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WEB DESIGN : THE NEW MEDIUM?
by Dustin Senger

Dustin Senger is the owner of VisibleImpact.com. A Web site he published to help connect freelancers with clients. His site promotes learning and communication between it's members. According to Mr. Senger, knowing how is one thing - but being able and willing to teach someone else is very respectable. VisibleImpact.com hosts freelance computer programmers, copy writers/editors, graphic artists, photographers, video editors and webmasters.

Okay, you're searching the greatest invention since the inflatable dartboard: the World Wide Web. Perhaps you seek the best price on a new computer released yesterday. Or even better the next greatest site - well your search would be over then!

Through out your search you inevitably will run into a couple sites that boast the usability of an upside down keyboard. With poor visual elements, such as poorly placed frames, extensive uses of Flash and inconsistent link styles.

Let's face it, Web design is an art! It is the latest medium for individuals to be creative. How would Leonardo da Vinci have reacted to this interactive medium? Perhaps a Flash animation of the Mona Lisa? Probably not.

However, to those who master the fine art of Web design - great pages can be produced. To others, well… pages will be produced.

An airbrush artist is presented a blank canvas and in what seems a very short time, creates a magnificent piece. Then our same artist is given a set of oil paints and a new blank canvas. The artist shrugs her shoulders then grabs the oils with confidence and attempts the same work in oil. Never using oil paints previously. Time passes until finally the creator is ready to present her piece. This time the final product is a mess. Colors layered incorrectly, distracting design, and thick gobs of paint slapping the floor.

As an art, Web design talent needs to be properly groomed and developed. It takes more than an HTML editor to produce pages of interest. It takes using your artistic eye and expanding your knowledge of the available tools. Not to mention understanding the new dimension: interactive usability.

"The same principles of balance layout and use of text and graphics apply to designing Web sites as they do in media such as print and video, but a different set of constraints exist," explains Lisa Lopuck, author of Adobe Seminars: Web Page Design. "In the Web design world, you've got to think small and efficient, readable and interactive. Plus all sorts of pesky technical things can get in the way of your creativity."1.

Web design should be thought in many of the same respects as traditional art. Many artists will say they developed their skill through a lot of practice and encouragement from others. And still some will say their ability was innate and part of the family bloodline.

It may take time to see if great Web designers are passed through the family tree. But there is one variable that remains the same: Web design seems to be the new artistic medium.

1. Lopuck, Lisa. Web Design for Dummies. New York: Hungry Minds, Inc., 2001.