Archives
December 13, 2006
I’ve been asked this many times:
‘What are the steps to becoming a professional web designer?’
To make a long story short, you need web design skills (listed below) and lots of practice to develop your skills.
A NERD’S ROAD-MAP TO (BECOMING A) PROFESSIONAL WEB DESIGNER
- Learn HTML
- Learn CSS
- Learn basic design skills – how to make a page look good: color combinations, white space etc.
- Learn how to produce images for use on the web. Photoshop or something similar will have to learned.
- Build a portfolio of websites.
After you’ve mastered the techniques and technologies of web design, you will need to show your skills – that’s where the good portfolio comes in.
That means it is time to build websites for yourself, friends and strangers.
Practice makes perfect … with each new site that you build, and with each new ‘client’ that you work with, the better you will become.
ABOUT WORKING WITH PEOPLE/CLIENTS
You may have not considered it, but being able to work well with people, is just about as important as having good coding skills!
… You need to learn how to communicate well, because it is crucial if you want to get the job done.
I will get more into that in another article.
Thanks,
Stefan Mischook
www.killersites.com
www.killerphp.com
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December 11, 2006
Intermediate level book for active php programmers. From the book’s cover:
‘Recipes and solutions for PHP programmers’
This is a very good book, actually one of the best recipe books I’ve read period.
You can tell that the authors are still actively writing code – you can feel it as you read the chapters. The book consist of a series of techniques (they call recipes) that are commonly needed by php programmers.
Some example recipes:
- How to Sort Arrays
- Send HTTP headers
- Encode a string for use in a URL
… this book is packed with all kinds of php goodies. There is much more to be found .. I just never list too much from a book since you can easily look it up online.
😉
THE ‘QUICK HITS’
After a brief introduction, each chapter provides a bunch of micro-tips related to the recipes discussed in the chapter. They call these tips: ‘quick hits’.
I found the ‘quick hits’ to be very useful because they provide a very concise and easy to read look at aspects of the php language. I can see myself referring to this book often just because of the ‘quick hits’.
I actually keep this book nearby to flip through once and a while, just to give me ideas. It has already helped on a php 5 project I am working on.
CONCLUSION
This I think is a great book. It has lots of practical information and is without a doubt, one of the most useful books on programming I’ve read – and I’m talking all languages.
Buy the book if you work with PHP or planning to.
Stefan Mischook
www.killersites.com
www.killerphp.com
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December 11, 2006
I was speaking with my cousin a few days ago and she showed me a letter she got in the mail recently.
It was an invoice (that looked legitimate) that stated that she had to renew her domain within the next 15 days or she could loose it.
Four things were disturbing about the letter:
- The company was unknown .. even to a nerd like me.
- The letter had a threatening tone to it – if you know what I mean.
- The cost for renewal was crazy high: $950 USD!
- The company was located overseas. Of course.
… She was wondering if this made sense and wasn’t sure what to do.
All you experienced nerds out there know this was (and is) an obvious scam. I guess the Nigerian inheritance story is loosing its’ charm.
Domain name renewal should cost you no more than the cost of buying them from a proper registrar in the first place – about $10.
If you want to be safe, log on to your registrars website and check the status of your domain.
–
So if you get this type of letter in the mail (or email,) just toss it in the trash.
Thanks,
Stefan Mischook
www.killersites.com
www.killerphp.com
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December 10, 2006
Ah, web designing nerds, you have studied hard, validated your pages and now you’re ready to leverage your skills for fame and fortune … ok, maybe for just a steady paycheck.
When it comes to the earning a living, what matters most, is what your potential clients are concerned about.
The musings of ivory tower nerds (who probably don’t get too many jobs) often times does not help to pay the bills!
… Code is not beautiful (a fat bank account is) and the Web standards means nothing to the people who put the food on your table.
(Now I’m in trouble!)
THE HIERARCHY OF CLIENT CONCERNS
When it comes to web design, I think the hierarchy of client concerns are:
- Price – everyone wants to save a buck!
- Design – a website has to look good. Remember the job is ‘web designer‘ and not ‘web coder’.
- Usability – though clients have no idea what ‘usability’ is, they just want the site to navigate easily.
- Google position. If you can make a site rank on Google quickly (even with obscure search terms,) you will be god.
Notice that Web standards and code that validates is not on the list.
Thanks,
Stefan Mischook
www.killersites.com
www.killerphp.com
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December 10, 2006
Web monkeys are web designers who make their living designing websites. That may seem like a redundant statement, but there are many out there who are just casual web designers …
I wanted to point that out because this article targets the full time web designer (web monkey) and not the casual web-nerd.
SWINGING WEB MONKEYS
Swinging web monkeys are those few smart web designers who don’t rest on the laurels – they continue to learn.
.. If you want to stay competitive and pull ahead of the pack (of nerds,) you ought to spend time learning new technologies, techniques and even be brave enough to graduate to ‘code monkey’ status.
CODE MONKEYS
I defined what a code-monkey is in a previous post. But in a nutshell, code monkeys are nerds who are inclined to code and not design.
For these people, I strongly suggest that they learn to program – especially PHP. But even if you are a great web designer, I still suggest that you become a little ‘code-monkeyish’ and learn some PHP – it will make your web design better.
SWINGING: CODE MONKEY STYLE
It is even better to learn several programming languages because with each new language, you will gain a better overall understanding of programming – and that’s just the half of it!
When you learn a new programming language you will:
- Gain a deeper understanding of languages in general.
- Learn new methods of solving problems.
I was reminded of this just recently when I took a serious look at Ruby. As a played with this nifty language, I found that it expressed concepts (that I had trouble with in Java,) in such a way that it was finally made clear.
.. Because I bothered to learn a little Ruby, my understanding of Java got better!
Beyond the conceptual level, I also picked up some practical programming strategies that I could apply to both my Java and PHP programming.
CONCLUSION
So there you have it; it makes sense to learn new techniques and technologies, if you want to stay ahead of the game.
Thanks,
Stefan Mischook
www.killersites.com
www.killerphp.com
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December 5, 2006
For those of you interested in PHP, I have a new article out in the December issue of Web Designer Magazine:
OOP in PHP.
It is a beginners article that targets total newbies … in terms of OOP (object oriented programming).
By the end of the article, you will have a good understanding of the fundamentals object oriented programming, and you will have enough knowledge to use and build your own objects in PHP.
CIAO,
Stefan Mischook
www.killersites.com
www.killerphp.com
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December 2, 2006
Recently on the killersites.com forum a question was put the the group:
“Do you use a template as a web designer, it does save time, and you can add your own design on a template etc……”
You can read the other members comments on this, but for me, I found that templates are an essential tool in the web design process.
–
Back in the late 90’s, when I ran a web design firm, we actually developed our own set of web templates that cut down our production and cost considerably. At the same time, the web sites themselves became better and better since the code in the templates got more and more refined.
So if you are a web designer and you want to save time and money, build your own mini-collection of web templates or start shopping at a web template shop.
Once again, I’ve included a podcast / mp3 for those who like to listen.
Thanks,
Stefan Mischook
www.killersites.com
www.killerphp.com
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November 28, 2006
The Web standards zealots have been running rampant on the Web, spewing their tripe of how you must follow the Web standards no matter what is happening in the real world.
… Why pay attention how (the most popular) web browsers read and understand code? To hell with them, so says the Web standards zealots.
No, instead of pulling our heads out of the sand, we should follow the W3C wish list of how code should be rendered, and use a bunch of fragile hacks to make our pie-in-the-sky code work.
DON’T BE FOOLED
As you read this, you may be asking yourself why would anyone ignore reality? If it’s raining, it makes sense to use an umbrella – even if the weather man says it ain’t raining!
Well, I would have to agree with you. After I read the weather reports, I look outside…
Unfortunately, many in the web design community haven’t. They blindly follow the teachings of the web standard zealots, despite the facts their websites are hacked up, require more work than necessary, and add no real value or advantage to the web site.
WEB STANDARDS MYTH DEBUNKED
I will not go into the details here, I’ve covered that elsewhere. But consider these myths:
- By following the Web standards you will save money on bandwidth: yes, bandwidth is expensive (sarcasm) and saving a few kilobytes is going to make a difference … ya right!
- By following the Web standards your code will be forward compatible: except for your hacks where many have broke in IE 7 – I hate to say it, but I told you so!
Clean code (regardless if it is Web standards compliant or not) makes for easier to maintain pages. Most (99.999%) of us are building average websites where bandwidth limitations are not even being approached – hosting is dirt cheap and getting cheaper all the time!
In the days of high-speed Internet, video (Youtube) and mp3, to quibble about 5k savings on a web page is a classic example of the old expression ‘penny wise and pound foolish’.
XHTML FOOLISHNESS
Along with Web standards foolishness comes XHTML foolishness. First a little background:
Nerds, being what they are, love to get the ‘latest and the greatest’ – makes them feel special. So it is only natural that they gravitate to XHTML – the new and better HTML. Yes nerds, I know XHTML is XML.
The point is that XHTML is not ready for prime-time … if you know what I mean. It has two major flaws today:
- IE6 and IE7 will not render XHTML properly, so all the supposed advantages are totally lost!
- XHTML makes working with the DOM (and thus AJAX) a real pain. Since AJAX is the future of web application development it would seem silly to me to hinder DOM scripting in any way.
I mention XHTML because many Web standards zealots are enamored with XHTML, and so the pattern of continued denial of reality goes on. Tisk, tisk tisk.
WEB DESIGN NIRVANA
I hate it when people bellyache but don’t offer a solution, so here it is:
- Use the latest HTML and just be sure to close your tags and that the code is properly formed. This makes the pages easier to maintain and makes DOM scripting work easier.
- Don’t use hacks! Use IE conditional comments to deal with browser issues like IE6’s problems with CSS positioning etc.
The real world Web standards are found in the browsers being used, not what the W3C would like them to be.
Best,
Stefan Mischook
www.killersites.com
www.killerphp.com
read more
November 24, 2006
With all these Web standards zealots running around proudly placing W3C validation buttons on their websites, you have to ask yourself:
Does anyone really care about web standards, clean code (xhtml, html and css) in the real world?
THE SAD TRUTH
Only in large companies (if you’re lucky,) and government might you find someone that may care. Sorry zealots, you can take down your little W3C buttons now …
🙂
The web design community codes itself into an academic dreamland sometimes. That’s why I attacked the web-standards-movement in the past … the leaders were misleading the ‘faithful’ down the path to the unemployment line.
PAYING WEB DESIGN, IS ABOUT BUSINESS
At the end of the day, all this web design junk is there to do, is to get out a message.
As for business, they don’t care about code validation and other nerd stuff that the web design zealots have fooled everyone into believing really means anything in the real world.
A LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL FOR CODE-MONKEYS
But in the programming world, code quality moves to the front – well near the front of the line. This is because good code means faster more adaptable software – this has a bottom-line ($) affect.
… On the other hand:
Clean, standards compliant web design code (html/xhtml and css,) does not have any financial impact for most sites:
In the days of super cheap hosting and bandwidth, saving a few kilobytes on a web page amounts to nothing – most of us are not building sites that have millions of page-views!
So if you’re a frustrated web designer who is obsessed with code, you should get into php programming!
By Stefan Mischook
www.killersites.com
www.killerphp.com
read more
November 17, 2006
I was tinkering with the animated Stef character, and tried to have some fun:
http://www.killerphp.com/vid.php
.. just wanted to get honest reactions to our attempt at being funny.
Can you get enough of killersites?
Let me know,
Stefan
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