The funny part was when I signed up. I had to choose what I was: designer or developer. And it got me thinking, what am I really? I know that if anyone would ask me, I’d say UI Engineer, cause that’s the title of my job. But that gives no answer to my question. I’d say that as a web designer you’re a bit of both. So considering that in the last few months I’ve been giving myself headaches with Javascript and XMLHttpRequests, I said developer. It took me half an hour to make up my mind though.

The conference started with Joshua Davis‘ presentation, whose artwork I already knew as being great. What I didn’t know was that he is a great speaker as well. I sensed in him the same joy and passion about his work as I do about mine. Sometimes when I get to make something to work or look the way I want to, I would jump around like a child and laugh. That’s the same feeling I got from Joshua Davis. A breath of fresh air and an awakening view on inspiration. Some while ago I told someone that a photographer has to always keep a fresh view on everything, like a child – like he sees everything for the first time. Joshua Davis extended that to the design. Some people said that he showed the same art as some time ago. I say that no matter when his artwork was done, it’s still cool. That must be the beauty of art, you don’t get tired of it.

Other presentations that I enjoyed: Ryan Singer from 37 Signals talked about usability and then Andy Clarke, Josh Williams & Jeffrey Zeldman, sparkling as always, discussed where web design is going to ( and if it’s ever coming back). I did want to meet Zeldman, but when I saw him there I was absolutely dazed, I lost my voice and my ability to move.

Elliot Jay Stocks had a presentation on the so called “web 2.0 look”. While he said things that I totally agreed and even wrote about a while back, I think people need to move along from that trap. Instead of focusing on “what a designer shouldn’t do”, I think people should be more willing to talk about solutions and new means of inspirations to escape those pattern websites. I don’t think that web designers are stuck on that “look”, maybe we’re all just up to something, taking some time to discover the next hit.

Here are a few of the photos taken. Click on them or here for more.

A few hours later I ran out of cigarettes. So I went across the street, with the rain accompanying me. I didn’t run. I just walked and may I say I kinda enjoyed it. What can I say, a girl needs some rain now and then. A few people in the front of the store, trying to stay dry, looked at me like I was a nut case. Maybe I was. Maybe we all are. Nut cases one way or another. What seems normal to you might be extremely awkward to me and vice versa. So where is the point where you can say you trust your judgment? When can you be sure that your mind isn’t playing tricks on you the same way you think it plays tricks on the others?

Where is the point when you can say: “Hey, my taste in art is impeccable! And what you have here is not art…”Or when can you proclaim your boat floaters as being genius works? What does it take to get there? Is it education? Can you actually say that after you learn the theory you can also critique the very soul of it? After you critique the execution, what piece of knowledge entitles us to comment upon the feeling?

Do we go with the trend, learn from the others what we are supposed to like and what not or do we actually find those judgments in a corner of our minds, pure and unaltered by public opinion?
If so, where do those pure ideas come from, are we born with them? Is each and everyone of us a possible standards/trend setter? And if we are following trends, isn’t there a chance, at least a very feeble one that we might be wrong, as probably I was about that old lady who loves her dog so dearly that she prefers to protect him instead? Cause you know, I just love the way rain feels now and then.

Today while checking back on that article I took a few moments to read the discussion that followed. To my surprise, even though the irony was obvious in that article, most of the posters started talking about Web 3.0 and forecasting its features. Peachy! Mr Zeldman, you shouldn’t have given them the idea, now “all the cool kids” will start talking about Web 3.0, blogging about it, finding ways to define it and we’ll only end up having one more overused concept.

Because that’s what Web 2.0 is. A concept. Hell yeah, Mr. O’Reilly himself calls it so. Still O’Reilly – the one who has thrown this concept in the hands of the “cool kids”- gives an extensional comparative definition. Unfortunately either by the fault of the writing or the fault of the readers, nobody has a clear view about what this “Web 2.0″ does, therefore failing as a definition in being above a certain level of chaos. 

I’ll tell you the truth, I’m not an AJAX hater, I don’t despise collaborative applications, I am all for the rich user experience. What I hate is gibberish talk. And you probably heard a lot of it related to Web 2.0. Collaboration? Usenet, IRC- these were amongst the first web collaborative systems. AJAX? The XMLHttpRequest wasn’t invented one-two years ago. It was here way before some marketing guy thought about new ways of selling software. Only that the programmers knew its downfalls and the risks involved. Yes, great web applications were developed lately and all my respect goes to those who built them. What I dislike is the marketer that has thrown a whole enchilada of terms and names to define something that never existed. Myspace was here before, so where Napster, Bitorrent and Wikipedia. I remeber using Napster about eight years ago when nobody cared about the version of the web. Collaboration was here before, only it was called forum or, for the professionals, it was called CRM. So you will excuse me if I say that to me this term, “Web 2.0″ is a form without substance.

In the O’Reilly network I found this

Web 2.0 is the era when people have come to realize that it’s not the software that enables the web that matters so much as the services that are delivered over the web. Web 1.0 was the era when people could think that Netscape (a software company) was the contender for the computer industry crown; Web 2.0 is the era when people are recognizing that leadership in the computer industry has passed from traditional software companies to a new kind of internet service company. The net has replaced the PC as the platform that matters, just as the PC replaced the mainframe and minicomputer.

Great, so now Web 2.0 is an era. And web applications are replacing software. And aren’t web applications still software? Cause they sure don’t fall under hardware. And the net replaces the PC. So now we can throw away our PCs and wirelessly connect our heads to the modems while we test around the beta of teleporting. Engage Picard!

Yes, I admit, “Web 2.0″ gets on my nerves.Not only because it lacks definition and substance or because it is overused. But because of its lack of definition people feel entitled to use it everywhere. You’ll hear about “web 2.0 designs”, “web 2.0 logos”, “web 2.0 colors”, “web 2.0 fonts” without people even knowing what they are and how they are supposed to look like. Next thing you know at the Deli they’ll sell Web 2.0 coffee, all collaborative, updateable and full of rich user experience.

So yes, I’m starting the Web 2.0 Haters Club. I’m the only member of it for now. And it feels good. Because to me the web is always a beta.

Let’s see what this “too cool for IE” does. You basically put a badge on your site, stating that it’s too cool for a certain browser.

Quoting from the original article:

“You can go ahead and make the claim that I’m lazy for not supporting Internet Explorer on this site. But as most web designers know, fixing their sites to work the same in every browser is a giant hassle. It seems like almost every time that I go out of my way to do something new and creative using CSS, the whole thing ends up getting thrown out because it would take too much time to make cross-browser compatible and/or often would end up not working at all. ”

Yes, I claim that it makes you plain lazy. You might claim that IE is wrong all that you want. But guess what? Sites are made to function in browsers and not the other way around. You don’t build the site and then adjust the browser to your liking or laziness. Like it or not, good or bad, IE is still one of the most used browsers in the world. Some need it, some got used to it. If you tell your visitor that his browser is wrong, who are they gonna believe? Since you’re not Microsoft or any other big IT corp, I guess the answer is obvious. The visitor’s logics is simple: “I want information and I want it fast, that’s why I’m on the web”. Be sure that no visitor will “take his time” to study Firefox, Mozilla, Opera etc. unless they got too much time on their hands. Remember that a normal visitor will not have the time and will to experiment on browsers as web designers do. So when seeing the coolness badge, the first thought will be “maybe you’re too cool for me too, let’s move on to another site”.

As much as I’d like to see the web as an ever evolving business, I only see involution in this particular trend. It brings back memories of “best viewed with IE” that annoyed me some years ago.

And talking about business, this is bad business by all means. You’ll lose visitors, potential clients, and that means losing money. Are you that rich to be too cool for IE?

Finally, this trend started for the wrong reasons. I would have probably given it some benefits if it was started because of IE security flaws and out of the main concern for the web surfer’s security. Firefox, Mozilla, opera and such are less targeted by attacks, being less popular, therefore they are somehow more secure for the time being. But this thing started because of the problems that IE causes mainly in positioning. Is it the visitor’s fault that IE causes trouble? No, sir. Does he care about it? Again, no. He just wants to get the information. Does he know you? No. Does he know his browser? Well, better than he knows you. You are the coder, you are supposed to make it work in order to give him a good web experience. Just remember that on the web you’re never designing for yourself, but always for the visitors.