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Art Direction
Every other creative sector has it and yet the web seems to thinks it can do without. Art Direction is the cornerstone of the advertising industry and yet is sadly lacking among web designers to the detriment of our sites. In this week’s show, we discuss Art direction; what is it, how does it relate to the web and how to go about using it?
The discussion is largely based on an article I posted a while back about Art Direction. I suggest you check that out for more details on what we cover.
In the news
As normal there has been loads happening in the world of web designer over the last week:
IE 7
There has been yet more discussion surrounding IE 7. Think Vitamin have released an audio interview with Chris Wilson (lead developer for IE 7) confirming that IE 7 will be released as an automatic update but unfortunately will not be marked critical.
Also on the IE front, the Web Standards Project seems to be saying a somewhat premature goodbye to IE 6 while Firefox have pulled off a bit of a PR coup by registering ie7.com.
Designing through the storm
A list Apart released its latest edition this week with an excellent article aimed squarely at the designer community. Designing through the storm really gets to the nitty gritty of producing designs in the face of artistic block and difficult clients. Superb advice!
A call for greater professionalism
Egged on by John Allsopp, Molly is back on the subject of Web professionalism. Although I agree that the web design industry needs to "grow up" and start acting more professional, I am slightly unsure of whether Molly’s call for a charter is really going to help matters.
Google offers accessible search
This week Google has released a new version of its search engine weighted towards websites that offer improved accessibility. Aimed at the visually impaired community it aims to return results that give greater emphasis to sites that are friendlier to this audience. However the new engine is not without its problems.
Also in the show
This week we also look at how to build your website in a way that enables it to evolve gradually over time as well as review an excellent article on search engine optimisation drawn from a new book entitled "Deliver First Class Web Sites: 101 Essential Checklists".