There are frequently contentious discussions on the Web Standards Group mailing lists. Often enough the points discussed are fairly arcane, sometimes they have fairly wide implications. And all too often they seem to pit designers against developers. One such discussion involved the size of text, and prompted these thoughts.

Design always has to adapt to the constraints of the medium. In print the presentational constraints are very different for, say, a newspaper printed in black ink at 85 lpi on newsprint, vs. a high-end magazine printed at 200 lpi in 4c (or more with spot colors) at 200 lpi. An ad designer producing a piece for both would not insist that the newspaper adapt to reproduce his beautiful 4c ad exactly as he conceived it.

Obviously concessions must be made to the medium, and a good designer understands and adapts to those constraints. When designing a web page, a designer may certainly have a perfectly legitimate vision of an optimal version of the page, and I would say the developer’s task is to present the closest possible version of that optimal view in as many browsers as possible at default settings. The good designer will take into account the various user display options and will do everything he can to ensure that the design holds up under those options. Designers who cannot embrace, or at least adapt to the medium will eventually be forced out. There’s still plenty of print work.

However, characterizing designers as arrogant idiots, denigrating marketing people and various other self-righteous (self-pitying?) reactions that I’ve noticed from time to time is counter-productive. Good designers welcome constraints as a challenge, so rather than tearing one’s hair out behind closed doors, how about engaging in a dialogue, educate the designer about the medium? I have found more often than not that once I explain why something doesn’t really work, a designer will gladly collaborate to find a solution. And, yes, designers, even marketing people, have legitimate concerns and desires, and the developer has an equal duty to understand and as far as possible accommodate those concerns and desires.

(Obviously these thoughts do not apply to designers who are “expressing themselves, or communicating” - those are artists and are at perfect liberty to be as rigid as they choose. Hence the cliché: “starving artist”).