Interview - Jeffrey Zeldman of A List Apart

Zeldman On Web Design

SitePoint: Tell us about the routine you follow when you design Websites.

I work with a single client -- never committees.

I find out as much as I can about the project: what it's for, who it serves, why it bothers existing. If the site has a reason to exist, the client is clear on that reason, and the client understands that the site is supposed to serve its audience, I can begin. If the site has no compelling reason to exist, I probably can't work on it. I just won't be able to do a good job.

Once I know what the site's about, I try to find a single unifying idea that will drive it. The design, the text, and even the level of technology, spring directly from that idea.

On good days.

On other days I just screw around in Photoshop, sometimes playing with color, sometimes with grids, sometimes with typefaces.

Sometimes I do the same thing, only in code instead of Photoshop.

That sounds random, but sometimes ignoring the search for a concept is the way you discover the concept. Sometimes when you're playing with abstract size relationships in a Photoshop comp, your unconscious is solving the site's conceptual problem.

Sometimes when you work on a personal project, your unconscious begins developing the client's brand. Then you go out to dinner and the idea leaps full-blown into your mind while you're selecting a linguini.

I'm not a big fan of formal processes and group thinks (though these work for some people) and I don't bill by the hour. A higher power solves most design problems; I'm just a channel. I think that's true for most creative people. We're lucky little vessels.

On my non-commercial projects, I employ similarly quirky work methods, knowing I'll probably screw up the first version of the site, but since I'm the owner and client I have the freedom to keep evolving it over time.

SitePoint: What are your personal dos and don'ts for Web design or coding? And can you give is your top 10 tips for designers?

1. Think about the audience first.

2. Minimize bandwidth.

3. Give each site a personal voice and a real point of view. The audience will connect with that.

4. Do what's actually needed. Don't do things simply because you can.

5. Be entertaining. Inducing boredom is not a plan for growth.

6. In most cases, use Web standards and test your work at http://validator.w3.org/ .

7. If you think you know all the answers, you're wrong.

8. If you're doing what you did last year, you're dead.

9. Test your site -- not just on multiple browsers and platforms, but on people. Your interface is rarely as transparent as you think. But don't be a slave to test results, either. Trust your instincts. Balance them against test results. Rinse, lather, repeat.

10. Get half the fee up front.

SitePoint: Jeffrey, thanks for your time... and I'd just like to say that I forgive you for that whole ruined pants thing -- no harm done.