telophase | (no subject)

When I was in library school learning about web design, the main thing they hammered into our heads after how to organize information so that it makes sense was accessibility. You want people looking at your website to be able to find what they need. You want people looking at your website using their text-only phone to be able to find what they need. You want people looking at your website using a screen reader to not hate you.

I don't know if this is just not something that they teach when you're learning to be a web designer, or if the business model means you can never actually DO this, but ye gods.

I don't know if this is just not something that they teach when you're learning to be a web designer...

No, it is not something they teach you when you become a web designer. Web designers are taught tricks with Flash and javascript, in order to "control the experience" of page viewers. Getting information out there in an accessible form is not important, to a web designer!

With regard to the subject here, when I run into one of these restaurant websites that uses Flash only and does not have a fast, easy-to-find information page telling me when they're open and where they are (address and the nearest intersection will do, thanks), either I don't bother eating there, or when I do eat there I tell them what a crappy website they have because I couldn't find out where they were and when they were open. Restaurants do not want customers to go to Yelp for that information, but restaurant owners are dumb as a box of rocks about what is really needed (one page, with name, address, hours open, and the phone number for reservations).

That last sentence hit it all. The problem is that most restaurant owners are drawn to the flashy (and Flashy), and they're usually going for the expensive Flashturbation as a business deduction on taxes. It never occurs to them that the Flash makes it absolutely impossible for anyone other than the designer to update the site, say with menu or hours changes, because they've forgotten all about the site the moment they can put the URL on the menu.

What's really sad is when you see still-running sites for places that are long-dead. I call these sites "mummyware", because they're definitely dead but well-preserved. My wife and I found a great Turkish restaurant last June that was so good that she wanted to have her fortieth birthday party there. I spent a month calling and E-mailing to set up a reservation, only to receive no response. We finally drove out there, and discovered that the landlord had changed the locks precisely two days after we ate there. You'd have never known this from the Web site, that's for sure.

Aventino, which IIRC has either closed down or is about to close, has for *months* been running an ad in the Fort Worth Weekly with their URL misspelled.

That doesn't surprise me in the slightest, in the case of either participant. When New Times bought out the Weekly, the company made a point of driving out anybody and everybody with the slightest bit of talent or competence (thus explaining why Mark Caywood was forced out within a week but Kristian "Um Um Um" Lin is still making vowel movements there), and the current crop of advertising salespeople probably couldn't care less about this issue. If they're anything like the alleged humans working at The Met before it shut down (especially with a sales manager who literally only had her job because she was fucking the publisher, and who was promptly let go when they broke up), the attitude is "Who cares, so long as the checks clear and they don't say anything about it?"

What

movingfinger said.

Also to be noted: most commercial web designers don't ever get formal training. I'm thrilled that it's taught in library school, but it isn't taught in business courses (beyond how to export HTML from Word) or computer science programs.

All the pros I know, including me, are self-taught. The ones who stay in business as freelancers are the ones who learn to give the customer what s/he wants. (See also the Indian outsourcer (http://clientsfromhell.tumblr.com/post/392772921/client-indian-outsourcer-says-he-can-do-this).)

I could rant all night about how frustrating it is that this crazy internet thing that powers all our lives is put together with chewing gum and duct tape, but I'll spare you. Suffice to say, unless you are in a very forward-thinking art school with a master's program in interaction design, there isn't much formal training you can get in this field.

And if you ARE in such a program, let's hope you have a teacher who values usability over TEH SHINY FLASH, God help us all.

My library program also had a web design course, although it tended to the very, very basic (because most libraries can't afford a professional web designer). The grad student who taught it was very good at teaching to the level of each person in class - while I was bored silly through the basic "this is HTML, this is how you use it" at the beginning, once we got into Javascript, I learned things. He also had us do group projects that involved database-driven websites, so we each took on an aspect that was new to us - I did the ASP coding, for example.

We each did a separate final project, and you'll be happy to know I was dinged for putting a splash page on there (well, it offered a choice between the site and the forums) and for having too many images, EVEN THOUGH my clients (this was the Digital Burn site) said their target audience had fancy systems and good connections and wanted such stuff. :D

I worked as a Web designer back in the Nineties, and one of the reasons why I quit was because of the Indian outsourcer stories. Well, that and the problems with pay. For a while, I worked for a newly founded company where we had plenty of business but no actual returns. All of our customers were frat brothers with our owner, and when we'd hand over an invoice, we'd promptly be told "You don't get it. Ray and I have an understanding." About three months after we started up, we were shut down, and the rest of the company liquidated about six months later, because while we had lots and lots of Ray's frat buddies who wanted our services, not a single one was willing to put down a penny after we'd done all of the work.