped the potential of web standards sooner. I remember hearing about CSS back in 1998 but I simply didn’t get it. I didn’t understand its power. As it was I didn’t adopt standards properly until 2002 by which time I was running my own business. Moving an entire company from table based design to CSS is a time consuming and expensive business and it definitely impacted our bottom line. Of course I am glad that I made the transition because the sites I work with now are much easier to maintain and adapt. Ultimately it has made us more profitable and competitive. I just wish I had made the switch on somebody else’s dime and not my own![Paul Boag]
• Networking.I wish I knew the importance of networking before getting out of school. Idealistic young people generally think that their work will be enough to get them jobs, but in the end, it’s almost always just people connecting people.[Mike Davidson]
• Macrotypography.[Oliver Reichenstein, Informationarchitects.jp]
• Everything.When I first started trying to make websites I wish I understood then that everything: the design, the copy, the markup, the interactive elements and everything else are all interrelated and must be mutually supporting. Took me a while to catch on.[Andy Rutledge]Everything.[Andy Budd]

3.2. Personal skills.

• Good writing.The importance of good writing. I should have taken more writing classes at university.[Jakob Nielsen]
• Ability to communicate.I wish I knew more about process, and relating effectively with clients. What may be obvious to me, in the context of ideas floating in my brain, might not be readily evident to those I am speaking with. As designers, we need to know how to communicate verbally as well as visually. So much of the day-to-day activities revolve around making sure people understand one another, and that doesn’t just take place on a computer monitor.[Nathan Smith]
• Ability to learn.Don’t just fix. Learn. For example, today’s brilliant workaround just means the problem will still be there tomorrow (but at least I can get some sleep now). It’s really a matter of looking at your career not as a never ending work grind, but as a constantly evolving education.[Bill Keaggy]
• Ability to focus.Focus, focus, focus. Being aware of other technologies, techniques etc is advantageous and helps with problem solving skills (among others), but focusing on building a primary skill set makes it easier to get results with that toolset and gives confidence to move on to develop more skills from there; as opposed to studying every technique out there and really not spending as much time as possible defining ones skill set. The learning process never ends, so best to start by polishing your strengths and then moving on.[Frederick Townes]
• Ability to organize.That’s really tough to nail down to one thing, but I’d say it’s the value of investing time in organizational skills. A lot of people view organization as something you have or don’t have, but in reality, it’s a skill like any other. If you work on it and spend time on improving it, the payoff is incredible. The more time I invest on my organizational skills, the more benefit I see.[Garrett Dimon]
• Ability to run things.That in the real world, we sort of run things. I went through early college thinking that designers didn’t make much of a difference. I learned my lesson [Phil Renaud]
• Ability to say “no”.I wish I knew how to say “no” to prospective clients. In my first few years of business I was too afraid to offend anyone, and ended up taking on way too much work, to the point where my personal life and creativity suffered.[Jesse Bennett-Chamberlain]
• Ability to solve problems.Programming, design, project management, they’re all the same — they’re about solving problems. Which one you do just depends on what you enjoy, so don’t worry about labels, just do what you enjoy.[Cameron Adams, Themaninblue.com]
• Know your capabilities.You have to know what you are capable of. When I started out, I thought I was could design websites easily, and I took on some projects that were way out of my league. If I had known my own abilities better, I would have saved myself a lot of embarrassment.[Christian Montoya]
• Know how to find the right idea.I wish I knew how long it would take to find just the right idea.[Larissa Meek]
• Be satisfied with your work.You’ll always look back and think you could have done something differently on a project. I think this is simply down to the pace in which the web industry moves. Tools and techniques are always changing. As long as you did the best you could at that point in time, be happy.[Andy Peatling]

3.3. Details of the process.

• Your workspace / equipment matters.It may not make financial sense to buy that $2500 MacbookPro — but if it’s going to make you love your equipment, it’s going to drive your creativity and productivity to new levels. Make sure your work environment is exactly how you want it.[Kyle Neath, Warpspire.com]
• You’ll become less creative (sometimes).The more time I spend at the computer, the worse I become at both. I typically start both design and programming on paper. If you can problem solve on paper, pixels don’t stand a chance.[Daniel Mall]
• You’ll become more technical (sometimes).That my job would become more technical and less creative from time to time. Nowadays you need to be a bit of chameleon and sometimes I wish I could draw all day.[Veerle Pieters]
• Web is a dynamic medium.How much more difficult the creative process would be for a medium with so many unknown variables. As a designer, I really appreciate the constraints of print now that I’ve been working with screen design for so long.[Dan Rubin]
• Clients never want something fresh.Often when clients say they want something new and fresh and different, they don’t. The reality of “new and fresh and different” can be very frightening to the average business person.[Carolyn Wood, Editor in Chief of Digital Web Magazine]
• Being a ‘web designer’ is obsolete.You are either a user interface (experience) designer or one of the many sub-divided professions related to building a website.[Carole Guevin, Netdiver.net]
• There are many designers, but only few masters.There are a lot of people in this field, but the vast majority are not great at what they do. If you can be great in at least one area, you’ll set yourself above the crowd and will have no problem finding working.[Matt Brett]How easy it would be to learn, and how difficult to master.[Eric A. Meyer]
• Browser war would never stop.When I started designing for the Web I programmed my first HTML-Dummy and it looked great. When I was nearly done, someone showed me a software called Internet Explorer. We opened it and everything I had done was messy. We closed it, laughed and wondered on how someone would really use a „browser“ like that. Needless to say, that a few years later IE was market leader. So if i knew that in my little world the browser wars would never stop – nowadays optimizing websites for IE 5.5, 6, 7, Firefox, Safari, Opera, and so on – i’d probably be a carpenter today … [Markus Stefan]The browser war and the mindset that lead to them will always be a problem. Even though the first two wars were the result of Netscape followed by Microsoft, the stagnation and resulting fallout (legacy incompatibility and proprietary additions to markup) will always be present regardless of which company is responsible, be it Microsoft, Netscape, Mozilla, Apple or Opera.[Shaun Inman]
• Knowing that I could make a career out of it.Like many people, when I first started designing websites, it was just a hobby. It would have been interesting to realise earlier that I could make a career out of it.[Richard Rutter]I wish I knew that this was going to be my career. I would have taken it more seriously when I first got started, and probably would have been further ahead. [Jina Bolton]
• Knowing that everything you do is wrong.That there is no right way to do things, and when you think you have it figured it all out, everything changes.[Craig Saila]
• Knowing that designer’s work is sometimes terrible.Even the best designers have days where they think their work is terrible.[D. Keith Robinson]
• Knowing how much fun it is.How much I would enjoy it! Developing websites is really hard work, and it’s not always really fun. But in general I feel that working on different projects with clients in TONS of different industries always keeps the job fresh and full of new challenges. I also learned very quickly the value of a team. I work with two guys that compliment me perfectly, and I would encourage those just starting out to always be seeking people that are better than you to work with.[Nick Francis]
• Knowing that you won’t be able to switch off.Someone should have told me that I can’t switch off. I know it sounds trite, but being a designer is *who I am*, not *what I do*. Two completely different things.[Mark Boulton]

3.4. Having a mentor.

• The importance of having a good mentor.[Lucian Slatineanu]
• I wish I knew someone that could have helped me learn what I know now. I ended up figuring all this out from miscellaneous reading, online and off. Sure it’s fun to learn things yourself, but having someone there to tell me what’s the best way to do things, and more importantly WHY those are the best ways, would have saved me lots of headaches and mistakes.[Steve Smith]
• If you don’t have an in-depth background in graphic design, develop a personal or professional relationship with a very well-trained, accomplished, strict, fussy, totally honest graphic designer.[Carolyn Wood, Editor in Chief of Digital Web Magazine]
• Knowing people you can learn from.I wish I had known Apple stock would hit $130! Honestly though, before I became a designer, it would’ve been nice to know that there were so many other great designers out there doing great things. I didn’t truly discover this until I went to SXSW in Austin, TX in 2006, where I met some amazing people, some of which are my good friends now. There are so many people out there to learn from, there’s no excuse for not getting better at what you do.[Patrick Haney]

Starting an online business?

I have worked with many individuals, companies or associations either starting or growing their current online business. I have myself started a few online businesses. I have found that many people don’t realize or understand what it takes to do so. This individual may have a great idea, but neither the know-how or understanding of what is involved in making there idea become a reality. I am not going to get into all the needless information, I will take for granted that you are a highly motivated, ambitious, and determined person. I also would assume you are a hard worker or that you surround your self with hard working people.

Research
First you need to find a great consultant. You don’t want to venture to the online world without the knowledge of what happens in it. Take notes and write down as much as you can. Use social engineering to research your industry. Example call your competition (if you have any) and learn… Learn about your market and learn about the internet in general. Much of the stuff I will be talking about is determined by your consultant. The real backbone to your research should be your consultant. Thats what consultants do. Consult you!

Budget
If your serious about your online business it will cost you money. Its the same off line as online. You would not expect to open a restaurant with 5000 dollars. It will cost you big money. Get a loan, find investors, or just raise your own money. Keep in mind that it will not be cheap. Nothing ever is. Make sure you have a budget!

The Core
Just because your business is online doesn’t make anything different really. Your service or product is your recipe to success. Much how it works in any successful business. If you have a business based on service then your service must be flawless. If you service is based on speedy delivery, every time you must deliver speedy results. Selling products? The products must fully satisfy. Never forget the core of your business, it will be the deciding factor of your online success.

Web Site / Software Design
Find an established company that can build your online business. Keep in mind that your budget for developing or designing your web site or business should be nearly 1/3 of what you should spend on marketing. *Very important* So if you have a budget of 100,000 do not spend 95,000 on the web site! I am not saying go with the cheapest bid you find either. Its important to find a great company, and the best company usually isn’t cheap! Also don’t forget thinking about the core of your business. You don’t need to have pages that fly away when you click a button (I have had clients ask for this) all you really need is fundamentals to make your online business function. You can add stuff later.

Hosting
There are thousands of host companies, but only a handful that you should be looking at when it comes to hosting your online business. Your hosting solution should be partly decided by your developers. If you choose a top tier level host company most of the standard security measures will be taken care of. There are a few things that you should know besides the fact. Make sure that you choose a hardware firewall solution to protect your server or servers. You wouldn’t leave the doors to your business unlocked, would you?? If you will be managing your own platform, find someone that has the skill to manage your server(s). Also pay extra money for a good back-up system, and if possible every so often do a back-up yourself!

Online Marketing
Find a company that can market your online business. Importantly again refer to your consultant, but you should find a company that is more of a full solution internet marketing company. Don’t go looking for SEO specialists in particular. Look for an internet marketing company that does everything. A company that can build your organic search results along with a way to supplement this. I will tell right now, that these companies are not cheap. You have to understand that you are partnering with this company, and if the company is successful with your marketing campaign you will be able to spend more money with them!!!

Management
Web sites, web based software, frameworks need daily attention. Hire individuals full-time to work in-house. Just because you have an online business does not mean that your online business is powered by magic little elves that crawl around the internet. You will need human power. Depending on how large scale your business is will factor the amount of “man-power” you need. They will have to be trained, and familiar with your system. Content, Content, Content is saying that goes for online businesses. So hire full time copywriters, web site designers , full time programmers, etc.,.