On Designing in the Browser

The bottom line is you should use whatever is most effective for you, but for me starting in the browser is working backwards.

I learned a design is done in layers, and I believe markup is just one of the outer layers. When I draw a figure I begin with a gesture, then a skeleton, then muscle, skin and clothing. If I start with the clothes I don’t understand what’s under them and how they should fall, where the light and shadows belong.

When I build a website I start with a list of the content it requires, then a doodle, a wireframe or a combination of the two, a comp, and finally markup and style. There are a variety of tools for any of these steps, but the browser is only a tool for one. Skipping any of those steps seems lazy and like a missed opportunity to think a design completely through.

Yes, you certainly need to be aware of browser limitations when creating a design, but those shouldn’t dictate your design. (People who have zero fluency in markup have no business calling themselves web designers.)Creativity in code can come from trying to make a good, usable design do everything it can and should. This is how we push new browser standards, or end up with tools that help fill the gaps, like jQuery.