Jessica Hische - Why you should not hire me for web design | Hacker News Reader

Jessica Hische - Why you should not hire me for web design

jessicahische.com

67 pointstwampss26 comments

Answer: Because her text is so small (10px Georgia!) and low contrast at the standard size that it's painful to read. Probably looks lovely in print (like most of her portfolio) but no decent Web designer would ever set type like that online.

I had to use instapaper to read it.

As we're sharing - and because it might be useful to people generally - I used the Readability bookmarklet: http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/

I've had readability bookmarked for a few weeks and have occasionally used it to combat bad design. Thing that bugs me is in FF I can't access the bookmarklet without using the bookmark menu or a bookmark bar. Just to clarify I access my bookmarks mainly through the awesome bar. I don't have the file menu displayed nor a bookmark bar visible - this makes it a bit of a pain.

I guess it's a FF bug that javascript bookmarks are not listed by awesomebar? Any suggestions?

To be fair, the whole post is about how she is not a web designer. She implicitly acknowledges her shortcomings in that regard.

Except she seems to argue that's because she's not good at the Web specific technicalities. She also says she could respond positively to "I just need you to do the .psd file designs" requests, but believes the whole process should be handled by one person/team.

A good print designer should realize that tiny gray serif text on white wouldn't be particularly reader friendly, as much as a Web-only designer should know that Comic Sans will suck just as much on a billboard.

That's actually exactly the kind of thing that prints beautifully though. That would be much easier to read if printed than it is on a computer screen.

Agreed, hard to read text like that. Looks like it should belong on a kindle.

The text fits the design of her site. I actually had no problem reading it as she has it spaced very well.

She seems to have a better understanding of web design-related issues than most "web designers". Now I want to hire her.

She knows her craft well that's for sure! And I'm glad that she knows when to say NO.

why?

Until you say no, you are a slave to every request that comes your way. Much better to be selective and stick to your strengths - excelling at everything you do.

PS: Why is always a valid question.

Her typography is absolutely beautiful, that's for sure.

Yeah, I thought it was appropriate for a print specialist. It's a blog and it's her personal space, she can use whatever font she wants and it's totally fine. I did of course get so shocked by it i had to inspect elements and thought, "She's going crazy with her fonts here."

If you aren't a professional, stick to arial and verdana and the web will thank you.

I like her quote on this page: http://jessicahische.com/spendstoomuchtimeinternetting/?p=15...

  The work you do while you procrastinate is probably
  the work you should be doing for the rest of your life

The fact that she uses unreadable urls and text-images argues strongly that she's right about NOT hiring her to design web pages.

She writes well though and, once you print her work, it's beautifully readable.

I don't know if I agree that web design is more complex than print design. It's just completely different.

Web design is definitely very much less straightforward than print design. Having an understanding of typography, graphic design, layout, etc. is sufficient to get by in print design (more or less). In web design there are so many bizarre quirks of the trade that those fundamentals just aren't enough. The depth of knowledge required just to make a simple bordered box with rounded edges on the web is insane to the point of being kafkaesque, especially if you have to make it look pixel perfect in every single popular browser (including IE6).

I've been a fan of Jessica's work for a while.

This article is great and wish more people would read this–especially ones who think graphic designer == web designer.

Of course, Jessica is great at what she does (possibly the best). She doesn't need other work. Those who are mediocre at one at it have to take on other jobs (and are usually mediocre at that too).

We looked at some of Jessica Hische's lettering work in a typography class I took at a local art college. I believe it was some Tiffany & Co displays she did. Her designs are obviously of unusually high quality and beauty.

That type of work really is much different than web design. It's more like illustration. Her own personal style shows through most pieces. It must take a huge amount of time to produce one of these.

It would really be a waste of her artistic ability to do traditional online work, though I can see it for particular branding and logo design applications. You can see Tiffany did exactly that on pieces 8-10 which are web samples.

I understand her point. However, if I am offering one thing but people keep repeatedly asking for another thing, then maybe that other thing is what I should (also) be offering. Seems like pretty good feedback from the market.

True, but that assumes she's not achieving her measures of success via her current offering. Listening to feedback and iterating is great, but if I want a $10M business and build a $10M business, that doesn't mean I should listen to feedback that could make it a $20M business.

People often repeatedly ask you for things which are bad ideas for you to offer, though. Web design is, ahem, being quickly commoditized at all but the highest levels. If you command a good wage as a print designer, and fill as many hours as you care to sell, why would you start at the ground floor in something you're not good at competing with more skilled, more experienced, more technical folks willing to work for $15 an hour?

Similarly, I will probably never implement my #1 feature request ("How can I make cards with pictures?") If anyone here thinks they can bang that out in the proverbial weekend a) if you do I will send you customers and b please tell me if the support burden ends up being as hellacious as I expect it will be.

Why do you think it's so difficult?

If it were me, I'd take advantage of the potential customers and the SEO that seems to be making her a popular destination for a related field.

1) Hire a good web designer. 2) ... 3) Profit.

This would be a prime example of being flexible and observing the market. Of course, to her credit, she seems to have no desire in growing a business, and just wants to do her thing. I can respect that.

just another smug navel-gazing twenty-something who is engaging the age-old conceit of false humility

since she's already got a full schedule of clients, she's decided to offer up this pithy little bon mot of narcissism veiled as honest advice

let me summarize the next ten thousand blog posts that will emerge from the tumblrverse and their brethren:

"pffffft" (make eye rolling gesture)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com