Web Templates Blog is happy to present another in a series of interviews: today we talk with the notable Webpage Designer, Andy Rutledge of AndyRutledge.com. Andy Rutledge has some opinionated but well-grounded articles on his blog that really caught my interest. I got a charge out of his article on suggestions for redesigning the White House blogsite. Andy’s portfolio is just as interesting. Andy’s opinions show creativity while maintaining some necessary detachment, and I found myself agreeing with some of his ideas. So, heeeeere’s Andy!

“I’ve always been a creative – artist, composer, etc… - so when I got a computer, one of the first things I wanted to know how to do was to build websites. I managed a chain of retail stores at that time and I wanted our website to be better than any of our competitors. It looked to me like that would be an easy task, as their sites were very poorly designed. I figured that I could design better than those and wanted to learn how to put it on the web in HTML.”

Andy continues, “As an artist, I already had a grasp of design and started by making sites for myself and friends. However well or poorly designed they were, they were coded horribly, though. I used WYSIWYG editors back then, like FrontPage, so the code was absolute trash. I later found that I could make a decent living doing it, so I just kept at it and still keep at it, learning every day how to improve my design and improve my coding.”

When I asked Andy about his toughest-ever customer - “Well, they’re almost all tough. But that’s the job; this is not art, it’s design. Design, by its very definition, requires that we work within lots of constraints. It’s my job to make what I believe to be relevant suggestions and even cajole clients into changing their perspective now and then, but in the end I have to work within the bounds of the project as the client defines it. . . There’s really no single one that jumps out, but some recurring themes are awful logos/identities that have to fit somehow into the new site design, or garish corporate colors that clients are unwilling to deviate from.”

On Web Standards, “Web standards are a good baseline for the absolute minimum requirements for development competence. And they’re only one necessary piece of a contextual and highly relevant puzzle. Web standards go hand-in-hand with accessibility, SEO and code semantics. Everyone who wants to be a web development professional should have a firm grasp of these principles and be steadfast in putting them into practice. Otherwise, we’re delivering inferior product to our clients. That’s simply unethical and irresponsible. . . If you’re a professional, it’s critical to always put these standards into practice. If you’re not a professional, you’re surely free to produce jacked-up sites and code all you want. So long as you know you’re ‘doing it wrong.’ ”

About the future Andy adds, “Well, design is design. Cultural context and contemporary trends do impact design to some degree, but it’s all about communication. I see no great ‘new thing’ in page design in the near future.” From a more immediate standpoint Andy put in a word about XML: “For under the hood, though, XML is where we’re headed. HTML will ultimately be replaced by XML and we need to start learning it now. Already, you’ve got to know some XML and XSLT authoring in order to interact with some sites and technologies today.”

I asked if Andy had ever worked with website templates, “Yes, I learned a lot from other people’s templates when I was just starting out. I’d purchase a template/site and then rip it apart to see how they did things. In time I learned that these sites were most often very poorly developed. I think that templates are a good solution for no-budget online needs when you’ve just got to get your company or organization a web presence and you’ve not got the time or need for a unique brand or user experience. Beyond that, templates are a non-solution for business. A successful website design can only be conceived in the specific context of a company/organizations brand context, aims, vision and needs – balanced by the desires, needs and expectations of the target audience. Anything less than that is a failure. Templates simply cannot meet these needs in this context.”

Andy, what about Flash technology? - “It’s wonderful. I’m not a Flash programmer, but it’s a great technology with a lot of beneficial and entertaining uses. Like all technology, it has its limitations and can be bastardized and ill-used. But in the right context, it’s often a great solution.”

Andy named three websites that he admires, “One of my all-time faves is the Serco Transarctic expedition site. http://www.sercotransarctic.com/ by Damien du Toit. Beautiful execution and terrific design. For content, it’s hard to beat Design Observer www.designobserver.com/ and A List Apart
www.alistapart.com.”

I asked Andy about sources of inspiration. “Everything. Seriously. I look at the design of the restaurant where I’m eating, I look at the design of cars while I’m driving, I look at how a particular style of outfit looks hot on one person while the same looks silly on another, and work to figure out why… I seem to find inspiration in just about anything, provided I’m in the mood to receive inspiration. That’s important.”

When dealing with clients Andy mentions, “. . . Every client brings with them a set of ‘problems,’ but these are just the constraints we have to deal with in design. It’s really no problem at all, just a professional challenge. I require a fairly in-depth discovery process that my clients must be involved with and this prevents most problems from occurring later in the project. Those few clients that don’t avail themselves to me as much as necessary in the discovery generally get a lesser result, but that’s what they bargain for. I do what I can to explain cause and effect; what they ultimately do is their business – In more ways than one.”

As for webpage design interests, “My interest is in delivering the exact right solution to the clients’ needs and desires – and their customers’/audience’s needs and desires. Everything I do is beholden to that basic premise. As for what I dislike, I dislike when a Web page design is short-sighted or one-dimensional. I dislike it when the designer thinks that design means just the graphic presentation. The Web is a multi-faceted medium and Web designers have a responsibility to address all aspects and make sure that every level of experience is accounted for. This also means that people other than those with perfect eyesight, other than those who use a mouse, other than those who use a graphic browser, etc… are accounted for and are able to successfully interact with the page and consume its content. . . In short, I guess I dislike irresponsible design.”

Hopefully, it’s guys like Andy that improve all websites - even templates for them. Thankyou for the experienced point-of-view and some great answers.

Arthur Brown