I go to get a haircut and explain the cut I am looking for, she responds ask the following questions:

• Would you like your hair shampooed?
• Would you like the scissors or the razor?
• If the razor, what settings do you want? A 2? Maybe a 3?

I just looked at her perplexed and wondered why I, the customer, the client, was expected to have these answers. Isn’t she the specialist in this field? It got me wondering how my clients would react if I had them on the hook for a website redesign and asked them:

• Would you like an external style sheet?
• Would you prefer tables or CSS-based layout?
• If the CSS-based, what level of doctype do you want? Strict? Transitional?

It would be completely inappropriate to assume that a web design client would have these answers. They know what end results they are looking for, and it is up to the expert to determine what it will take to get them there.

As I was finishing up my visit to the stylist, (and thinking how ridiculous it is to assume the customer would have these answers), someone new sat down in the next chair over. He greeted his stylist, and then told her, “Give me a razor cut, 4 on the top, 6 on the sides”. She questioned his choice “Are you sure a 4? You seem more like a 2.” “No, no,” he insisted, “I am sure I’m a four.”

So, I could be completely wrong.

When you get off the Metro at the bus depot at King Street station, there are six bays which have 2-3 bus lines that stop at each. The locals surely know where they are going, but what about the tourists getting off the Metro who can not or will not walk the 18 block to the waterfront? They are lost in a confusing set of identical choices. Each bus looks alike; the only differentiator is a numbering system that can only be decoded by being super-human enough to translate the line-art maps of the different bus routes. It’s an intimidating and frustrating experience.

But not anymore, enter the Old Town Trolley.

The trolley simply is the bus for the tourists. It goes straight down King Street to the waterfront, and even explains that right on the side of the vehicle. Now, when tourists get off the Metro there is no confusion of what bus number they want, they just have to look for the big red and black trolley car.

A great way to improve the tourists experience in Old Town.

Adobe is killing off GoLive.

This is a somber day for me, because while I have not used GoLive in years, it was integral in my development into a professional web designer. All through college, my only means of HTML coding was hand-coding within a UNIX session. Just as I was graduating, the University purchased GoLive Cyberstudio for the computer lab. It was like a whole new world had opened for me.

Suddenly, with the speed and power of the WYSIWYG supported by hand-coding, I could build out my Photoshop mocks in record time. It allowed me to not only improve me personal site, but build out fan sites for numerous shows or groups and take on small freelance sites, which became the pieces of my first portfolio that in turn got me my first job as a web designer.

In later years, I made GoLive the mainstay of the design department at our agency and even got myself Adobe Certified Expert status with the product. But even as I was acquiring that level of mastery I was becoming aware of the limitations of the WYSIWYG and understood the need to switch to primarily hand-coding. By the time Adobe GoLive 6 came out, I did not push to have the company purchase it.

So, it would be inappropriate to be upset at todays new. I will not be missing GoLive since I haven’t touched the product in nearly four years, but I will say, in eulogy, that I will always remember those last days of college when I discovered GoLive and suddenly realized I could conceivable becoming a real web designer… and I have.