Expert Ideas From World’s Leading Developers

Six Questions

  • What is one typical myth about web-development (which is not true)?
  • What is one bulletproof method to get over creativity block?
  • What is one thing you wish you knew before you’ve started programming/designing/… ?
  • What is one thing to do before starting a new project?
  • What is one common mistake you should always avoid developing web-sites?
  • What is one device/tool or/and service you can’t imagine your life without?

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First a brief summary of all 300+ suggestions, ideas and tips we’ve received from the world’s leading web developers and experts out there. Under the summary you’ll find a detailed review of all answers we’ve received.

Summary

1. One typical myth about web-development (which is not true)

  • It’s simple, and anybody can do it.
    Myth: Web development is for boys. Truth: Web development is for Spartan warriors. People still underestimate the amount of effort that goes into creating a great site or application. The various components are easy, but putting them together in the right way takes time and experience.
  • Successful web sites can/should be designed completely in a couple of days.
    In reality you can’t get a site fast, cheap and good. You can’t have all three. The fact remains, that even when using open source frameworks to build sites, a truly custom design integration into a customized or even standard CMS is not a task that can be done properly in just a few hours.
  • Accessible web pages are visually dull.
    This is a myth that has been battled against since people started to think about web accessibility. Unfortunately it is still perpetuated by accessibility consultancies tasked with designing websites, but who don’t employ actual designers.
  • Visual design deserves more time and effort than the content.
    The content is where it starts and is the reason for the design to exist, yet, so many designers still view copywriting and content creation as “not my job”. On projects where there’s a dedicated copywriter, that may work. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case.
  • Standards-compliance guarantees a good web site.
    There are many young developers out there caring so much for code that they seem to forget everything else, while to be true, a good designed website (form & function) with bad code still works better than a bad designed with an awesome code.
  • Design and best design practices are expensive.
    It can only be true if you haven’t yet learned how to develop accessible sites with web standards, in which case it’s time to start reading.
  • One aspect of web design is dominant over all of the others.
    Usability is often seen as reining supreme. Although it is incredibly important it needs to be tempered by business objectives, technical constraints and even accessibility considerations. Some see design as more important than anything, others well written code. The truth is that web design is about balance.
  • Absolute separation is possible.
    In reality proper use of semantic (X)HTML and CSS completely abstracts the presentation of a site from its content is impossible.
  • Feature X is “not possible.”
    Just because it hasn’t been done, doesn’t mean it’s not possible. We’ve got dozens of tools (HTML, CSS, Flash) at our tooltips — don’t let anyone tell you that it can’t be done. It just hasn’t been done yet.
  • IE is an absolute nightmare to develop for.
    It requires a little perseverance to get it there 100%, but with a little compromise (graceful degradation), you can have it looking pretty much (95%?) the same as it does in other browsers.
  • The “necessary” abundant use of hacks.
    If your HTML is well structured and you understand how CSS is supposed to work as well as how it does work in different browsers, you need few, if any hacks.
  • Keeping the various layers of a website is too difficult and requires too much effort for very little return.
    If you start with a strict focus on keeping all the layers (database, server-side code, html, css, javascript) separate that in the long run you will save yourself a lot of time developing and prevent a lot of headaches too.
  • Internet Explorer 7 is an improvement over IE6.
    Microsoft was going to deliver a product that would make our lives as web developers easier, but its done nothing but add more garbage to the pile.
  • Developers can’t be designers, designers can’t be developers.
    It might seem there is a clear divide between the two, however there are people out there who have no problem being both. CSS/XHTML is a great middle point, from there you can progressively go either way.
  • “Un-design” sells.
    Whomever suggested that should retire. Ideas sell. Ideas that look great sell more.
  • Bad ideas are useless.
    Every idea — no matter how dumb — is a potential breakthrough or could lead to a breakthrough. You’ve got to document those bad, random ideas. Plus, you get to save them and revisit them for future inspiration.

2. One bulletproof method to get over creativity block

  • Change the perspective: go away.
    Go someplace “different” from your usual haunts, away from places where you take every object, interaction or decoration for granted. Step away from the computer. Go for a walk, head to the gym, or just sleep on the problem. You’ll come back refreshed and with a new outlook on the task at hand.
  • Get inspired.
    Be a continuous feedback loop. That means continuous input: reading books and blogs, attending talks and conferences, using the medium you design for. It also means continuous output: writing books and blogs, speaking at conferences, designing.
  • Listen to music.
    Listen to music. Music is an equal blend of emotion and analysis. If you let yourself be inspired by it, you’ll often be astonished at the results.
  • Observe the world.
    Take a deep breath, stand up from your computer, and go somewhere you’ve never been before — a cafe, an exhibition … Prague. Go lie down in the park and just stare at the world. Let your mind truly relax and forget about things like the bills, and the rest of it all — suddenly your creativity will kick into overdrive.
  • Do something entirely different.
    Do something else entirely. Look at things that have nothing necessarily to do with web design. Get inspiration off-screen.
  • Seek for a new approach.
    Sketch as you go, start over, beat favourite sites in simplicity, consider what would other designers do, refresh your canvas, observe other people using a similar service you’re designing.
  • Put creative work on hold.
    Put the task or project down and either take a break from work altogether or perform some tasks that require no creativity (like bookkeeping or organization tasks) and distract your conscious mind from the challenges.
  • Communicate.
    Go off the grid. Talk to human beings. In person. Do something out of the ordinary, out of character. Give your brain a chance to regroup and hit it with some fresh stimuli.
  • Train your creativity.
    Force yourself to *do* something creative every day. It can be anything: writing, drawing, shooting photos, etc. The idea is to get into the habit of being creative every day.

 

 

3. One thing I wish I knew before I’ve started programming/designing

  • Professional skills.
    Grids, working with frameworks, formalized design training, semantic markup, removing the unnecessary, design & art history classes, web standards, networking, macrotypography, everything.
  • Personal skills.
    Good writing, ability to communicate, ability to learn, ability to focus, ability to organize, ability to run things, ability to say “no”, ability to solve problems. Also: know your capabilities, know how to find the right idea and be satisfied with your work.
  • Your workspace / equipment matters.
    Make sure your work environment is exactly how you want it.
  • You’ll become less creative.
    The more time you spend at the computer, the worse you’ll become.
  • You’ll become more technical.
    The job will become more technical and less creative from time to time.
  • Web is a dynamic medium.
    The creative process is much more difficult for a medium with so many unknown variables.
  • Clients never want something fresh.
    Often when clients say they want something new and fresh and different, they don’t. The reality of “new and fresh and different” can be very frightening to the average business person.
  • There are many designers, but only few masters.
    There are a lot of people in this field, but the vast majority are not great at what they do. If you can be great in at least one area, you’ll set yourself above the crowd and will have no problem finding working.
  • Browser war would never stop.
    The browser war and the mindset that lead to them will always be a problem. Even though the first two wars were the result of Netscape followed by Microsoft, the stagnation and resulting fallout (legacy incompatibility and proprietary additions to markup) will always be present.
  • Knowing that you can make a career out of it.
    “I wish I knew that this was going to be my career. I would have taken it more seriously when I first got started, and probably would have been further ahead.”
  • Knowing that everything you do is wrong.
    There is no right way to do things, and when you think you have it figured it all out, everything changes.
  • Knowing that designer’s work is sometimes terrible.
    Even the best designers have days where they think their work is terrible.
  • Knowing how much fun it is.
    Developing websites is really hard work, and it’s not always really fun. But in general working on different projects with clients in TONS of different industries always keeps the job fresh and full of new challenges.
  • Knowing that you won’t be able to switch off.
    “Someone should have told me that I can’t switch off. I know it sounds trite, but being a designer is *who I am*, not *what I do*. Two completely different things.”
  • Having a mentor.
    “I wish I knew someone that could have helped me learn what I know now. I ended up figuring all this out from miscellaneous reading, online and off. Sure it’s fun to learn things yourself, but having someone there to tell me what’s the best way to do things, and more importantly WHY those are the best ways, would have saved me lots of headaches and mistakes.”