@media - High-Noon Shoot Out: Design vs Implementation

This was a bit of light-hearted fun, with two heavyweights standing in opposing corners and trying to convince us their point of view was right.

[the protagonists on the podium]

In The Design Corner - Mr Simon Collison
The Design Manifesto went thus:

• Visual design is not complex engineering
• Design interfaces visually, don't be afraid to take risks
• Reserve the right to veto decisions of technologists
• Think, build & design organically
• Don't pander to personal prefereneces
• Deliver a rich, considered visual experience for all
• Be expressive with web typography
• Layout decisions are the preserve of the designer
• Visual design makes the first impression - respect it!
• Build everything in Flash (not really)

[Evil Drew - New Implementation, New Danger!]

In The Implementation Corner - Mr Drew McLellan
It all started with nxoc01.cern.ch, the very first web server. Drew said we were all implementers, and as such, we needed to know our enemies:

• Fixed width layouts
• Flash for non-media presentation
• (Flash breaks the basic nature of the web when used for anything other than a player for graphics or audio, and each Flash player instance impacts on performance of the browser)
• Text replacement, since text on a web page is a solved problem
• Styled form elements
• Potent GETs
• Controlled heights
• Controlled text size
• Colour schemes and low contrast
• The user agent
• The FOLD - THERE IS NO FOLD since we never know where it's going to be from one browser/user to the next!!

[Drew gets all fervant and placard-wavey saying There Is No Fold]

Conclusion
Of course, we all know that life's not so black and white, and at different times, we may have to sit in different camps. So it was a nice way of stimulating some light-hearted debate, but there's definitely no "right" answer on this one!