10 Clues You Are Not A Web Designer
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Saturday, 23rd June 2012
If you aren't specifically thinking about it, the terms web designer and web developer are almost interchangeable but actually there is a big difference. We could make this more obvious if we used the term graphic designer to label someone with awesome typography, layout and graphical skills, leaving the term web developer for those who can rage the code with HTML, CSS, JavaScript and some server side genius.
Very occasionally you get someone who can span this entire skill set and you might combine the terms and dub them a web designer, but it is rare. It is rare enough that if you think you are one of these people it is entirely possible that you aren't.
If you are still unsure, here are 10 clues you are not actually a web designer.
1. Your logo is text with a reflection
You think it looks cool. You've seen logos such as Amazon, FedEx, Microsoft, HP and Coca-Cola and you think that they are all just text in cool fonts. You haven't seen the design elements that make these logos special. You think the reflection makes you look shiny.
2. Every element has a gradient, shine, shadow and glow
You noticed that lots of people were mimicking the Apple website, so you added a glossy gradient to your menu and lots of shadows, glows and reflections. You haven't noticed how the original balances a small number of these design elements and you've used all of them all over the place. You haven't noticed that rounded corners became passe the second they could be achieved in one line of CSS.
3. All you images are from free image packs
You think that the picture of a handshake conveys feelings of big business and trust. You think the stock picture of girl on a phone is a great illustration of a customer services department. You haven't realised that cheesy stock photographs strip the unique personality out of the website and leave an empty generic hollow. You don't even notice that there is no consistent style between each picture.
4. You think typography means fonts
You think typograhpy is using one font for headings and another for body text. You think 10px text looks cool. You think that using more than 2 fonts is a great idea. You underline text that isn't a link.
5. Your designs look like someone else's WordPress theme
Your first point of call when starting a design is a template website that sells themes. You grab inspiration from browsing the themes and take elements from several designs to create a cut-and-shut design. You often have the design before you have the customer.
6. You use tables for layout
You don't even know why you shouldn't use tables for layout or you think that your layout can only be achieved using a table. For some reason, you have a special case that nobody has come across.
7. You are using images for your text
You use images for headings or, even worse, body text because you want to use a non standard font. You don't know there are better ways to use a wider set of fonts. You didn't think about what would happen if the user zooms the page, or uses a screen reader.
8. Your JavaScript isn't scoped
You are using a functionally scoped language but you can't be bothered to work out what that means or how to use it. You probably don't know how to write valid HTML or CSS either. You haven't even heard of Douglas Crockford.
9. Your site works in your browser
You created the website in a particular browser and that's the one it works in. You may even put a message on the site telling people that it is "best viewed..." with instructions on the browser and screen size they should be using. You tell people that they MUST have JavaScript enabled to use your website. You think that the 4% of people who don't have JavaScript don't matter, but you haven't calculated the real number that this percentage represents.
10. You worry about people stealing stuff
You look for ways of preventing right-clicking on your web page because you think that will stop people from stealing your images, HTML or JavaScript. The more concerned you are about this, the less likely it is that you have anything worth taking.