Best of British

17/07/2006 | Filed under Design > Culture

It’s undeniable – the contribution made by British designers, developers and innovators to the Internet is immense. It can’t just be the huge amounts of tea they drink that makes these web gurus so successful. Armed with his trusty thermos and a packet of Hobnobs, Gary Marshall ventured forth to discover the secrets of the British web designers…

The way the Americans carry on, you’d think they’d invented the internet. Well, okay, they did – but if it weren’t for us Brits, there would be no such thing as Web 1.0, let alone Web 2.0.

Tim Berners-Lee invented the web as we know it, but he’s not the only Briton to make his mark online. Many of the world’s best sites are designed on Apple hardware designed by ex-pat Jonathan Ive, while countless UK designers and developers are encouraging software firms to make standards-friendly programs via the Web Standards Project (webstandards.org). Some Brits are not content with just fighting companies’ and governments’ ill-advised attempts to crack down on the net, though. They’ve even founded the lifehacking movement and take the mickey out of tech firms in the weekly NTK newsletter (www.ntk.net), Brit Danny O’Brien (www.oblomovka.com) has also become the Activist Coordinator for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (www.eff.org).

Heavy hitters

Some of the most infl uential Brits are hardly household names: you probably wouldn’t recognise Dave Atherton’s face, but you’ll know his site: Dabs.com transformed the way we shop for electronics and computer kit (not to mention the prices we pay for it) and thrived when the dotcom bubble burst, while other ecommerce firms crashed and burned. Then there’s Charles Dunstone, the Carphone Warehouse boss who’s given BT a big wedgie with the promise of ‘free broadband forever’, and while the firm’s offer has attracted lots of criticism (mainly from competitors), it seems likely to drive the price of broadband to record lows – which should in turn boost demand for broadband-based services.

Ex-pat Nick Denton’s blog network (www.gawker.com) is the envy of publishers worldwide, while Belle De Jour’s diary of a London call girl (belledejour-uk.blogspot.com) proved that blogs could easily become best-selling books. The Friday Project (www.thefridayproject.co.uk) is taking things a step further, publishing books based not just on blogs but on sites such as Holy Moly and Popjustice.

In the innovation stakes, two of the most important UK sites come from surprising parents: a stuffy old broadcaster and a newspaper that’s been around for nearly 200 years. While many big media firms are still unsure about the internet, the BBC and The Guardian are showing the rest of the world how to make the most of new technology.

Under the watchful eye of director of new media and technology Ashley Highfield, the BBC is planning to ‘revolutionise broadcasting’ with internet TV and radio, interactive programme sites and an open archive of material for net users to download and remix. Many of these features are available today: for example, the listen again service enables you to catch radio programmes you might have missed, major television events such as Planet Earth get additional online content with the interactive Planet Earth Explorer, and even everyday programmes benefit from online excerpts, such as episode previews.

Under editor-in-chief Emily Bell, Guardian Unlimited (www.guardianunlimited.co.uk) has been an early adopter of blogs and RSS feeds, published the world’s number one podcast, and will no doubt be the first publisher to beam content directly into our brains. In the last 12 months the site delivered 1.4 billion page impressions and boasted 12 million monthly users, twothirds of whom come from outside the UK.

Emily Bell came to The Guardian after ten years on sister title the Observer, where she was the first staffer with a dial-up internet connection. Speaking to The Guardian media correspondent Janine Gibson over lunch in 2000, Emily mused: “What would be really fantastic is a daily media site. We should do one of those.” Janine got out a pen, asked ‘who would we hire?’ and MediaGuardian.co.uk was born. Emily left the Observer to helm the new operation, and she’s been in the driving seat ever since.

Andy Budd
Clear-left

“If you’re able to solve copmlex problems and communicate the results, it really doesn’t matter if you do that in Photoshop, CSS or Ruby”-

“The great thing about Guardian Unlimited was that we never had to persuade senior management about the merits of the internet,” Emily says. Over the years The Guardian has ploughed around £20 million into its online activities, and after much hard work the web site finally turned over a healthy £1 million profit this year.

“I think the two things we think most about at the moment are probably community and Web 2.0 applications, which in some ways are highly interdependent.” Although Emily believes that the current site ‘has pretty much pushed the boundaries of what it can do’, she promises that the next version will be very different. “We’ve only just scratched the surface,” she says.

Running such a high profile site requires a huge team. “In total we have around 120 people on the GU headcount these days, in all areas – tech, commercial and editorial,” says Emily, although as the paper’s online and offl ine activities become more integrated, the divisions between print and web have become more blurred. “In terms of web designers, producers, editors, subs and journalists, I think there are about 75. That is likely to increase this year, though.” So how do you get a job on the UK’s bestknown news site? “I would say know the site and the market,” Emily suggests. “Being part of the Guardian Unlimited community is a big help. Then, think about ideas that would improve us – anyone who can come to us with that sort of thinking in their back pocket has a head start.”

Better by design

Another area where Brits are really making a mark is in design. In fact, one of Jon Hicks’ (www.hicksdesign.co.uk) designs is probably on your desktop right now: in addition to high-profile sites such as Barclays Bank and the RSPB, Jon also designed the Firefox logo. Then there’s Luke Whittaker (www.lukewhittaker.co.uk), whose awardwinning Fl ash animations have appeared in music videos, MTV sites and BBC programmes, and whose portfolio, which includes TDK, Nickelodeon, Peugeot and Lemon Jelly, is best described as bulging. Mike Stenhouse’s (www.donotremove.co.uk) client list meanwhile would fill this entire magazine. He’s built superb sites for PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Virgin, the BBC, the Children’s Society and many, many more and Mark Boulton’s portfolio (www.markboulton.co.uk/portfolio) is a true treasure trove of typographical talent.

One thing you’ll quickly notice about British designers and developers is that they’re a caring, sharing bunch. Dean Edwards’ IE7 scripts (dean.edwards.name/ie7) are freely available to anyone who wants Internet Explorer to work with CSS, and Ian Lloyd’s Accessify (accessify.com) has become a must-read resource for anyone building accessible web sites. Jeremy Keith’s DOMscripting (domscripting.com) is a popular destination for JavaScript junkies, and most of the UK’s leading designers and developers freely share their insight, opinions and even code on their blogs.

Patrick Griffiths of Vivabit (www.vivabit.com) regularly gets down and dirty with code on his blog (www.vivabit.com/bollocks), but he doesn’t think such sharing is a peculiarly British phenomenon – although he does note that “if you’re talking about JavaScript in particular, the UK does seem to be leading the way in that field.” Sharing, it seems, is something successful designers just do. “There aren’t many explicit commercial rivalries between individuals that I’ve noticed,” says Patrick. “There are a few egos getting a bit out of hand, but not as many as you’d expect. There’s a large community spirit that a lot of people like to contribute to.” It’s not entirely selfl ess, either. “Many of the ‘names’ around at the moment wouldn’t be in the same position if they had kept their ideas to themselves,” he says. “Solid reputations have led to commercial gain, too.”

Mark Boulton’s talent for typography makes looking at his portfolio a pleasure. He’s currently lending his talents to BBC Wales.

Career opportunities

Usability expert Andy Budd of clear: left (www.clearleft.com) delivers training and consulting in site accessibility and usability, judges web design awards, founded the Web Standards Awards, speaks at design conferences, writes design books and founded Skillswap, a community-based project that provides free new media training in Brighton. Does he ever sleep? “The short answer to that is no,” he says. “I really love what I do and hate to turn opportunities down.”

Such love isn’t unusual: everybody we spoke to for this feature gets a big kick out of working in site design. So how can you join them? “When I first started talking about web standards, people thought I was mad and that it would never catch on,” Andy recalls. “Five years later, having a good understanding of XHTML and CSS is now a prerequisite for many web design and development jobs. However, there’s still a massive shortfall in skills and I know lots of organisations are having problems filling positions. As such, solid XHTML and CSS skills are a must.”

Knowing the basics – including accessibility and usability – is essential, but there’s more to success than knowing your way around languages and web standards. Whether you’re planning to be a freelance or work at an agency, soft skills matter, too. “I think web designers and developers are far too focused on hard skills such as specific language, packages or techniques,” says Andy. “More important are softer skills, such as communication and abstract problem solving. If you are able to solve complex problems and communicate the results, it really doesn’t matter if you do that in Photoshop, CSS or Ruby. It’s important to be well-rounded, so learn business, marketing and communication skills as well as mastering the latest design trend.”

Public image

So how do you get agencies or potential clients to notice your superb sitebuilding skills? Brendan Dawes, creative director of magneticNorth, has a simple answer: “Get your stuff out there – everywhere you can think of. Email magazine editors, blog authors and anyone else you can think of, [but] most of all make stuff. Lots of stuff. Don’t just talk about doing something; actually do it.” Patrick Griffiths also has some sound advice: “Don’t give up. Offer constructive criticism, don’t rip off others’ work, and don’t always dismiss what others have to say.” He’s the first to admit that such advice might sound like common sense, but Patrick’s observations have also been backed up by years of experience.

As Patrick also points out, you need to be good at communicating as well as coding. “If someone hasn’t got anything interesting to say or anything new to contribute, then they won’t get noticed,” he says. “Having said that, you can have a wealth of ideas but if you’re bad at communicating them, then they don’t get noticed [either]. As with any good educator, you need to know your stuff and be able to communicate it in a clear way.”

Andy Budd recommends specialisation: rather than trying to be a jack of all trades, become master of one. “You should try to specialise in a particular area,” he says. “That could be a particular design style, a particular technique or language, or a particular vertical market such as the travel industry.”

Once you’ve built an impressive portfolio, by all means contact agencies but don’t bother burning your best sites on to CDs. “I’ve lost track of the amount of CDs on my desk,” Brendan says. “Web sites can easily be bookmarked and referred to later, plus you can update it later. And pay attention to the small details: make sure all your links work as they should, and if you do post something, spend time making sure the whole package – not just the work – is as good as it can be. Also, ask yourself: what’s makes me different? Hunt out your own style, don’t copy everything else that’s out there. And most of all, have an opinion!”

Andy Budd agrees. “Take an active role in your specialist community by writing articles, contributing to mailing lists and attending conferences and events,” he recommends. “By getting your name known and becoming the best at what you do, clients will seek you out – and you’ll never be short of work.”