Spicy Web Designer Interview with Thomas Prior

Thomas Prior is a web designer from South East England. He started designing websites professionally in 2005 after graduating from the University of Kent with a Multimedia Degree. Thomas originally started designing websites in 1999 while doing his A-Level schooling but he grew up loving art and design and it shows in the web design work that he produces.

1. How did you get started in web design?

I started designing websites professionally in 2005. After graduating with a Multimedia degree I was lucky enough to be offered a junior role at a small design agency based in Essex. Offering print and web services, I picked up a variety of design skills but found the online projects really motivated me. I was lucky enough to work on a range of projects with a fair amount of flexibility and creative freedom, picking up a better understanding of markup and CSS which has helped me ever since. Although the pay at the time was very modest, I was happy to be learning and gaining valuable experience.

2. When did you start designing websites?

I designed my first website back in 1999, in the summer between my GCSE and A-Level schooling. I spent 6 weeks doing a work scheme called Innovation 2020 with some schoolmates in the London Borough of Redbridge. This involved working in groups undertaking unpaid projects for local organizations, learning new skills in business and our chosen area of expertise. I was part of a group offering a web design service and completed websites for a local record label and the Redbridge Teacher Training Centre (using Microsoft Frontpage!). From that summer I was hooked and knew this was the type of industry I wanted to be part of.

3. What are the biggest challenges that you face in web design currently?

Currently there is the obvious challenge of meeting (and exceeding) a clients expectations and needs in a difficult climate economically. Web designers as much as those in any other industry need to streamline their processes to be as financially viable as possible – not with corner cutting but by making ourselves indispensable by being as efficient and knowledgeable as possible. Perhaps learning some development skills to make ourselves even more valuable in the marketplace. Clients are going to want more for their money as belts are tightened, so it helps to be able to offer as broad a range of skills to customers and colleagues alike without selling ourselves short.

Unfortunately, cross-browser compatibility is still a challenge but the situation is improving – luckily we are unlikely to have a problem as major as IE6 again! From a technological point of view one challenge is to keep abreast of changes that are just around the corner. Designers should be getting very familiar with CSS3, and keeping up-to-date with the progress of HTML5. I find Eric Meyer’s website (http://meyerweb.com) is a great place to check out the latest for advances on this front.

4. Do you code on any of your web design projects? And if so, do you consider yourself a “Front-End Coder”? Why or Why Not?

I tend to code (markup and CSS) most of my web design projects, so would certainly consider myself a “Front-End Coder”. Most web designers are now expected to straddle the previously unfamiliar worlds of traditional design and code as seamlessly as possible. I find that my time is split almost 50/50 between the two, with (X)HTML, CSS and to an extent JavaScript being as much a part of the design process as fiddling with layers and gradients in Photoshop.

I enjoy coding as much as (and maybe more than!) layout design. It can be a real buzz to learn some trick new CSS technique, or successfully integrate some jQuery that really brings a static design to life.

I don’t have any real back-end programming experience; I leave that to the really clever guys! It helps if you are familiar with development languages to make the job of integrating our markup easier, and understanding what is possible from a development point of view obviously impacts enormously on the design of a website at the beginning of a project.

5. Where did you go to school and has it helped you become a better web designer?

I attended a school in East London that unusually for the time only used Apple Macs for learning. Web design was never taught during my time at school, but design was an important part of our I.T lessons and I was taught to use Adobe Photoshop from age 11! I pursued Art, Graphic Design and I.T as my main subjects throughout school and this gave me a good understanding of a number of disciplines that were important in helping me become a better web designer.

6. Since you first started how has the web design industry changed? Has it changed for the better? If so, how? If not, please explain?

Since starting in the web design industry it has changed enormously. The explosion in online applications and social networking has altered the behavior and browsing habits of users and the scope for designers has changed beyond recognition. The technologies which drive these websites/web-apps has opened up exciting opportunities for those with original ideas to be extremely successful. Driving traffic (and inevitably revenue) by developing a website which makes people’s lives easier or enhances their experience online show how important a steam of fresh, original ideas are for the future of the web. Usability has become paramount and designers have to think intelligently about the way their sites will be used rather than concentrating solely on visual appeal.

The importance of standards-based design has also become “mainstream” rather than a noble campaign! That is undoubtedly one of the many changes for the better as designers make code validation and accessibility just another stage in the design process.

7. What are your favourite tools to use when designing a website? Why are they your favourite tools?

A pen and paper! There’s nothing scarier when beginning a new project than a blank screen and a lack of inspiration. I like to browse some design galleries like cssmania.com and magazines like Computer Arts looking for inspiration – then I get sketching. Very often they are untidy scribbles, but they quickly give me a very basic structure which helps me focus before booting up Photoshop.

A favorite browser tool has to be the Chris Pederick’s Web Developer Toolbar for Firefox (http://chrispederick.com). For debugging and inspecting code when working on a build it is a tool I couldn’t do without.

Obviously I have to mention Adobe Photoshop; it is an incredibly powerful tool which is invaluable to most designers, and one I rely upon daily. However, recently I have started to use Adobe Illustrator more often and find it can be a much quicker may to put together a basic layout. It has become my tool of preference for creating visual elements which contain text due to the smooth appearance of the vector-based type when exporting images.

I’m also a fan of some of the freeware and open-source design and coding tools which are starting to offer a viable alternative to Adobe products, and will offer more people the opportunity to get started in web design without the need to make the large financial investment of software like CS4.