Some gurus prefer to be considered designers, some call themselves developers while in actuality you really should have a little bit of both skills to become efficient at the trade. There is certainly an art to designing a usable yet visually appealing website. Although looks don’t always equal a usable design, we try to make it as nice as possible anyways. Many times the page markup itself will be a work of art in its own right as this sample from css zen garden demonstrates:
css Zen Garden
The Beauty of CSS Design
A demonstration of what can be accomplished visually through CSS-based design. Select any style sheet from the list to load it into this page.
The Road to Enlightenment
Littering a dark and dreary road lay the past relics of browser-specific tags, incompatible DOMs, and broken CSS support.
Today, we must clear the mind of past practices. Web enlightenment has been achieved thanks to the tireless efforts of folk like the W3C, WaSP and the major browser creators.
The css Zen Garden invites you to relax and meditate on the important lessons of the masters. Begin to see with clarity. Learn to use the (yet to be) time-honored techniques in new and invigorating fashion. Become one with the web.
If your web page markup at all resembles this then you are well on your way to being a UI guru. Gurus go to extreme lengths to ensure that their sites both function and appear identical to the most users as possible and in today’s Internet is is no small feat. If you think this is an accomplishment, consider the fact that beyond the basic concepts many gurus are self taught. While schools teach the fundamentals of making a functional website they likely won’t get into the facets of designing a quality site that appeals to everyone. Web standards, usability, search optimization are all topics that I myself have had to lean independently of college. What’s so nice about the web platform is that markup is open for any software or technology to develop on, this is most apparent when it comes to the type of application to develop with. While not always the case, these applications are encouraged to abide by the standards put in place by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). In time you will learn not to rely on the application to format your markup and be able to write code with just about anything.
For all of those aspiring UI gurus out there, perhaps the best way to learn UI is through trial and error. We learn new concepts and solutions to problems by talking with colleagues and by spiking out through web searches for ways to improve our skills. We also learn by closely following websites authored by industry leaders and finding ways to add our own unique twist to those concepts. Books and websites alone aren’t enough to become proficient, just like anything, the more you practice the better you become.
Recommended books
JavaScript: The Definitive Guide, Fifth Edition
CSS Mastery
Bulletproof Web Design
Recommended Websites