3twenty3.com,Jason Newlin

I read a good article today, Usability and UX (part 1). It got me thinking a lot about good design and good user experience. I do need to preface that I am NO UX expert in the slightest, I am going to leave the hard core UX to the experts, like Scott McAndrew. I just know bad vs. good when I use it.

A common misconception among web designers is that good design delivers good user experience by default. Too many of us focus on the visual design and so-called “accessibility”, without paying sufficient attention to what really underpins UX. mpress

I do believe that UX is one of the most important aspects of building a site or app, but I also think that good design is even more important. I do think that good design leads to better UX, in most cases. I have worked with designers that have been educated in using the tools to produce a design, BUT they don’t really have the creative eye or attention to details. I don’t think that design is a skill can be taught, I think it can be honed, but its just something that is part of someone’s makeup.

During my time at one of the greatest universities ever (U of Arizona), I spent a couple of years in the Architecture department. It was so obvious that you could not teach someone to be a good architect. Without the basic understanding of spacial relationships it just doesn’t work. I believe its the same with design. You can teach someone to be better with layout, typography, and color, but without the basic understanding and chemical makeup, they just don’t get it. Ok, I got a little bit off topic, back to UX.

I also just read a good article - The Five Competencies of User Experience Design. It talks more about the process and deliverables, but still very interstings.

So, since I mentioned it yesterday, I might as well talk a little bit about it. I am not going to go into my super long speech or anything, just some basics, and what some others say.

Semantic HTML - What is it? Basically - HTML is for describing the structure and meaning of content – not for describing presentation.

As much as possible, the tags surrounding the content of a document should describe what that content is and/or what it’s for. - Jason Kottke

Semantic HTML is just regular HTML, “semantics” is just a fancy word for “meaning”. Its just using the given elements the way they were meant to be used.

Here is a pretty cool presentation that gives some examples: Joseph Lindsay - Semantic HTML, and its from May 2005.

I used to start every site with just the HTML first. NO image, NO CSS. I have gotten out of that habit, but really need to get back to it. It makes building site so much easier.

So, HTML, it seems so boring to most, but when you spend all day everyday knee deep in it - its passion. I have had a love/hate relationship with HTML for some time now, but I came across a great article the other day, and it really hit home.

In HTML, it really comes down to craftsmanship.

Here is the link: What Beautiful HTML Code Looks Like written by Chris Coyier.

There are so many people that think HTML is just tables and font tags, and if the web site or application works, its DONE.

In one of my previous jobs I tried really hard to have other people understand the importance of HTML and how it is all about craftsmanship and attention to detail, but I just kept getting ‘Oh, that’s easy, one of the programmers will just put it in some nested tables.’ Really? It wasn’t until the designers were starting to get really upset that their designs got butchered and the final web site looked like crap. But it worked said the programmers.

I dunno, don’t get me wrong, I love programmers (I wouldn’t have a job without them, and I don’t want to lump them together either), but the look and feel, and UI/UX is just not important to them most of the time.

HTML should be embraced and loved, it is the foundation to everything online.

Another link that came from the comments on Css-Tricks was this one by Roger over at 456 Berea Street - POSH - Plain Old Semantic HTML. Which brings me to another favorite topic of mine, semantics, but I will save that until another time.