Gain: AIGA Business and Design Conference
October 23–25, 2008
Jeffrey Zeldman
Understanding Web Design
Filmed on: October 25, 2008 Length: 42:20
About this video
Author and Happy Cog founder Jeffrey Zeldman answers the question: what does a web designer need most? Skills and knowledge of software, of course, but empathy—the ability to think about and empathize with your user—is by far the most important. Good useful education is hard to find, and within companies there is often no departmental standardization. Good graphic design is not the same as good user experience design, he explains. In fact, “good web design is invisible”—it feels simple and authentic because it’s about the character of the content, not the character of the designer.
Speaker bio
Jeffrey Zeldman was one of the first designers, bloggers and independent publishers on the web, and is one of the first web design teachers. In 1998, he co-founded—and from 1999 to 2002, directed—The Web Standards Project, a grassroots coalition that helped bring standards to our browsers. He publishes A List Apart “for people who make websites.” Zeldman has written two books, including the foundational web standards text, Designing with Web Standards (second edition). He co-founded the web design conference “An Event Apart” and founded Happy Cog, an agency of web design and user experience specialists.
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This video won't load past 20 min! I've tried three times now...YouTube this file so we can actually watch it please :)
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Ditto for me. Stopped at 20:41.
Please fix because I so want to forward to my company's web designers/developers. -
Everything working fine on my machine.
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This video is totally unwatchable. Stops every 10 seconds no matter how long I pause it for.
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This video is wonderful! Thank you for posting it!
I especially enjoyed the focus on good web design being about empathy towards web users. -
Very cool presentation/vid!
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Great information, and beautiful presentation by Zeldman!
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After Zeldman 'lost the plot' with the IE8 default rendering issue, defending his opinion with a stream of fallacious and wrong-headed arguments, I've little interest in his opinion on anything else.
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@Malc: What a ridiculous thing to say, just because you don't agree with him on one thing doesn't mean you should disregard him completely from then on.
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The topic of the video speaks to all designers in my opinion. Graphic Design is about communication with an audience, web bound or print based, doesn't matter.
I applaud Jeffery for pointing out that CommArts and Webby Awards are overlooking the user experience when they judge a lot of their submissions.
The "pretty" factor is just one of the elements that make up ANY award winning design, if no one uses the pretty design then it was only about the creator or the product and not about the audience/user.
(btw: the video worked fine for me but I too have a high-speed connection) Post this on YouTube bet it out there to a larger audience) -
you help me alot,thanks
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Thanks for the vid.
Minor quibble...at 2:09, during the animated intro, his first name is spelled incorrectly. C'mon, that's just sloppy. -
this video is very helpful and informative.
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It stops at 9 minutes for me ... anyone else having this problem?
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Yeah, its difficult to watch...stops every few seconds...I was looking forward to watching it though
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The video worked for me too but I agree there is no reason this content isn't available on YouTube. It would make it far more accessible to many in and outside of our industry. I think we designers could do more to educate the outside world with respect to our thinking and methodology.
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Loved the presentation. This videoplayer is awful. Please use a better one. Even embedding YouTube would be better here.
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Thank you very much for sharing the presentation. It is also wonderful to be able to read caption.
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Thanks for pointing out the importance of teaching about web standards in academic programs.
Here, at the Art Institute of Atlanta, we have been talking and teaching about web standards for a few years. Some of our graduates have gone out into the industry and convinced design studios into thinking about standards, accessibility and usability. -
Loved It! The Final 5 minutes we're especially good. Thanks for the great video.
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Having been introduced to Jeffrey Zeldman for the first time through this video, makes me feel like I'm on the right track in my career. There was a lot of stuff I didn't know about Zeldman, but I use or read these on a daily basis.
This presentation was awesome. I wish I had Zeldman as a professor in college. He presented basic fundamentals of web design in a clear and "tell it like it is" way.
I loved the last part of the video when he talks about discussing design with a client. I've been through the wringer on this subject, and being young doesn't help to get your argument across.
Excellent presentation! I will be referring back to the notes I took for future projects. Thanks! -
Even with the Flash plugin installed, I am unable to watch the video on any of my browsers. I would love to watch this video because I have a great respect for Zeldman.
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@Mary - I'm so sorry you're having trouble with the video, but thanks for calling it to our attention! We're working on it now. In the future, feel free to use the contact form to let us know of site problems.
Lydia Mann, AIGA web director -
Great information, and beautiful presentation by Zeldman! Thanks for sharing!
Best Regards -
I really enjoyed this presentation, especially towards the end. I appreciate you posted it here for others to see.
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