Comments on: CSS Purists vs. FWA-Bombshock-School-Of-Heavy-Flash

By: Tired

Tired — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 09:31:26 +0000

For once an article I can agree with about the whole issue. The problem here is not necessarily one of design or programming, it’s more of a social problem. Nobody likes being told what they can or cannot do anywhere. I found it a problem when I was doing graphic design at college (as well as my peers there), when the school “enforced” their “standards” of a “good or bad design”, and I found it a problem as soon as this whole “Pure CSS” mess started rearing it’s ugly head. I’ve always loved CSS, from the moment it was introduced to now I still use it to make keeping my websites unified a simple task, among other things. The problem happened when I started being told that I must abandon tables for anything else than “tabular data” they called it, and try to “enforce” their statements with arguments like “tables are outdated for anything else”, or “they oppress the blind”. Most of these children do not even know why the structures are called tables in the first place. When it comes down to the wire if it is much easier, simpler and takes less time for an experienced developper to use a method he / she will take it, and none of my websites ever oppressed the blind (oh, yea, and they work everywhere too).

By: Werbeagentur

Werbeagentur — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 17:59:59 +0000

Okay then!

By: KaHLiL

KaHLiL — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 09:00:25 +0000

i couldn’t agree more, well said.

By: Kevin Airgid

Kevin Airgid — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 19:13:49 +0000

thanx for your positive support!

By: Marius

Marius — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 18:50:07 +0000

Personally I’m grateful that Kevin back in 2003 pointed me to the Web Standards Awards site. I first was a flash developer, ignoring standards all together. Once I started to broaden my horizon away form flash, learning about web standards I realized this first about usable sites:

I started reading and reading and reading.Sites where so readible friendly. I noticed where ‘designers valued usability’ made a difference in content delivery.

Still today I will visit Bombshock or FWA, but never feel I walk away with actual knowledge of what was suppossed to be communicated. The animation (and custom navigation) outweighs content way to often.

That’s what I appreciate most about Kevin, regardles what you believe of him, he is one solid designer that knows where the balance lies. I believe this article was written to help get ride of that tunnel vision. He hit bullseye, hence the negative comments, nobody likes to be put on the spot. At some point you will realize he was right and find that balance.

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 02:12:49 +0000

Your article is a breather yes, but everyone within the design community should step back and say, “Is what he saying right?” People need to make their own judgements. Over the past 2 years I have been around the design community, people become so fixated (including me) about people’s work. One person might design a brillant website and then others take notice and try to copy that person’s work. This is the main problem with design communites because there’s only one view or perspective of design. Take 2 advanced for example. My god, how many copies of you seen of it and when some designers create a really good illustration, every other user would think it’s great.

People need to take a step back and say, “Is his/her work actually that good?” That’s what I have learnt over the recent weeks. People should not get too absorbed within forums. Go out and read some magazines because those who write the articles are established industry people and they give a critial analysis of work. Knowing appications inside out is stupid. When you out into the industry, you need to adapt to any application. That also means you are not reliant on the application. The ideas you make, the things you conceptualise; the programs you use are only to aid the product, not make the product. People also need to be aware of their audience. It’s particularly pointless when you make a real big site when you need to atract potentials clients who actually want to see your portfolio.

[quote]
A few people have emailed me after reading this telling me they are glad someone is finally speaking up about this. Maybe a “back lash” movement is starting here
[/quote]

This has been discussed ever since. Design is about opening your eyes. Are you a goat or a sheep?

By: david

david — Wed, 19 Oct 2005 11:59:10 +0000

Ah man I just downloaded that firefox extension. that is cool as H#ll. I am not using it to judge others sites but it helps me in the production environment in case i forget to validate it myself or if for some reason dreamweaver ( i'm a noob i know ) doesnt catch something. Heres the link

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 18 Oct 2005 12:46:10 +0000

I found myself with tunnel vision. I have installed the Web Developer Extension in Frefox. The extension puts an icon on the status bar that allows me to see if the page is valid or not. I quickly disabled the status bar icon when I found myself judging a page design depending on the icon. I know, that is bad. But I have recognized my mistake and am changing my ways.

By: Nico De Gols

Nico De Gols — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 22:13:30 +0000

i’m stil waiting for the first client to say “awesome work, it validates nicely”, and the answer to the question “what is taking so long??” isn’t “i’m making sure everything validates” if you get my drift.

CSS is great and i’m not going to say we have to throw everything down the drain, but sometimes the standards are taking it a bit too far especially when it comes to meeting a deadline.

By: kiim

kiim — Sun, 16 Oct 2005 20:31:49 +0000

Spot on man.