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Web Design Lessons from 2008
This blog has been rather quiet lately, mostly because of the launch of the new Goldstar. It’s been a grueling nine months leading up to the launch, and even now we are fixing bugs and making tweaks to the new site. Compared to designing a personal blog, building a large, high-traffic site such as this one was a different ball game. I learned a lot, and it seems appropriate to summarize them here on the last day of the year.
Don’t be afraid of frameworks
If Ruby has Rails, and Python has Django, then it’s not a stretch to have some sort of framework/system for your CSS. It’s true that most CSS frameworks won’t necessarily fit your needs out of the box, but there’s not stopping you from editing it to your own taste. The new Goldstar runs on a custom-edited 960 Grid System. Having a framework really speeds up development, and helps other developers understand your code.
Beware of Helvetica Neue
Some CSS frameworks, most notably Blueprint, include Helvetica Neue in their default font stack. There’s nothing wrong with that, in general. But when the new Goldstar launched many customers complained about seeing outlined, hollow fonts. We weren’t really able to pinpoint the exact problem, but the working theory is that those users have Helvetica Neue Bold Outline installed. As a result, the outline font gets called when you specify bolded, sans-serif fonts. After removing Helvetica Neue from our font stack, the problem was resolved.
Organize your files
A good website design will require multiple design iterations, and file chaos can lead to increased development/design time, especially when working with a team. For Photoshop files, use groups, and name your layers. For code, I recommend using some sort of version control. Last but not least, document your code.
Maintain your website
This is a lesson learned from this site. I launched in November, but failed to keep up with the writing. Time to ramp it up. New Year’s Resolution? Maybe.
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