BlogmyQuery – BMQ

A few years ago, you might not have pointed out during a meeting with a potential client that you maintained a blog. Over time, though, blogs have evolved from the being a personal hobby to a serious work tool. In fact, today, web designers are supposed to know much more than just how to design and build websites. Customer’s expectations have increased, and unless you are in position to choose your favourite clients, meeting these expectations requires hard work.

Hence, it’s important to keep learning about the variety of design-related fields every single day — be it marketing, psychology, business, copywriting, publishing or blogging. This article doesn’t cover “traditional” web design discipline as we know it, but goes a bit beyond it, exploring various writing, blogging and online publishing strategies. Apart from that, we present some useful writing style guides that may help you educate your clients on their copy for their upcoming project.

Image credit

Good news: you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time you are about to start and run a blog. Many bloggers have already shared their best tips on how to run a blog efficiently. One of those tips is to set up an editorial agenda. Blogging may sound like a spontaneous activity, but it can also be planned. While this might sound obvious to professional bloggers, applying the idea to less regular posting schedules is not a bad idea. Some will benefit greatly from looking ahead. Writing and posting according to your inspiration is great creatively, but it doesn’t exactly make for consistent work. While planning can have its drawbacks, it does come with many positive effects.

Compiling a list of brilliant posts waiting to be published is not enough, though. Polishing the quality of the posts is important, too. Unfortunately, spelling is not the only thing to check. Style guides are useful to many people other than those who run newspapers and magazines, and certainly to bloggers. In reality, this is what it takes to conquer the world.

[By the way, did you know we have a free Email Newsletter? Subscribe now and get fresh short tips and tricks in your inbox!]

Editorial Calendar

An editorial calendar outlines the editorial content that is planned for the coming few weeks. Financially speaking, it can be useful for advertisers to know on which day to run a particular ad, but in this article we’ll consider only the benefits for you and your readers.

Creating discipline will change your relationship to your blog, and in visible ways. An editorial calendar will affect both your writers and your readers. The key is consistency. Calendars don’t have to be extensive to be efficient, even though newspapers and a few blogs have calendars that cover as much as an entire year.

Why Is It Useful?

From the writer’s point of view, a calendar has numerous advantages. First, seeing the long term encourages them to look at the big picture, an excellent habit. It also helps establish credibility because all your content will have to make sense in the context of that schedule.

Secondly, by knowing which articles will be published when, you are able to better plan your personal work schedule. If you want to write an upcoming article now, great. If not, you now know when you’ll have time. By exercising discipline, you are able to focus on the things that matter, which Jonathan Thomas calls a good blogging habit:

You’ll create a production state of mind, meaning that you’ll get in the habit of writing a post a day, or even writing them all in one day and scheduling them to post. This will make the creation process much easier to begin and end.

Why not exploit this window of opportunity by tackling some in-depth articles or developing an interview series? Imposing deadlines on yourself lets you organize research to support your writing or to contact experts for commentary. Planning ahead this way makes it easier to write features stories and to deliver higher-quality content to readers. It also helps you grow faster professionally.

A lot of it has to do with motivation. You have to recognize that finishing your posts on time while dealing with all of other tasks is do-able. Motivation is critical to writing more and planning content ahead. It’s a virtuous circle. Rather than juggling ideas for hundreds of post a week, you will focus on a few and actually work on them. Organizing content helps you to organize ideas, and by the end, you’ll likely end up with even more interesting ideas in the editorial plan.

Drawbacks

Of course, calendars do have their drawbacks, otherwise every single blog would be using one. The most obvious drawback is that sticking to the plan can be hard. Having a plan on paper is great, but what happens when your Thursday post isn’t ready? Readers won’t be pleased that you’ve broken the unspoken contract. You’ll want to think about who has access to the schedule. Keeping it mainly to yourself and revealing it only occasionally can be a good idea and can generate a little excitement.

Readers won’t be the only ones disappointed. In most cases, an editorial plan functions as a kind of pledge by the blogger to follow a better workflow. A calendar can certainly raise the bar, but it should be motivating and not too difficult to keep up with. This is why having reasonable deadlines is important. Even if you miss one, remember that stuff happens, and it’s not the end of the world.

Which brings us to the last point: flexibility. A calendar shouldn’t restrict a blog’s potential, especially if the blog has more content than it needs. If a great story comes along that is time-sensitive, so be it: calendars can and should be adjusted. Content trumps all else.

Getting Started

1. Sit down, take a sheet of paper and list the themes and topics you will be covering. Starting an editorial plan takes time. The more precise you are, the easier it will be to organize.
2. Define your categories and tags.
   While simple to do, a few rules will make the process more efficient:
   • Use only as many categories as you really need—don’t overload them;
   • Make the labels short, unique, descriptive and reader-friendly;
   • Assign one category to a post, and then use tags for more description;
   • Use sub-categories only if you really need them.
3. Balance both form and content.
   Mixing feature with shorter articles is good because it lightens your workload without sacrificing regularity, and also because it’s easier for readers to follow. Bear in mind that you have already defined your categories, and now is the time to figure out how to mix them. Keep in mind also that a diversity of content is always appreciated by readers.
4. Determine your themes.
   Now you can spice things up by creating themes for the days or weeks. This has two benefits. First, it puts readers on a schedule. If they know what to expect and when, they will be more inclined to return. Secondly, it saves you from having to think of a theme or idea for each day. Here are some examples you could use:
   • Tutorial and how-to
   • Review
   • Short tips
   • Bookmarks round-ups
   • Ask the blogger, reader Q&A
   • Columns
   • Lists
   • Debates and polls
   • Features
   • Ongoing series
5. Decide when to publish.
   Consider two things. First, when will you have time to write? If you’re behind schedule, on what day would you most likely have time to write a feature story? When will you be busy and have time to write only a short article? Secondly, some days are slower than others, so you might want to save your brilliant feature for the middle of the week. Here is an idea of what you could do:
   • Monday: short tutorial
     A helpful tutorial is a good start to the week.
   • Tuesday: feature
     Show the world your big story. It’s a good day for visibility.
   • Wednesday: tips
     A post that doesn’t take much time to write and prepare will be good for you in the middle of the week.
   • Thursday: review
     The weekend is coming, and if your work is not done, Thursday can be stressful. Time for a quick-and-dirty review.
   • Friday: list
     The weekend is here. Time for a list from which readers can quickly take what they need.
   • Saturday: poll
     Take advantage of the weekend to pose question to your readers.
   • Sunday: useful links
     You could post the links that you collected during the week.

Setting a Schedule

When you set up your schedule, be fair to yourself and realistic. Ask yourself honest questions. And always remember your goals: realistic objectives, diversity of content and forward-thinking.

• How long ahead should I plan?
  Normal practice is about two weeks ahead.
• How often should I post?
  It could be once or several times a day, a few times a week, whatever works for you.
• How often should each category appear?
  Try to balance the categories so that the content is varied.
• How to balance features and shorter articles?
  Depending on your blog’s purpose, you may want to publish a feature every day or every week.
• Who does what and when?
  If you have multiple authors, make sure everyone knows what is expected.
• How much quality content can I ensure?

Whether your scheduling tool is as simple as an Excel sheet or as sophisticated as dedicated software, the important thing is that you feel comfortable with it. You can download a weekly spreadsheet template for 2010 for OpenOffice or Excel. Of course, creating your own calendar could work even better: just a few columns with succinct information. You could use the following headings:

• ID or number,
• Date of publication,
• Title of post,
• Category and/or tags,
• Basic intro,
• Description or main points,
• Links and resources used.

Taking it a step further, by maintaining an SEO-friendly editorial calendar, you would be organizing the blogging process in a way that supports your SEO strategy.

Going Further

It makes sense to start blogging when you have at least a week of content ready, preferably more. And then you can’t rest on your laurels. Keep an eye on what’s coming up; you should constantly be collecting ideas in an efficient way. When are you most likely to think of great post topics? If in the morning, then wake up 10 minutes early to write down your ideas. Constantly searching for new topics is great, but writing them down is even better. If you make a habit of adding topics and basic points to your list, then you will be able to just pick one and write a post.

A little of strategy goes a long way. Even if you have a lot of content and ideas, don’t rush. Save some back-up posts for busy weeks. There are times when you will be relieved to have content ready to publish so that you can focus on other work. This is what Kian Ann calls a “buffer” in his article “6 Steps to Consistent Blogging.” Another reason not to publish all of your content at once is the difference in traffic it would make. How would publishing two articles a day instead of one change traffic flow? How much will it cost you? Is it worth it?

As with all else, constantly looking to your users for feedback is critical. Find out if they’re happy with the frequency and quality of your content, and adjust to them accordingly. If you have many readers, you could use a tool such as Twitter or a polling service.

You could go even further by including in your calendar a way to keep old posts alive. ProBlogger has an excellent “5 Tips for Getting Readers Viewing Your Old Blog Posts” video on this issue. The advice includes creating a “best of” or “popular posts” section, linking related content as well as updating and reposting old content. You could also see out opportunities in the offline world. A lot of events are probably happening in your field. If you’re interested, you could easily find ready-to-write subjects and prepare first-hand news reports.

UI And Editorial Style Guides

Purpose

As emphasized, consistency is one of the strongest assets a blog can have, which is why style guides are so helpful. Style guidelines created for a particular organization are called “house style.” On the Web, their main purpose is to ensure consistency across websites by standardizing design and content. Other advantages are that they facilitate group collaboration and are useful for training new members on a product team.

Beyond imposing proper grammar and spelling, an editorial style guide sets the voice and tone of the content. If you are the only writer on your blog, you might think that your voice is always the same… but don’t be so sure. If you run a blog with multiple authors, a style guide is all the more important.

An interface style guide is helpful for documenting a website’s design and informing clients and content editors of branding guidelines, including rules for typography, color and images. Development standards are no less important: the style guide for them keeps development smooth and efficient, and it often accompanies the design style guide.

Resources

Here is a list of online style guides that can be used as a starting point.

A List Apart: Style Guide
A great example of a short but efficient style guide, covering such things as tone of voice, punctuation and CSS style.

NYPL: Style Guide
This style guide for the New York Public Library explains the mark-up and design requirements for all Web projects of branch libraries, along with various standards and best practices.

The Guardian style guide
A detailed A–Z online edition of the style guide used by writers at The Guardian, Observer and guardian.co.uk.

Web Style Guide
This guide to Web publishing and writing style by Patrick J. Lynch and Sarah Horton is available with complete text and illustrations online. It is a comprehensive guide to issues affecting website designers, including a complete chapter on “Editorial Style.”

Princeton Web Editorial Style Guide
The Web Editorial Style Guide was created by Princeton’s Office of Communications as a quick reference tool to help the school’s communicators follow a style that is consistent and appropriate to websites. The guide follows conventions outlined in the Associated Press Stylebook, but there are exceptions specific to the university. Short but efficient.

BBC News Styleguide
This page links to BBC’s policies, standards and guidelines and is intended primarily for those undertaking or wishing to undertake work for the BBC as content providers.

The Times Style and Usage Guide
This version of The Times Style and Usage Guide (published in book form in January 2003) provides writers and sub-editors with a quick reference to contentious points of grammar and spelling and guides them through specialized areas where confusions have arisen in the past. The alphabetical list has been augmented by seven specialist sections on the armed forces, the arts, the churches, the courts, politics, sport and titles.

The Chicago Manual of Style (not free)
Excerpts and the full text is available online by subscription. The CMS is published in hardcover and online. The online edition includes searchable text of the 15th edition, with features such as tools for editors, a citation guide summary, and searchable access to a Q&A in which University of Chicago Press editors answer readers’ style questions. An annual subscription is required for access to the manual.

AP Stylebook (not free)
Excerpts and the full text is available online by subscription and in print.

Setting Your Own Rules

1. Going through a few respected style guides is only a start, because each blog should establish its own rules. Defining them might take a while but is worth it in the end. Style guide not only maintain consistency but reflect an identity. So, this is the time to remind yourself or your writers of what you generally expect:
   • What is your blog’s purpose?
   • Should the writing exhibit any particular style?
   • Are there any sentences or expressions you don’t want to be used?
   • How specific should a post be? Who should it target?
   • Do you allow personal remarks? How formal should the writing be?
2. An editorial style guide should reflect the blog’s writing style, and a good way to be precise is to look at your old posts and compare them to your current writing:
   • What has changed?
   • Which do you like better?
3. A user interface style guide includes mostly formatting elements but can include pretty much anything else:
   • How will you deal with images? How will you cite them? At what size should they be displayed?
   • How long should titles be? How will you capitalize them?
   • How long should posts be? How should the content look?
   • How will you format links? How will you display quotes and photo credits? What terms and copyright licences should photos be used under?
   • Should author bios follow a particular format?

For more resources on creating a style guide, see a nice example of a personalized style guide on Writing an Interface Style Guide, and read some tips on avoiding problems in “Guidance on Style Guides,” by the Society for Technical Communication.

Conclusion

Editorial calendars and style guides are only guidelines. They are great for ensuring consistency, but they have to evolve with your objectives and should not constrain your workflow. Update them to fit your needs.

We would love some feedback from you. Do you use calendars and style guides or think they’re too much of a headache? If you have followed them in the past, did you have to adjust them? How so? Please share your tips and advice with us and readers.

Further Resources

Templates

• 2010 Blog Editorial Calendar Template
  The worksheets are broken down by week for all of 2010, including one at-a-glance worksheet broken down by topic. There is also a worksheet for each month for more detailed information like category, target URL and keywords.
• User Interface Style Guides
  Some useful links to style guides followed by large websites, corporations and news agencies. Also discusses editorial guidelines, quality guidelines and online standards.
• AARP Bulletin: Style Guide
  A set of images on Flickr about one style guide redesign.

Plug-Ins

• ScribeFire Blog Editor
  ScribeFire is a full-featured blog editor that integrates with your browser and lets you easily post to your blog.
• WP editorial calendar
  This editorial calendar lets WordPress administrators and editors manage dates for multiple posts at once. You’ll see all of your posts in a calendar view, and can arrange them via an easy drag-and-drop interface.
• SEO Blogger: Optimize Your Posts as You Write
  SEO Blogger lets you find the most sought-after keywords for your subject without ever leaving the blog editing screen.

Further Reading

• How Should You Select Categories for Your Business Blog?
  Some more tips on handling post categories.
• My Blog Editorial Calendar, by Kian Ann
  A great example of weekly features that can be implemented on a blog.
• A Blogging Editorial Calendar and ProPlanning for Content
  Thought on what went wrong with one calendar’s content, how the author adjusted and how she implemented her new strategy.
• How to Develop a Niche Blog Content Plan
  Goes over why having a content plan for your niche blog is good and how to develop it?
• Being Editor In Chief Of Smashing Magazine
  This article describes the workflow of the editorial team here at Smashing Magazine, featuring some useful insights from the editor in chief Vitaly Friedman.
• How to Make an SEO-Friendly Editorial Calendar for Your Blog
  Taking it a step further, an SEO-friendly editorial calendar simplifies and brings discipline to the process of writing blog posts in a way that supports your SEO strategy.
• Create a Style Guide for Your Blog, by The Blog Herald
  A great article about style guides for blogs.
• Typography Rules, Typesetting Guidelines
  Become familiar with the basic rules of typography and general typesetting guidelines. Avoid beginner mistakes when setting type and using fonts.
• Grammar Gang
  An interesting blog dedicated to grammar.

(al)

© Jessica Bordeau for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | Post a comment | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine
Post tags: blog, calendar, consistency, editorial, plan, planning, style guide, styleguide

When I found the ad for the internship position at Smashing Magazine about six month ago, I replied within half an hour. I wrote my response quickly because, for once, I didn’t have to exaggerate my enthusiasm. I was genuinely interested in the position and confident that I fit the job.

I waited a few days for an answer, during which time I could reflect on what I had just done. My academic semester hadn’t even started, so I would have had to make arrangements if I was chosen. Plus, did I really want to move to Germany? The decision came a few emails and a week later: I was accepted and was expected to be in Freiburg in two weeks.

Six months have gone by since then, and I have not regretted anything for one minute. I am now about to leave this city, the friends I have made and this company. To be sure, a lot has happened since February 15th.

A Team Starting-Up Together

With my arrival at Smashing Magazine, Vitaly Friedman and Sven Lennartz have had to manage regular employees for the first time. Because they have worked from home for the past few years, the beginning of 2010 was a big change for them, too: they moved to the same city and got an actual office.

Christina Sitte (the team assistant), Manuela Müller (editor) and I all started on the same day, in mid-February. I was told to expect an office still in the process of being installed, but I actually felt comfortable from the very first day. I guess putting me in front of a computer also helped me to not feel disoriented.

Even though I was the only who didn’t speak German, I never felt lost, because everyone here tried hard to speak English as much as possible. I really appreciated it, and I must say I have noticed the same with German people in general. Never would you see French people putting so much effort into making someone feel not left out.

With the intention of binding this new team together, a decision was made to launch a collective project that would belong to all of us: a newsletter for the magazine. That’s when the addiction started. We set up meetings to discuss newsletter topics. The meetings led to lunches, and the lunches ended up becoming our strongest habit (even more regular than our working hours): Social Sushi. These casual Fridays, during which we could discuss anything together (except the newsletter), I will really miss… those and the free rolls.

(Photo credit)

Web Design Community

I didn’t end up at Smashing Magazine by accident. After studying photography and then media, I wanted to enter a field that I liked in a more professional way: Web design. This internship happened to be the perfect opportunity for me because, in the absence of real professional experience in the field, I was still able to integrate myself, thanks to my other qualifications. In addition, I had the luxury of joining Smashing Magazine and avoiding having to start at square one. I have been immersed in this community from the very beginning, free of financial and time constraints.

This visibility, though, has been a bit frightening at times. For example, the first day I arrived at Smashing Magazine, I was given my first long-term task: report on the company and relate my experiences as an intern. I had never blogged before (not that I have much more now), and the thought of potentially 200,000 Twitter followers reading all about me didn’t exactly lower the pressure. Among the posts I prepared, this interview series with Vitaly Friedman has been quite popular:

1. Early stages
   How and why did Smashing Magazine start?
2. Networking
   What is it like to be at the center of this community, and how do you deal with it?
3. Running the business
   How do you balance your personal and professional life?
4. Introspection
   What do you see looking back on the past few years?

And yet, I was looking for exposure in writing for Smashing Magazine. The advantage of being part of such a popular blog is the visibility you get, along with another component: feedback. Whoever the author, the comments from readers will reflect an article’s quality. For this reason, writing rigorous articles was important. This was a driving force for me because it suited my perfectionist side. I made mistakes and learned from them, which is precisely the best thing that could have happened to me.

Difficulties

The only difficulty I faced during this internship was managing my own productivity. Even though I was already used to working a lot on the computer, this wasn’t a full-fledged problem before. When I arrived at Smashing Magazine, though, things changed, because I finally had time to dive into this lively field and engage the extremely responsive community. I started by opening a Twitter account in order to share with readers the daily life of the magazine. By doing this, I stepped into a spiral of endless conversations. At first, I had to force myself not to get dragged into all the articles I was discovering.

Social Suicide wallpaper.

Twitter, email and comments were all part of the territory, and I had to handle them correctly. To do this, I did what most professionals do: impose some offline time on myself. This worked quite well, as difficult as it was sometimes. As all creatives and thinkers know, writing requires a level of concentration that is sometimes hard to sustain throughout the work day. And I don’t know about other non-native speakers, but writing in English all the time was harder than I expected.

London

A significant part of my internship was not so much something I did, but rather somewhere I went. I was invited to attend The Future of Web Design conference in London from May 17th to 19th. The event, organized by Carsonified, attracts professionals from all around the world and was important to me for several reasons:

• I attended a great conference that I would not have been able to afford otherwise. For example, the workshop “Words and Pictures: Copy and the Design Process” by Relly Annett-Baker I found incredibly useful.
• I met incredible people, interactions that were largely facilitated by my “Smashingmag” badge. I was lucky to be introduced to everyone as “the girl who is interning at Smashing,” because that made me not a complete stranger.
• We had dinner at Google’s office to prepare the announcement of the Google Font API, and I just wanted to say that FTW.
• The article I enjoyed preparing the most was published by Vitaly in a London’s Starbucks at that time, also related to Google Font API. So, I was immersed in this area when it came out.

The Work Itself

The description of the internship said: “Gain valuable practical experience in online publishing, learn about editorial work, gather first-hand experience in preparing, editing, writing and publishing articles.” And this is what I got. I have been lucky to experience all of the steps that lead to the publication of an article.

Writing for the Web, I’m sure you are all aware, is different than writing for print. On the Web, we scan text more than we read; our attention span is much shorter. If the first few lines don’t grab readers, they just move on to something else. That is why the big editorial guides have special sections on online writing. However, that doesn’t prevent bloggers from writing in detail. What I enjoyed a lot was researching topics and putting it all together.

For my article The Beauty Of Typography: Writing Systems And Calligraphy Of The World, I spent almost a week browsing the Web and gathering material. The article (in two parts) was definitely the highlight of my writing work because I really got into the topic. I could have even spent much more time exploring it.

(Photo credit)

I was also particularly interested in editorial policy and understanding how an editor-in-chief manages his content. I observed more than I acted in this respect, but I wrote a few posts about my findings. I was interested in seeing what rules are applied when publishing and also what tools are used to manage the editorial process. If you are interested in learning more about Smashing’s editorial policy, read Being an Editor-In-Chief at Smashing Magazine.

Other than that, I had the opportunity to explore various topics, such as photography (Uncovering Toy Cameras and Polaroid Vintage Effects (With Photoshop Tutorials)) and the idea of community (Behind The Scenes of Smashing Magazine: Interview With Our Writers). I definitely would have liked to have written about more subjects, but time flew by.

Conclusion

I was lucky to have been given so much freedom during my internship. The purpose of the position was to bring new ideas to the company and a fresh point of view. So, I was particularly encouraged to propose initiatives. When writing, I could choose my own subjects and, above all, approach them the way I wanted. For example, I was interested in calligraphy, but not so much in the way it was suggested to me. So, I researched and found a different angle. Even though the stakes for writing this article were high for me, I was given carte blanche.

I gained confidence in myself and, more importantly, in my ability in these creative fields that I had neglected a bit since my studies in photography. Above all, I finally found a way to combine and express all of my main interests, which were more or less separate until now: photography, visual art, writing and new technology. I learned to share my work, and I appreciate this a lot because that is the best way to evolve and gain valuable experience.

This internship has certainly opened doors for me professionally, and I will remember all the people who want to keep in touch with me because they enjoyed what I did. Finally, my collaboration with Smashing Magazine is certainly not over because I will probably keep writing for it in future (after I take a vacation).

Bis bald dann!

Editor’s Note

Probably the most remarkable about Jessica was her eagerness to learn and her ability to keep working on things to the end and never give up. When we were looking for a trainee, we were hoping for a creative, talented and hard-working person who would be able to bring fresh air and fresh ideas to the magazine and present approaches that we had never thought of. And with Jessica, this is exactly what we got. She has inspired us with her ideas, in the process giving our sometimes vague ideas a definite shape or alternative approach. Her input was sometimes the crucial spark for new projects, which would then develop into beautiful and useful results.

We will miss Jessica a lot, but she will continue working with us as a freelance author, so you will hopefully see her name here quite frequently. This means that the position of intern at Smashing Magazine is open as of now. And that’s where you come in: we would like to give you the opportunity to gain valuable experience in online publishing and editorial work, too. If you are eager to learn, motivated, curious, hard-working and confident about spending three to six months in Smashing Magazine’s office in Freiburg, Germany, please take a close look at the details of the internship at Smashing Magazine, and get in touch with us! We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Thank you, Jessica. It was a pleasure and honor to work with you over these last six months.

(al)

© Jessica Bordeau for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | Post a comment | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine
Post tags:

In the Web design scene, the sense of community is extremely strong. We always talk about “giving back” and about how much we learn from those who do. A few names are popular and dropped here and there. But it’s all still just a bit too impersonal, isn’t it? Here at Smashing Magazine, we’ve decided to give you a more intimate look at our writers.

Among the people who regularly write for us, 15 agreed to answer our questions. We also challenged them to take a picture of themselves on the spot, with no time for make-up. This interview is not meant to give you any particular professional insight, even though we cover that ground a bit. Rather, it’s meant to introduce you to these people on a personal level. The illustrations for this article were created by Andrea Austoni, an illustrator from Poland who we are regularly working with.

A Word About The Community

We still have very little information about the Web design community itself. How many professionals are there around the world? Where do they live? These questions are still difficult to answer precisely. A List Apart publishes an annual survey, whose 2008 edition received responses from more than 30,000 people (2009 edition wasn’t published yet). We can perhaps imagine the Web design community as an entity, which is what A List Apart does to a large extent. But what if we focused on personality? What’s the first thing they do in the morning? What do they love and hate about Web design? What is their biggest strength and worst flaw?

If we could combine our writers into a single person, what kind of person would it be?

• A male in his early 30s,
• Physically, he would have brown eyes, brown hair. He would be about 5′7″ tall (175 cm), 155lbs (70 kg),
• He would maybe wear glasses and will surely be right-handed (there is only one left-handed person out of the 14 writers that replied).

Who said working from home implies eating all the time? Our typical writer would be quite reasonable with junk food, eating only a kg a week.

Question: What is your mission and personal philosophy while on Earth?

Paul Boag: Wow, that is a hard question to answer without sounding pretentious! My primary focus is to help and inspire others. There seems little point in spending my life simply accumulating stuff for myself. I get much more joy out of encouraging others to be better. I will never change the world, but I might inspire someone who does. That is my hope.

Julia May: When I think about my mission on Earth, I tend to agree with George Carlin’s suggestion of why we are all here. As for my personal philosophy, I guess it changes during life, but at the moment I have a constant feeling that something good is in the air, and I try to keep my eyes open so that I don’t miss it when it comes.

Speider Schneider: Aside from an odd leaning towards nihilistic schadenfreude, I have learned to let the bad things slide off my back. I just enjoy what I’ve done with my career and I believe between working for MAD Magazine and creating numerous Pokémon products, I have ruined at least a generation of kids. I guess my philosophy is to create as much havoc as possible. I like to live on the edge because the rent is cheap and there are few neighbors. What will be my philosophy when I leave the Earth? Depends on the planet to which I am heading.

Robert Bowen: My current mission is to see true equality for all beings who share this planet and find the harmonious balance that can bring about a peace. My personal philosophy is that all beings on this Earth deserve to be respected and looked after.

Janko Javanovic: My mission here is to reach true warp speed and see aliens in distant galaxies. Until then, I’ll design user interfaces and learn the importance of user experience every day.

Louis Lazaris: I believe in the Bible and what it says about man’s destiny, and I like to reveal that most religions today do not tell the truth about the Bible’s message.

Christian Heilmann:
Do good things, make myself redundant in doing them, and inspire and train others to take over to get the same great experiences.

Thomas Giannattasio:
When I look back on my life, I hope to see that I’ve improved people’s lives: making them simpler, more fulfilling and more enjoyable.

Paul Andrew:
Difficult question. Without being philosophical, I would simply say personal contentment.

Cameron Chapman:
I’m just along for the ride, trying to do as much of the things I love as possible, and avoiding the rest.

Jean-Baptiste Jung:
I’m a Christian, so most of my philosophy comes from that. I’m also an animal-rights supporter.

Inayaili de León:
Be nice. Put myself in other people’s shoes before criticizing them.

Jacob Gube:
My personal philosophy in life is to enjoy doing what you love doing.

Kat Neville:
I want to love what I do every day. I don’t want any day to go by where I think, “Wow, what an absolute waste of time.”

Aquil Akhter:
I want to do something innovative and creative, work on design and blogging. This is my current mission.

Nationalities, Languages And Localization

Most of our regular writers live in Europe:

Many live in the US:

But there is also Aquil, who is from Pakistan:

Because we are an English-speaking magazine doesn’t mean that the people who write for us are all American or British. In fact, most of them come from another country and therefore speak a different native language. If we combine them all together, we’d able to speak:

• English, French, German, Grenglish (yes, this new language is a mix of English and broken Greek), Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Ukrainian, Urdu and Uzbek.

Question: What does writing mean to you? Please give us some insight into your working process.

Paul Boag: For me, writing is a means to an end. I don’t like writing: I like sharing ideas. Writing is just one way I can do that. I also podcast, run workshops and speak at conferences. To be honest, writing is the method I find least exciting. Part of the problem is that I am not a natural writer. I am terrible at spelling, and my grammar sucks. As for my writing process, I am not sure I have one.

I guess I constantly keep a list of possible writing topics, with a few bullets outlining what each post would cover. I then tend to flesh these out into a better structure before writing an initial draft. Finally, I read through, correcting mistakes, adding illustrations and trying to tighten it up. Then it’s just a matter of deciding the best place to publish it. I think I spread myself a bit thin at times, with content all over the place.

Christian Heilmann: Writing to me means structuring ideas and finding the interesting story and easy explanation in complex matters. My process is to write down everything I want to put in, and then go through it three times, removing all the unnecessary parts.

If you can’t take anything out, then you’ve done a great job. I also tend to write down the outline first — headings, mostly — and then fill in the gaps. This allows me to jump from section to section should I get stuck or bored with one. I’ve outlined the process in the Developer Evangelism Handbook.

Thomas Giannattasio: For me, writing is about spreading ideas and information. It’s also a great way to connect yourself to a community, which is the main reason I love writing for Smashing. My working process is pretty random because my time is limited. I start by outlining my content and doing a little research. Then, I typically try to set aside a Saturday or Sunday to write the bulk of the article. In the evenings, after my 9:00 to 5:00 gig, I try to polish the writing and create my images.

Paul Andrew: Writing is a universally accessible method of sharing knowledge and learning more. From an early age, my father taught me that when writing you should visualize every word, sentence and paragraph, physically. He recommended building a house as you write. I have used this ever since.

Initially, I search for every resource on a subject, using every possible channel open to me (that is the foundation). I then collate everything and filter the bad out of the good and the pointless out of the useful. I then read as much as possible, categorize resources and start taking notes (these are the bricks). Now I have an idea of the layout, rhythm and direction of the article. I put everything together (the roof). Once that is done, I revisit and edit, and I edit again and again, until I am happy with the result (which is a watertight and livable home). Time to move in: publish.

Speider Schneider: It’s therapy. I get angry because of something that happened and I sit down and bang on my keyboard like a deaf Beethoven pounding out a symphony and eventually fall into a comatose state. When I awake, I look at what I’ve written, shrug my shoulders and send it off to the Smashing staff to test the patience of the editor and drive the proofreaders into fits of insanity. Then it’s time to drink.

If anything, through my articles on Smashing Magazine, I feel I’m not only mentoring less experienced creatives, but striking a blow against not only bad business people, but against the mistakes we creatives make along the road that reflect on the entire industry. Is it easy? No. Is it satisfying? Well, to quote Dorothy Parker, “I hate writing but love having written.”

Robert Bowen: Writing to me is a powerful outlet that not only allows me to exercise my demons but affords me an opportunity to connect with and help others. Writing is a part of who I am. Whenever I begin working on a writing project, whether personal or work-related, I always begin with a question and an outline. The question is a variant of “Where is this going” or “What is it saying?” Once I know the answer, I begin to outline — brainstorming on various approaches to take and elements to include until I have a pretty solid foundation to work from. Then I charge forward…

Cameron Chapman: Writing is something I’ve always done, for as long as I can remember. Putting thoughts and concepts on paper in a way that others can understand is as close to telepathy as humans have gotten (as far as I know, anyway). My working process usually starts out with 10 to 15 minutes of research, followed by 30 or so minutes of brainstorming and outlining. Then I go back to research and fill in the outline as much as I can, sometimes expanding it as I go.

Short articles might take me only a morning or afternoon to complete, while longer ones might require a day or two of work. Of course, sometimes I break this up over the course of a few days, working on multiple projects simultaneously.

Janko Javanovic: Writing is a powerful tool for expressing your thoughts and knowledge and for questioning yourself and others. I note all my ideas in a sketchbook. It helps me remember everything and explore ideas further. When I find some free time, I pick one and elaborate on it.

Jean-Baptiste Jung: Writing is sharing. I’ve learned my job that way, by reading books and blog posts, so being able to give back to the community is a great thing. When writing long articles, such as the ones I write for SM, I generally start by creating an article map that shows the different steps to talk about in the post. Then I develop each step until I have a complete article.

Inayaili de León: For me, writing means organizing my thoughts on a particular idea. After finishing an article, I feel I can put that aside and start thinking about something else. Before starting, I tend to do some research to see what’s been written. The time this phase takes depends on the type of article. Then I’ll write down a few of the main points I want to cover, particular quotes to refer to. Finally, I start writing the article itself.

Jacob Gube: Writing is sharing knowledge in an organized way. I start writing by doing some research and outlining the things I want to say. Then I start writing. I edit several times, focusing on what I can cut out, how well the story flows, and whether the reader will gain something from reading it.

Kat Neville: I don’t consider myself a writer, so writing for me is just about explaining something using the clearest possible language. But I think as a Web designer, you really should learn a lot about writing, because every second with a user counts. When I write for SM, I always try to think about what I would find useful. It’s so easy to let your ego get in the way and start writing your own opinions. Even though my articles tend to be long, I hope they are always useful, with a lot of interaction and examples.

Julia May: Writing is a puzzle: for hours I can sit and shuffle words to find the right combination. Writing is a science: profound research and bold experiments lead to progress. Writing is an art: there is always someone who likes one thing and another who doesn’t. Finally, writing is a creative process: no inspiration means no success.As for my working process, in short, it’s always dozens of open browser tabs, thousands of “Backspace” and “Delete” hits and millions of doubts. If all this results in at least one satisfied reader, then it was worth doing.

Louis Lazaris: Writing is an art based on standards and principles, just like Web design. I believe each article should be its own unique entity, one that never makes the reader say, “Oh, I’ve read this before.” This would make each article a truly creative and inspiring experience for both author and reader.

As for my working process, I like to start formulating my articles with a very general theme, then a four-to-six point outline. Then I slowly put the “meat on the bones” through research and development of the theme in a very specific and focused manner. This helps prevent my articles from rambling too much and going off topic near the end, which happens to many writers online.

Aquil Akhter: In my opinion, writing an article means providing something interesting and unique to our readers. Because I mostly do design- and photography-related articles, I always keep in my mind that a picture is worth a thousand words.

What is the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning?

Ignore the buzzer and keep sleeping!

Checking e-mails, Twitter and Facebook

Drinking coffee.

Question: Where did you start, and what principles and skills helped you get to where you are now?

Paul Boag: I started as a graphic designer who was very fortunate to get a placement as a student with IBM. This happened around the time that the Web was created, so I got to work on it from day one. My skills as a print designer were extremely valuable, and those early days of the Web taught me loads about coding. It made me the all-rounder I am today.

Bizarrely, I think the most valuable skills didn’t come from design school or IBM but actually from my local church. It was there that I learned how to do public speaking, communicate and empathize. These are all skills I use every day in my job.

Christian Heilmann: I always had various “jobs” during school: organizer of summer camps for the council, brick layer, packer in a chainsaw factory, ice-cream maker, waiter, DJ, plumber, pizza delivery guy… My first real full-time job after high school was working for the Red Cross for 15 months, instead of doing 12 months of mandatory army service. There I learned a lot about what can go wrong with the human body, and I also learned how to work with people with learning and physical disabilities, which taught me a lot about life.

I then went on to work at a local radio station, where I learned how to crunch a lot of information into a few lines for the news, where each sentence needed to be an entity on its own — because nobody consciously listens to the radio. This taught me a lot about writing for the Web, too. I also learned how to use my voice and to ask the right questions to get real answers, which helped me with my public-speaking skills. I then started Web development very early and was lucky to jump from job to job, taking on as much as I could, to get where I am now.

Generally, I can say that the main skills needed for all this are an ability to adapt to situations, not being scared to physically move and to get excited (rather than scared) about new things. I also learned that forcing myself to understand something properly before applying it was much more useful than waiting for official training. Asking the right questions and taking advice — even when it is annoying — was another big factor.

Thomas Giannattasio: I like to think that my career in art and design began back in the second grade. Every Saturday morning, I could be found lying in front of the TV with a sketchbook and pencils, recreating scenes from my favorite cartoons. My first commercial endeavor evolved from these sketches, when I learned that classmates were willing to sacrifice their lunch money to buy some drawings of Ninja Turtles.

As I got older, my passion for art and design grew stronger, but in a different direction. I became fascinated with the interconnectedness and reach of the Internet. When I was 12, I begged my parents to let me get my own website. After weeks of nagging, they finally caved and bought me an “HTML for Dummies” book, which I studied every day after school as I worked on my Geocities site.

My early days were really exciting, and that excitement eventually grew into a passion that lives to this day. I think it’s that passion that drives me to learn and do more. The skills, knowledge and experience I’ve developed have just been byproducts of that passion.

Robert Bowen: I started writing poetry when I was a teenager, and as my love for the arts grew, my pen carried me towards the stage and screen. After writing plays and short stories, I began to expand my pen and write projects larger in scope (scripts and novels). Along the way, Angie began getting into Web design, and I found my interests piqued as well.

Soon, we both found our focus shifting towards the blogosphere, and that’s when we found the communities that were thriving there. As we began to learn so much from the community, we decided that we had found our proverbial home and that we really wanted to give back. I began to shift my writing style to fit the Web more, and I may still have some work to do in that arena. I know that no matter the medium, my poetic nature tends to add a flourish or two to the text.

Our mission quickly became to return the favors from the community by striving to enrich it and be as helpful as we can be. Through it all, my writing skills have helped me get to where I am now and leave my mark on it.

Speider Schneider: I started at the bottom. I worked hard, had some good breaks and some bad but I built on each success and with a strong network, built on trust and respect, I was able to keep increasing my projects, clients and fees. Naturally, my network was earned through hard work volunteering with artists organizations and such. I met the right people and made sure, at all times, my work spoke for itself. I also tried, whenever allowed, to break all the design rules I could. It created pieces that intrigued people because it worked but was obviously a mess of broken rules.

A teacher once told my class that we needed to be kind to those we met on the way up the ladder, because we would meet them on the way down. Aside from an angry stumble here and there, I was careful to be very kind to people, except the guy with cat liter in his portfolio. Being kind has created a network of the top people in design. That and always buying the coffee.

Paul Andrew: I started the hard way, by leaving school at 16, thinking I could do anything. How wrong I was. The only way you can achieve personal satisfaction and success is by working hard, working honestly, learning from your mistakes, learning from others and never giving up.

Cameron Chapman: I got into Web and graphic design through my husband, who went to college for graphic and multimedia design. The only formal design training I have is in interior design, which has been a big help in certain aspects (spatial relationships and color being two of the biggest). I pretty much just learn to do things as I need to. The only drawback to that is that I tend to forget them as soon as I don’t need them anymore.

Janko Javanovic: I started as a freelance programmer in the early 1990s. During the crisis in Serbia, I, along with my cousin, somehow managed to earn a decent living. Huge ambition and persistence helped me get to where I am now.

Jean-Baptiste Jung: I started alone, in my room. :) I’m 90% self-taught. I’m constantly learning, and that’s a very exciting thing in the Internet world.

Inayaili de León: I started learning about Web design by myself. I was working, so I had to do it after work, in the evenings, and I may have sacrificed a few nights out, but I think the hard work and perseverance paid off.

Jacob Gube: I started as a graphic designer and ended up being a Web developer.

Kat Neville: I used to do print work, but it really wasn’t nerdy enough for me. One day I designed a website for the print company I was working for. They asked me, “Can you build that?” and I said “Yes,” even though I’d done only a bit of HTML. Although I made a few mistakes when I started, I really enjoyed the combination of design, interaction, usability and coding. I guess I always try to do what I feel I’ll love doing and challenge myself every day. It’s been working out well for me.

Julia May: In terms of my career, I don’t think I’ve gotten far from the start yet. But, in general, I’m curious by nature, and I learn pretty fast. I think these qualities are the main forces behind my progress.

Louis Lazaris: For years, I rarely paid attention to Web design news, trends and developments, which held me back. Reading articles and books by top designers and developers has helped me learn the most important skills I have today.

Aquil Akhter: I started by designing websites, and I always believe in dedication and constant attention to my work.

What is your strongest quality…

… and your worst flaw?

Question: What distracts you from working these days and how do you handle these distractions?

Paul Boag: My biggest distractions are my family and the youth group I run. However, I wouldn’t describe these as distractions from work. Instead, I would call work a distraction from them. I work to live, not live to work. I have been married for 11 years to a gorgeous woman named Catherine. We have a seven-year-old son named James. Without a doubt, they are my priority in life.

The youth group I run is for teenagers who live in Blandford. Because Blandford is so small and rural, it is possibly the most boring place on the planet to be a teenager. I try to rectify this shortcoming. :) Although I love it dearly, it does take up a lot of time. Most Monday, Wednesday and Saturday evenings are taken up with it. Combined with church and work, I don’t have a lot of free time.

When I do find some free time, I tend to burn it watching TV. I lack energy for anything else. Like all good geeks, I am obsessed with sci-fi. Favorites include Battlestar Galactica, Doctor Who and, more recently, V.

Christian Heilmann: I don’t realize I’m working when I do my “work.” I actually relax. What stops me from doing my work can be politics, meetings, technical failures and volcanoes. I sleep five hours a day, and I don’t own a TV, which gives me a lot of time to achieve what I want and also to plan for time to see a play or have fun with my friends. Not being tethered down by normal working hours helps, too (I live in Europe but report to the US).

Thomas Giannattasio: My biggest and most pleasant distraction has to be my wife. She really supports all the work I do, but she also keeps me balanced by taking me away from it. I tend to get really wrapped up in a project and neglect other responsibilities around the house, but she’s always there to step in and pick up my slack. My second distraction is a bit more guilty. I’m nearing 30, but I’ve definitely not grown out of video games yet. Currently, Modern Warfare 2 has a tight grip on me, ha ha.

Paul Andrew: Kids are my main distraction. I have a four-year-old little boy, and my wife (who is in a full-time nursing course) also has two older kids. I am essentially a stay-at-home dad, which I do love, but it does make it very difficult to get any continuous or scheduled work done.This is my typical Monday to Friday working day:

• 5:00 am: Wake up and start work.
• 7.30 am: Stop work and get the two older kids ready and off to school.
• 12:00 pm: Off to school nursery. Return home and work.
• 3:00 pm: Stop work and pick up all the kids from school.
• 8:00 pm: Kids off to bed and I start working again.
• 11:00 pm: Off to bed.

It is a very stop-start schedule, which can be very frustrating. I do have the occasional day when I can work on a normal schedule (9:00 to 5:00), but they are few and far between.

On top of all that, when it is the school holidays, things become even harder. A few weeks back, during the school Easter holidays, I fell so far behind my writing commitments that I am only now just recovering.

Thankfully, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. After this summer, my son starts school full time, and my wife will have finished her nursing course and will be working only two or three days a week, which will finally allow me to work freely and with no time constraints. I am counting down now!

Family aside, my big love in life is football, and with the World Cup happening, I fear this may affect work. That gives me a couple of ideas for an article: “Designer’s Guide to the 2010 World Cup” and “How to Deal With World Cup Distractions as a Designer.”

Speider Schneider: Shiny objects distract me. Pop ups on the web distract me. Facebook distracts me. Life distracts me. It’s my ability to focus while I rant and rave in writing that keeps me working. Once I start typing, I find I won’t look up or blink for several hours and 2,500-4,000 words later. If I have writer’s block, lemon juice sprayed in my eyes is the current punishment and motivator to get back to work. Poverty is another good motivator. Being paid, having money for food usually reminds me to write faster.

As with my design work, eating and deadlines are always a good motivator. I’ve never missed a deadline in my life, but I look forward to my first one. Everyone should have a missed deadline at some point in their lives. I would like to miss the deadline for my funeral.

Cameron Chapman: My biggest distractions at the moment are Tumblr and We Heart It. I spend way too much time on both. I also love getting out of the house as much as possible, because I work from home. I sometimes have to force myself to go out for a ride or whatever after having worked for an hour or two.

Janko Javanovic: I’d say that different sides of my knowledge, while diverse, are somehow related to each other, so it is not always hard to manage all obligations. But I am always focused on those aspects that are highly related to each other and relevant to current projects. So, carefully choosing and adapting different knowledge to current situations helps me stay focused and efficient. Oh, and yes, my working day lasts a minimum of 12 hours. :)

Over the past decade, I have completely moved from development to design. I am now focused on learning about user experience design and implementing knowledge that I gain from ongoing projects. Learning new skills makes me really happy. But I am not always efficient. A big workload sometimes results in my being unable to manage all obligations, from project-related activities to writing and speaking. Because projects are always the priority, other activities suffer.

Jean-Baptiste Jung: Well, my current distraction is your questions. ;) But that’s just me being funny. Distractions are often a problem to those who, like me, are used to working alone at home. You have to be very motivated and focused to handle them correctly.

Inayaili de León: Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, RSS feeds, TV, a blank wall. I handle them by setting specific tasks for each day, and I don’t go to bed until everything’s done… most of the days.

Jacob Gube: Twitter is very distracting. I handle this distraction by not using it until I have done all my important work.

Kat Neville: I’m very easily distracted: the computer, Twitter, email and my RSS feeds are always tempting me. In the outside world, I always want to do arts and crafts and work on my garden! Then, there are the activities: I’m a sucker for an adventure!I do sometimes freak out, but usually a good night’s sleep is all I need, and then I’m back at it. I tend to take on too much, but I’m making it my goal now to take on less, so that I can actually do a good job on my projects and don’t let people down (including myself). Sometimes, though, even though you want to spend a lot more time on a project, you really have to deliver, and so you hope it’s good enough for now. On the Web, you can always improve later, and I have a million things I’d like to work on and improve.

Right now, most of my own apps have taken the back-burner, and that makes me really sad. But because I’m still building my client base, I need to focus on their work right now. I hope to get a proper balance back by the end of the summer.

Julia May: Usually when I’m working, the biggest distractions are email, Twitter and my own thoughts. So, when I really need to concentrate, I log out of my Gmail and Twitter accounts (although I still don’t know how to log out of my own thoughts), and that usually helps. Fortunately, I’m not such a workaholic that those examples you mentioned are distractions.

Louis Lazaris: Too obsessed with online Scrabble and doing word anagrams online. Wife always wants me to help with dinner. I don’t handle these distractions well. :(

Aquil Akhter: I don’t have any distractions from my work as such. When I’m working, I don’t get involved in other matters.

Challenge: Would you dare taking a picture of yourself on the spot and send it to us?

Question: If you had to choose your boldest subject for an article ever, what would it be and why?

Paul Boag: “Stop Being a Web Designer and Go Save the World.” As Web designers, we love to think that we’re changing the world. Certainly, the Web is an enormously important technology and is having a profound impact on Western culture. However, sometimes we have to get over ourselves and realize that we aren’t that special. We talk about Web celebs, but that is a complete joke. The people I admire and respect are those out there working in third-world countries for little pay and no fame. I just wish I had the guts to give up the Web and go follow them. :)

Speider Schneider: Ha! The Smashing Editor-In-Chief, Vitaly Friedman and I were just going over that the other day, trying to discuss an article that could be very touchy but is groundbreaking! I won’t talk about it until it’s finalized but if you are a fan of my articles, you know it will be interesting.

There are so many bold articles to write! Our industry is filled with lying, micromanaging, anal-compulsive, passive-aggressive, loud-mouthed, opinionated morons who will stab you in the back if they think it will help change the background color of a design, and those are my close friends!

I pretty much get to just go bold from article to article. The Smashing staff encourages stretching the boundaries and reaching deeper for content and information that will be helpful to the readers. I plan on being a part of SM for as long as they can stand me!

Christian Heilmann: “Seven Reasons Why Web Development Stays Stagnant — And How This Secures the Jobs of Far Too Many People for It to Change.”

Thomas Giannattasio: “Why Web Standards Suck and Flash Is the Platform of the Future.” Not that I believe that, but it would definitely cause controversy. I could probably find a few reasons to support the argument, though.

Paul Andrew: “Why My Love Affair With WordPress Is Coming to an End.” And “Readability First, Accessibility and Usability Second.” (Okay, I chose two titles.)

Robert Bowen: Well, I assume you’re talking about articles related to the design field, in which case I think that those articles addressing the spec-work issue and its impact on the way designers are undervalued are important and often, I would hope, unintentionally divisive. This is an issue that affects the entire community, yet so many see only the personal effects rendered from it, and that is what they care about. But it does get its fair share of coverage.

On the contrary, I think a subject not broached enough is the sexism that pervades the design community. I think this is often overlooked because it is such an accepted social ill that it spills into every aspect of our lives, and challenging it in this one area means challenging it in all of its reaches. Also, because this is such an ingrained problem in our society, so many participate in this demeaning practice without realizing it. In design, women tend to be relegated to a patronizing position of near irrelevance, until someone needs something “girly” done, and then their input and skills are recognized in a biased way.

Inayaili de León: Hm, maybe an article about how we should be a little less serious about what we do and more flexible in accepting the ideas of others? I’m not sure how bold that is, though.

Jacob Gube: Right now, advocating for continued support of IE6 will get you a good lambasting. But IE6 is still relevant. According to Wikipedia, as of February 2010, IE6 still accounts for about 20% of browser usage. That’s around 5 to 6% more than all versions of Safari, Chrome and Opera combined! From the standpoint of a business ROI or the Pareto Principle, it makes sense to forget about Safari, Chrome and Opera and focus on IE6. But people want to hear the opposite.

Kat Neville: “Throw Everything Away: Why You Should Start Everything All Over Again.” I guess it would be about how we get attached to the work we’ve designed and the “stuff” we buy (especially as techy people).

Julia May: It would probably be “Steve Jobs and His Connection to Occultism.” I’ve suspected Steve Jobs of being connected with the Masonic Lodge or something like that. Do you have a better explanation for the mass hysteria about the iPad?

Aquil Akhter: It would certainly be “Photography of Poor People,” to shock the sophisticated world with how many people are living below the poverty line.

What about you?

It is also hard for us to know where our readers come from, which is why we had the idea of creating this Google public map. The idea is to localize where web professionals are from and what their profession is.

Now, why not add yourself on the map (you need to be able to sign up with a google account) and include a few words about you such as your job title for example? To add a placemark, you need to click on “Edit” in the left column of the page and then use the Placeholder icon that will appear in the left upper area of the map. Please do not change the title and description of the map. And let’s see what this map looks like in a few days.

(al)

© Jessica Bordeau for Smashing Magazine, 2010. | Permalink | Post a comment | Add to del.icio.us | Digg this | Stumble on StumbleUpon! | Tweet it! | Submit to Reddit | Forum Smashing Magazine
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