[thelist] Threatened by printies

Techwatcher techwatcher at accesswriters.com
Fri May 24 13:15:01 CDT 2002


Hi, Grahame --

I suspect your concern will prove to be anything but off-topic as more
professionals in other fields catch on to Web design. Here is what I
recommend, for what it's worth:

First, think about your job in terms of what FUNCTION you (and your
group) provide the company, and potential future directions of the
company. (Btw, I would agree with the change made so far, in that the
Dir of Comm for your co. really should have the ability to standardize
the company's "appearance" regardless of media/channel.)

Second, your traditional print publisher is being badly squeezed by
paper costs, postage, storage, and other overhead. On the other hand,
the traditional publisher REALLY plays a very minor intermediary role,
now, between author and "printer." (Think about it.)

So, which direction are they likely to head for their survival, in the
face of this economic and reduced-function pressure?

They will need the Web -- but they may not understand the dangers. They
will need to know what they can and cannot do online, safely. They may
not be aware of what a dangerous environment the Web can be, for a
publishing company. (The Web is global; copyright laws aren't, etc.)

The first obvious step you can take towards job security is to learn
everything there is to know about security online, so you can warn them
of the various dangers.

Next, I would encourage you to rethink your job, if your idea of Web
design in any way revolves around the appearance of whatever your
content is. After all, the Web was originally invented as a place to
display content easily. (Then, mostly text, defined content-wise
[sic].) The future will soon ("soon" in career terms!) lead us back to
that. Non-CSS-compliant browsers WILL BE a thing of the past. Unless
you are much older than your peers, that will happen when you still
would prefer not to take early retirement.

So, you need to think about (learn about?) another level of stuff
entirely: the things documentation specialists normally specialize in
(wait, you're in England, make that "in which documentation consultants
normally specialise").

If concepts like "mutually exclusive and exhaustive category schema"
(under whatever name your mind labels them) aren't in your mind, put
them there. If you don't understand that content could be organized
functionally, sequentially, and at different levels of abstraction,
(not an exhaustive list), start thinking about it. Why would you choose
one organisation, over the others?

If you can handle just these two things (documentation subject matter,
and security) and keep your knowledge current, you should remain a
valuable member of their team long into the future.

Cheers --
Carol Stein
techwatcher at accesswriters.com

Hi,

This may seem off topic, but it's something I need to ask. I work as the
only real "web designer" for an old school publishing company. The web
team
amounts to three people - my manager is a marketing person, and we have
an
assistant. There is also a team of 3 or 4 ASP developers who build and
maintain internet and intranet apps.

The promotional print design department is 8 or 9 strong. They come
under
the Communications Director's remit (he's an old school printie), and
he is
now pushing to absorb control of the design of the website.

The print designers all went on a 2 day Dreamweaver course about a year
ago. Some of them came back saying that web design was "easy". The
course
had associated Dreamweaver with Quark Xpress in their minds.

Our Director (we come under Business Development) is resisting, but the
Communications Dept is very strong. So far, the changes that have come
into
force are that the Senior Designer in Communications has been given the
responsibility for the "on-line visual design, brand and image". We
still
have the final say in terms of "functionality". Eventually though, I can
see that we are going to be swallowed up.

Part of the reason this has come about is that the print designers are
scared that they're being left behind. In response to this, they asked
if
they could start working on the promotional "micro-sites" we build for
some
of our key products. This has progressed under my close supervision, but
not as it should have. The printies have been drawing up designs in
Quark
and then handing them over to a freelancer to "translate" their designs
into HTML. Not only is this a little odd - it means that they are
learning
nothing. They have "done" 4 or 5 jobs so far.

I fear that because I am neither a developer nor what the print
designers
see as a real "designer", I will eventually (maybe sooner than I think)
be
left without a place here.

As well as general web design, I am responsible for our Web Design
Guidelines and their enforcement, our Accessibility policy and it's
guidelines, compliance with W3C standards, and I am also the sole voice
in
the organisation for usability. I am good at what I do and take pride in
our output.

How do I tactfully explain to our Directors (on my side and in
Communications) what I do, why it is important, and why potentially
handing
the website over to a department of print designers with very little
experience is near insanity?

Sorry for the long post (and perhaps for the hint of panic),

Thanks for any advice,

Graham


Cheers



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