Our Sketchbook

The Internet evolves at an amazing pace; just three years ago there was no Twitter and there was no iPhone. Less than a year ago, HTML5 was fighting for existence from XHTML 2.0, and now it rises to give us Google Wave and perhaps the end of Flash as we know it. As “web designers” we must also evolve, but we must outpace adoption. We, as the talent, hold a unique skill set; it is important to remember that the distance between unique and average is only separated by a short amount of time.

In 1997, just knowing basic HTML equated to plethora of job opportunities with highly competitive salaries. In 2000, just knowing Flash meant your resume was sent to the top of the pile and the interview was guaranteed (for better or worse). In 2003, knowing CSS was a desired skill-set that put you among the leaders and innovators of your profession. In 2006, an understanding of the DOM, web standards and the semantic web got you a promotion or even a new job! And, in 2009, a mastery of jQuery and an ambitious attitude towards pushing HTML5 and CSS3 to new heights are the traits that move you to the cream of the crop.

The distance between unique and average is short. To be a great web designer, to be unique, we must remember that the distance to stay that way is twice as long. We have to experiment with CSS in its infancy, during its most frustrating times of browser incompatibility. We have to explore the DOM and advocate for web standards years before its mass-adoption. We have to understand jQuery before it’s polished and we have to know when to fight for Flash and when to let go. We have to have the passion to know what CSS3 could do before we find out what it will do.

In 2012, we might be working with CSS4 and HTML6 or we might be advocating XHTML all over again – heck, everything might just be an iPad app. We might be self-closing our tags or we might not be; the important element is for us to not wait until 2012 to understand the why or the how.

It is often easy for us to become comfortable with what we are good at; what was once a talent, a commodity, can often become common place or even obsolete. Table-less layouts and the jQuery cycle are now more the norm than perhaps was true just three years ago. It isn’t that one must master HTML5 and CSS3 today but rather understand that an inability to do so even just a year from now dramatically shortens the distance between unique and average.

We strive to be great, and in doing so we mock those still coding table-based sites; but will we be mocked six years from now? Will we have failed to adapt where those before us did as well? To continue to strive to be great, we must continue to evolve at a faster pace than adoption. The web moves fast, we have to remember to keep up.