OptionsWeb Design or Blog Design
I get this question a lot; do you web design or blog design? and I say, is there a difference?
Most new site that I work on are built using free CMS like WordPress and Textpattern so they tend to have a bloggy feel to it, so I see where this question might arise from. But to me, a work done specifically to be published online, irrespective of the site being a blog, is considered “web design”, if it’s on the web and it involves designing, its web design.
With that said, there are many interpretation of what constitutes as web design. Not all web designs are created equal. For example, does a flash based work really count as a web design? Or is it more like a movie presented online? The reason I bring this up is, the second most popular question I get asked via my contact form is “do you do flash sites?” when I say no, they usually ask, why?
The answers is really simple, granted you can see a flash based site and to a good degree can be visually impressive, but can the machine see it? Try viewing the source code in your browser and you will find that most flash sites (with very little exception that have transcripts embedded) are just a line or two of code to a source file and that is it, so it’s like a movie. You can see it, but the machine can not. And if the machine can not, it is not worth a dime in today’s world of publishing with Google or Yahoo in mind (search engine optimization?).
So if you need a blog or a web site designed, come on in, we are open for business.
A lot of times flash is a necessary evil, but that doesn’t mean it has to be empty. SWFObject does a great job of allowing you to present the same content to search engines, screen readers, old browsers, et al., albeit with more work on the design end.
As far as blog design, it’s definitely a subset of web design. The advantage of limiting yourself is that there’s a relatively fixed quantity of features, and a limited set of software to learn. It’s questionable how long-lived blog design will really be, tho.
April 25th, 2008 at 8:11 am
@ Adam
How are things with you?
About Flash, frankly, I stopped working with it in early 2000 and have not revisited, so I am not aware of the new technologies that are out there. I will definitely check SWFObject out.
As for blog design as a service, I am not suggesting anyone limit themselves, but my clients come to me because I work with WordPress and interested in blogs as a way to improve SEO and I end up with bloggy sites, it’s the other way around.
April 25th, 2008 at 1:38 pm