The Art and Science of Web Design turns 5, by Jeffrey Veen

The Art and Science of Web Design turns 5

I wrote The Art and Science of Web Design five years ago. That doesn't seem like all that long ago, really, but when I recently paged through the book I was pleasantly surprised to find just how much had changed. When I started writing the book in the winter of 1999, there were no large-scale commercial sites built with standards-based markup. Every single design decision we made factored the dial-up experience. Personal home pages were still a handcrafted-html effort; blogs had only barely emerged on the scene.

I was frustrated with the state of things back then. I was building a team at HotWired, which had become a division of the Lycos search portal. That was the height of the boom, and hiring designers meant talking to dozens of people who thought being a good designer meant not collapsing layers before throwing the Photoshop file over to "one of those HTML people." Later, I would recall those days in an interview:

Back then, I would encounter a lot of snobby "transitioners" -- people who had been working in print for years and were now moving over to the Web. And they had it all figured out and knew how to get around the stupid constraints of Web browsers. Remember when Web sites used to have huge home pages constructed entirely out of images so that designers could have control over typefaces?

Where were the designers who understood the importance of semantic markup? That technological constraint of browsers and slow networks were just an opportunity for deeply creative hacking? That design consistency sets us free?

So I quit complaining about it and wrote a book instead. It was quite a bit of fun and did well enough to spawn a few printings and some translations. I also got to work with really smart people, like Steve Champeon who questioned every idea I had, and Doug Bowman, who made those ideas so beautiful I almost cried when I first held it in my hands. (And, for the record, the cover came from the publisher, not Doug.)

But like I said, much has changed in five years. While much of the book holds ideas I still adamantly profess today, it's wrapped in an historical context that is tough to get past. In fact, the book feels most valuable to me as a way of marking the progress we've made since it was published.

So have a look through the book. I've made the original PDF proof available as a 3.4 megabyte download: The Art and Science of Web Design.

Let me know what you think. How much progress have we made in five years time? Is either the art or the science of web design any better now?

This entry was written by Jeffrey Veen and posted 29 June 2005 at 10:49 PM. It was filed under Personal, Web Design.

Comments

1. On 30 June 2005 at 3:17 AM Donna Maurer wrote:

Gosh, congratulations on 5 years!

Only 2 years ago I used to loan your book to anyone who said "I need to create a site". I still think it is great, but just not as relevant as it once was. That's a great thing as many sites have moved forward a long way and we know lots more about what we are doing (though now I don't have *the* book to loan - haven't been buying that type recently).

I'm so excited about being able to finally make the web and people interact more, and move forward from sites stuffed full of 'information' into sites that are for doing things.

2. On 30 June 2005 at 5:56 AM vanderwal wrote:

Congratulations!

Much like Donna I would hand this out and refer to it often with people I was bringing along. It was about 2 years ago that I stopped with this process too.

I am not sure what changed exactly. Things became more complicated and structured. We have been researching, testing, and learning a lot in the last five years. Standards have become a norm (in some communities), user-centered design became wide spread, interaction design has grown up with an understanding of the web medium, we have been building processes to easily accomplish the tasks we know we need to accomplish, and some (or at least one) great firms have grown up and have been training a lot of people the proper ways to do things.

3. On 30 June 2005 at 6:35 AM Seth wrote:

Wow... time flies.

I bought this book over four years ago and have used it many times in reports I've given to clients and co-workers. It's a great and valuable reference.

How about a part two? ;)

4. On 30 June 2005 at 7:29 AM Jason wrote:

How much progress have we made in five years time?

I think that Andy Budd's surprise (http://www.andybudd.com/archives/2005/06/my_thoughts_about_media2005/) when he asked how many people were still using table-based layouts says a lot about where we are today. A kid today can start blogging out of the box with most blogging systems that will automatically render valid xhtml for them. Yeah I think its a good thing that people like Andy find themselves preaching to the choir when it comes to standards and sematic design. The art of web design is clearly better now, because it's getting easier to make pages look and feel the same across browsers, platforms, and devices.

5. On 30 June 2005 at 7:55 AM Shaoqi wrote:

It's a great book. Although I havn't finish reading the pdf version, but I will get the book once I have surplus money :) It's just too costly in Singapore and it's not available in many bookstores I went to search.

6. On 30 June 2005 at 8:13 AM Chris K wrote:

I think we've come a long way in five years. The web designers that are successful seem to be the ones that have transitioned into good markup, standards, usability, etc. Authors like you, Zeldman, Goto and others, blogs on this topic, not to mention the crash of manydot.coms around the same time, has made a difference on how we approach web projects.

Its a good sign that businesses are becoming more knowledgable about effective web design and starting to request things like standards.

7. On 30 June 2005 at 8:29 AM Craig wrote:

What a snowball effect… I remember reading the book when it first came out, and though I agreed with its entire philosophy, the cynic in me felt it was going to be as useful as shouting in a vacuum.

Then something snapped into place, and within a couple of years the industry suddenly seemed to lurch onto the path you laid out. The ideas you articulated in the book are nearly common sense and the manifesto has almost become a historical document. Congratulations and thanks.

8. On 30 June 2005 at 11:54 AM Josh Giese wrote:

5 years ago, I was working with your brother, Steve. I remember when the book came out. I got a copy and read through it again and again. I cant wait for the next book you write

9. On 30 June 2005 at 7:39 PM David wrote:

I showed the cover to Meesh, and her comment was, "You know Jeff looks kind of possessed there."

And then, "I like Jeff ... but whenever I'm around him he's in that 'Cult of Jeff' world."

Congrats on your trip Jeff, this is a nice milestone to use as a reflection point. And now I'm preaching, enough...

10. On 30 June 2005 at 8:20 PM ralph wrote:

Given that I spend my days maintaining a site that still uses a design handed down from on high six years ago, encrusted with tables nested inside tables nested inside tables and text buried in graphics....

Things haven't changed nearly enough. Of all the people I work with, I'm the only one who uses the paragraph tag. Everyone else is still using br br. Maybe at the elite designer level, everyone is using CSS, but down in the trenches, it still feels like 1998.

11. On 1 July 2005 at 2:58 AM dvd wrote:

Congratulations, I read the spanish traduction of your book and I think is a "must read" of the web design.

dvd
------------
spanish translate

Felicidades, lei tu libro en la edición español y creo que es una de las lecturas obligadas sobre diseño web.

dvd

12. On 1 July 2005 at 6:26 AM James Melzer wrote:

Am I the only one who was impressed that they fit the whole book - with illustrations - into a 3.5MB PDF? It's like magic!

Kudos on five years, and honestly, kudos for giving away the PDF.

13. On 1 July 2005 at 7:09 AM Jeremy Flint wrote:

This was probably the first book about web design that I found that was more than a tutorial for a particular program or how to create animated GIFs.

Congratulations Jeff! When is the next book coming out? :-)

14. On 1 July 2005 at 7:18 AM Leon Bambrick wrote:

Good work! People have said such nice things about your book.

I hope that by 2010 you've followed it up with just the right set of words.

I particularly like the part of this where you said "Steve Champeon who questioned every idea I had" -- we *all* need a Steve at times. Not some of us -- **ALL** of us.

best luck Jeff

Leon B.

15. On 1 July 2005 at 9:28 AM Dave Simon wrote:

Two things I remember distinctly about your book, Jeff. Not about the book, but memories associated with it.

The first is that I think your book was the first time I had heard the term "blog" or heard of Blogger.com.

Second, and I don't blame the book, but it was what I read on the day I got laid off from my job on June 15, 2001. Perhaps the most surreal day of my life.

First, imagine getting up in the middle of June to go to a job you've had for two years. Now imagine there being almost two feet of snow to shovel first.

Next, imagine getting to work and having all the lights out in the building, and the only sound in your office being that of battery backups beeping. (The power had gone out from the freak snowstorm.)

Then, find a note on your desk from your boss that says something like, "We need to talk. Conference room. 10:30."

I kind of felt what was coming, so I used whatever backup battery power I had to delete all my personal files off my machine, then found a nice spot with a big window so I had enough light to sit and read "The Art and Science of Web Design."

Thanks for the good read and the information I used from the book. 5 years seems like a long time in our world!

16. On 1 July 2005 at 9:47 AM Alex Foley wrote:

Bah! I just bought your book! Then you do the incredibly awesome thing of allowing it to be downloaded online. Oh well...

17. On 1 July 2005 at 10:08 AM Xjthay Simulacron wrote:

I have the italian traslation of your book (beatifully and very,very,very intersting) but
I want say only some things:
In the end of your book you use asp (I think),and other,horrid, Microsoft product.....why? It isn't a beatiful thing....
A lot of link that you wrote in your book are died or changed....
Your book was,is,....great,very great ....
May I hope to another release, a new edition?
Re-thanx for you book.....
Excuse my english.....

18. On 1 July 2005 at 10:24 AM Anitra wrote:

I agree with ralph (#10) above. You may feel this book is getting very dated, but there are still people out there who need it. There are still people who think that owning a copy of Dreamweaver makes them a web designer.

Congratulations! Isn't it great to know we're (at least) moving in the right direction?

19. On 1 July 2005 at 10:48 AM Kristopher Leslie wrote:

Jeff, I for one enjoy reading the book I read it through and have to always pick it up one more time. I recall when I graduated from school as a webmaster (crap term) and had to determine what I wanted to do in my life. I was scared. I could code html, javascript, and use your graphics package but my focus was off on how to get all the core attributes of all the design stages to work properly.

I began to wander off from what I learned and decided to forget everything I knew about the web and to start over as a village idiot. I quick took roots to your writings and became an avid fan.

If it wasn't for you I wouldn't have something to fall back on. I feel that though my creativity (limited at the time) was just becoming of age I was having to battle a new monster....CSS-P instead of table layouts. That was the nail in my coffin. "You mean I really have to learn how to design a page without tables and export functions of Photoshop combines with Dreamweaver chop up?" lol those were the days lol.

Since then I have become so more intelligent about the web and don't consider myself a webmaster as many have coined the term but I look now for more ways that just the web to influence my liking of design.

When you break things down from the way our minds have a set on designing, you unwrapped to me the beauty of web design now people like Dave SHea etc are helping in the efforts.

Even though my teacher at Virginia College in Birmingham : Jeremey Vest , just realeased his book on Web Design (its at amazon.com) I still asked before he left our school to commit on bringing you in to give us a seminar about design. He said it was a done deal but hey I haven't seen you yet.

ANY HOPES? How could I get you down to good ol' Alabama!?!?!?!

20. On 1 July 2005 at 11:18 AM Chris Baum wrote:

Congrats, Jeff! It's certainly been a pleasure to watch as some of these ideas that were maverick back in the day have been embraced by many sites. I would not worry about this information being dated by all but the most accomplished web designers, builders, and business people.

I can personally vouch that many of those I work with currently could use some long steeping in the very ideas put forth in the book. Maybe I'll sit them down and do a reading (or 8). Will try to do honor to your presentation style, but that's a "tall" order.

Cheers,
Chris

21. On 1 July 2005 at 11:30 AM beaman wrote:

Veen,

Thanks for the years! It's been a good ride. Love reflecting back to the book / times and comparing them to 2005.

Now how can we get the Project Manager's to catch up? Sometime's they seem to be stuck in 2000... ; )

Here's to many more!

corey

22. On 1 July 2005 at 2:20 PM index wrote:

Congratulations!
10x

23. On 1 July 2005 at 9:10 PM Stephen Bunt wrote:

I loved this book when I read it a few years back. It really spoke to me and gave me a great perpective on the yin & yang (i.e. art & science) that is Web building.

It still has much to offer. So to the guy who just bought the hard copy: treasure it, books are great to hold and thumb through and read anywhere. But do as I just did and get the PDF as well. It's a valuable resource whatever the format.

Cheers,

Stephen

24. On 3 July 2005 at 4:14 AM Jochem Donkers wrote:

The context surrounding a website is still something many people don't get. You explain this in some excellent figures. I might use them once in a while!

25. On 3 July 2005 at 4:42 AM Craig Thacker wrote:

The science has progressed over the last five years -- as far as browsers. Actual average web content -- well, many things simply remind me that thousands of monkeys banging at a keyboard will never reproduce Shakespeare.

Veen, the nail was solidly struck five years ago -- keep hammering. Every new client gets a copy of your text and gets billed for it before any names are inked to a contract.

Content for the World Wide Web still has a long way to go -- particularly in the area of true accessibility. Software engineers designing canned programs for web content should have to literally eat your text before compiling the first line of code.

26. On 3 July 2005 at 6:33 AM Phil Sherry wrote:

Nice one.

This has been in my Amazon shopping basket forever. I'll probably still buy it, as I like having books on my shelf; they're much easier to sit and read, than a pdf.

Thanks, again.

27. On 3 July 2005 at 3:41 PM skeith wrote:

Jeff,

Do you ever think about analgous impacts of passing time on other industry's beginnings? Like what Ford and his peers looked at 5-10-15 years after the first cars rolled off the line? Wouln't it be cool to read their accounts of what they had learned in that time and compare.

Your publisher wants you to give them a call re: posting this to the Web.

Very cool. Ballsy, I'll go ahead and say it. And what did you do to it to make it come under 3.5M?

28. On 5 July 2005 at 4:39 PM Jamison wrote:

I picked up the book when I was working at GO.com/GO Network and working on a major revamp of the site. You used GO.com as an example several times in the book at the same time I was on the inside seeing us making some of the same mistakes and not fixing some of the mistakes that you pointed out.

I still have the book on my shelf here at work, because while some of things have changed quite a bit (you don't have to sell me on using CSS, though while redesigning GO.com I won a major battle when I got buy in to eliminate usage of the font to reduce page weight) there are things not related to the technologies behind the scenes that still apply: interface consistency, patterns, and information architecture.

29. On 6 July 2005 at 11:57 PM Ulf Schubert wrote:

Thanks a lot for publishing the PDF proof. Some of your ideas or hints in the book are still very helpful.

30. On 11 July 2005 at 8:57 PM Brandon wrote:

I've had the book for a few years and it still gets heavy rotation on the desk-to-bookshelf swap. Though it's not as relevant as it once was, it's still a great resource.

31. On 12 July 2005 at 3:01 PM Andy Budd wrote:

Is it 5 years already? Must be about time for another book.

32. On 18 July 2005 at 6:31 PM Ms. Jen wrote:

Hi Jeff -

As I mentioned at SXSW this year, I have used the book for my webdesign class. In 2001 & 2002, it was a required text, and this last fall I had the class read a few chapters as the theory is still solid.

Andy's got the right of it.. please write more!

33. On 18 July 2005 at 6:32 PM Ms. Jen wrote:

Hi Jeff -

As I mentioned at SXSW this year, I have used the book for my web design class. In 2001 & 2002, it was a required text, and this last fall I had the class read a few chapters as the theory is still solid.

Andy's got the right of it.. please write more! You have a way of distilling the practical and theoretical into approaches that work and can be remembered.