Daring Fireball's Independent Days

July 09, 2003 | 2 Comments

John Gruber’s Independent Days says quite a bit of what I was trying to say about the designer / client relationship in The Problem With Flash with a broader, farther reaching stroke and a lot more eloquently than I ever could. A tidbit:

The designer typically does know best, but it’s the client who gets the final say. An analogy to web design is particularly apt. I’ve never liked the adage Less is more — it’s terribly clicheacute;d, and its paradoxical nature makes it too easy to dismiss. I say Less is better, which is neither cute nor clever, but almost always true.

He goes on to say quite a bit more, most of it on the roll of the independent content publisher on the Web today. His points are dead on, and while I don’t plan to advertise or try to raise money any time soon myself, his rationale for doing so and his points about how blogs and the like are playing a large part in the maturation of the Web both for the personal and the professional a really worth some thought.

There has been quite a bit of talk along these same lines of late, here are some links to a couple similar articles:

Paul Scrivens’ How Google Works. There are some good insights here as to how blogs can help drive traffic and therefore generate business.

Zeldman’s Tasty tutorials and network effects talks about how personal blogs and the networks they create have decentralized Web publishing for the better. I agree! Although I still miss A List Apart and can’t wait for it to come back and still think sites like ALA and Digital Web hold an irreplaceable place on the Web.

Filed under: Web General