In the beginning there was the internet. Quickly this became a means of transferring information to people and a teaching tool. The word spread like a viral badger campaign and soon lots of text based websites were available. The number of these resources became so big that companies sprung up just to handle searches on this wealth of information. All was good and slowly people added more content like putting an image on their now called web page. Information was shared for free and everyone was allowed to grow together as each webby helped another. Over time and through a rather dodgy rotating gif black and red period, websites evolved to something pretty and pleasing to the eye in some cases. Designers pricked up their ears to this new medium which now was not just for the geeky unix bods.
About this time, business begun to realise that this new nerdy thing wasn’t so nerdy and infact was a great way to get their products and services to the world with little capital outlay. As time grew and business began to spread over the net, it soon became the latest idea to throw as much money as you could at the internet – for of course the more you threw the more heard you message and the more you would sell. Quickly the internet appeared to be on course to become one giant advert. As with any business involvement once the returns didn’t come in the amount they optimistically were aiming for, they lost interest as quickly as their rocky business plan fell around their knees.
Enter the designers stage left, as they stepped in again with a competition that had been going on for many years – the one of who can make the best designed website. This net full of advertising and flashing images was enough to make these designers unite and start figuring out ways to deliver the message effectively and with more style than a neon shell suit. As quickly new methods were developed a eureka alchemy moment happened as a few discovered the secret known now as web design. This new design form made people think these strange web designers were modern magicians that could do all sorts of fancy tricks that no non web designer could work out. Some web designers milked this for all the money it was worth and pretended to pull rabbits out of hats whilst they were stuck up their sleeve all along. Other web designers were too busy trying to out design others on showcase websites with new ways to do things that only worked in one browser if you tiled your screen 90 degrees.
Meanwhile, some of the nerds had found they could actually design and were horrified to discover how damn difficult it was now to find out the simplest tasks in web design. Slowly in keeping with the strong open source current, tutorial websites sprung up and the magic tricks were documented. This took a long time as these magic tricks had turned into an undocumented mountain of confusion. For a long time the information in different places would contradict the last resource. Anyone attempting to actually find a way into web design would end up with a migraine and severe paranoia complex. All was better than it had been, but still not well.
Gradually, a few voices of reason could be heard harping on about standards and the need for simple rules. Initially, these people were proclaimed as heathens (mainly by the web designers that were earning big money from their magic tricks and were generally feeling threatened by these hippy teachers). More and more designers started feeling that there had to be a better way and looked to standards as a cure for the headache that had become web design. The competitions changed to finding ways to play within these rules yet produce stunning work. Many in-fact found this was far more fun than happy accidents as you could actually start to predict what would happen on browsers rather than having to test through squinted eyes in fear of what Internet Explorer was doing to your design. This movement grew in strength so much that it was no longer a radical religious sect but slowly becoming the accepted norm of web design.
Enter today stage right. Things have come a long way and the move to web standards and web professionalism is accepted as the general way forward by everyone in web design. Those who still clutch to their table layouts are being shouted down by the vast majority. Something else that is going is the move back to training and passing on of information. There were times when people kept this web magic to themselves for fear of everyone starting to do it and leaving them without any work. Thing is now, everyone has the means to do some form of web design. The difference is between the quality of the professional and the person that just fell out of bed and found Front Page. This is where I see a new move in the web design community now where people are being taught the message of web standards. There seems a wave of people finally catching onto the idea that freedom of information means people are able to make choices and generally they will be the right informed choices.
The web is littered with a huge amount of rubbish and slowly the message is seeping through to even the most grotesque of websites. For me, this is a good thing. I am now looking to take my training I have been doing to another level beyond the juniors I have introduced to web design. The trail has been blazed by so many worthy web standards devotees that the time is ripe for those of us who have been brought up on it to stand up ourselves. I see this happening through out the community and it makes me glad. Business is even starting to take note of this along with non web designers. The public is becoming educated and this raises the bar on what is acceptable as web design. I can only see this as a good thing.
As part of my freelance exploits I am starting to offer training to build upon what I have been doing for a while now in helping designers and non designers learn web design. It is not a trail blazing message to the web design community, but it is all about getting it out there to those that haven’t heard it yet. Slowly one by one the gargoyles of the web are being replaced with far prettier substitutes. As with anything as business takes note and puts money where the web designers mouths are this message becomes an avalanche across the whole of the internet.
