talkmagic.co.uk

Sorry to blow water on the flames of excitement here, but there's a funny word I keep see cropping up:

"Webdesign"

Now... DESIGN is something which I'm afraid is the MISSING key component of all of these 'tools'. Site building tools don't 'design' for you. You need a straight idea of what you want to show, how you want to show it, its personality, etc. Template driven, generic and boring websites are dull, predictible and boring.

The tools are merely the sculptors for getting the DESIGN from being a CONCEPT to REALITY.

It angers me so. Sorry.

But all these 'frontpage', 'dreamweaver', 'sitebuilder' junkies get on my nipples. I've been designing websites for near enough 12 years now. And fundamental to all designs for the web is usability.

Katriel—no offence, but your site is a prime example of 'playing with the toybox' but having no concept of design whatsoever.

Jags—on the other hand, you've taken what tools are available, and used them to realise the design you had planned.

The net result of these two ventures is plain to see: although Kat's site shows off some 'cool' things—it serves no purpose and is painful on the eye.
However, Jag's site shows basic planning, design and theme, usability and end-result.

I do hope I'm not pi$$ing people off here, but it really rattles my cage when ANYONE with a computer suddenly becomes a web designer.

Fortunately, it's keeping me in work, though... as I'm currently churning out about 5 websites a month for companies who have 'let their kids have a go cos they're good on computers', or who have 'had the office staff trained in Frontpage, but they haven't quite got the grasp'. etc.

DESIGN isn't about having the right tools or the right skills. It's a fundamental base on which you should plan and interpret your vision. It's an individual expression. It's an invention, a purposeful creation.

Simply grabbing a copy of a web application and throwing in your own name and URLs is childs' play. Making it work is a skill, a talent.

Before sitting down and messing around with your computer programs and creating a Frankensteins' monster of a site, try planning your website. What do you want it to do? What is it's purpose? A colour scheme? Who are your target audience? What perhaps would THEY like to see?

I create marketing driven, hard working, aesthetically pleasing websites for a living. I've received several 'awards', gained high praise and even lecture about web design and the internet.

Blowing my own trumpet isn't what this is about. But what I will say is that I am a traditionally trained (airbrush, rotring pen and frisket!) pen and ink designer, who happened to leave education just as BBC Microcomputers were allowing us to draw in 16 colours with pixels about 1mm wide.

THINK about what you are designing first. If you're creating a site for professional purposes, hire a pro. Every spotty kid with a PC or Mac isn't a designer—although they may claim to be.

We see them come, we see them go.

In my experience over the past 14 years working in graphic design, I've noticed such a huge dilution of quality and talent in graphics. And some of the people I've interviewed for jobs with us have been nothing more than appalling. The true concept and meaning of what makes a good design has gone out of the window.

So: Bottom line... if you're putting together a professional site to impress customers, get a top-level domain (not a pukey 'yourname.webhost.co.uk' name), get a DECENT host (look to spend at least £30 a year for a good reliable one) and get a PROPER web design agency on the case.

You won't regret it. And more to the point, using a decent web designer is an investment—NOT an expense. Your site should be your ambassador, your brochure and your advertising. A good one will save you £££s on brochure printing, cold-calling and advertising.

(steps off soapbox, relieved)

Hmm, good points, I see it from a slightly different angle.

I've been building websites professionally for the last 6 years (and for quite a while before that as an amateur), being involved in the technical side (databases, software, commerce integration etc), rather than what I would call design. I am often however crucially involved in the planning and structuring of sites, which is maybe a different form of design.

I know how to make sites that are usable and accessible, having had to conform to WAI guidelines on a few government related sites (don't hold that against me though ), as well as some massive e-commerce sites, so I know from good experience how people use websites, what is likely to work, and what is likely to cause grief (ie. the user-interface design, and bearing in mind issues for less abled customers)

I can't however make them look good. The detailed layout, choice of colours, images etc I find difficult to do, time consuming, and not very enjoyable. Things just tend to look bad. For this reason, when working on anything that's going to be public facing, I opt to work with a designer, and things tend to work out a lot better. I'd certainly never describe myself as a web designer.

Sadly my experience with many designers - including some large design agencies - is that there's a lack of understanding of some of the technical necessities, and appropriate ways of doing things, so unfortunately I often have to get more involved with the design process than I'd like. I feel that this is starting to improve as training and technology catches up with what people want to do.

My take on the "design tools" is that they enable people to have websites who otherwise wouldn't be able to. This can be bad from a planning and concept point of view (ie. bad sites with no point, bad layouts, and photos of people's cats), but also from a technical point of view. Historically a lot of "design tools" produce bad, incompatible, browser-specific, non-validating, inaccessible code.

The difficulty in building websites is that a number of rather disconnected skills are required, meaning that it's uncommon for people to have all required skills to a high level without investing a lot of time and money into it (plus I'm not sure how easily people can be trained in design without having some degree of natural aptitude in it ?).

Usually it's pretty clear when a website has been planned and designed properly, as the experience of using it is a lot smoother, things generally work well. It's clearly somethnig worth paying for in any commercial undertaking.

In the case of this guy who wants to promote himself as an "occasionally working pro" magician, it's probably not worth breaking the bank, but it is worth ensuring that it's done properly, and it's also worth understanding that having a website is not the same as promoting one.

Simply having a website without working to actively market it is rather like having a business on a quiet industrial estate and never telling anyone about it. You certainly should have a site, so you can list it on your business card and other stationary, but be aware that it won't magically cause people to find you.

I wonder if magic is something that's best when mainly promoted through word of mouth, and referalls, of course allowing people to see further details on your site. Shrug, I'm no expert on marketing.

Damn these soapboxes

Seige i totally agree with what you have said there...

people can use frontpage to design a poster, but by using something simple like word and google images you can create a much better poster...

like seige said its the idea, concept, design, style and your target that is more important

I have taken months on my web but still i want new ideas on it i have changed this atleast 4-5 times already- almost satisfied


Jags

Hi Guys

Thanks for all the advice. I've finally had a website built: www.kevincann.co.uk

Being a non-techie I couldn't get any software to do what I wanted in the end so had a friend do it for me in their spare time and I used easily.co.uk to provide the hosting package as suggested by siege

Nice site - hope it brings in the bookings for you!

That is a nice site Kevin

Thanks guys - by the way DAT, I had a quick look at your website & spotted a typo - on your weddings page I think the bride may not appreciate being called a 'bridge'

I offer a web design service for magicians. I am personally still a beginner at it, my department is more graphic design. However my partner has alot of experience in web design.

If you have any specific questions, i will do my best to answer them failing that I will ask her and let you know what she says.

Scotty

Yeah, nice website. I've seen a thousand "friend designed" websites that just look, well, let me just say that animated gifs were involved. That's very classy, though.

Oops

Thanks for the tips and all updated now

I really enjoyed reading your site Kevin!
nice and simple.. and clients will know exactly where to go..

maybe a little demo video on there of your performances that would be great..

Good luck!

nice site, Kevin. I'm sure I've seen you perform before.

Henk wrote:maybe a little demo video on there of your performances that would be great..

I don't even know how to upload digital photos let alone video

And jericbilo - you probably have ! I am also a member of the Zodiac but don't get down there much

Very nice site - it was especially a pleasure to see how short the source code was - good job!

Why not just get a myspace and see how that goes?!