What is it you need most for Web design? Empathy

Being a web developer/designer requires non-stop learning. Learning Photoshop and Dreamweaver doesn't make you good at creating good user experiences. Professors don’t teach Excel and Word at business school.

Almost half of people in a survey didn't have relevant educational background for their job.

If your Web site's structure looks like your org chart - you've failed at the user experience. Web site staff needs to be separated from IT and Marketing. Sometimes marketing people are overall marketing people and not Web marketing people. The problem is most people don't really understand what Web developers do.

Companies who speak for Web design like Communication Arts - mainly a graphic design publication - usually have their own bias and are filtered through judges who may not have made Web sites. Fosters the same kind of work over and over again, meaning lots of 0.5 GB Flash presentations. Why not just make films and call them great Web site? Webby Awards - most winners were like YouTube run through an ugly filter. The copy was written by an intern and proofed by a drunk.

Web design is just there to contain ideas. Landmark Web design is a template that fits any subject and feels natural. Get away from the idea that Web design is heroic - really impressive PIZAZZ.

A design is one that represents your brand and that you can be happy with for a while. Don't AJAX the heck out of everything just because you can - maybe your grandma just wants to pay her parking ticket. The "Guitar Solo" approach is not good design and is more just showing off.

Empathetic Web Design - user-centered design

12 tips -

1. Start with the user - and stay there 2. Know yourself - know your weaknesses 3. Find the right client and the right work environment - there are no great designers, just great clients 4. Sell ideas, not pixels - mood boards vs. comps 5. "I don't know" is OK - 6. Build trust - try to talk to clients as much as possible 7. Bring out the big guns - show expert research as evidence 8. Create a paper trail - remind people what they already agreed to 9. Never underprice your work - you don't want thier business anyway 10. Say no to SPEC 11. Say no to rush jobs - clients are always in a rush but always late with info for you 12. End with the user - critique end result