…then Harold Shipman would look like a reasonably nice chap… The attitudes of many web developers and designers are frankly quite scary. The web design game’s quality and value is constantly undermined from people outside the industry, but the disregard from within the industry is—although admittedly less frequent—a lot more unforgivable.
Here is a little tongue-in-cheek post taking some of the things an offending designer/developer might say, but from the lips of a surgeon. After all, I do love a good analogy.
| Web designer | Surgeon | Lesson |
|---|---|---|
| Web designer | Surgeon | Lesson |
| I validate all my code. | I make sure my instruments are clean. | Some things are just a given. Proper code isn’t anything to show off about, it’s just a standard part of a decent service. You’d be worried if a surgeon made a point that his tools were sterile, it’s just something you’d expect. |
| I’ve not done this before, but I’ll give it a go. | I’m usually a rectal surgeon, but I’ll give neurosurgery a shot. | If you can’t do something, don’t! You wouldn’t want a surgeon trying unfamiliar practices on you, especially if you’re paying. Why would you charge a client to experiment new things on their site? |
| The code’s not the best it could be as I was pressed for time. | I was in a rush, so I bodged the operation. | Lack of time is no excuse for poor code. I commented on this one before. |
| This won’t work in IE6, it’s too old to support. | Madam, you’re quite old, I don’t think I’m going to do this operation. | You may not like IE6, but it’s unavoidable. You need to learn how to work with, and then do so. |
| I’ve just got a copy of Dreamweaver and I want to start web design. | I found some old scalpels—got any ailments I can tend to? | Being a developer is more than owning the right tools—it’s about years of hard work and education (formal or otherwise). |
If you can think of any more, please feel free to add them in the comments. And this is just a light-hearted, jokey post. I’m not comparing the importance and responsibility of surgery with that of web design… honest.