Everything Easy is Hard Again - Frank Chimero

Frank Chimero has been designing and building on the web for decades. He is also great at shedding some perspective on our craft. I love his writing. So much good stuff here.

I wonder if I have twenty years of experience making websites, or if it is really five years of experience, repeated four times. If you’ve been working in the technology industry a while, please tell me this sounds familiar to you.

Yes, yes it does.

It was 1997, I was learning HTML, and there was one problem with the design that was confusing me: how do I put two things next to each other?

Twenty years later, we’re still working out the answer to that very basic question.

That made me laugh out loud for real. And it is sad how true it is.

My web design philosophy is no razzle-dazzle. My job is to help my clients identify and express the one or two uniquely true things about their project or company, then enhance it through a memorable design with a light touch. If complexity comes along, we focus in on it, look for patterns, and change the blueprint for what we’re building. We don’t necessarily go looking for better tools or fancier processes. In the past, I’ve called this following the grain of the web, which is to use design choices that swing with what HTML, CSS, and screens make easy, flexible, and resilient.

You could call Chimero's approach similar to the 'use boring technology' approach. I love his point on illegibility and the value of creating legible solutions.

Illegibility comes from complexity without clarity. I believe that the legibility of the source is one of the most important properties of the web.

Complexity attracts engineers like moths to a flame. Legibility is not valued enough. Truly understanding the problem we are solving is too often glossed over.