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Web Development
The web can be
credited
for bringing the role of design - all
types of design -
into the world of software development.
Early web development was severely
constrained by the limitations of
primitive browsers and immature
standards. Coding requirements
were tamed by the restrictions imposed
by simple
HTML, and while
pictures were
permitted, code warriors often lacked
the graphic design skills to fully
exploit this.
Voila! Graphic designers found a new
medium and our post-modern world was,
and still is, being enriched with an
explosion of art
and color; a second renaissance of excellence
and beauty as significant and enduring as
the one that gave us Michelangelo and da
Vinci.
Websites are rendered with a step-by-step interface
that greatly simplifies interaction.
Having to cater for a user who might "Go
Back" is both liberating for users and
constraining for developers.
These constraints are what makes web
development different. Developers
and interaction designers may grumble
about these limits, but there is no
denying the harsh truth: Users find web
interaction less demanding than most
non-web software.
There is a lesson in this for all
designers, developers and webmasters.
Simplicity requires restraint.
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