Hi guys,
first I’d like to thank you for your thoughts and the invaluable insights.
Time for a preliminary résumé (what I learned from this list):
A designer’s work is based on visualizing things, to attract others recognizing, viewing, reading and/or understanding complex, complicated or even abstractive things.
He is using various tools depending on his core competence, and whenever he adopts new disciplines, he is reflecting this on what he is coming from:
Visualization - craftsmanship - a given talent!
For this reason, we all adopted Freeway as our new core-competence tool for making Web visual. Unfortunately, and we all know this, there is something between the “input (visual)” and the “output (visual)”.
SP told us that we shouldn’t be too much concerned about it, cause our tool takes care of us and is handling every aspect that could screw-up things.
This statement is true, ever was and still is.
But, and already outlined, technologies are moving. I can’t judge if they do quicker as the app can be developed.
To persist on code immunity is absolutely OK, as long as you live with the constraints coming along with it. Up to be called “pixel pusher” cause we wrap our design in a rock-solid table-construction just to make sure that our results are displayed exact the same in every browser.
But there we are:
We don’t want constraints cause we are designers - we are able, trained and sophisticated enough to visualize all. And we want to place items wherever WE decide to place them, no matter if there are certain constraints in a language called HTML.
This language is created by humans, even Designers (but engineers as well) to make things less enigmatic then an endless row of 0 and 1. So designers had been responsible for the problems of a designer?
Well - I know - another strange thesis, but worth to think about.
But another aspects is true as well:
Most of the today fancy and modern stuff is not actionized yet. We still “fade-in” “fade-left”, bounce-up by the method of java-script libraries, although CSS3 adopted this (even pretty cross-browser compatible). All those things are already addressed for sure - but a manufacturer has too keep all aspects in mind (even IE6). He can’t do progressive enhancement as we designer can do. He has to react more like a browser-vendor does. And meanwhile? Sitting down, waiting 'til it happens? Complaining that it doesn’t happen? Or simply go on with tables?
But guys - one last thought:
Whatever you did in the past, have you ever had a media which doesn’t have constraints regarding format?
Ever thought of a canvas or a piece of paper which is endless in width and height? Flexible - adaptive?
Ever thought of a printer, that fits on a desktop, but able to print A0+?
Welcome in the abstract world of math.
Cheers
Thomas
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