wonderyak

I agree with everything you're stating here, I just wish it was that easy in practice.

Some of the problems with deliverables is managing client expectations, they expect or have gotten used to seeing output of a PSD that counts as 'what their site will look like'. The creation of a PSD as a deliverable for the 'final design' is boilerplate for every agency I've ever worked with.

Responsive design has finally started nailing the coffin though; it becomes too cumbersome for designers to create renderings of different viewports, let alone understand the intricacies of how media queries work or how assets are delivered to different devices.

There has been a lot of creative thinking about deliverables (Style Tiles, Atomic Design) which is helping us get over the hump.

I would hazard a guess that most of the sites in the SMB space are either WordPress templates or custom designs that were then handed off to a service or an outside developer to make into functional websites. Sometimes, the developer doesn't get to see anything until the client has signed off on the design. I see this happening with large companies which do multiple millions of dollars a year in agency work.

Oh, the process (as normally done for the past decade) is completely broken. Thats one of the reasons that the groupthink behind "PSD to HTML is Dead" is important in spite of how hyperbolic the statement is.

There is always an adjustment period throughout development, however just a simple understanding of the medium would eliminate all but the toughest of these problems.

For as long as I've done this I have mostly worked with designers that started in print, have zero to very little experience in working with the web and do not care to learn.

It is not just the designers who hold blame here though as the instituions which employ them do not require anything more than they've done their whole careers.

Combine that with the fact that a lot of these designers are expected to design for both print and screen, it creates a situation where you cannot expect someone to know all of the nuances of both mediums. When this happens, things like declared text sizing is important in the PSD because thats how they set up their print files too. Everything is implicit.

I wish I could work with people with your mindset. Have you considered writing on the subject? There are so many people that could benefit from your experience.

This is one of the nice things about the occasional comp delivered in AI. Its so much easier to translate assets to the web that it confounds me why AI wasn't the standard from the beginning.

Yes, since there is an implicit agreement beforehand that the PSD should be converted to HTML/CSS.

For example, if I missed a border on an element or margin spacing between text areas this would be something I would be expected to fix. The designer would most likely point this out. Many designers I've worked with get very upset if you change anything in this regard without some sort of discussion.

The point you bring up about text handling is true as well, which is another reason that PS is not a great way to design for the web. AI might be a little better, but not by much.

From my perspective a lot of it has to do with 'training' 'education' and employers. I've worked with several high end agencies and even if some of the designers know some HTML/CSS they have no idea how what they do in PS affects the next stage of the project.

Many employers have no idea about the technical debt of PSD->HTML. Its just the way they've been doing things for years. They hire a designer that can make things look pretty in PS and thats it, their job is done. Its up to the next chump to figure out how to make it work 'Thats what they get paid to do'.

Print designers had to know about processes and techniques because re-printing things is VERY EXPENSIVE. There is a hard cost involved that just doesn't exist on the web. If we make a typo or mistake in something, often we can correct that in a matter of seconds.

A lot of these print designers ended up being used for the web in agencies because they were senior designers, they knew about 'design' and had a lot of experience.

Using HTML and JS works great and provides exactly the same interaction you'd see on the final product. I think trying to do anything else (unless you're extremely good at video processing) is insane.

Just to belabor your well made point, here is an example of a final PSD I received from a 'professional agency': (from psdgrade.com)

https://cloudup.com/c5RmHN8t1QZ

https://cloudup.com/cmpmBEYg93c

Thats 27 different font sizes for ONE PAGE of a site. I bet most of this was done through scaling layers to 'fit' into spaces.

There were also 42 layers named some verson of <shape>-n.

Its amazing to me that the second announcement after the acquision is all about how Google won't be privvy to your data.

Seems to me that Google has completely lost control of the narrative.

A few years ago people would be talking about how great this kind of integration would be in their lives, now its just Google+ jokes.

I used oDesk exclusively for hiring developers for a number of years, here is my 2 cents:

> it feels like fighting for scraps

You are fighting for scraps. Generally speaking, until you've been really burnt by a contractor you feel great hiring people in India to work for pennies compared to what you're reselling the service for.

IMO, this is the vast majority of people hiring on oDesk.

In addition, there are SMB or Agency type businesses that are looking to form relationships; they don't want to have to constantly search for new developers. Often, they will find a group or business with a stable of developers even if the quality of the work is a little bit poorer. Many of the firms I worked with just had a project manager that communicated with the developers on their end (often because they did not speak english) and maintained a single point of contact for us. Those were our best experiences.

> Does it get better once you "establish" yourself on the site?

It should. By the end of the time I was using oDesk I had several filters set up when searching so if someone had not completed a test or rating they would never appear on my radar.

Any designer that knows what they are doing makes things easier to use, not more difficult.

I think it would be better to say 'Amateurs have taken the reigns'.

This is what I see on Google: https://i.cloudup.com/7ymLpPBmma-3000x3000.png

The first organic results don't even show up with the size of my window.

The whole situation these days on the SERP for any purchasable item is pretty sad. Luckily, I don't use Google that much when pricing or shopping. Results for data are much more helpful and useful for me.

It seems like a marriage made in heaven to me.

In this situation its probably a matter of 'don't attribute to malice what you can attribute to stupidity'?

OTOH - the mainstream media is not reporting on this at all. Doing a search for 'trans pacific partnership' on CNN - the first result is a story about the G-20 Summit on Jul. 15th.

The more you look at, investigate and try and understand this story the crazier you may seem to other people.

Not only do the lobbyists and partners get to influence the negotiations, they are under a 4 year gag order from discussing it.

its hard for me to think of an answer to this question that doesn't somehow devolve into an area of 'conspiracy'-type BS.

I really do not know.

Not when its coupled with things like Corporations being able to sue governments for 'loss of potential future profits' for policy decisions. That is incredibly dangerous.

Its been 'fast tracked' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_track_(trade)).

My understanding is that the TPP is not public (yet?), and parties involved are not allowed to discuss it for 4 years.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/11/house-pushing-back-on...

She's always been a villain. Its just that the other Senators are so much worse she looks good in comparison.

Zappa referred to electronic music (of the day) as 'missing the eyebrows'. Its sort of the uncanny valley of electronic music.

Frank Zappa was doing something very similar with the Synclavier in the 80s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synclavier).

He also has a piece called 'The Black Page' due to its density of notes on the page - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Page

Both together here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrOK98q_ILA&list=PL945B5DD750...

solar : stellar/star :: coke : soda

Yes, 'Solar' refers to our sun, Sol. So there is only one 'Solar' system which is our own.

I think 'star system' is acceptable as well.

That might have been true a few years ago but it just isnt these days. Malware is being injected into ad networks on a semi-regular basis (I see Adblock as a defensive mechanism morese than something to get rid of ads). Sites also get hacked and can infect you that way.

Its like saying people only care about NSA spying because they have something to hide -- its faulty logic.

I love SL and I was really hesitant to upgrade to Lion. When I did, it was weird but I got over it. Lion and ML feel so much faster.

I'm sure they tailored the demo to show the best aspects of the software.

Sounds like you've been using VPSs for a while. Do you have an opinion on the virtualization tech used for various hosts (xen, virtuozzo, etc).

Shared hosting is really bad in general. If you happen to be grouped up with people that are constantly hitting their resource limits and/or the box is oversold it can be even worse.

My least horrible experiences have all been with DreamHost as well.

Our company did reseller hosting for about 5 years and went through all of the acquisition stuff Marco mentions. We had to exit SoftLayer because they were horrible, only to be brought right back.

Hosting is a horrible business. To be good at it and have marketplace success you need to deliver over the top support; which is just unsustainable at scale.