.. as a metaphor for web design
Well, since some time I have almost completed the rebuilding of my garage to my home office. Almost completed, yes. The odd bit here and there still needs a little twist and turn. And I need to unpack some boxes and throw old stuff away. My old IBM PC will linger for some time until this financial year is over and I have closed the books for this year. I can then start on a new much, much smaller and much, much faster machine with a new accounting application. Probably open source. Then it is a final goodbye to Windows 98 SE.
What it's like, the office?
First of all and probably most of all the office is small. It's not even the complete garage that I have confiscated it's about half of it. But like my web design idea: do not do more then needed. Use as little as you can. All things extra cost you and do not deliver any revenue. In web design it costs bandwidth. In my office it costs: extra heating, extra wall paper, paint, ceiling et cetera.
I have kept things mostly straight and rectangular. Yes, I am a CSS addict. I know, I know, you can use trickery to make things appear round or soft, but hey, I just made straight and simple.
By keeping things simple and functional I have avoided the clutter of bits and pieces. I am making doors for my cupboard that will hide all the stuff that the visitor should not be bothered with. I stay away from impressive and Flashy stuff and will only use it if it is absolutely necessary and functional.
Keep it semantic, I say, use things what they are intended for. Use a chair to sit on and not for storing old invoices.
Separate stuff, one shelf for my office supplies, one for books, one for software, one for my invoices, ledgers and other financial bric-a-brac. Like separating the content, the styling and the behavior.
My office will be the metaphor of my profession. Nice, clean, stylish and above all simple and accessible.
One final confession
Being the web purist and CSS addict that I am there is one thing that I have to confess. With some shame.
Here I go There is a table in my office.
I know, I know, being the semantic web aficionado I try to avoid tables, but this table I really use as a table. I tried it with my laptop on my lap, but it just didn't work out. Please don't tell anyone.
As long as there are no frames in your office, no problem :)
ReplyDeleteWellllll, I think about putting up a couple of iframes with pictures. But maybe I should just float them or position them relative.
ReplyDeleteI am still thinking, hold on.