The Mystery Guest Web Design


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BACKGROUND

The Beginning
It all started when I needed a web site for my band (The Mystery Guest, if you haven't already come across another plug elsewhere in this site). I decided to teach myself, had fun doing it, then did it for my friends band and before too long my enthusiasm was leading to a lot of free web sites.
So I thought, hmmm, I wonder if I could make money doing this. Surely it was too much to ask, I mean, I actually enjoyed it. So I started charging people. I was telemarketing at the time and it provided some extra cash and then gradually I kept needing to get home faster so I could finish what I needed to do, until eventually on one very happy day I decided I had enough work to keep me going and hung up the phone, vowing to never step foot in a call centre ever again (unless they needed a web site). Hopefully you'll see from looking at the sites in my portfolio that I love what I do. I have totally enjoyed the hours that went into creating them and the money that was earned was worth a thousand times more than the the equivalent amount earned by enquiring as to whether someone wanted to change their current long distance transport provider.

"Web Design with people in mind"

I had trouble deciding whether to use this phrase as a kind of motto for my business, not because I don't believe in it, but because I was worried that it would sound like a tacky marketing attempt. I decided to use it in the end because the sentiment behind it means a lot to me and was worth the risk of misinterpretation.
That is why I have decided to dedicate this section to an explanation of the meaning behind the statement.

I was reading a lot of articles on 'usability' and found that in a lot of ways they annoyed me. They had lot's of great information on making sites more practical and easy to use but there was still something that was bugging me. Then one day I found myself in a bookstore reading a book called 'Train of Thoughts' by John Lenker. This great book made me realise what was bugging me. All the articles constantly referred to 'users'. That's great but 'users' don't visit web sites, people do. People with emotions, feelings and a million different reasons for being there - not just to grab some information and go. I'm in no way going against the principles of usability - they are very important - but it is also important to me to constantly keep in mind that it is people I am designing sites for, not users. As a result, a more holistic approach is needed. It's not just about getting to where you are going but also enjoying the journey. If usability is taken too far and web sites became completely standardised then innovation gets stifled and the web becomes boring, thus taking away so much of what makes it great.
In many ways the "people" in "Web Design with people in mind" not only refers to the visitors to the web sites but also the clients that I work for. I have been lucky enough to design such a wide variety of sites and as a result have met people from all walks of life and built great relationships with them. I've even managed to do 3 sites for completely different people in the USA with the only correspondence being by email.

So that's what it means.

A Web Design Library

I love going beyond the software manuals and reading the design related theory, thoughts and ideas. I was skeptical at first (one persons view etc) but I gradually found that the various opinions on what was important (eg usability vs creativity) was spurring me on to think about it for myself and how I approach site design.
Apart from the various web articles I've read here are a couple of books I enjoyed. I will definitely keep adding to this list - there's lots of stuff out there to soak up.

The Art & Science of Web Design by Jeffrey Veen.
This was the first book that really grabbed my attention and got me thinking outside the technical and into the more theoretical aspects of web design.
It prompted me to move away from thinking primarily about coding and into a more conceptual mindset. For example, what works, what doesn't,, what are people looking for on the web - i.e. the "'Why?' rather than the 'How?'".
It then goes a step further by translating these conceptual ideas into practical programming examples that I have put into place on many occasions.

Creating Killer Web Sites by David Siegel.
This was the first design book for the web and was apparently massive, being the best selling book on the Internet in 1996 and translated into 10 languages.
This second edition was published in 1997 and in Internet terms it qualifies as a history book. While a lot of the material in it is outdated the main principles behind the book are still very relevant. It's a much more practical book, showing how to optimise images (which is pretty much taken care of now by most software), create online galleries, navigation etc. but I was really glad I read it because it gave me a good insight into the early thoughts behind the goals of a web site and I was able to compare that to how it is today and see what has changed. It's good for a laugh too.

Music

OK, I couldn't resist. Here's a list of albums that are just plain amazing (and will most likely be listened to at some point during the design of your site). I won't explain each one, I'll just list them, and if you feel like investigating any of them you will be well rewarded....

godspeed you black emperor!