This last week I was looking for webpage designers that had a great overall look to their websites. I know that’s not the only criteria for a good webpage - but that’s what I was looking for at the time. When I got to CCR Design, owned by Richard Mathis, I was impressed .

Richard also has the Top Web Comics webpage and the DN Dorks webpage. I checked them out as well. I asked Richard for an interview and his answers are here.

How did you get into web design?
“I was hired to do tech support for a horrible little company called Inetba that had an automated website designer, kind of like a very expensive geocities for businesses. Well, of course the business owners were never satisfied with the very minimal tools they were given and I began trying to push the system, figuring out how to insert javascript and other tools to make their websites worth the money they spent on their website package. Ultimately the company recognized what I was doing, promoting me to manager of an entire department of web designers responsible for working with this system.”

Do you remember the very first site you designed?
“I believe the first website I did was a fictional taxidermist website which I did as a concept site to prove what I could do with the Inetba system. It had a safari theme to it and I even did some research to put together some believable information in the site.”

What kind of specialization are you doing?
“Our specialization is really interactive custom web applications. A lot of this is just fun stuff, games, random dice generators, things like that, but the ‘fun’ stuff is really just a way of learning how to do some really wacky far out things which we can then reuse for more practical applications. Many times I might stop in the middle of a very serious business project, like a shopping cart or a customer management system, work up a mockup of an online game for our gaming site, Dndorks.com, then use an improved technique I developed on Dndorks.com inside my business project.”

Where do you get your art for these webpages?
“We’re blessed to have a fantastic artist, Jason Smith, he creates a lot of art from scratch, drawing it either by hand or using a tablet. We’ve used clipart.com, taken out a digital camera and taken shots ourselves. Sometimes our customers have provided images, but usually we end up creating our own.”

What will be the next big development in webpage design?
“Well, from a programmer’s perspective, AJAX is really redesigning the web, the ability for websites to basically rewrite themselves client-side without expensive page refreshes fundamentally changes the feel for many websites. I know ‘I’ personally use it extensively in my newer projects, and I see it everywhere I look anymore.”

Have you ever worked with website templates?
“We have worked with templates a couple times, it all depends on what customers are looking for. There are some really beautiful templates out there and if a customer has a limited budget but still wants some of the fancier bells and whistles, it can really make sense for a company to spend a relatively small percentage of their webdesign budget paying for a template then use the rest of the budget to pay for integration, custom forms, or other automated features. Not every business’s needs can be satisfied by a template, many have a very distinct look and feel in their branding which won’t be satisfied by a template, but for businesses that don’t have a clear digital look or feel yet, templates are a boon.”

What website template providers have you tried?
“I’m not absolutely sure of all of them, but I know I’ve made use of templatemonster.com.”

What was your experience with them?
“To be honest, an issue I’ve encountered so far with the templates is that the source files (PSDs, SWFs) are very minimalistic, little better than working with the jpgs, which is a little disappointing since I know from working with our source files that we can really do a lot just by manipulating effects, moving layers around, etc.”

What do you think about Flash technology?
“10% of flash is absolutely fantastic, seamlessly improving a website. 30% of flash is invisible, could probably be done with DHTML, but is really a matter of choice. About 50% of flash I’ve seen is either overdone, damages the search engine optimization (SEO), slow loading, and ultimately inappropriate. I think it’s a testimony of how fascinating flash is as a technology, that it can be really fantastic but usually isn’t. Its like the plastic surgery of the online world, sometimes thrilling, usually sub par.”

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using Flash?
“Flash can make your site really memorable. Flash can bring your imagination to life in a way that is difficult with just DHTML. The disadvantages of flash include things like poorly planned sites using flash can rank badly on search engines, can cause long load times if done badly, and can irritate visitors who may dislike flash merely because its flash.”

What are your sources of inspiration?
“Personally I talk to people, see what they think is cool. I actually avoid looking at the ‘cool’ websites people tell me about, I try to get them to describe it to me so I can get an impression what about the website they liked, and hopefully when I try to capture that idea or impression, its unique as opposed to just being a knock off.”

What are your favorite website designs that you did NOT design yourself?
“I just started playing with kudzu.com, very nice! We tried to do something similar several years ago, but the business owner we were working with would change their entire business plan every couple weeks until finally we just gave up on it. Still, I think Kudzu.com has done a fantastic job.”

What was the toughest project or customer situation you’ve encountered?
“We’re currently in the midst of a multi-year project which we are about 80% complete. Unfortunately at this point the customer has lost direction and, without providing any business rules or clear direction, asked us to complete the project. We’ve mostly spun our wheels for the past few months while we try to figure out what it means to ‘finish’ the project.”

What are your interests and dislikes in webpage design?
“I like websites that load quickly, have strong contrast, and normally use dark text on light backgrounds. I like websites to be open, with no clearly defined edges. I like flash that is worked seamlessly into the website but doesn’t block normal behavior (normal behavior means I can control+click or shift+click a link to open a website in a new tab or new window). My strongest dislike is broken javascript that people live in because most browsers ignore it, but due to my debugging settings it screams at me each and every time there is an error. At least one of each of our websites breaks one or more of my ‘likes’ (except the javascript, there is never an excuse to put up broken javascript), but then I guess there is always an exception to every rule.”

Thankyou Richard for your opinions and insights. I appreciate your candor and your experience in web design.

The Template Meister,
Arthur Browning