Photoshop is a web designer's best friend. While not an easy program to learn, Photoshop, like Flash and Illustrator has a high "WOW!" factor. Whether starting from a blank white page, or beginning with scanned in images the possibilities are endless for creativity of a digital nature.
I have been pleased to discover my background and
training as a fine artist gives me a distinct advantage
in interface design and image manipulation. In my
job as a Web Designer with Artifex BID, I was asked
time and again to perform relatively simple (to me)
tasks in Photoshop. We had brilliant ASP, JSP and
even C++ programmers, but they would bring their pixel
tasks to me.
Interface design is not something one can learn overnight.
To build an interface from scratch, one must have
an
encyclopedic understanding of the limitations of the
various browsers and operating platforms and the havoc
they play with html. To be effective as an interface
designer, one must study and practice
constantly, building up a stable of tricks, techniques,
shortcuts and most importantly: patience. Like a skilled
pianist running through his scales, high end Photoshop
users frequently work exercises to fine tune their
skills. Here are some of mine.
Interfaces frequently go through many growing pains during the early design stages. They are often not pretty to look at as simple black shapes are pushed around in the channels and paths palettes, or effects, filters and masks are tried and discarded. At the end of the day though, when sophisticated design glows quietly from the screen, and later when the same design is carefully sliced and tiled into html and flows bug free across all browsers and operating platforms, one can say with pride, "yes, I am an interface designer." Of course, then the customer decides that he really wanted the navigation on the top, instead of the sides, and can we "try a look that is slightly more techno?" These
are all normal and expected parts of the design process.
Interface design is the most rewarding, and challenging, thing I have done in Web Design. Photoshop is the tool of choice. This web site was created in Photoshop. To see other examples of interfaces I have built, please visit my Interfaces page.
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