While reading Digg today, I ran across an interesting link to an article posted on the BBC website about how web users are skipping all the formalities so to speak and going right for the information they want. Users are going right for search engines and skipping home pages. You can find the article here.
Today, I was reading through a web developer forum and I ran across a noobie web designer asking for help with one of her school projects. She was looking for a place to find a cheat sheet. (It was apparent from how she asked her question that she didn’t know much about web design.) As I was scrolling past her post, I noticed that someone had posted a reply. I was scanning the reply when I came to an abrupt halt and shifted my eyes up a few lines to see what the poster was talking about. The reply was from a self proclaimed developer who was trying to explain how the web development world works. Here is what he said, which got me thinking:
In web development, there are designers and developers. These 2 different jobs, which overlap, have 2 different philosophies. Designers generally think in the term; form over function. How the page looks is more important than how it works. For developers it’s the opposite; form follows function. A functioning site is more important than a pretty site.
He goes onto say that the best sites are usually a balance of the two philosophies. However my question is whether a developer can be a good designer and vise versa? I would love some feedback from other web developers, what are your thoughts on this?
Let me just start this post off with a WOW! Not wow that its taken me just over four months to write a new post (even though I am sure my site would disagree)… but rather more of a wow for a new framework I have been working with: Ruby on Rails. I know, I know, its not NEW-NEW but its new to me. I have been working on a project this last week (Its how I spent the better part of my spring break… ok enough with the jokes) for a local gaming center (Alpine Gaming). I am going to outline a few features of the site more for me than for you but it will give an idea as to what Ruby on Rails can do, but keep in mind I am a beginner just imagine what a skilled developer can do with this framework. (I will also include a few links to some resources I found very handy at the bottom of this post.)
I had some help with this project, below I have listed a few places where I found helpful information. A big thank you to everyone listed:
PeepCode.com.
RailsCasts.com
Ralph at Rails on Edge
RubyPlus.org
All the people on #RubyOnRails at Freenode.
Let’s say it’s been a busy day. I have been hard at work developing a new layout (as you can see) and let me tell you this is probably one of the best layouts I have created in a while. This site is using a backend called Wordpress which by the way is an amazing application. I played around with Typo but it’s still a bit behind Wordpress but I like the fact that it runs on Ruby on Rails. However I decided that WP would be a better choice for now. I don’t have a lot of time to write any more, just wanted to get an update on the website just in case anyone decided to view it while its being remodeled. With that I will leave you with something to think about. (I really just want to see if my blockquote style works!)
Part of the inhumanity of the computer is that, once it is competently programmed and working smoothly, it is completely honest.
-Isaac Asimov