Greetings WOW members and Web professionals everywhere. Bill Cullifer here with the World Organization of Webmasters (WOW) and the WOW Technology Minute.
Today?’s podcast is an interview of Jeffrey Zeldman, publisher of A List Apart Magazine, founder of Happy Cog Studios and co-founder of The Web Standards project. Mark DuBois, WOW Director of Education and Professor at the Illinois Central College, (ICC) caught up with Jeffrey Zeldman at the list Apart Conference that took place last month in Chicago, IL. Zeldman shares his perspective on Web Professional Core Competencies that serious about their profession should consider.
Check out the three minute interview on today’s WOW Technology Minute website.
Today?’s WOW Technology Minute is brought to you by Web Directions North taking place in Denver Colorado February 2-5, 2009 Web Directions North is one of the world’s leading conferences for web professionals, bringing together the leading experts from around the nation and around the world to educate, entertain and inspire our attendees.
WOW will be participating in a session entitled Educating the Next Generation of Web Professionals For more information about the conference visit the Web Directions North website.
Transcript of Jeffrey Zeldman Interview
MARK DUBOIS: This is Mark Dubois with the World Organization of Webmasters (WOW) and the Wow Tech Minute. I?’m here today with Jeffrey Zeldman at the list Apart conference in Chicago. I have the distinct pleasure of interviewing Jeffrey. I?’ll say that this has been a fantastic conference so far. I truly enjoyed the presentations up to this point.
With respect to your opening comments, you mentioned one of the core competencies that a Web Designer should have is empathy. I?’m wondering if you could elaborate on that a bit for our listeners please.
JEFFREY ZELDMAN: Sure, I?’ll be happy to. I think there are two ways to create great Web experiences. One way is following your own passion, your own interests, no matter what. The other way is creating something for other people, finding out as much as you can about those people. So one way of doing it is, something doesn?’t exist in the world but you?’d like it to exist in the world, you wish someone would get around to doing it. Nobody gets around to doing it, nobody gets around to making it and you realize it?’s your job if you want to see this thing. So whether it?’s your blog, whether it?’s a website for a church or organization, whatever it is. Whether it?’s World Organization of Webmasters, as WOW used to be called, no one had put that group together, someone?’s got to do it so you get motivated to do something because no one?’s doing it.
For me, one of those was the Web Standards project. Some friends and I got together and formed this group, not because we really wanted to spend a whole lot of hours doing something that didn?’t make us any money but because we thought there was a need for it and nobody was doing it and so it had to be done. It?’s been my experience that if you create something because you really believe in it, want to see it exist, you can be successful on it. You don?’t really have to be a genius you just have to really care about it and keep working on it.
The other way, more in the client services way or in-house design where a lot of us work, the trick there, I think, is for us to identify who?’s going to use the site and what needs they have. What needs aren?’t being met by the existing site? Always put that first. Always put those kinds of questions first.
In the conference people were talking at different ways of getting at that. Our last speaker was talking about a disciplined approach toward creating achievable goals that are based on what people need to do and then using those as a basis of what you design. There are different ways of doing it. But empathy and design is thinking about someone else, not assuming that because you like it it?’s good or not assuming that because it works for you it works for everyone.
We are experts. All of us are experts, to some degree in Internet technology, so there are things that we create that aren?’t confusing to us but could be very confusing to other people. I?’m constantly exposed to start-up companies, projects and products people come up with, and a lot of times they?’re very creative projects but it?’ll take me a while to figure out what it is because they haven?’t started from the premise of figuring out how to communicate, what needs they?’re fulfilling and how to communicate what is there to be done.
There are lots of Web applications that my friends like or invite me to so I?’ll try it. It might take me 30 minutes. It?’s only because I like my friends that I keep trying to figure out what the site?’s about. A site shouldn?’t do that. A site should be comprehensible. It should be ever more deeply comprehensible. I don?’t mean that if you have a site about Lupus that someone is supposed to be able to go to that webpage and understand everything about that disease. Quite the contrary. But I think someone should go to that website and go, “Oh, this is a site for people who have Lupus or think they have Lupus or have family members who have Lupus to get information about that disease.” It should be that simple. How to find the information should be that simple.
MARK: Fantastic. Thank you very much. Jeffrey, it?’s been a distinct pleasure to interview you, a true privilege and honor to meet you. This is Mark Dubois with the World Organization of Webmasters and the