HOLY GRAIL of WEB DESIGN
Occasionally, we find ourselves in the presence of greatness. Instead of hanging back with jaw-dropping looks on our faces we spin the moment into grand opportunity. Pawel Martuszewski is a UK based web designer/developer with a strong set of ideals for web design. I met up with Pawel about a year ago and my first impression of him was more than favorable. His designs are clean, extraordinary and always on the brink of cutting edge. Oh, and he's quite a joker too! Takes one to know one, I guess. Pawel was nice enough to grant me a little time and answer a few questions about designing web sites today. I thought this would be a great place to share his answers to a few questions that have plagued many of us at one point or another.
As crazy and mundane as some of these questions may sound, pay attention to the answers. The answers are what make the difference.
INTERVIEW with PAWEL MARTUSZEWSKI - PM DESIGN
What is the W3C?
The W3C is the organization that develops and defines Web standards. W3C develops guidelines to ensure high technical quality of the World Wide Web. The primary goal of this organization is to allow all people access to everything (any knowledge, commerce, opportunity) on the web and allow access on everything (any possible device). Mainly for this reason it is essential to build web applications according to the specific guidelines.
Can you write table-less (X)HTML? Do you validate your code?
Yes and Yes. Tables were very popular way back in time. The reason why tables are not so good is mainly because usability and accessibility. When the visitor access a website from let's say a 'blind-reader' device, all he/she can see is the table inside the table inside the column and so on… and finally a content of the website. It's not hard to imagine the frustration. If a developer can not manage to produce table-less code, I would say he/she is lagging behind with current online W3C standards.
Do I validate my code? Yes and everyone who is smart enough to understand principles does the same. It's not only about usability and accessibility. It's a lot about SEO (search engine optimization). If the code does not validate, Google robots or other search engine crawlers are limited to crawl the site as it can not be clearly seen what is where inside the code (where is the paragraph, where is the header and where the header ends etc.). Crawlers do not see the visual presentation of the website but see the code only. It is critical to make the website valid and build or design it according to the current W3C standards. This is due to the fact of WYSINWOG – What You See Is Not What Others Get (unless it is by sheer coincidence).
How comfortable are you with writing HTML entirely by hand?
I write the code entirely by hand. This is due to the fact that I have full control over the code and I can clearly see what is where. HTML visual editors often add additional div tags or paragraphs that mess up the code. Clear code is very important in terms of optimizing your code and preparing it for SEO. Additionally it is faster to simply write the code by hand rather then to use predefined editor options.
Do you prefer to work alone or on a team?
That's a very tricky question. Working with a team is sometimes essential especially considering big online applications or things you need to outsource due to any reason. However, I do prefer working on my own. Why? Because, I have full control over the project and I don't have to waste my time to ask why this is done in such way (if any problems) or correct mistakes made by co-workers. Unless someone I work with is extremely focused and technically minded. In such case it's a pleasure to work as a team as there is no time wasted.
What industry sites and blogs do you read regularly?
The Web is so rich with very relevant, valuable content and information. For this reason, I don't have a favorite blog or website that I read regularly but I try to look instead at the different resources every time (unless I know that what I look for is in a certain place on the web).
What are a few of your favorite development tools and why?
I couldn't live without Firebug (Firefox add-on) and Web Developer (Firefox add-on). Additionally considering my top desktop applications I use 'Coda' (Mac HTML editor) and Photoshop. There is plenty more desktop and online tools that I use regularly, but the ones above are a must.
What sized websites are you working on or have worked on in the past?
Variety really. From simple brochure websites to e-commerce directories with community implementations and a dedicated CMS (content management system). I do prefer however, working on middle size web applications.
What are a few sites you admire and why? (from a webdev perspective)
As I grow with experience, fewer things become really 'WOW' to me. I don't have a specific website (other then my personal projects that I admire. However, I do respect very much every successful website on the web (monetizing the web). It is hard sometimes to be noticed on the web so whoever can achieve it, is the hero to me!
What web browser do you use? The correct answer to this is "All of them.." Please explain in detail why.
Well, I mainly use the latest Firefox edition. However as you correctly noticed every developer should have as much web browsers installed as possible (purely for testing purposes). This is due to the cross-browser compatibility and accessibility to make sure a website is easily accessed on various browsers.
Pawel Martuszewski is the founder of Web Design Tutorials - PM Design and he is also a Web Designer/ Developer, SEO Expert, Marketing Specialist and Internet Guru, working as a Senior Designer for a media design company all while still finding enough time in the week to Freelance from home. You can follow him on Twitter or check out his Linkedin profile.