molly.com
Tuesday 18 October 2005
Web Design and Development Personality Indicators
I’VE HAD ENOUGH! Frustrated with the range of attitudes and opinions I deal with as a standards-oriented educator, I’ve decided to begin a project (very) loosely based on the Meyers-Briggs personality indicators. So, dear readers, I’m hoping you’ll help me add and refine my categories, but I’m off to a start with the following:
- OFAD. Old Fart Anti-Design. These are the guys (and I mean guys) that were on the Web as early as 1991. Almost all physicists at major research institutions, they’re the ones who helped Tim Berners-Lee refine the Web and were the first adopters. Mostly long in the tooth now, some are still kicking and they can be described as the anti-designers. These aren’t even purists – today’s approaches seem foreign and sometimes frightening to them. They long for the days of Lynx, really, but barring glowing text on a terminal and HTML authored in Vi or Emacs, their idea of Web design is default gray backgrounds, default text, maybe a list, and the apex of old fart visual design: a horizontal rule. Fortunately, this is a very rare breed and usually they can be ignored because unless they’ve progressed somewhat, they have precious little to offer the contemporary, standards-oriented Web designer or developer.
- OSVD. Old Skool Visual Designer. These are the folks that refuse to see beyond their nested-tables-spacer-GIF design. In fact, you can find them at a variety of ad agencies and teaching at conferences all over the world, still excited when they create a design in Photoshop and use the so-called HTML export utility. These designers are often extremely hostile toward standardistas largely because the idea of change or looking at code is so traumatic that they hold on to the Old Skool methodology as if it were a lifeboat on a stormy sea. Unfortunately, this breed isn’t rare enough.
- TTLM. Trying To Learn More. In this category are the good men and women who might still be serving it up Old Skool but are open to learning, open to growth yet struggling with standards related concepts and the snakepit of browser challenges of contemporary Web design and development. These brave souls are not in the majority, but they are to be lauded and assisted for their willingness to venture forth and expand their horizons.
- SAVD. Standards Aware Visual Designer. These people are designing with standards in mind – creating beautiful sites for the screen, working toward achieving accessible sites, examining usability and human factors, and very possibly beginning or already designing for alternative devices and media types. A very rare breed, and if you are reading this post it’s very highly likely you’re either one your own fine self, know all their names or have Zeldman’s personal phone number memorized.
- SASS. Standards Aware Structural Semanticist. These personalities are very code-centric, with little interest (or more often, skill) in presentation but lots of interest in the proper structuring of documents, use of meaningful markup, microformats, Semantic Web and the like. At their most compulsive, they can become purists to the point of having unrealistic expectations of the more worldly Web worker. Also a rare breed, SASS personalities are extremely important to the good of the Web but sometimes need to be reminded that smart structure and semantics can happily co-exist with visual design.
- SACE. Standards Aware Cutting Edge. Whether visual designers or code-centric or both, these are the folks that design first for Firefox, Safari and Opera and work around IE 6.0 only because they have to. Given their druthers, sites would be built using practically no markup and lots of attribute selectors, just because they like the idea. A rare breed worth watching, but also in need of reminders that the rest of the world just ain’t there yet, and in fact, really are lagging behind.
Hybrids are not unusual, either. I sort of live between the SASS and the SAVD personalities, with not enough real design skill to execute great visual designs, but enough savvy to appreciate beautiful, standards-based Web sites. There’s probably a personality type for people like me, but it’s very difficult to assess my own character, so I’ll leave it there for now.
As I’m typing this, I’m on a ship in the Eastern Caribbean teaching CSS on a Geek Cruise. The ship, the MS Zuiderdam, is just in the process of docking at Road Town, Tortola, in the British Virgin Isles. I’m sure you all feel really sorry for me right now.
It’s just past dawn and I’m up at the very top of the ship where there happens to be WiFi at the going rate of 40 cents USD per minute, so you’ll forgive me if I leave you now with the following questions: Are you one of these personality types, and if so, which? Do you have a personality type you’d like to add to my little list?
Filed under: humor, standards, travel, web design and development
Posted by: Molly | 04:45 | Comments (91)
I’d put myself in the SAVD-segment, though not THAT good at visual design. Guess I just don’t have the colormatch-gene
Great spot-on descriptions!
I think I would be a very complex hybrid between SASS/SACE/SAVD, and also with a charming (and sometimes) misunderstood personality!
SAVD/SASS, mostly, but with my secret OFAD occasionally surfacing due to my inability to fully let go of Lynx.
I’d say I’m a mixture of the last three, leaning more towards SASS than the others…
Jeez, I feel like a cavewoman next to you Ms. Molly. I love your blog. Love. It. Most fab.
I guess from your classifications I’d put myself in the SACE bucket, with SASS tendencies — although I certainly don’t fit the little interest in the visual side that later classification brings with it.
[...] paration 18.10.2005 kello 15.46 Web
Particletree: 4 Layers of Separation Molly: Web Design and Development Personality Indicators Meyers-Brigg [...]
Proudly a SACE or at least I think I’m !
These assessments are right-on. I only wish I had thought of this topic first, so as to reduce it to a list of demeaning designations for the sake of a cheap laugh:
Rename OSVD to MBOD – Much Better Off Dead.
SACE becomes AVKG – Anne van Kesteren Groupie
SASS (already pretty accurate, when pronounced phonetically) could be called CAFL – CSS As First Language
SO, did you mean to say “Myers Briggs”, or is this indicator named after Eric Meyer and Owen Briggs?
I’d like to say that I fall into SACE, but to be fair despite knowing the how’s and wherefores etc. for cutting edge, I just don’t have the style/taste so I leave that for others.
I probably fall into the SASS/OFAD scope of things.
You forgot AIFM – Accessibility is for Marketing. These group of people are the antithesis of Standardistas. They know very little about standards, accessibility or usability, but are damned if it’s going to stop them marketing on the back of it.
I would say that I’m SAVD to SACE which includes SASS assuming the indicators you listed are listed in a certain order. I switch between them depending on which project is on my plate at any given moment. Sometimes I don’t have the opportunity to be a SAVD so I tend to become SASSy. My mindset is usually in the SACE realm dreaming of the day when we don’t have to worry about how each browser might interpret our code.
Great terms and I hope you enjoy the cruise. It looks nice!
Somewhere between the “S…’s”.
There must be more middle ground between your OSVD and SAVD labels, if the TTLM is a rare breed. Otherwise who are we talking to at these increasingly packed conferences and workshops? There are plenty of interested people in the audience, and they can’t all be SAVD’s can they?
Also I’d throw in a category for OSP, or Old School Programmers. The people that probably would have been SASSes if they’d started on the web at the right time, but lacking any elegance in the presentation layer back in the late 90’s, they focused on the programming and server end of things and are now stuck in their ways.
I’m a SAVD-SASS-SACE hybrid. Definitely.
With a little “kick” inside
Dave: if you look at @media, they were pretty much all SAVD (or even SASS/SACE), really, and it was kinda like that at Reboot 7, as well. Reboot’s much more code-oriented, however, but still standards-savvy.
Your description of OSP is the one I was looking for, for a friend of mine. Seems pretty accurate for him, hehe
“SACE. Standards Aware Cutting Edge. Whether visual designers or code-centric or both, these are the folks that design first for Firefox, Safari and Opera and work around IE 6.0 only because they have to.”
I thought this was the current conventional wisdom.
As for me, I’m definately O.C.D!
Hi Molly, sorry to hear about your awful cruse
I’d say I’m a mix of SASS and SACE with more emphasis on SASS. I recently had to work with a OSVD who supplied web visuals as a CMYK 300ppi QUARK document, seriously!! Luckily I know how to export to Photoshop.
That seems to be the way of things for me, not rubbish at visuals but certainly no Picasso so I focus on programming, structure and style.
Don’t forget the programmer who knows little about html but instead has it all generated by PHP, perl or asp.NET. They mostly speak in binary and wear cowboy boots, Hawaiian shirts and baseball caps. Maybe BRCS (Billy Ray Cyrus Syndrome)?
Cheers;
Poncho
I’m a SASS-SACE hybrid – would love to be in the SAVD group but my art doesn’t extend much beyond a blunt crayon!
Can’t make one up. CSS and minimal mark-up because I am plain lazy and so I can doodle in PS and crunch in Fireworks. That probably makes me a SALF.
“I’m a SAVD-SASS-SACE hybrid. Definitely.
With a little “kick” inside.”
Are we brothers?
I don’t seem to fall in any category you named. I’d like to call myself a Standards-Aware Web Developer (SAWD? gawd…) plain and simple. I understand the standards, but for me the main point of creating a website is creating a website, since that’s what my clients pay me for.
Standards are well and good, they’re perfectly workable nowadays, but they’re only tools to achieve an end, not an end in and of themselves.
A category for practical workers in the field who use standards but aren’t carried away by them seems a worthwhile addition to your scheme of things.
Looks like I’m one of those common-as-muck SAVD’s then. Ah well, at least I’m in good company….
I’m somewhere between Dave’s OSP and SACE, with an undercurrent of SASS. I suck at visual design, but given a PSD, I can kick it into a semantically structured web site and write some back-end code for it no problem. And then I’ll have a five hour debate with myself over whether this part should be a nested list or a definition list.
I’d probably put myself between TTLM and SAVD.
How about the CCWD (Completly Clueless Wannabe Designer) – this person thinks he is a SAVD or OSVD but really has no skill or talent to speak of. Despite this lack of ability, the CCWD insists on attempting to sell “web design” to unsuspecting clients.
I agree with ppk about standards being a means to an end, not an end in themselves. That’s how I see myself as well.
Thanks for the laugh, Molly. I wrote about this here. I would add one category that I’ve encountered: OSCC or Old Skool Creative Communicator. This is a person who believes first and foremost in communication. The most important point of a website is to communicate, and anything that gets in the way is discarded. This person can’t be bothered to update their skills or learn new web methodologies because, in their view, XHTML, CSS and semantic markup are technical details that detract from the primary purpose of the web. Umm…which is to communicate.
I’m British, so while I would like to think that I fit into one of the SA** categories im too reserved to tell you that I do.
$.40/minute for wireless access on a geek cruise sounds like exploitation of a captive audience!
I think I’d be a SAVD.
SAVD/SACE and GSOH!
I think I am OFAD in Your classification but watch my website and check it out.
I think I’m another complex SASS/SACE/SAVD type, maybe even GEEK (Good Enough to Exude Knowledge?)
I’m an SAVD with SACE tendencies…
One type I deal with a lot at the university is SMTW: Stuck Maintaining this Website. This are folks that have been given the task of maintaining their department site on top of their other duties, and just want to know the minimum necessary to get it done. They don’t know about standards and they rely on WYSIWYG tools. They are more than willing to adopt any practice that saves them time. This is why it’s so important that there are easy-to-use tools out there that support standards.
Web Design Personality Indicators
According to Molly’s Web Design & Development Personality Indicators, I’m somehere between a TTLM and a SASS.
I’m a INFJ and probably a SACE wanna-be.
How does MBTI relates to WDDPI?
I’d be that SAVD – SASS – SACE 3 Hit combo.
I love my semantics and microformats but I’ve also been known to throw in a couple of additional tags just for the benefit of the design.
There’s a little bit of TTLM (although I’ve completely moved to web standards) I’m still trying to slay the Web Standards Hydra of knowledge. Learn something and two more things to learn pop up in it’s place.
Should really read comments before replying, sorry, one more thing to add.
Andy Clarke’s got it right, OCD
Yay! I’m to be “lauded” for desperately TTLM with a SASS-y outlook toward becoming a SACE. Sadly, while some SAVD traits are present, aesthetic talent is positively nill. So, SASS-ing is probably what I’d do best.
Er, why does that suddenly sound like a bad thing? :\
Perhaps this would benefit from being placed, not as a continuum of abilities, ie. one end good, one end bad, but as a set of individual, belbin style, personalities that can be held in differing measures.
For example: you may be recruiting for an Asp.Net programmer, who is standards aware, and semantically aware, but don’t need to know anything about visual astethics as you will recruit a separate designer.
Also you may have, what I would call a designer? with non-visual tendencies (old fart), but they may also be standards aware and semantically aware, and thus show some promise, if still young enough to learn.
Of course this does all depend on having a robust set of categories, and a robust assessment that is easy to implement.
OSVD OTS (on the side). I want to level up to TTLM, but I’m not a real web designer and haven’t had much time to pick the new stuff up between work and extracirriculars. It may be a while ’til I can retire my tables and spacer GIFs.
I’m moving from TTLM to SAVD. I still have a soft spot for Flash, though…
I’m OSVD and SACE. Create an image-heavy interface webdesign, slice it in ImageReady and reconstruct it using CSS, ignoring IE. Try beating this
That would be part SASS, part SACE for me, with a sauce of SAVD on top. (just enough to know what real SAVDs are talking about)
I showed a project-in-progress to my girlfriend yesterday and demonstrated how nice it responds to text scaling. She was not impressed and said “Ain’t that normal?”. Best compliment ever.
I like to consider myself a SACE (or at least a SACE Wannabe) and I wonder why you did use <ul> and <li> with <strong> instead of a definition list?
adding from a hybrid:
IDGD I dont’t give a damn.
Those people of expensive agencys have a little hunch about accessibility and webstandards, but for economical-reasons, they don’t care. Pityless they’re using dreamweaver or similar tools, until they retire.
(and the good guys may miss some jobs)
SACE, definitely. It causes me daily aggro
I´m definately a cross between TTLM and SAVD. Unfortunately only a dash of SAVD, there´s so much to learn that it´s sometimes overwhelming but for the most part fun.
A TTLM who is scratching and clawing her way into the SAVD cat, but sometimes failing miserably because work simply has to get done!
AAAAA: Angry, Acceptance-Averse Application Administrators.
They run your organisation’s major-vendor web application (the one’s that’s “accessible” because the logo has alt text). They’re programmers – you know, real hard-working geeks and not slacker web developers (web geeks, the bimbos of the IT world!).
If you dare point out that their product isn’t accessible, it’s not standards-compliant and crashes everything except IE6, they will turn puce in apoplectic fits of rage at your temerity. This thing runs the financial system, who are you to question it? If pressed, they’ll say it “doesn’t matter”, or “it’s the vendor’s problem”.
Extremely hard to work with in Hostile Mode, however can become an extremely powerful ally if won over.
Related and similar type: the AAAAA’s manager, or whoever gets the phone calls when said web application crashes. Similar symptoms, different motivations; often interested in bandwidth savings and lower development costs.