this web design mess...
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- version30
have fun in accounting
- airey0
nooooooo way. you are exactly normal. it is a complete mind-fuck.
the one tiny piece of advice i'd offer is to let go of the need to control everything. certainly print design allows for it but web aint like that.
try to adsorb as much as you can, knowing that you won't understand a lot of it and won't be getting the full story. it'll take time and patience.
it will click but realistically it's a case of some click and some 'fuck, this is killing me' for the rest of your web career. at least that's how i feel.
- airey0
also, and most importantly, a lot of what you learn will become out dated and obsolete so keep the mindset that you need to evolve with that changing landscape. i personally like the fact that a lot of what is true now will be irrelevant next month but some people hate it.
- katekelly0
^thank you.
I've been staring at a blank screen that i need to fill with html for about three hours...
- prophet0NE0
things will begin to click for you but it depends on if you're in a rush or not. and you better have patience and understand that there's alot of trial and error to get things just right in most cases - like when css, html, flash, layout, backend, etc. are combined into one gooey mass.
- ukit0
Maybe I'm being logical to a fault here, but I'm of the mindset that either you know it or you don't. There's no mystery or talent required here, just knowledge.
The great thing about web design is that there are so many good tutorials out there that anyone can learn this stuff if they want to. The bad thing is that there are so many complicated, interlocking parts that it can easily get overwhelming trying to understand how it all works together. So just make sure you start from the beginning and learn it all bit by bit.
The other thing is to focus on the important parts and fuck the rest. I consider myself a fairly competent front end developer now in addition to designer, but I never sat down and read the HTML spec piece by piece. There are a number of excellent building blocks out there to get you started, like the 960 grid framework that already solve some of the more mundane issues.
- I find frameworks are harder to use in the beginning, I wonder if it's different for most though.ismith
- ukit0
P.S....if you have any questions, ask away
you know how it is on QBN, no question too dumb;)
- katekelly0
how do i get an ul to be horizontal??
- vaxorcist0
raf's right in a way..... the old 1999 slice and dice PSD to ImageReady to Tables to Dreamweaver meant you could go from Photoshop to website in 20 minutes per page if you worked within certain limitations and knew how to make verticals expand via table background cells...
but of course, CSS nazi's didn't just ruin that, they got us to remember that, yes, the web WAS INVENTED BY A PHYSICIST, not a designer..... which wouldn't be bad at all if browsers didn't seem to be more like quantum mechanics than anything predictable....
but seriously, CSS and browser bugs and SEO are classic barriers to entry that allow you to charge $$ once you get them and get beyond the client hiring his nephew to do it all....
- flashbender0
- I was just going to say. There are hours of Dreamweaver and CSS tutorials there that will have you working in no time.CyBrain
- version30
lolz
- Dr_Sparkleshine0
First off, I have to ask, did you burn the incense? And if so, did you use a nickel alloy altar? The Web God's dislike copper alloys in their sacrificial burnt offerings, reminds them of their telephonic roots.
Secondly, note that anointing your iPhone with oil and smashing it on the floor with your right heel will invoke Float, God of Layouts. You may ask, but not always receive correct advice from him.
- so you're saying i should alter my plan of setting fire to the statue of liberty?locustsloth
- If you do that, the only answers that will be provided will work on Linux systems.Dr_Sparkleshine
- How does God feel about giant copper sculptures of androgynous beings sent as gifts?CyBrain
- markeebee0
Stick it out - I can honestly say that I don't think there's ever been a better time to get into HTML/CSS design/coding. If you learn and write proper, semantic HTML and valid CSS, these days your designs will generally 'just work' in all the major modern browsers.
For some reason, people seem to think that when we used tables for layout everything was somehow easy and perfect; I can remember a time when it was near impossible to get a design to look even remotely similar in IE5 and Netscape 4.7 (shudder) without just giving up and using a massive image map...
I agree that it's tricky at first, because there's a lot to know (like the aforementioned browser bugs/idiosyncrasies), and there are some things that are a bit counter-intuitive to designers (like floats), but it's definitely worth the effort to understand it properly rather than just getting Dreamweaver or similar to do all the work for you.
Also, I have to say:
"...note that anointing your iPhone with oil and smashing it on the floor with your right heel will invoke Float, God of Layouts. You may ask, but not always receive correct advice from him."
Excellent. Should be in the CSS spec.