Following Keith’s coining of the term ‘Web Craftsman‘ I thought I’d chip in with a few of my own points and some discussion of my thoughts. This is always going to be a work in progress so if you think that there are any holes please let me know. Also, if you disagree let me know too (and why: see #3)

  1. Web design is web design.

    That has already been covered.

  2. Specialists and generalists need each other.

    The generalists such as myself need the specialists. They are a great source on information and knowledge. Learn what you can from them. However, the specialists also need the generalists to keep them in the real world.

  3. You can change your mind.

    How many times have you looked back at your work and thought “What the hell was I thinking when I did that?” or “If only I’d known about… …back then.”? I know I’ve done it. If you can’t admit that to yourself then you either know everything, or have stopped learning.

    It’s OK for you to change your point of view when you learn something.

  4. Work out of your comfort zone: You’ll learn new things

    This applies equally to specialists and generalists.

  5. Read widely

    Start with my links. Most of them are specialists, some are generalists.

  6. The degree to which you are a specialist (or not) is measured by your audience

    I consider myself a generalist. The team I work with (Librarians, i.e. Information Specialists) consider me a “Web Technology Specialist”. Our IT department consider me a “HTML, CSS and Standards Specialist”, others an “Information Specialist”. The communications team considers me one of them.

  7. It’s about compromise (added 12 May 2004)

    There is a balancing act that needs to be done. There is often debate about design vs. accessibility. They need not be mutually exclusive, but when time and money are added to the equation the focus tends to swing one way or the other.