BELLAMYBUDIMAN

A while ago I wrote about how the web-design industry in Indonesia is suffering because of our nation’s outdated curriculum. Today, I just found a very good article in A List Apart that further proves my point. Click here to read it. While this idea is highly possible to do in the US, I can’t imagine if it were that easy to apply here.

Update: Click here for another additional. This one contains possible curriculums that we can adapt.

Over the years, I’ve had my share on teaching and experiencing (as a student) what our curriculum on web design is like. And in this post, I am going to show you why I am deeply concerned on how the web industry is going in our country.

So first things first, I have been participating in the internet since 1995, that was when connection was scarce in the country, we had to rely on unreliable dial-up modems and ISPs at that time. Long story short, I’ve learned how to hand-code HTMLs by 1998, turned into an amateur web designer in 1999, started Neuro-Designs, and worked my way up as a professional web designer until now, in the world of web standards and Web 2.0. So, if you have doubts on what I have to say here, I have a hefty good reference of fellow web designers and developers to back me up, and frankly, perhaps you weren’t meant for the industry.

I believe it was back in 2005 that I had no other choice but to take the Web Design class in the campus, of course, to pass with my Visual Communication Design major. And seeing what I had to learn there, frankly, I was not impressed. Not to brag, but what’s covered in the curriculum, that’s exactly what I learned back in 1998, and in that class I was already practicing my CSS and table-less layout skills. Maybe because of this disappointment, I received a C for the subject. Yes, believe it or not, Bellamy, a web designer, received a C on the Web Design class. Believe it or not, that’s the grade I got. A few years afterwards, I got the chance to serve as a student’s assistant in the very same class. Years have passed, but the curriculum has not. I feel like I was teaching what I learned 10 years before. I was frustrated, and this is definitely not what web design is supposed to be. And if this continues on, then it is no surprise that Indonesian colleges can’t produce competent web designers, and this is exactly why major IT companies and design agencies in Indonesia doesn’t even have a clue what web design is now like, they’re just too stubborn and too ignorant to even evolve their own knowledge. They’re still stuck to what’s probably pre Web 1.0, while now is the era of Web 2.0, and Web 3.0 is just probably around the corner waiting to be unleashed.

Here’s what we were taught using the very same curriculum year after year: Build a website out of PhotoShop and Dreamweaver’s WYSIWG editor. Yes, no fundamental basics on interface designs, no rules explained on why websites have a set of its own typography treatment, why websites are not to be treated like brochures, and why good websites should be built on hand-coded HTMLs. None. No matter if it has a good structure or not, just make a working website, as simple as that. At this point, I can assure you that having someone build a website from scratch in iWeb could result in a better web-standards compliant website.

As a professional web designer, I’ve learned the hard way on what it takes to create a real deal web design from scratch. And professionals throughout the world agree that creating a fully-functioning website from a WYSIWG editor is probably just the same as catering a dog poop. Web designing is no easy task, it requires design knowledge (yes, we need to have a good sense on design rules, grids, typography, and every basic graphic design fundamentals), interface design knowledge, web typography, website structure design, and to top it all, although optional, we need to know how to hand code these websites using XHTML, CSS, and every other technological tidbits that keep evolving over the years. That’s why not everybody could be a web designer or developer, and that’s exactly why if you want to be a web designer, you need to start off on the right track and no excuses, you have to be computer-literate. And if all of these seemed overwhelming, then you’d probably better finding some other interest.

In my opinion, if we’re going to make the curriculum any better, you can’t fit everything in a single semester, and in a single subject. This is just physically and mentally impossible. In order to produce good web designers, you will need to do the subject in stages. Here’s what I have in mind:

Web Design 1: Introduction to web design, fundamentals of interface design, and website structures
I see no point of having people to create a fully functional website here. They must understand the basics, know what the essence of interface design, and learn how to cope with the limitations in designing for the web. Furthermore, students must also be taught on how to plan their websites, build a good structure while maintaining the fundamentals. The goal at the end of the subject is for the students to be able to produce good website design mockups, and that’s it.

Web Design 2: Template conversion, HTML, CSS, and table-less layout
This stage covers a more advanced degree to those who are interested in becoming a real deal web designer. And with the things taught in Web Design 1, hopefully they will understand why web design has its own limitations to serve the next step: Template conversion. Students must be able to grasp the essence on how HTML and CSS code works, and when they do, rest assured that this will aid them to be a faster and more competent web designer in the future with minimal hiccups in the design to prototype process. This stage also covers the importance of losing tables as a part of your layout. Just face it, everybody uses CSS for layouts now, table-based layouts are ancient.

Web Design 3: Website building
This stage is the highest degree on becoming a competent web designer. While in the end we would probably still need web developers to aid our work, being a web designer who could produce a working website prototype can surely help in what you do for a living. In this stage, students are expected to learn the basic fundamentals of how to put your website into a working prototype, whether online or offline. This also involves knowledge on how to set up your domain name, hosting space, and every other requirements to make sure that your website will definitely WORK, including how to port your website into a simple CMS such as WordPress.

On the internet, many professional designers have probably written an article on why being a web designer is not as easy as it looks. One of the good articles that I’ve found is this. And as you can see, as long as we’re still using the same curriculum over and over, sorry, it just won’t work. Web technology is evolving every single day, and what we’ve been using now is the same thing I used 10 years behind. And this is the reason why I never wanted to teach another web design class anymore. It’s frustrating to shell out students with a decade old set of knowledge. Can anyone confirm if this is also the case on other educational institutions as well?

Some good reads for inspiration:
A List Apart
CSSREMIX
For Web Designers
Jeffrey Zeldman
NETTUTS
PSDTUTS
Shaun Inman
Smashing Magazine
Web Designer Depot
Web Designer Wall

Note: This is a repost of what I’ve written in Neuro-Designs’ Company Blog.

Just two days ago, our good friend Jonathan Nasution came up with the idea on integrating Twitter users to report traffic updates. I took the chance to develop this website together with him, as a pet project for Neuro-Designs. The basic idea is to have Twitter users update their status with the latest traffic report, and we mine that data as a feed to WordPress. The result? Well, you would just have to see it for yourself.

This is work on the go, so I’m quite surprised with what we can come out with in just two days. I really feel that both WordPress and Twitter are easily integrated, and they contribute an immense impact to the world of Web 2.0. Thanks for all the support and suggestions, guys! Especially to Charles Johnson, Aulia Masna, and Andira Pramanta.

It’s been a while since I played around with real designer effects in Photoshop. By real designer effects, I mean effects put to good use, and not those crappy I-need-all-the-effects-you-can-get on a single freaking image. So I figured I browse around for old photographs and tried out the fake tilt-shift effect. Good thing I often take random photos whenever I have my camera with me. The photo above is some random shot I took when I was visiting Shenzhen back in 2005. While the one below is actually my first attempt on the effect. Click on both photos to see the actual images. Sorry, Aldy! =)

What? Did you just misread the headline? No, you didn’t. We do have an Indonesian version of Macworld, which I will review it side-by-side with the US version in this post. I happened to have the US version that carries the untranslated content. But, first things first. In order to save you from reading a jumble of error-based reviews below, bottom line, the Indonesian Macworld sucks. Yes, the editors might want to punch me in the face, but the truth is the truth, it sucks. And the following are the reasons why our version of Macworld sucks.

Right from the beginning, I already have my doubts since the Indonesian version’s cover is nowhere near good. It looks like something that came out from a first-year student’s PC, who just learned how to do magazine covers in Photoshop. Designs can be simple, but this is plain wrong. A magazine cover is where people should be able to read the inside’s main articles spot on. Not like this. Look how dull it is compared side-by-side with the US version.

And what’s with the bevels? I feel like I’m back in the 90s with Photoshop 5.

The next big mistake is the lack of baseline grid in the magazine. What kind of a good editorial designer is one, when he/she doesn’t know anything about baseline grid. Why do I make this into such a big deal?

Because in the US version, the baseline grid exists. And that what makes the whole magazine layout and grid coherent. This is why more than half of Indonesian magazines or translated magazines are crappy. Indonesian designers don’t know shit on how to treat typefaces and body texts properly.

The next would be the main article. The US version on the left, and the Indonesian version on the right. Look how dull the green is. And I’m not sure about you, but I don’t think we needed the copy’s typeface to be enlarged. Why? Because it’s good as it is and Megindo (the magazine’s publisher) just keeps messing things up.

Here’s another main article called “Weighing the MacBook Air”, laid out perfectly in the US version, with good typography.

And here’s the Indonesian version of the article, laid out badly, with crappy typography treatment. Why can’t they just do what the US version did? Is it that hard just to copy the same set of style? Look at the ferocious margins and paddings on this one, and all of those unnecessary hyphenations. Crappy. Just crappy.

Here’s the “Backlit Keyboard” picture in the US version.

And this is the Indonesian version. Now wait a second… “Logic Board”? Oh yes, they mistakenly put the wrong caption there, because, in the US version, the logic board picture is supposed to be this:

From what we see above, this is only a handful of mistakes that the Indonesian Macworld has managed to show me. There are still numerous errors, such as low-resolution photos, crappy printouts, inconsistent layouts, dull colors, and crappy translations. Oh yes, I never did liked the idea of having “proper Indonesian” translations on magazines, simply because the often turned out to be “norak”, since the writing style was not intended to be rewritten in Indonesian.

In the end, why do we even bother having a translated Macworld anyway, if this is what we’re gonna get. With all those ridiculous mistakes on details and design, with regards that this is supposed to be a complement to a set of Apple’s premium products, I can roughly consider Macworld Indonesia as one of the results of Indonesian editorial designers’ ignorance. I think I’ll stick with subscribing to the US version. At $3,75 for each edition (if you subscribe directly), it’s only Rp. 5000 more expensive than this badly translated version. It’s at least ten times better, and at least, it saves me from having sudden heart attacks.

Congratulations, Megindo, on turning one of the best Mac magazines into something that is not even worth reading. I sarcastically can’t wait to see what they would do to their website. Oh, I know! How about Flash intros?