I’ve been thinking about this big redesign I’m working on for this site, and I think black is going to make a big comeback. I used to be a huuuu-uuuuge fan of black pages, but I’ve been ignoring it for a couple years and I think it’s time to give it another shot. I’ll still keep black text on a white background, but I think blapck is the way to go… keep your eyes peeled for the new design (ok, don’t forget to blink, it may be a while).
You know, I love designers. They give me neat desktop wallpaper (my collection is the envy of everyone who sees it), great ideas and lots of funny rules to laugh at. I’ve now worked at AOL for seven and a half years and dealt with visual designers for almost four, and respect what they do. Most of their rules are valid, but they sure do make me laugh. I love the way Jeffrey Zeldman gets feisty about fonts and colors, and the folks at k10k fight about flash vs. html. Why am I talking about them? Well, because I realized I’m not one of them. I am good at what I’m good at, and it’s not what they’re good at. I am really good at interpretting designs into tight HTML and producing functionality (ewww, hate that word) from their requirements. But, I’m at a loss for actually designing things. I think if there were a category for “design critic”, I could be that. I can spot design flaws, but how to fix them is beyond me. I can offer suggestions, but that’s only because I have a good memory and remember how a good designer solved a similar problem in the past.
So, if you come here looking for design advice, you won’t get much. If you want to know how to build a really cool search box using left floated divs, I’m probably your guy.