Dmitry Kirsanov

The web designer who came from the cold

NA: You are well known for your invaluable Design Lab column on webreference.com. Do you feel that, in a business where one can't hide one's secret tricks, as code is always visible, cooperation between professionals and divulgation are more widespread than in other areas, where cooks tend to keep their recipes to themselves?

DK: My primary areas of interest are visual design and strategic Internet technologies, not particular tricks or techniques of web design. Visual design is not something you could learn simply by viewing a page's source, so in this aspect Web is not any more open than earlier technologies. I happened to come across some fresh ideas, which allowed me to come up with my own system of visual design concepts that my readers wouldn't find anywhere else, but the ideas themselves are not something specific to the Web or Internet. I'm a design theoretician rather than a web design popularizer, and the genre that my Design Lab articles have gradually developed into is somewhat similar to literary criticism - it doesn't claim to teach everybody how to write Shakespearean plays, but it does provide analysis and inspiration for anyone interested in the inner workings of literature. Despite all its openness, true talents are as rare in Web design as they are anywhere else. What is so unbelievably cool about the Web is not its technological or even creative aspects, but its revolutionizing of the ways we communicate, and this was what made it possible for me to reach the worldwide audience with my articles.

NA: A lot of effort is being put in making the web look better, sometimes in spite of universal accessibility. Moreover it seems that browser builders just can't reach an agreement to make a web designer's life easier. What do you think the future will look like, under this point of view?

DK: I'm an optimist here. I think the technological mess of the Web's first several years will eventually clear, and will only survive as a legend of "those early days of chaos." I think the primary driving force behind these changes will be the open standards and open source products that hit quite a big time recently, and that do hold a great potential to revolutionize the traditional ways of developing computer programs.

NA: It seems that every other corporate website, especially in the entertainment business, is embracing Flash. Do you think that every web designer will become an animator in the next years? Is the web going towards becoming a bigger, brighter TV?

DK: It's interesting to compare the advent of Flash with HTML that was a big news just a few years ago. In those days, one could often hear that the hypertextual nature of HTML and World Wide Web will change for ever the ways of presenting information. It was almost taken for granted that in all that "hypertext" thing, "hyper" is so much more important than "text". And where are we now? Of course, hyperlinks are convenient, and using them has become an almost subconscious habit for both writers and readers. But the hypertext has definitely failed to really alter our centuries long traditions of perceiving information. Still, we spend most of our surfing time reading, not clicking on links. Moreover, surfers are easily annoyed if they have to click too much to get to the info they're after.

I think a similar evolution - from a huge promise into a mere convenience - is normal for any technology. Flash is a good format, well suited for delivery of animation and interactivity over the Web, but all
its merits are limited by the simple fact that animation and interactivity are not always necessary, and even may be undesirable sometimes. Of course nowadays any designer must possess some animation skills, but that's not going to become the mainstay of the profession - just one of the many capabilities necessary for a success.

As for TV, I do sincerely hope it will gradually become more Internet-like, not vice versa. What I'm speaking about are not the technological differences. I think the TV's paradigm of information dissemination is one of those things we'd better leave behind and not carry on into the next century. One-way information stream, limited choice, little feedback or interactivity, absolutely no room for any creativity on the viewer's part - all that could sound OK back in the 50s but is becoming more and more reactionary in the modern world. It is interesting to note that in today's totalitarian societies, Internet is suppressed, while TV is widespread and encouraged as the state's means of controlling its citizens.

NA: As more and more everyday items allow the user to get on the Internet (telephones, TV, videogame consoles...) it is becoming harder to test a site on every platform it is going to be viewed from. How should web site designers address this problem?

DK: This is a question that should be addressed to the developers of the new web-enabled devices, many of which unfortunately violate the Internet standards even more recklessly than the current browsers do. This problem is not going to be solved until engineers and programmers learn to observe all relevant Internet standards and only introduce any extensions in truly orthogonal, standards-compliant ways. As for designers, indeed their testing chores are now immense and growing, especially if they plan to use dynamic HTML or CSS. But many problems in this area can be - and are - prevented by minimizing the number of technologies used by a site down to the lowest common denominator of all relevant viewing devices.

NA: Working mainly through the Internet, you normally never meet your customers. Does this lack of personal contact affect your work or the relationship with your clients?

DK: In fact I can't really compare, because I have never worked other than via the net. This mode of operation is absolutely normal and natural for me. Moreover I'm sure that, as time goes by, more and more people will be working via the net from their homes, and more and more industries and service sectors will thus gradually "virtualize". Suit-wearing stuffy offices will become a thing of the past, much as noisy and dirty factories have become a thing of the past in our post-industrial era. This holds an enormous potential for increasing productivity and unleashing creativity in almost all areas. For me, the most important aspect of this is that the Internet allows people from economically less developed countries, such as Russia, to compete on the worldwide market and get paid by the highest world standards for their work.

NA: Is your design studio a one-man company? Do you feel that single designers should market themselves trying to give the impression of being bigger than they actually are?

DK: Even the low-end web design projects are currently beyond the capabilities of a single person. Rather, I'm a "one-designer" studio, as I routinely hire artists, programmers, and HTML editors to work on specific projects under my creative management. Given the recent volume of work, I will also start looking soon for a second designer to join my studio.

As for presenting yourself to the customer, I don't think you should feel inferior simply because you don't have a page long list of staff. Much more important is being honest and professional, and it pays to be honest with your online customers much as it pays to be honest in any other business. If you have to persuade a customer who's thinking you may be too small for their job, do that by referring to the successful examples from your portfolio, not by boasting your staff or budget.

NA: What is the most common error made by web designers?

DK: Perhaps it's thinking that the "web" prefix and knowing some HTML allows them to be less professional than traditional designers are supposed to be.

NA: Search engines are more or less keeping to themselves their criteria for th classification of web sites. Can designers help their sites being more visible?

DK: Again, this question should be addressed not to the web designers but to the search engine creators. Today's search engines would greatly benefit from more flexibility, versatility, intelligence, and above all, openness and standardization. While we have what we have, designers can only use some "black magic" to ensure proper search engine positioning of their sites, and the results are not guaranteed.

NA: The web speaks English. Even non-native English speakers, such as yourself, publish in English. In Italy this is a limit for many web users who can't access most online resources. Do you feel the situation is going to change towards more multi-lingual sites or is the gap between English speakers and non-English speakers going to widen?

DK: National Webs are already growing at higher rates than the Web in general, so the per cent of non-English content on the Net cannot but grow. However, I'm sure that English will always remain the primary language of professional communication on the Net. That's why, if it's not your native tongue, you have no choice but be bilingual - otherwise you're bound to remain a consumer of what others create, with little chances to ever leave your own mark. While it was possible to be professionally successful without speaking English in the era of snail mail, now you simply cannot afford to ignore this language.

NA: Talking about languages: our Russian is a little rusty, but still we want to read your book. When is it coming out in English? And in Italian?

DK: I'm not sure about an Italian translation, but an English version of my book is in currently in the works. No deadlines are set as of yet, but I expect that it may take me about a year to come up with a finished manuscript. It's not going to be simply a translation of my Russian book or a compilation of my online articles; the material from both these sources will be reworked, rearranged, systematized, and considerably expanded. New ideas and concepts constantly emerge from my design practice, and the new book will reflect the many changes in my design vision that occurred since my Russian book was published in April 1999.

NA: OK, we are not asking you to admit you copy from anyone :-) but who are your favourite web designers and web sites?

DK: There are many great designers now on the Web, and I cannot claim that I'm even aware of all who deserve to be mentioned. However I have quite special feelings towards those old timers from whom I learned a lot in the early days of the Web and of my career. They are David Siegel, Clement Mok and Russian designer Art Lebedev. Many of their old works are still very instructive and inspirational.

NA: A lot of books are being written, both for newbe web designers and for professionals. Beside HTML Unleashed, which ones would you suggest?

DK: Internet itself provides such a wealth of information that, personally, I do not feel any real necessity to refer to books for any Internet or computer-related topics. When I have time to read books it's most often poetry or fiction :)