Q & A

There are no stupid questions, only stupid answers. Hopefully there are no stupid answers here.

Q: My head is about to explode from reading all this stuff about building sites. What can I do about it?

A: You've come to the right place, mon petite cauliflower! I love to tell people what to do, and especially where to go! My suggestion: Bookmark this site, right now; come on; don't put it off. You know you'll just forget. Have you done it? Good. Feel better? Yes, of course. Print this page. Now, log off the Web. Find yourself a cookie or, if you're that kind of person, a piece of fruit. Sit down. Put your feet up. Close your eyes. Think lovely thoughts. The beach. Paris. Your phone being out of order. Take a little break; you deserve it. After about 15 minutes, you will feel human again, ready to face the world, ready to build your site. You can't work all the time, and, as my significant other often tells me, "No one lies on their deathbed and says 'I wish I'd done more work.'"

Q: Why are there so many sites that do not add alt text when it is recommended? And other recommendations that seem to be ignored? If it is so important, then why does this "rule" and others get violated so often?

A: This is an excellent question! First, let me explain what ALT text is: It's the text that appears on-screen before the images are downloaded—which means that if you have a slow connection, you get to see text telling you what the images will be, until the images appear. ALT text is important, especially for graphics that are used for navigation, because it helps the user avoid waiting, and, in some cases when the Web is slow and images fail to appear, it can allow them to navigate a site even without the images. They're also important because they allow search engines to index the descriptions of pictures, and finally, they help the disabled.

Now, as to why some designers, even well-known ones, fail to use ALT text... well, the only answer I can give is that sometimes designers are thoughtless and/or arrogant. They're thoughtless if they think their design is so wonderful that they don't need to use ALT tags. Or they're arrogant if they just don't care about people with slower connections. Just because someone can create a beautiful page doesn't mean they can create a practical page that's respectful of a wide variety of visitors.

Overall, designers tend to be very nice people with really good taste in clothes. But some of them tend to think of themselves as the center of the universe (as we all do from time-to-time) and when you're the center of the universe, you think, "Rules, schmules, I am above all that! I am an artiste!" Those designers also tend to wear the most expensive clothes, usually all black, to hide the fact there's nothing underneath (the emperor's new clothes, in reverse). But I digress...

Q: Do you have to learn JavaScript or even Java to have a good site?

A: Do you need to know how to make those little beepy "touch tone" noises to dial a phone? Do you have to understand how a fax machine works (or how to make those fax-hissy noises) to send a fax? Do you have to have any concept of how the electrons are flying around inside your computer right now to communicate on the Web? Of course not!

A good site is about communication, and communication is about content. A good site is one that gets your message across, not one that contains any particular technology.

In the case of the Web, the medium is not the message, at least not your message. (Of course, in the case of this site, the medium is the message, but then, this site is about the media, so that makes sense, even if this sentence doesn't.)

You don't even have to know HTML (the underlying technical language of the Web) to create Web pages; you just need a Web page creation product that handles that for you. There are many of these, from "free" programs such as Netscape Composer that comes with Navigator and Microsoft's FrontPage Express that comes with IE to commercial (and powerful) programs that not only create individual pages, but entire sites, such as NetObjects Fusion.

The technical side of the Web is necessary, but the products that create pages and sites have gotten to the point where they do the work for you. You absolutely don't have to know or even understand HTML unless you really like to code HTML or JavaScript by hand (and many people do, and if you're one of them, have fun!). What's important is the content of your Web site and what you want it to convey.

Q: Do you design for the customer or for other designers? If the point is to have a "functional" site—one that furthers the customer's vision—why the emphasis on style over substance?

That's really two questions. The answer to the first is: It all depends on who you want to please. As a professional designer, you should be designing for your client, not for other designers, that is, at least, if you want to do what you were hired to do and get more work. If you create a site that's successful for a client, they'll recommend you to other clients and you'll get more work.

But it's true that a lot of designers (such as the ones I mentioned earlier with the really expensive clothes) seem to design for other designers, to do things that are "cool" rather than things that are "effective." There's a technical term for these designers (and the clients who let then get away with this): misguided. At least that's what I calls them. :) Once again, that's my opinion, and certainly not the opinion of NetObjects.

If designers want to design something just to please themselves or other designers (or to try to win design awards), they should create their own Web site, with themselves as the client.

Of course, if you're a really good designer, you may be able to do both, to serve and please the client, as well as yourself and other designers. But until you get to that point, the client should come first.

Now, on to your style over substance question with another answer that will probably infuriate or insult some designers. Look, a designer's job appears to be mostly visual, because the end results are something you see. In reality, a good designer's job is more than skin deep—it involves a lot of planning, organization, information architecture, structure, even psychology. But, done correctly, those things are almost invisible in the final product. Some designers take the fact that they're almost invisible to mean they're not there, so they don't bother to do them, and instead merely focus on the surface.

When you find a site like that, send them e-mail saying something like, "Nice looking site, wish there was something there." It may go right over their heads, and they'll probably flame you.

Do you have questions?
If so, e-mail the AnswerPerson!

About the Author

The politically correct if not always tactful AnswerPerson can be reached via e-mail. Feel free to ask any question, hopefully one having to do with the web, but hey, if you want personal advice, too, that´s not outside the realm of possibility.

Illustration:Business Constructions by Russell Thurston at www.artville.com