In this interview, we’ll dive into his work process, and hopefully steal some tips and inspiration!

How long have you been in the web design business?

About five years ago, I started the Multimedia and Web Design Course at SAE Vienna in my home country, Austria. Back then, I did mostly Flash stuff (almost every piece of work was REALLY horrible to tell the truth) and I also had some interest in html coding (I loved table design back then ). With every course I took, I lost a little interest in Flash and got more curious about HTML and CSS. When they handed me my Bachelor Degree a few years later, I was pretty decent with HTML and CSS whereas my Flash skills were lousy at best.

I did some small projects for an event agency during that time and as soon as I finished College, they offered me a full time Job as a Front-end Developer, which I gladly accepted. I’m still working at this Agency

When/How did you first come across the Envato marketplaces – specifically ThemeForest?

I was a regular reader of the TUTS-PLUS Websites and therefore was aware that there is a marketplace called ActiveDen, where people sell all this neat Flash stuff; but since I was only a Front-end Developer with HTML, CSS, and some PHP Skills at that time, I didn’t really bother.

When Envato announced the opening of ThemeForest, I thought I could give it a try, and uploaded my first WordPress theme. The theme flopped really hard and only earned me 30 Bucks during the first month. Out of pure boredom, I created a second theme.

The second one did a little better, really just a little, but it was enough that I became curious if I could do better with each theme. =)

You’ve been particularly successful when it comes to WordPress theme sales. When developing a new item, do you try to plan for PSD, Site Template, and WordPress submissions? Or do you prefer to focus only on one category per design?

When I started creating templates, I almost always only planned for the WordPress version. I was thinking that the HTML Templates are far to cheap to earn a good amount of money, which is actually not true.

I did this until I invested countless hours into a Wordpress theme which underperformed to a point where I had worked for about 3$/hour for a whole week. Since then, I usually create a HTML template as well, to test if customers like what I have designed.

I still usually don‘t do a PSD version. Unlike other people, I only design to a certain point in Photoshop; many of the small improvements and details that customers see in the final HTML version are added while I code the HTML and CSS.

Though encouraged, we do not require that authors provide support for their items. Do you? Considering how well your items sell, how do you manage to provide quality support to so many different buyers? Any tricks/short-cuts?

It is indeed really hard sometimes to support all customers, especially those not familiar with WordPress, but I try to answer all questions. I think it’s crucial if you want customers to return and buy your themes again. The big problem I guess is providing “Quality Support”. I simply don‘t have the time to do more than 90 minutes of theme support each day, so if I see tons of requests on my Author Dashboard, answers usually (and unfortunately) get a little more generic :/

There are several “tricks” that worked out pretty good for me:

• I am trying to encourage all customers to use the item dashboard and not the mail contact form. That way, other customers benefit from the answers as well and I only have to check one place for requests.
• Updating the documentation file that comes with the download regularly helps a lot as well. I also save answers that I have given more than 2 or 3 times into a text document for copy/pasting on demand.
• Overall I can only suggest to find your own method of streamlining support; the best way to cut down support time of course is to create themes and documentation that are so easy to use, that support requests drop to a minimum.

Do you or have you considered selling on the different Envato marketplaces as well?

Yes. I have tried to upload a flash file once last Christmas, since I had a pretty neat Santa animation. Those who have checked my portfolio might have already guessed it… it seems it wasn’t that neat. ;D

Many successful authors have noted that the biggest advantage to selling their designs through us is that it takes the client completely out of the design process, and instead allows the author full control. Would you agree? Any other advantages?

I agree, it is indeed great to be in full control of all decisions. I have worked with too many clients over the past years who thought just because they can use MS Paint they are great designers But you should never underestimate the positive impact of a second opinion when creating your themes. Therefore I almost always ask some of my colleagues at the agency to make suggestions on my designs before I release them.

I also love the fact that I don’t have any deadlines here and can try new stuff with every theme I release

Do you take advantage of our referral program, or promote your items in any additional ways to increase sales?

Only a little; I promote my themes on my blog and on Twitter when I release them. But since I make postings rarely on my blog, the impact on my sales ain’t that big. ;D I will try to post more often in the future when my sites redesign is finally done, but to tell the truth I am not a very persistent writer.

Without giving away any of your key techniques, if you could only make one choice, what would be the most important thing to keep in mind when selling on ThemeForest?

Study and improve. There are very few authors here that did a great job from the beginning. Almost everyone who is selling a lot nowadays has heavily improved over previous months. I am no exception, I can’t believe how much I have learned about web design and coding during the last year, and I think that’s the best weapon we have. Learn from your mistakes, listen to reviewers and customers and improve with every file you release.

A new member signs up with ThemeForest and is hoping to upload his or her first item. Any advice?

Use the help of the community to get your items uploaded and to improve yourself. Authors, customers, reviewers, almost everyone here is very helpful; so don‘t hesitate and ask Don‘t give up if an item gets rejected several times, it happened to almost all of us!

Final question. What’s next for you? Any special items planned before the end of the year?

I will try to invest more time into my themes, which basically means more themes, hopefully better themes, more updates and better support. I am already in the process of designing the next two items, but it’s been a very busy month at the agency so I haven’t been able to release anything new for a while now.

Last but not least, I wanted to take the chance and thank everyone who purchased one of my themes! I appreciate it more than you probably can imagine. Earning money here is great of course, but its equally amazing to be part of such a great community!

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Recently our awesome Tuts+ interviewer Emil asked if I minded being video interviewed with some questions put forward by the Psdtuts+ readers. Since no-one really wants to see my enormous head on screen for too long a period of time, I asked my lovely wife and partner in crime Cyan if she’d be in on the interview and we thought we’d put up the video to help celebrate 3 years of Envato.

The Interview

So without further ado, if you’ve ever wondered about how Envato started or about who we are, I hope you enjoy this little interview of us!

Don’t like Blip.tv? View the interview on
YouTube as individual questions

Here’s to Another 3 Years!

It’s kinda hard to believe it’s been three years already! I still think of us as a startup. I can’t stress enough how thankful we are for all the readers, users, authors, buyers, and staff who have helped us these last three years. Something that’s really come home to me since we started Envato is that you don’t build great companies without lots and lots of great people. From all the positive comments we get, the good natured communities that have grown around our sites, the amazing files that get sold on our marketplaces and the kick-ass tutorials that people contribute to our blogs. I know I have a tendency of overusing the word awesome and I am guilty of typing far too many exclamation marks in my day, but hey what else can I say … it’s pretty awesome!!!

So enjoy the rest of our celebrations. I’ll be back tomorrow with some announcements of upcoming Envato sites that we’ll be releasing in the forthcoming weeks, so stay tuned!

Don’t Forget …

Meanwhiles there’s lots happening during this birthday celebration, so don’t forget to check out:

1. $300 of Files for Just $20!
   If you haven’t already taken advantage of this amazing deal, head over and grab it while it lasts! You won’t find better value anywhere! Get All The Details

2. Tuts+ iMac Giveaways & Bonus Tutorials
   The iMac giveaways are now well underway on Tuts+ and tomorrow there’ll be a whole stack of free tutorials and source files in the Tuts+ Bundle.

3. FreelanceSwitch Birthday Giveaways
   There’s Job Board subscriptions, Pixelmator, Billings, ForkLift, Freshbooks Shuttlebus subscriptions and copies of Rockstar Freelancer all up for grabs! Get all the details

1. Welcome to Nettuts+! Most of us here probably know who you are but for those who don’t, could you please introduce yourself?

My name’s Elliot. I’m 27 years old and live with my girlfriend in the heart of the English countryside. I’m an independent designer and also do a fair amount of illustrating, speaking, writing, and music-making.

2. Tell us, how are things going with your life and work lately?

Very well, thanks! I get fewer work requests now that the recessions has properly set in, but it’s not a problem, as the requests I do get tend to be more genuine. I have some great clients and very exciting projects on at the moment.

3. Thousands of questions I could ask you, where to begin? Ok, what is the first website you visit when you open a browser and why?

My Mint stats, because

• a) I like to see how my site’s traffic is doing, and
• b) Mint — like everything Shaun Inman designs — is wonderful to use and beautiful to look at.

4. You left your full time job recently. Being your own boss, setting deadlines, having freedom to work when you want are all pros of being a freelance designer. Are there any negatives?

Occasionally work can creep into your personal life. I’ve had some overrunning projects recently, which has meant I’ve had to work a few nights. It’s not usually too bad — like maybe just an hour or two after dinner — but it’s not a good idea to make a habit of it!

5. What do you think about design contests in general? Would you suggest that young designers start this way?

I think contests are a good way for young designers to get some practice and recognition, although I don’t think you should do too many of them, unless you genuinely feel that you’re still getting something out of each one. Competitions are different to spec work but personally I keep free work of any kind to a minimum.

6. Did you study design in college, and do you think formal education is necessary to become a great designer?

Not necessarily. My university degree (I have a BA in Contemporary Media Practice) helped me focus my interests, but only a small part of the course had anything to do with the web, and really it was my own self-initiated projects which gave me the experience and portfolio I needed to get my first job. That, and I’ve been designing and illustrating since I was a kid, doing stuff for school plays and stuff like that. My Dad taught me a lot about art and design at a very young age, and I think that stayed with me. Education is important, but it’s no substitute for constant practice and a desire to keep challenging yourself.

Editor’s Note: Learn what your fellow readers think about formal education for web development.

7. Things are moving fast in this industry. New frameworks, CMS’s, Plugins, Mobile, Software etc. What would you suggest to someone who is just getting into this industry? Focus on something specific?

When I first started out, I was very worried, because I thought I needed to know everything, and I had no idea how I’d do that. Over time, though, I’ve come to realise that it’s best to dabble in several areas but focus your skillset on specifics. For instance, I don’t ever delve too deep into back-end code: I know just enough PHP to muddle by with WordPress customisations. Similarly, I don’t get too involved with Javascript: my front-end skills are much more focused on HTML and CSS. However, my main thing is actual design, and if you want that to be your focus, then go for it. Just make sure you maintain a basic working knowledge of other things as well.

8. Being a designer and hobby musician seems like a common thing today, at least I see it a lot. Does one art inspire the other?

Well, the first pieces of proper design I really did were CD covers and websites for my band, so in a way it was music that made me realise how much I wanted to be a designer. I still love designing around my musical output. I have some exciting things planned for the album release later this year.

9. Design, Articles, Speaking, Travel, Books, Music. Time, time, time. Where do you find it?

Often, I don’t! It’s a real challenge. Fortunately, I’m very comfortable working on the road, so although travel and speaking can interrupt the schedule, it’s not too bad. I can often be found working from cafes and trains while away.

10. I’ve noticed that your tweets lately are primarily questions about WordPress. It seems as if your digging into it big time. How often do you use WordPress?

I don’t intend to become a ‘master’ of WordPress, per se, because I’m not interested enough in back-end code to really get to that level. However, I’m happy with the kind of customisations I do and I’m always excited about learning more. In every single site that’s required a CMS over the last two years, I’ve used WordPress. Hacking it to do what I want can be tricky sometimes, but I usually get there in the end.

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

Staying ahead of the game and constantly trying to do better. It’s so easy to slip back into a comfort zone.

12. In your opinion, what are the most important things to watch out for when designing a website?

Designing and developing for multiple scenarios. There are so many occasions when a certain solution will solve the problem but create other problems for different parts of the site, or for different users, or for different browsers.

13. After you receive a brief from a client, what’s the next step?

Usually I’ll discuss it with them over Skype, do a little basic research, and then work up some kind of spec document. If we both decide to go ahead with the project, then — once I’ve got a deposit payment — I’ll start a proper phase of research and idea development before moving into more in-depth planning like sitemaps and wireframes.

14. Do you constantly work on expanding your knowledge and skills in Photoshop, Illustrator or any other tool of choice?

I try, although it’s hard sometimes. Right now, because I’m starting to do more print and illustrative stuff, I’m frustrated by my knowledge of InDesign and Illustrator, which is much narrower than my knowledge of Photoshop. So I’m thinking of investing in a short course or two sometime soon. And, as you’ve probably gathered from my answers above, I’m much more interested in expanding that side of my skillset than doing something like a PHP or Actionscript course. I enjoy code to a certain level and then it just becomes a chore. Design, however, will never be a chore.

15. Your brief thoughts about HTML5 and CSS3?

I’ve yet to experiment with HTML5, although I’m excited by what it promises, and the canvas element is particularly attractive from a multimedia point of view. I use a lot of CSS3 in my work anyway so really I just want to see a more widespread adoption. Firefox 3.5 has been a big step forward in terms of getting close to what Safari has been able to do for ages.

16. Fonts as a service? Read about it recently?

I think there will be a few competing services, yes. Ultimately it’s going to depend on foundry support, because people will go with the service that provides the greatest variety of typefaces.

17. Quick Answers:

• IE – Hate it.
Google – Doing great things. Ugly as sin, though.
• Spirituality – Yes, but not in a religious sense. More in an ‘appreciation of nature’ sense. I’m happier with science.
• Mac – 100%.
Passive Income – Great if you can get it without exploiting others.
• Kids – One day.
• Twitter – Too often.
• FOWD – See you there!
• War – What is it good for?
• Love – Probably the single most important thing in my life.

18. You’ve achieved so many great things in your life so far as a designer. Do you consider yourself a lucky guy, a smart and careful guy or both?

Thanks! I’m probably just a lucky guy who’s made some smart and careful decisions.

19. What are your plans for 2010?

I haven’t made any formal goals for next year yet, although so far I’m hoping to buy a house, cut back on the speaking gigs, and go traveling again for a while. Maybe write another (but very different) book, too.

20. How do you see the web in ten years?

Augmenting reality more than it already does.

21. Do you have any secret websites or projects you would like to reveal to our readers?

Do I have secret projects? Yes. Am I allowed to reveal them? No. Sorry guys!

22. Thanks again for providing Nettuts+ with this opportunity to interview you. Any final thoughts for our readers?

Only to say thanks very much for interviewing me, and (to the readers) thanks for taking the time to read it!

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1. Welcome to Nettuts+! Please introduce yourself! Could you tell us where you’re from and when and how you got started in the field?

Hi, My name is Alex Buga, I’m a Senior Graphic Designer from Bucharest, Romania. I am also a partner and Creative Director at MB Dragan – Agency for tomorrow.

I started as a musician in the firstplace. My dream was not to become a famous superstar, but a music producer. That’s the deal with the whole “Webdesign superstar” thingie, everyone seems to hate. It’s more like an auto-irony, not an auto-brag. I’m not thinking of myself as one. As a matter of fact I know a whole bunch of guys that can be webdesign superstars by far.

Anyway, let’s get back to the story
So as a musician, I wanted a cool website. I turned to my old friend Mihai Dragan – a great partner and friend – who was a developer/designer at a big software company in Bucharest, and now the founder of MB Dragan.
Mihai wanted to charge me a small amount of money for the website. You know… “C’mon man, you get paid for your gigs, what’s a website worth for you?”

But actually I didn’t got paid that much for my gigs, and I couldn’t afford a website. So Mihai has put Flash in my hands. Having a programmer background from highschool, it was love at first sight.
I started to make cool stuff, and forgot about the music.

Then I realized that making websites is cooler than making music, because you have a lot bigger audience out there.
So I applied for a job at the agency where Mihai used to work, and switched several agencies until Mihai decided to make his own and invited me to join.

And that’s how it started. I still make music, but just for my own fun.

2. You’re personal website / blog design became very popular. It was featured in .NET magazine, many web design roundup posts, some of the most popular design galleries etc. In your opinion, what do you think made it so special and why?

Yeah, I was quite surprised when the guys at .NET asked my permission to feature my blog in their magazine. I was, and still am very honored and proud. It is one of my biggest achievements so far as a web designer, although they did put a wrong url next to the photo

I think everyone enjoyed it because of its simple layout and interaction, and because I took a different approach at a blog design. That combined with a wacky color scheme and some nice javascript effects made the perfect recipe.
I usually am very focused on small details. My own motto is “Small details make a big difference”. Maybe because I wrote the whole thing myself, and have put a lot of love into designing it made it so likable.

If you put a lot of love, you get a lot of love. That’s what I think.

“Small details make a big difference”

3. For a long time there was no portfolio section on your site. Then, you sold the complete design; your readers (including me) never got a chance to see some of your great work. What was the problem behind all this? Why did you sell the design?

Well… working full time at the agency, I never got the chance to finish my portfolio section. When I get home, I try to focus on other things but web, because otherwise I’ll go insane

I love putting new and interesting ideas into my personal blog design, that’s why I change my theme very often. So that’s why I didn’t cried when I sold the last one.

I sold it to a museum from Lisabona. I was intrigued by what they wanted to accomplish with it, and also thinking at a new design, so that’s why it was rather easy to let it go.
Also, I wanted to invest in a Leica setup for my photographic work, so… I’ve said to myself “Why not?”

You can still see it in action right here, though.

4. You work as a Creative Director at an interactive agency based in Bucharest. What are your responsibilities? Would you walk us through one day at your work?

Yup, that’s my job. And I love it!
You get to work with interesting and smart people, and although we’re very young we take a very serious approach to our projects. We enjoy doing what we do. Few people are actually doing what they love and get paid for that.

My regular day at the office starts at 10am. After the regular coffee I check the tasks in the project manager application, make sure everything it’s ok and then I start shooting my tasks.

Although it sounds boring, it’s not. I actually enjoy what I do and every day it’s not the same.

5. Have you ever worked for Google?

Nope, I’ve never worked for Google. I can’t say it’s a big wish of mine, but I do like their offices a lot!
I’d rather work for Apple as an interface designer. I love their style, and I think it would suit me well. Plus, I would work for the company that makes my tool of choice when it comes to design

6. Can you roughly walk us through your design process?

I usually get inspired by objects I see or encounter, by colors or shapes. If one of these objects is really interesting, I try to reproduce it somehow in my design.
For example, for my blog I was inspired by that beautiful font, Universal and some rummy chips laying on a table. And that’s how it started.

The Mac OS interface also is a good example of inspiration for my work. I love their clean lines and usability.

Mostly I do my work in Photoshop and Illustrator, and then slice it and using a secret magic formula I turn everything in XHTML code. But I’m afraid I can’t divulge that because it’s a secret kept for generations

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

The biggest one is developing for a multitude browsers. Most of them have a good rendering engine, and interpret code as it should, but some of them have their own personality. More or less. I’m not going into details, because everyone knows what’s the worse

And then comes the challenge to convince the client what’s best for him. Some of them come with their homework done, and let us deal with the rest. But some clients prefer to add their own touch to the final product. And that’s not ok.

8. Are you a coder as well as a designer?

I introduce myself as a graphic designer. But I’m also a coder. I like to do my own XHTML code because I can make sure it’s pixel perfect, and also I improvise along the way.
Having a background in computer programming has helped me a lot in understanding JavaScript, Flash ActionScript and PHP + MySQL.

And having a great framework like jQuery is awesome. Because you can do pretty neat stuff with a basic amount of knowledge. This is a good thing because as a designer you imagine interactions and animations different than a programmer. It really improves the product.

9. Judging by your Flickr account, you’re a big photography fan. Do you do it professionally or just as a hobby?

Photography is one of my two biggest hobbies, after music. I don’t do professional work in this domain. I just love to shoot stuff: beautiful places, people, objects, colors, shapes…
You mentioned my Flickr account. I’m a huge fan of Flickr. As a photographer it can put you in touch with others like you around the world. You can get feedback, advices, etc.

It’s the only social network I really use a lot.
As a matter of fact, it was a Flickr buddy that got me into buying a Leica, so I pretty much trust my “virtual buddies”.

10. Besides photography, you’re also a musician. How did you get into music and where do you get the time to do all this work?

I’m very intrigued by how some objects are functioning. I always was and probably will be for the rest of my life. When I was a little boy, my uncle had two guitars laying around in the house and when he was not at home, I tried to understand how the heck they work. It seemed to me like voodoo when he was moving his fingers on the guitar neck and produced those beautiful sounds. When I grew up a little more, my grandfather bought me a small guitar and an accordion. I always was a self thought musician. I never took any classes. When I first discovered the Internet, it was like the Holy Grail of learning new stuff and I’ve tried a lot of music software.

At the moment I have a small studio setup which I rarely use. I don’t have too much time on my hands to bang those drum pads on my Maschine or to rock my guitar as I would love, but I can still find some precious moments when I want to forget about the daily problems and stress and put all my soul into making all those sounds come together as a whole. It’s a great feeling of accomplishment when I hear what I’ve created, and when others enjoy my work. I also have a Soundcloud account where I share my stuff.

11. What is “The Office Project”?

I’m glad you asked me about this one. It’s one of our crazy ideas that has generated a great amount of awareness for our agency. We wanted to make a movie inside our agency, to show the world how cool it is to work with us. And we came up with the idea to use the Internet in our favor. So we took a remote controlled car, a wireless webcam and decided to let people control it through the Internet using a cool interface. So far so good, but it was a real challenge to connect all that stuff together.

My colleagues, Andrei – programmer, and Victor – Multimedia Designer, Flash Guru did all the hard work. They modded the car’s remote control to connect it to a PC through a printer port. They created a server in Borland Delphi that listened to the commands from the web interface and talked to the car.

After that, Victor created a great Flash interface that enabled users to drive the car through our office while seeing a live video stream from the camera mounted on top of the car.
It was a great experience that I think no one has ever done before. People actually queued on the website to play with the car.

We managed to show the level of interactivity the Internet can bring to real life objects, and we gained a lot of awareness.

12. You also appeared as a speaker at DEV:WORLD. Can you tell us more about it?

You really had to mention that?
Yeah… I usually don’t like speaking in public. Not because I’m ashamed or something, but because I don’t consider myself an expert in what I do.

My presentation at Dev:World was an organized mess. I spoke about “Working with vectors in Photoshop – Non destructive editing”. Although most of the people in the room were aware of all those stuff I’ve talked about, I had a few questions after the presentation was over, and some of the people really appreciated my 2 cents. I was very glad to hear that they included my techniques in their workflow.

13. Lately we see a bunch of so-called “cloned” websites. What do you think about the current state of web design?

It upsets me that people rip off like crazy without asking permission. And it sucks you can’t do anything about it. They don’t give a $h1t about your copyright.

When I was in my first years, I tried to copy exactly my favorite websites, but I did it for practice and fun. I never published anything like that. It really helped me a lot to understand techniques and effects but from there to ripping whole websites from CSS to the logo with your OWN NAME on it… it’s a long way.

I’ve had 5-6 attempts of this kind. The funniest was with my previous design. I had an illustration with my head and signature and a guy actually ripped it and written his name under my face! That was hilarious.

I’m glad the design trends are back to normal after the Web2.0 Aqua madness )
I see a lot of well crafted websites. People are really understanding the principles of Web Standards and Accessibility.

Now they take CSS & XHTML for granted but I remember back in the day when CSS Tableless design was a tabu subject. And everyone was making different themes to their website just to showcase the power of CSS.

Not that I’m bragging but I was the second Romanian in CSS Vault after Stefan Petre aka Eyecon, a guy that I’ve actually met recently, but who has helped me a lot throughout the years with Javascript and PHP.

14. Who are your top web designers in the world?

I don’t have a list with my favorite designers, but I do love the work of some big agencies around the world.
I mostly enjoy the style, the colors the techniques of 73 DPI. Those Russians are good, man ! Damn good!
Then comes Fantasy Interactive. I love their attention to details. They’re like obsessed with details and that’s a good thing !

Then I like the work of my friend and ex-colleague Florin Hatmanu aka Graft – it inspires me a lot and I try to infuse elements from his style in my projects.

My friend Stefan Lucut – Now… he’s a design superstar. He worked for the big names like Nike and stuff.

Veerle Pieters – I have no words. I don’t know what she eats but man, she’s like the Jimi Hendrix of design. Her well written tutorials convinced me to start learning Illustrator.

There are more, but these are my top favorites.

15. Quick Answers…

• Adobe – Tools of trade. Not the best, but since there’s no competition… what the hell…I’ll go with the flow.
Pixel – my first web nickname
• Romania – Great country, too bad It’s not appreciated as it should be. I also think that the communist mentality has made a deep dent in the people’s mind. And some thing will never change. That’s why I want to move to England.
• Mac – The Leica of computers Reliable, well made, freakin’ expensive. Lately they’re not so expensive anymore, but they’ve reduced the quality.
Kids – I’l probably have one or two. It would be great if one could download them and print them from the Internet. Who knows… maybe one day
• Summer – Not my favorite time of the year. At least not since global warming has boosted my thermometer with some Celsius degrees.
• FOWA – Great event. SXSW also. Too bad it was out of my reach, financially and geographically.
• Native Instruments – Great software company. Great products. Great marketing They have an open job for interface designer in Berlin. I was tempted.
• Love – I’ve found it. It’s great, and it’s not something one should let go. I think it’s our purpose in life, as humans. Love and be loved.

16. How do you see the web in ten years?

Well, we see new technologies emerging very often. I guess it will all be wrapped around what really matters – Information, and the experience of getting that information.
I’m not sure how they’ll do it, but certainly we’ll see a lot of innovations. Look at Flash now, and compare it with how it was several years ago.

17. Do you have any websites or projects you would like to shamelessly plug to over 45,000 subscribers and 1 million readers every month?

Yup, I have some links but I prefer screenshots, because the actual websites have suffered alterations. Most of them by “unauthorized personnel” )

Here’s MB Dragan – Agency for tomorrow our agency’s website, and some of the projects I’ve done.

18. Thanks again for providing Nettuts+ with this opportunity to interview you. Any final thoughts for our readers?

The pleasure was all mine. I’m very happy when someone is interested in my work.
And as a word or personal advice for your readers: “Keep doing what you love and do it with your heart. And there’s nothing you can’t do, only stuff you won’t do.”

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For those of us who may be unfamiliar with you and your work, tell us more about yourself and what you do for a living

I’m a (mostly front-end) web developer at a small agency, Fusionary Media, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. At 41, I’m probably older than most web developers, but most of the time I still feel like a kid. Outside of work, I’m very involved with jQuery. I’m on the jQuery project team, and I write about it, train others how to use it, and speak about it at conferences.

How and why did you first get involved with web development?

My very first involvement with web development was in 1995, when I built a simple site for a coffeehouse that I owned. After that I dabbled with web stuff here and there, because I really got a kick out of it, but I didn’t start doing it as a job until about four years ago.

What are some of your hobbies when you are not working?

I like to read, run, and hang out with my family. Up until a year ago, I had studied karate for about seven years, and I’m considering starting that up again. I also enjoy photography, discovering new music, and geeking out with my friends.

Tell us more about EnglishRules.com and how the website started.

It’s a personal blog of mine that I’ve been neglecting lately. I can’t remember exactly when I started it — 2000? 2001? — but the idea was to provide some information and links for my students. I was teaching High School English at the time. Since then it has become a mishmash of my fleeting interests. In 2003 I loaded up Movable Type and started blogging on it. At some point I thought it would be fun to post a a new word each day from whatever I happened to be reading at the time, so I did that for a while. Then I had the crazy notion that I could answer the world’s questions about grammar, punctuation, style, spelling, and so on, but that didn’t last long. I posted a bunch of my photography on the site for a while, but that has sort of stalled as well. Probably the biggest motivation to keep it running was to give friends and family a snapshot of what I’m doing, but lately Facebook and Twitter have been filling that need.

When did you first become interested in the jQuery javascript library?

I started using jQuery sometime around May or June of 2006. I still have a copy of “Rev 27″ of the jQuery core file from May 2, 2006, before it even had a version number. It’s a shame the file is compressed and obfuscated. It would be really fun to dig through it and see how much has changed.

Which came first, LearningjQuery.com or the Learning jQuery book?

The site came first. After playing around with jQuery for a couple months, I thought it would be a good idea to start documenting what I had learned. I asked John Resig if he’d mind my using the jQuery name and blogging about my experiences, and he was enthusiastic about the idea.

A few months after I started the blog, someone from Packt Publishing contacted me and asked if I’d like to write a book about jQuery — an offer that both flattered and terrified me. I agreed to do it, but only if my friend (Jonathan Chaffer) could write it with me. He is a much better programmer than I am, and I was still just a novice at the time.

Why jQuery? Why not MooTools or Prototype?

Choosing a JavaScript library is a lot like choosing a digital SLR camera (once you take price out of the equation, of course). Why Nikon? Why not Canon or Pentax? I’m not sure anyone can satisfactorily answer these questions based on technical merit alone. A lot has to do with intangibles: community, support, compatibility with your already-established mental models about how things should work and look and feel. People also consider extensibility — in the form of lenses and accessories for cameras and plugins and widgets for JavaScript libraries. Sure, technical merit does play a part. Performance, features, and reliability are important. But as with the camera companies, the JavaScript library developers continue to leapfrog over each other in these areas, and the best one in any one of these areas today may not be the best in that area six months from now.

The reason I chose jQuery in the first place is that it made sense to me almost instantly. I saw that I could easily transfer my knowledge of CSS to jQuery with its DOM-centered approach. Since then, as I’ve learned more about advanced JavaScript techniques, I have found plain JavaScript sufficient for dealing with the areas of the language that jQuery doesn’t address, and haven’t felt a need to rely on a library for those areas. I also love the community spirit and the generosity and graciousness of the other members of the project team and the contributors of the discussion lists.

What part of jQuery, or Javascript in general, do you find that new developers struggle with the most?

The question I see asked most often on the jQuery discussion list (Google Group) is along the lines of “Why do my events stop working after I’ve inserted elements into my document?” We have a detailed FAQ topic that answers this question. I’ve written a couple articles on learningjquery.com about it. We have the Live Query plugin and, as of jQuery 1.3, the .live() method that solve the problem. Yet despite all of that, the question still comes up a few times a week.

Besides the jQuery docs, where can users find other jQuery resources to help solve any issues they may be having with the library?

Aside from learningjquery.com and the Learning jQuery 1.3 book, there are quite a few great resources. Remy Sharp has some terrific screencasts on his jQuery for Designers, site and I’ve seen some great articles from Marc Grabanski and James Padolsey on their respective blogs. The jQuery Google Group is very popular, with over 16,000 members and the #jquery IRC channel on freenode.net is quite active and helpful.

Can you name one feature you wish jQuery came packaged with that it currently does not

I wish the .live() method would work with all event types. Currently it only works with a subset, so you can’t use it with change, focus, blur, submit, mouseenter, or mouseleave. I also think it would be cool to allow an anonymous function to be used as an argument for .css(), .val(), and .html() the same way it is for .attr().

What tips or advice can you offer those that are relatively new to Javascript? Should they learn Javascript before they move onto jQuery to better understand the subject matter?

I’m afraid these are going to sound like platitudes, but here goes: Don’t be afraid to learn as you go. You don’t have to have everything figured out ahead of time. Be willing to make mistakes. Keep learning new things about the language, and try to make connections between what you already know and what you’re currently learning.

Can you name some ‘bad practices’ you see being used often with jQuery?

Sure. One bad practice is using jQuery for something that you could do more easily and efficiently with CSS. For example, web developers for years have been changing the background position of an image sprite when the user’s mouse hovers over a link. There is absolutely no reason to use jQuery for this, unless the developer wants the hover-state change to be animated.

Another bad practice is unnecessarily repeating selectors. Instead of creating another jQuery object each time you want to do something to a particular set of elements, chain the methods or store a reference to the jQuery object in a variable and use that.

What are some ways one can improve their knowledge of jQuery and become more efficient when working with the framework?

Read tutorials from reputable sites. Ask questions on the discussion list and read answers to other people’s questions. In particular, read everything that Michael Geary and Dave Methvin post on the list. Try to emulate the code of great plugin authors such as Mike Alsup, Ariel Flesler, Jörn Zaefferer, and Brandon Aaron.

jQuery plugin development has really taken off over the past two years, do you have any favorite plugins you frequently use or do you prefer to write your own?

I often write my own, but I do use a few quite frequently. Every client seems to want some kind of image rotator on their homepage, so I use Mike Alsup’s Cycle plugin for that. I also use his Form and Media plugins quite a bit. I often rely on Joel Birch’s Superfish plugin and Brian Cherne’s hoverIntent plugin when a client wants drop-down menus. Lately I’ve been using jQuery UI more and more for general widget theming, advanced effects, sliders, and draggable/droppable elements.

Are there any specific features (or lack thereof) that you do not like about jQuery?

I’m not crazy about some of the method names in the API. In very early versions of jQuery, there were two method names for traversing all the way up the DOM tree: .parents() and .ancestors(). When the API was trimmed, .ancestors() was dropped. I would have preferred dropping .parents() instead because I think “ancestors” better describes what is being selected. And while in general I like how jQuery overloads methods, I think the .load() and .toggle() methods take the idea a little too far.

You’ve written numerous books on jQuery, what is the most difficult part of getting these books published?

The toughest part is probably just staying on schedule. But it’s absolutely essential to set a reasonable schedule ahead of time and stick to it the whole way through.

What do you think the future holds for the jQuery framework?

Most of the changes to the jQuery core are going to be in the areas of performance, stability, and bug fixes. I don’t see a lot of new features being added to core. For new features, keep an eye on jQuery UI. There is a lot of great new stuff being developed there.

Do you have any more books that you are planning to publish anytime soon?

I’m one of several technical reviewers for a jQuery cookbook that is in the works. But I’m not currently authoring any books and don’t have plans to do so any time soon.

Do you have any shameless plugs you would like our readers to know about?

Nothing that hasn’t already been mentioned, but thanks for the offer!

Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me Karl, and thank you for all the great jQuery resources, tricks, and tutorials you have given to the community over the years.

My pleasure! I’m flattered by your interest in what I have to say.

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1. Welcome to Nettuts+! Please introduce yourself! Could you tell us where you’re from and how you got started in this field?

Hi, thanks for having me!

I’m Marko Dugonjić, web designer and developer from Croatia. My educational background is in kinesiology and I’ve been quite intimate with the problems that disabled people encounter every day. So, I became interested in accessibility.

At that time, there were just a few individuals in Croatia who ever heard of designing web sites with accessibility in mind. Naturally, I felt a need to fill in that gap. I soon found zeldman.com and purchased his book, “Design with Web Standards”, and started educating Croatian Internet folks about the values of web standards through popular forums. The rest is history

2. What was the major motivation that got you interested in web design and development?

Curiosity. I’m always into something new and expanding my horizons. While I was studying Physics and Chemistry in Zagreb, I often studied in the National and University Library. They had a free Internet connection, so when I would take a break, I’d go downstairs and discover the wonders of the Internet.

The first web site I made was for my dogs. That was a very affordable way of connecting with breeders and dog handlers from around the world. Then, one occasion, a friend asked me to do a web site for a local church. People liked what I did, so they kept coming back to me for more web sites.

3. Many of us are familiar with you and your work, thanks to Typetester.org . For those who’ve never heard of Typetester, could you tell us how you came up with the idea and what was your main motivation behind the project?

When I was working at Web.burza as a front-end developer, the designers often delivered PSD’s that — typographically speaking — couldn’t be transformed identically to a browser environment. Letter-spacing was often different, leading too. And the major discrepancy was font anti-aliasing.

One day Marko Kršul, the Art Director, said something like: “This looks awkward. Could you please do a few CSS versions, so I can choose from a few options?” So I did. We finally settled-down with a slightly lighter shade of gray and a larger font-size than in Photoshop.

I didn’t want to waste my time doing this kind of CSS tweaking on each and every project, so I created rudimentary tool for testing type side-by-side in a browser. When a couple of others saw this, they demanded more features. I added those and then locked the wish-list. I designed the interface, did one more round of testing and, since everyone who tested it started using it in their process, I decided to release it to the public.

What started as an exercise in web application design and development, ended up as a useful tool for many people.

4. You are obviously a typography lover. Have you ever designed your own font? If not, have you any plans to design one?

Haha, I really am a fan of typography… In music there are composers (people who create music) and performers (folks who sing or play). They are both artists. Likewise in typography, there are type designers and those who set type — typesetters. I’m the latter kind. Only for the web.

But: never say never.

5. Most people I know refer to you as a “CSS guru”; you’re respected worldwide for that. Where does your love and passion for CSS come from and why?

I see CSS as a tool to achieve standards compliant layouts. Don’t do CSS because you like CSS or for the community status. Do it with a purpose and for a reason. For me the reason is web standards compliant built web sites.

That’s not a love or passion thing. If you are doing front-end for a living, you simply have to master HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

Be passionate about the result, not the method. A cook masters her kitchen equipment, but she is passionate about the flavor of a dish.

I’m passionate about the text scaling in IE 6.

6. Can you tell us what what your definition of web standards is, and how you manage to come along with it in all of your projects?

Web standards are a set of recommendations and guidelines about how web sites should be built and how should they technically function. They are by no means definitive and are constantly changing — evolving. That is the beauty of it.

When you perceive web standards as a normal thing, a default — the way web sites just should be working — then it becomes natural to you. You don’t think about it anymore. You just build web sites the correct way.

I still see developers worry about the validator more than writing semantically correct HTML structures. It’s not about the validation, it’s about the idea — access by anyone and everyone.

7. You’ve worked on some interesting projects. One of them was the new Krop website. Tell us about your responsibilities and your experiences on this project?

I’ve worked with QBN for about two years now. On their projects, I work strictly as a front-end developer. The secret of great relationship is a mutual understanding of each person’s issues. My issues are apparent: cross-browser issues.

QBN projects are always ahead of time. I like being a part of that. It sharpens my front-end skills

8. Can you generally walk us through your design process?

I don’t have a process set in stone, but rather a few various approaches.

I rarely start with the visuals, because I’m a strong believer in content-supportive and not decorative web design. I love to first discover all about the matter at hand, users needs, business goals etc. This is sometimes done heuristically, and sometimes with real data.

If a web site has to deliver a message through visuals, then I’d start listing terms and draw simplified shapes of metaphors in my sketchbook, but if I already have some decent amount of content, I start sketching and wire-framing the parts of a site map.

Quite often, I set-up a basic WordPress theme, and create major pages and page types, so I have a simple prototype to work with. At that stage, I even might upload it to a temporary server for clients to review and browse through the site. If needed, the content and the relations between sections are adjusted. This stage is quite useful to shift the client’s mindset from “how the web site will look like” to “how the web site will be used”, which is very important for the final result.

When I have all the content set in place, I then open Photoshop and start pushing pixels based on my paper drawings.

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

My personal challenge is a lack of time to learn everything I would like to. For instance, I’d love to master motion tools, but still don’t have time. Maybe next year…

In general, the biggest challenge is educating clients about the user experience, explaining why they need usability testings and reviews, and about the true powers of their web site or application.

Many investors come to me with an idea of forums and/or similar community features, but they rarely realize that they don’t have resources to handle this. They often overhear the idea (or read a blog post entitled “Increase revenue with social network”), but can neither really understand nor explain why they need it.

10. What makes the difference between a web designer and a great web designer? In your opinion, what qualities should one have?

Great web designer should be well versed in both visual tools like Photoshop or Flash and in HTML/CSS editor. Because web layouts are not printed and then sent out, a great web designer will know her fallback options and is aware that once the web site is released, how it’s used is out of her control.

11. Are you currently working for any design companies or are you freelancing full time now?

At this stage of my life, I decided to work freelance full-time. I enjoy the flexibility of the freelance schedule, and I’m now spending more time with my little boys.

Since it’s all new to me, I don’t have any valuable advice, but so far I like it. I work much faster and am generally more pleased with the results.

12. We had a chance listening you at Web.start 2008 where talked about the user experience. Can you give us the answer to the magical question: “What is it that the user wants?”

The short answer is: try to figure it out for each project.

The long answer is: learn as much as you can to deliver heuristic conclusions; useit.com and Steve Krug’s book, “Don’t Make Me Think” are a good start. Then conduct user tests, depending on the scale of the project. Nowadays, there’s plenty of methods to test users – and applications like Silverback enable you to set-up a mini-usability testing facility for any project.

In my experience, users want it quick, simple and understandable – yet interesting, engaging and appealing. Because it must be appealing, “usable” Verdana 16px #000 on #fff doesn’t work everywhere.

13. How do you see the web ten years from now?

In the near future, browser will likely replace OS for the average Jane user, and with a dramatic increase in connection speed, all the content and applications will be online. Browser will become the interface.

Mobile is the new Desktop.

14. What activities and hobbies do you enjoy when you’re not on the computer designing?

My main offline activity is spending time with my family — that includes building LEGO cities, playing with clay, drawing with crayons etc. We also have a dog, so I spend some time each day outdoors.

I teach Aikido for Children. If only I could become a snowboard Pro.

15. Do you have any websites or projects you would like to shamelessly plug to 40,000 subscribers and 1 million readers every month?

I insist!

• I recently added a new “service line” — in-house training and consulting for agencies and organizations. There are also plans of organizing public training in the near future. More details will be released soon.
• Follow me on Twitter; lately I rarely broadcast through other channels.

16. Thanks again for providing Nettuts+ with this opportunity to interview you. Any final thoughts for our readers?

I always say to my kids: never stop learning and don’t forget to practice what you’ve learned.

• Follow us on Twitter, or subscribe to the NETTUTS RSS Feed for more daily web development tuts and articles.

Especially in the web development world, it’s possible that the latest technologies and trends are being taught on blogs, rather than in the classroom. On a weekly basis, I receive emails from University students informing us that our “little ole’” blog has taught them more than their college professors. Considering the frequency at which these flattering emails occur, it does raise an interesting question: “Is University out-dated?”

Last week on Twitter, I asked our followers if they might be willing to answer some questions about their personal opinions on obtaining a degree in web development. The response was enormous; people of all ages – from students to teachers to seasoned professionals – responded with their firmly held opinions. Let’s review what they had to say! *Note – for the sake of anonymity, I’ve omitted the names.

1. Did you, at any point, consider not going to school for web design/development? If so, what factors caused you to take the plunge? Was the cost of attendance a big issue?

“I always considered going to school for development, Computer Science in particular. I saw the University as a way to bolster the fledgling development and design skills that I had, but also as a way to enrich myself in other studies that were never taught in primary education. A major factor is that piece of paper that they give you when you successfully graduate. While a portfolio is of utmost importance in finding employment, be it with a firm or as a freelancer, I find that the diploma and going to University helps perk up the ears of those that may know nothing about our field.”

“The cost of attendance was a big issue. I knew this when searching for the right place to go, and so chose what was within my means. I’m not sure how it works in foreign countries, but in the States, we have residency rates for public schools. I can consider myself lucky that I had a great University, at a very cost-effective rate, right down the road from me.”

“Web design and development have always been areas of focus for most of my life; so at no point did I consider not going to school to further my knowledge of the subject. At no time was attendance cost an issue.”

“I really didn’t have plans to get into web development. I had taken programming courses in high school and knew I wanted to do something with Computer Science. As I progressed in Computer Science studies, I realized that the college curriculum had not kept up with the real world needs of programmers. The future is obviously in web development, as more and more applications move to the cloud. Universities are struggling to keep up with this shift, and continue to teach traditional desktop application development. Of course, the fundamentals apply across both areas, and for those teachings I am thankful. I never considered not going to school. However, I didn’t finish .”

“I attended university on the Gold Coast, Australia. There were no web design related courses, so I studied for a degree majoring in graphic design. I always planned to go to University. Unfortunately, I found that, at the end of my degree, I did not learn as much as I would have hoped -and believe the price of the degree was not worth the cost.”

“Still to this day, I feel I can quit web school at any time. I have always felt strongly, believing clients choose a designer without even thinking about his degree. If you have a killer portfolio, and no degree, you have a much better chance over the person with a degree and a portfolio that’s garbage. With that in mind, I chose to do both – have a good portfolio and a two year degree.”

“Back when I first decided to study, there wasn’t any doubt in my mind that I did not want to study a form of web design/development. The first factor was having a degree under my belt – I enjoy learning. The cost for the degree was a little daunting, but I knew that with a degree behind my back and the passion I have for this industry, I would be okay when I graduated.”

“I went to University to study Mechanical Engineering with the dream of designing roller coasters. After a year, I wasn’t getting along with the course, so I changed to Computer Science. That seemed like the logical choice as I already had a grounding in programming from learning PHP to write a pretty heavy personal website (about roller coasters). I wasn’t sure at the time where this new course would take me, but the answer was certainly not a career in web development.”

“Actually when I started my first job, I had no drive to go to school as I had self-taught myself so much already. I was also told by my boss that some of his best employees had been self-taught. About a year at this job prompted me to finally look at going to school to further my current knowledge. The business was going downhill, and I figured there was so much more I wanted to learn. It was tough finding my own time to learn stuff after my full-time job, and knew that dedicating a year to learning would only benefit me in the years to come.”

“Cost of attendance was definitely a factor in deciding where I was going to go. Funny enough though, I picked the most expensive route. I did this because it earned me a University level diploma over one year, as compared to a college certificate which doesn’t have as much weight to it. The one year time-frame also appealed to me, because of how technology changes rapidly. Taking a two-year course could mean that the first year stuff might be outdated by the time you graduate.”

“I graduated in 1999 from RIT. When I was about to enter school, the web hadn’t really taken off yet. I went for Computer Science, then eventually switched to Information Technology. By 1996, the web had exploded. I think I learned more on my co-op at the time on web development then I learned in the class room. Only the concepts were relevant in the classroom – the languages and the techniques weren’t.”

“Fast forward to today and I am in charge of hiring interns from RIT for 6 month rotations in our company. I see a lot of resumes. They all look the same. The ones that stand out are the ones that do outside work on their own.”

2. Many students have personally emailed me stating that their web dev classes do not cover the latest technologies. Have you found this to be true?

“I find this statement to, unfortunately, be very true. Encounters with current/recent students, along with my own experiences, demonstrate that the education received is not up to date or even on par with the last decade. Changes and standards introduced in the last few years are relatively nonexistent from the curriculum which often leads graduates to either discover current practices on their own or find work where current developments are a radical way of thinking.”

“An example is a student who came to me for advice on design and development. When asked about tableless design, accessibility or valid code, this student informed me they had never even heard of such topics let alone covered their basics. Overall it was a disappointing experience to listen to – and unfortunately not a unique experience.”

“I feel that the Art Institute of Dallas covers a variety of topics and provides the foundation to learn about the latest technologies. Let’s face it, in this career field of web development and design, the information given to you at THAT VERY PRECISE MOMENT is old within a matter of minutes. It helps you to actually develop a PLE and research information on Web Standards as well as what one can expect from the program! I learned to develop my Personal Learning Enviroment and gain RSS Feeds from important areas – as a matter of fact, I found Nettuts+ through researching on my PLE. I am not like most students, I keep my eyes peeled and sharp to current technology! I hope to make many advances in the world wide web in a few years.”

“This is extremely true. A class I took in 2007 taught how to create a website with tables. I found out this year that they are finally teaching table free websites. Being a few years behind is definitely not smart, especially when you’re paying so much to learn this information.”

“I do agree that technological classes may be lacking in being on the forefront; this seemed certainly the case when I was in school. I hated it beyond belief because I couldn’t see the point a lot of the time. Now, of course, my school didn’t actually have Web Dev courses, but it still felt the same in any engineering course. However, two things to note and not despair! First, as you take more upper courses (beyond the 100s, maybe even 200s), you appear to catch up to the technology. My final years were consumed by Maya, Final Cut, Photoshop, and Cubase. Universities do have way more money than any individual and if you demonstrate enough of a need, they might spring to help out. Second, I now realize that much of what I thought was irrelevant helped me strengthen my foundation. That’s what many employers are looking for!”

“Definitely, at least during the first two and a half years. My last quarter, we actually had an iPhone Application Development class which was just fantastic. Not having been taught the most recent technologies is somewhat of a drawback, but if you’re willing make sure you catch up on all the emerging technologies outside of class, don’t depend on instructors.”

“As my course wasn’t specifically in web development, I can’t provide a detailed answer. However, we did study a module on PHP and MySQL – which was only really an excuse to teach us hard-core database programming. In fact, after we took it, a fair few of my fellow students still couldn’t write even the simplest HTML (and no-one used CSS). So in my experience, Computer Science is not the way to go if you want to get into web development. For me, the best classroom is your computer, the view->source menu, a good tutorial or two, and something which deeply interests you to make a website about… even if that something turns out to be your cat.”

“I feel that the course that I took did involve the majority of the latest technologies. The nice thing about the course I took was that it offered boot camps that could teach more of the cutting edge material. The course I took did not cover AJAX, but I managed to take a weekend boot camp to get the basic knowledge. Of course I wish the course would have included things such as WordPress, Ruby On Rails, and jQuery, but with a condensed one-year course it would have been tough.”

“I’ve found this to be true with the students I interview. Most come in without any knowledge of standards. None come in with and experience in ASP.NET (though they do have Java experience which closely resembles C#).”

“A lot of students come in without the knowledge of how to learn on their own. They don’t know, yet, that they need to be constantly monitoring blogs and twitter for the latest information on the industry. They don’t know that they need to keep their tools sharp.”

3. Looking back, are you still happy with your decision? Was it the right choice for you?

“I am very happy with my decision and am always wanting to learn more. I feel it was the right choice for me because it lead me to the path I am on. I have my own business, bshdesigns, and I also work for a company doing web design/IT work. I’m in the right place.”

“As someone who looks forward rather than backwards it is a bit unnatural to answer such a question. After graduating I found work relatively quickly and have been able to pursue my goals with minimal turbulence. So without a doubt I can say I am happy where I currently am, but am always interested in developing my skills further; be it on my own or formal education. The education I received was beneficial in many other areas but the web portion left little to be learned and was very much another of many outdated courses.

As to whether or not it was the right choice for me, I believe it was the correct choice. The wrong choice would have been to not been to develop my skills on my own at all and change career paths all together. I’m doing what I enjoy and that’s the right choice.”

“I’m quite happy I attended University. It’s unfair to base your decision on whether to attend college solely on if it’s directly professionally beneficial. Attending college is as much a lifestyle choice. I didn’t walk away with a degree, but I walked away much more cultured, a more professional attitude toward life, and a better understanding of ‘life’.

If someone requires a classroom setting in order to learn, they’ll never be truly successful in the web development world. You have to be passionate about it and constantly learning. Many employers are recognizing this and requiring employees to spend 20% of their paid time studying/learning new techniques. But, you run a tutorial site…so you know this .”

“I strongly feel that this was the right decision for me. I felt a bit overwhelmed trying to learn all of the information on my own! I am a smart individual, but coming to the school, I have learned valuable information in just the FIRST QUARTER that has shaped my views on web development and design!!

“I am happy with my decision to go to University; I met some great friends with similar interests to myself and this will benefit all of us as we constantly work together and keep each other up to date on new technology.

I found out what the quality of work of graduates are and where I would rank myself. This gave me a gauge on how much I should be charging and what I’m competing against when it comes to web design work in my local area.

University was the right choice for me, although I can say I would be in the same position today if I did not attend.”

“Simply put, yes. Sure I would probably want to change a few things, probably go to a different school, but I am very happy with my decision to study and finish. I’m now a happy graduate!”

“Absolutely! Going to University was one of the best experiences of my life. But only as a life experience – I use nothing which I learnt academically in my career now. I did however pick up valuable people skills which are great for dealing with clients as well as the ability to write (reasonably) well, which is great for writing specs.”

“I am extremely happy with the decision I made to take an Internet Systems Specialist course. It worked out that I could work in the industry right after high school, and then strengthen my existing knowledge after a year at work. Schooling is also a wonderful place to work with programming languages and topics that you would otherwise never touch in your workplace.”

To wrap things up, my suggestion to those out there who are unsure about schooling is:

1. Get some experience in the workplace to make sure this is want you want for a career as well as get some knowledge of business
2. Get yourself enrolled in a high quality cutting edge school (doesn’t need to be a 4-year computer science degree)
3. Once you are out of school don’t stop learning! Subscribe to RSS feeds, connect with other web developers on twitter, etc…

“I think if I were given the choice today to go to school or gain experience I would gain experience and go to a community college to gain education in the liberal arts. It’s amazing how when I was in school I hated Liberal Arts, but I feel that I use more of the skills I learned in those classes then I do in my technical classes.”

A Unique Perspective From a High School Web Design Teacher

There are few quality higher education opportunities for students wishing to pursue web design and development, however, this does not mean that they should not necessarily attend college.

I have never regretted attending college, I have a degree in CS and then reformed to teaching. My college degree trained me extensively in my area of expertise and even parlayed nicely into web design and development skills.

So Should You Go?

The answer to this question can’t be answered by anyone but you. When preparing this article, I spent a great deal of time deciding whether or not to offer my own opinion. As Nettuts+ has grown and grown, I’ve had the honor of holding a small bit of influence over some of our younger readers. With that influence comes responsibility. I ultimately determined that the smartest move is to stay in the shadows on this subject.

Having said that, I’ll leave you with this: Under no circumstances should you let anyone else decide what’s best for you. Ask questions, do research, and then make up your mind. The choice you make will be the correct one…for you.

What’s your opinion?

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Most us are familiar with you and your work thanks to CSS-Tricks.com. For those who don’t know you well, can you tell us a bit about yourself and what you do?

I’m a regular every day web designer. You guys have had some real rockstar designers and developers interviewed on NETTUTS lately. I’m flattered to be asked for an interview, as I’m not even close to their league! What I do is chug through my daily life as a web designer, and then try to share all the cool stuff I learn however I can.

What was the major motivator that got you interested in web design and development?

It’s hard to put my finger on it exactly, but I think it’s basically a desire to create. Some people like to put their fingers in clay and form it into shapes, some people like to press charcoal against paper. It satisfies them creatively. I feel that same sense of satisfaction from creating a website that does what it is supposed to do.

Are you currently working for any design companies or are you freelancing full time now?

I live in Portland, Oregon at the moment but I lived most of my life in Madison, Wisconsin. I still work for a design company in Madison, Chatman Design. We’re a pretty little company, just three guys, and I’m the only web guy. I don’t really freelance, it’s too stressful for me I find and I stay busy enough without it.

When did you launch your website CSS-Tricks? What was the prime motivator for the creation of this site?

It was launched in the Summer of 2007, shortly after I started at Chatman Design. I actually had this idea I was going to start a blog for every single program in the Adobe Creative Suite and provide help, tips and tricks for all of them. CSS-Tricks was a part of that as kind of a weird tag along. It became obvious fairly quickly that this was just stupid. Having many different blogs spread my attention too thin. CSS-Tricks was the one I enjoyed writing for the most, so I gave that my all and let the others die off. I motivated today in the same I was I motivated when I started it, to share all the cool stuff I was learning.

Recently, CSS-Tricks underwent a massive redesign. What were some of the biggest hurdles and most difficult aspects of the redesign?

The goal first and foremost was to create something more visually appealing. This is the first iteration of the design that I am quite attracted to, so that was vital. I also wanted to make sure to use some more modern techniques, so there is some jQuery in there and a little @font-face for fun. The other goal was to get the content more organized on the backend. The screencast homepage and all the individual video pages were all just static pages that I created and updated as needed. Clearly this was not sustainable, so the redesign involved moving all that (and more) into my WordPress backend so that future updates were easier. On top of that, the forums are a big part of the site only they use phpBB to run, so after the design was done I had to create a new skin for phpBB so that that area felt like the rest of the site. I wrote a little more on the redesign here.

Speaking of CSS-Tricks, we have to ask, do you have one favorite CSS-Trick you use frequently?

My favorite CSS tricks are the simple ones. Using simple, reusable styles is big for me. I love using a .button class that makes it easy to turn any link or input into a button. I like using ID’s on the body to set page specific styles. I use CSS image replacement on almost every project I do. I also think absolute positioning is underused in general.

What do you find to be the most frustrating feature, bug, or implementation of CSS?

The most frustrating thing when writing CSS is almost always the cross-browser stuff. I feel like I’m pretty good at avoiding the major pitfalls, yet still in almost every project I do, I end up finding cross-browser problems I need to go back and fix. Just today I had one where I had relative positioning on a wrapper div I was using that had three floated elements inside it. Every browser was fine except IE 7 that was rendering it’s width at 0. I had to go back and add a special width: 100% to fix it. Not a big deal, but just frustrating. There is LOTS of stuff that could be better about CSS. One of my favorite posts ever I asked other designers about just this. Even NETTUTS own Jeffrey Way and Collis Ta’eed respond.

I’ve noticed your an avid music lover. What genre of music would you consider your favorite and why?

I’m a big fan of old time music. Clawhammer banjo and fiddles and guitars. I used to play in an old time band in college and for a few years after, but I don’t play out anymore. I still pick up the banjo almost every day though. I like all kinds of music though, even the new hip stuff the kids like. I’ve been enjoying Fleet Foxes lately.

David Walsh of DavidWalsh.name seems to be someone you colloberate with often. How do you two know each other and when did you decide to work together?

David is also from Madison also, although I didn’t really “meet” him until after I moved to Portland. I think David is a talented programmer. I bug him constantly for help with JavaScript and PHP stuff. Literally, constantly, I’m sure it’s annoying. We were both interested in doing a community-powered link thing at the same time, so it made more sense to collaborate than do independent things. That is where Script & Style came from.

What activities and hobbies do you enjoy when you’re not on the computer designing?

I like playing my instruments and seeing live music. I like taking pictures although I wish I did a lot more of it. I need a new lens! I also like watching the moving pictures with the sound they got down there at the theater now’days.

Tell us a a little more about your Band Website Template and where you got the idea from.

I was literally asked by a band I was working on a site for to build something like this. Not a template per-say, but a system to easily add new shows, edit/delete existing ones, and to automatically remove shows as they pass. I thought that sounded entirely reasonable, and something that any band in the world would want on their website. Unfortunately, I’m not much of a programmer, so I got David to build the backend for me. It only made sense to design a template around it and make it available to anyone. That’s exactly what we did and split the proceeds down the middle. I still think it’s a cool product to this day. I like the idea of templates that offer a little extra in terms of specific functionality.

You created Script and Style, a web development resource website. What framework or CMS (if any) was S&S built upon and what was the experience like developing such a site?

Script & Style is built with WordPress, the TDO Mini Forms plugin, and some custom hack work by David. It was important for us to make sure that direct links were available to the articles no matter what. On the site, through the feeds, or integrated into other sites, that’s the part that took a little hackery. It was fun to build but it’s even more fun to watch grow and help make better. One of the hardest parts about it is making sure that everything we push through is a quality interesting article, and that it’s a nice variety. It’s harder than it sounds, as if you aren’t careful it could turn into a stream of roundup posts. Which then makes it a roundup of roundups which is just getting out of hand. We prefer linking to the real source of quality articles.

What is the most important question you ask when first meeting with a client to discuss a new design or project?

I think that first meeting should be 75% about them. Who they are, what they do, why they do it, who their customers are, what the goals of the project are. That kind of thing. Then 25% about you. Who you are, how you work, what you expect, things you have done in the past that might be relevant. It should be 0% about design, technologies used, or any specifics about what the final product might be. After you get a good feel for each other, then the NEXT discussion can be more focused on a proposal and ideas for a final product.

Obviously, it depends on the current job or project, but do you prefer a certain javascript framework? CMS?

As much as I want to be, I’m really not much of a programmer, so I like sticking to stuff that I know and trying to get as good as I can be at those things. I’ve been using jQuery a lot, I really like it, so that is my favorite framework but I don’t know enough about the others to offer up a fair comparison. I also love me some WordPress. I’ve used it in a ton of different projects with lots of differnet goals and applications and I feel like I can get it to do almost anything I want. But again, I’ve never even used Joomla so I don’t know enough to make a fair comparison.

Have you written any books? If not, do you plan on writing one in the future?

Hush hush! No details yet but their is definitely a book already in the works. All I can say is that I’m wicked pumped about it. The plan is to take as much time as it needs and make it the best of it’s kind. I’ll mention something on CSS-Tricks when the time comes.

Found on ChrisCoyier.net is your personal photo stream. Is photography a passion of yours? Do you feel this helps improve your overall design skills and creativity? What kind of camera do you use?

I wouldn’t call it a passion but I really do enjoy it. It’s the #1 thing I wish I did more of. I’m saving my pennies for a nice Macro lens, as I’m really attracted to that style of photography and I hear they also double as nice portrait lenses which I also enjoy. I have a Canon Rebel XTi.

Do you have any websites or projects you would like to shamelessly plug to over 25,000 subscribers and 1 million readers every month?

Absolutely! I really want people to check out my latest project Are My Sites Up? It’s a website monitoring service I built with my friend Richard. I think it’s a fantastic service for freelance designers and web design agencies to use to keep an eye on their sites so they can react quickly to any problems. There is a free plan as well as an inexpensive feature-packed premium plan.

A very sincere thanks to Chris Coyier for taking the time to chat with us today!

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Quickly glancing at your about page on href='http://www.cameronmoll.com/about/'>CameronMoll.com, it is apparent
that family is a huge part of your life. Do you find it difficult to find a
balance between web development and time with the family?

I don’t know that I bother striving too hard for balance any more. I
do my best to put my family first, and then try line up what’s most
important after that. On some days, all that other stuff may take
priority over family, but hopefully only for a temporary period. I use
Netvibes to manage a lot of my little things in life, and I’m
finding that as long as it’s on a list somewhere I eventually get
around to it. So I think I’m learning “balance” is a long-term goal,
not a daily or short-term one, and I’m okay with that.

You did an interview with href='http://www.digital-web.com/articles/cameron_moll/'>DigitalWeb back
in 2005 when you stated you had no plans of writing a book. Obviously, this
has changed some. Can you tell us about your writing process? Do you enjoy
it? If so, are there any plans for a new book in 2009?

Lesson learned: never say never, I suppose. Alas, I shouldn’t say
anything about my plans for writing in 2009. (Actually, I do have a
couple things in mind, but nothing concrete enough yet to share.)

As for my writing process, I’ve never given a lot of thought to how I
write. This article is
perhaps the most I’ve written about it. I guess when it comes down to
it, writing, especially for books, is about perseverance. Anybody came
dream up an idea for a book, and with a good editor even the poorest
writer can get published. But it’s the person who sticks through the
arduous 6-12 month process for writing a book who ends up getting
published.

Being a drummer, are you still playing and/or involved with any bands?

I’ve been trying to get back into it with a set I picked up a couple
years ago and a replacement of the entire cymbal set only just a few
months ago, but I find it slow-coming.

I’ve still got enough chops enough to make
my way around the kit okay, much like riding a bike after a 10-year
break. But I’m finding it challenging to keep rhythm and do fills.
Playing any instrument well, especially drums, is more about feeling
the music than reading it, and that’s the part that’ll take me a
couple more years to really get back in the groove. No bands yet.

Is there one CSS3 specific feature that you are most looking forward to?

Multiple background images in a single element please! For a few years
now I’ve been begging for browsers to adopt that feature immediately
in a mass-market way. Imagine how much better life would be with the
addition of that one feature alone.

You’ve href='http://aneventapart.com/news/2008/06/designer-cameron-moll-on-natural-mapping'>spoken
at ‘An Event Apart’ before. What was the experience like, and do you have
any plans to do more in the future?

An Event Apart has always been a great experience. Jeffrey Zeldman,
Eric Meyer, and the rest of the crew really put on a great show, and
they treat their speakers really well. In fact, nearly every
conference I’ve spoken at I’ve felt like a king due to the generous
efforts by the conference organizers. And meeting great people — the
attendees — before and after speaking is really what the experience
is about.

I spoke nearly every month in 2006 and 2007, and that was tough on the
family but on me, as well. So in 2008 and 2009 I’ve scaled back quite
a bit. I’ll be speaking at the HOW Design Conference in June this year and a few smaller
gigs in the U.S.

Are there coding practice you see being used by developers today that
makes you cringe?

No, not really. Sure, there are plenty of things I could nit-pick, but
as an industry we’re light-years ahead of where just 5 years ago. I’m
proud to be part of that industry.

Where do you see the web design trends heading in 2009?

I have no idea, honestly. I’ve put out predictions for the year the
past few years, but either my ability to predict or my interest in
doing so has waned. Focus on building a great user experience this
year — something that won’t change with the years — and come what
may in terms of trends.

Going back to your books, in addition to href='http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1590596145/'>CSS Mastery,
you have written Mobile Web Design.
Can you tell us a bit about the differences between developing for a
computer screen vs cell phone?

Let’s start with what isn’t different: XHTML, CSS, and JS for mobile
websites, same as what you’re used to on the desktop. Of course, that
comes with the caveat of dealing with a few dozen mobile browsers, all
of which render markup quite differently, compared to only a
half-dozen or so browsers on the desktop. IE6 might look mildly
tolerable in comparison to the variances among mobile browsers.

As for what’s different, more than the obvious differences of screen
size, data entry and input mechanisms, and the like is the difference
in the approach to mobile content. It isn’t enough to know what
browser they’re using and what the user needs are. You need to know
what the context of the mobile experience is — where, how, why. You
need to anticipate what data they may need in a pinch or on the go.
And with touch-screen devices becoming more and more commonplace, you
have to consider the limitations and opportunities provided by
gestural input.

I could go on, but I’d really just be repurposing what’s in the book.
I’m really proud of the work that went into Mobile Web Design, and
even though the content is nearly two years old at this point, the
fundamental concepts I cover haven’t changed drastically.

Recently, you href='http://cameronmoll.com/archives/2009/01/12_resources_for_html5/'>blogged
about HTML 5. What are some of your favorite features of HTML 5 so far?

I love the fact that we’ll soon be able to write markup using more
natural, humanistic language, such as <header>, instead of the more
technical <div id=”header”>.

The past two years have been the years of frameworks. Do you have a
favorite library that you use for your projects or clients?

I am completely, absolutely, 100% on the fence when it comes to
frameworks. I have experience with CSS frameworks on both small scale
(freelance) and large scale (worldwide corporation) projects, and I
think the cons equal the pros. I’m not sold that frameworks are the
way to go, nor do I discourage their use. Best advice I can give is
use them if they work for your project and enable you to be more
efficient, don’t use them if they harm user experience or become
markup overkill. As for JS frameworks, is there anything better than
jQuery right now?

What one tip can you provide to designers and developers who are trying
to be successful in this growing field or work?

Wow. No one’s asked me to narrow that down to one point. It usually
takes me an hour to cover about 10 points in my “Good vs. Great
Design” presentation to answer that very question. I don’t think I can
do it here, so I’ll take the easy way out and suggest you read “How
Designers Think” by Bryan Lawson. He makes the argument that we
shouldn’t expect anything less than a book to define what design is,
and I’ll extend that idea to suggest we shouldn’t expect anything less
than a book to answer that question. How Designers Think is probably
the best book I’ve read on becoming a successful designer. It has very
little to do with the mechanics and tactics of design, but everything
to do with the thinking behind great design.

You are a designer, and a musician. Which came first? How do the two
coincide or inspire you and your work?

I think the ability to work with my hands came first. I’ve been
building stuff (and taking stuff apart) for as long as I can remember
– woodworking, R/C aircraft, you name it. I started drumming at age
12, but I started tinkering with piano about 5 years before that (I
still play only a little piano). To me, all of those activities share
one thing in common: composing something with your hands and your
mind. So graphic design is really no different in that regard, it’s
just another form of composition.

Where do you see the web and the state of web design in 5 years?

Mobile will play a far greater role than it is today, which I think
says a lot because it’s already playing a pretty important role.

Any secret web dev tricks that you’re willing to share?

No I use very little trickery.

What are your plans for the future?

Probably to keep doing the same thing I’ve been doing for years, and
that’s striving to become the most well-rounded designer I can be with
as much attention to detail as practically possible.

Shameless plugs? Anything you’d like to promote to 1 million monthly
readers?

Absolutely!

• Post a job or find one at the web’s best job board for
  web design and development jobs, Authentic Jobs, run by yours truly.
• Follow me on Twitter. It’s the only place you’ll find me
  doing frequent updates these days.
• Buy one of my letterpress posters later this year when I have more in stock.
• Read this interview!

Thanks for having me contribute. You’ve got a great collection of
sites, and I’m certain your readers are top-notch. Here’s to a great
year in 2009!

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“I believe that the Open Web is not just the best platform ever to have been created, but that it is just the beginning. It will eclipse proprietary platforms and the world of the desktop and Web will merge. For the first time in history, the developers will control the platform instead of one company.”

What part of the world do you currently reside in?

Palo Alto, CA. However, I got there via: London -> Minneapolis, MN -> Boulder, CO -> London -> Boston -> Madison, WI -> CA. I have lived in every timezone in the continental US

Are you married/have children?

Married to Emily (almost 10 years) and have one 2 year old named Sam.

Favorite music?

I am old school I like the likes of Peter Gabriel, New Order, David Bowie, and artists that don’t come out with new albums often

Favorite food?

I have a strange relationship with food. I like Indian (onion bhargi!), Pizza (thin crust), sausage rolls, fish and chips (Lobster Pot in Redbridge), and british crisps.

How long have you been a web developer?

I started web development when I attended the University of Minnesota. This made the Gopher folks, which was created there, angry and mad that they screwed up and missed the revolution (they tried to license the technology and it wasn’t as good or open as WWW). We are talking 1994/5 time frames.

Where do you currently work?

I work in a new Developer Tools lab at Mozilla, with my long time conspirator Ben Galbraith (co-founded Ajaxian with me).

What is your favorite programming language?

My brain likes Ruby and JavaScript. I have done a lot of Java in the past and although I like the platform, the language bores me and doesn’t get me excited to code. I have code on CPAN and prefer dynamic languages, from Lisp to Python and more.

Do you prefer any Javascript libraries

I like Prototype for medium size applications that need a little sugar. I like jQuery for munging a web page. I like Dojo for doing a large application. The new frameworks like SproutCore and Cappuccino are very interesting too.

Favorite code editor?

I have a few. IntelliJ for Java, and even some Web functionality. Textmate for dynamic languages and simple editing. vim for quick edits. I used to live in Emacs (read email and newsgroups and more) I am also thinking a lot about this and wondering if an editor could live online. I want it to be just as fast as a desktop application, collaborative, command-based and self-editable like emacs. I am excited about the state of editors for 2009 and beyond.

What applications are always running on your computer?

Of course, the browser is first and foremost. I run Minefield (Firefox Nightly) and WebKit nightly. Quicksilver is my first install for the Mac. Adium. Textmate as we said. NetNewsWire (haven’t been able to make the switch to Google Reader for some reason), and a few more.

Mac, PC, or both?

Mac for years. PC via VMWare Fusion for testing, and reminding me why I switched.

What is a typical day for you?

I have a double schedule. These days, Ben and I hit the gym in the morning on the way to work. We get going early. We try to get back home in time to spend dinner and fun with the kids, and then have another coding session at night. I also do Ajaxian late at night and schedule posts for the next morning (since being on the West coast).

Have you written any books?

I co-authored Pragmatic Ajax with Ben and Justin Gehtland. It badly needs an update.

Are there any others on the way?

Not for awhile. It takes too much time, and we have fun projects to share. Also, after blogging, tweeting, and podcasting, it feels like I type a book a week

Do you have any programming pet peeves?

“I am going to use the Foo design pattern today” and general over engineering.

How do you keep up to date with the latest developments of the web?

I have trained myself to be an RSS reading machine, and optimize via social tools like Twitter/FriendFeed. It takes too long :/

You know several programming languages, which one was the hardest to learn? the easiest?

There is the language, and there are the libraries. It often doesn’t take too long to learn a language as it is just syntax. It takes longer to learn new idioms, and even longer to learn libraries. Every time I learn a new language I take the idioms back to the old ones (e.g. using Closures in Java).

How did you learn? Did you have any formal training?

I switched from Chemical Engineering to a Computer Science degree at the UofM, but that didn’t help me half as much as just getting interested and coding. I joined a healthcare startup while at school, and also worked on the Web Registration system for the university.

How and when did you become interested in web development?

Right from the beginning. It was just so easy to do compared to desktop proprietary systems. I was used to building Unix applications at school and woooooah it was way too hard!

When designing for IE, do you even bother with IE5?

I haven’t had to for a loooong time. Thank god. These days I want to push people to upgrade

Most fulfilling experience as web developer?

The first time I see users enjoying anything that I have built. From the great community at Ajaxian contributing, to students registering for classes, to healthcare systems getting more efficient.

Most embarrassing?

Ajaxian used to be really ugly. It is still not as we would like, but you know the proverb about the shoe maker and his kids shoes….

Are you working on any pet projects in your free time?

I always have a couple. At the moment I am focused on a few projects coming out of the labs group, but also like to explore. Some examples are App Discover, an addon that tries to help the browser discover web applications. Geometa, a shim that lets you use the various geo location API’s coming out.

Best advice for new developers?

Have fun! Explore what the browsers are letting you accomplish these days. Don’t live in the world of 1997 with Ajax 1.0, but build for the future. (And OK OK, make sure it works for your users).

We tend to get obsessed with the technology and the libraries and frameworks. It makes more sense to focus on the user experience and use the tech to make it possible.

Purchase His Book

• 

  Pragmatic Ajax: A Web 2.0 Primer

  Purchase the Book

• Subscribe to the NETTUTS RSS Feed for more daily web development tuts and articles.