I’m Ruby。 I’m roughly 20 apples tall
ルビーです。背がりんごを20つぐらいです。

I drew my profile pic and banner. The gameplay in the banner is from dragon quest 1 for game boy that I recorded myself.


multioculate
@multioculate

I hear a lot of people calling for easier webdev for non-tech audiences that doesn't force you into a cookie-cutter layout. I'm skeptical that's really strictly possible. I'd believe [insert-your-favorite-office-suite] Word is about as fancy a WYSIWYG as a non-power-user can manage, and it's definitely a cookie-cutter layout tool. Once you break out of the single-column flow with headings and media embeds, you're into the depths of dealing with accessibility, mobile/desktop funnyness, HiDPI shenanigans, non-trivial backend programming, and genuine user interface design. While tech labor is generally paid and valued disproportionately highly, those didn't become professional fields simply out of gate-keeping. It's a long tradition to make bad analogies between physical goods and digital ones, so: if you don't think it's reasonable to ask for a Good Poster Machine that magically designs and churns out unique, fresh, and exciting posters with no technical engagement in graphic design, printing, or selecting paper, why would a website be different?

Anyway, I want to flip around and say this is actually a social problem with a social solution: there aren't enough people doing low-cost low-complexity professional web design! I don't think a Good Website Button can be constructed, but a "pay this professional 200$ to make a Good Website and host it Button" wouldn't be that hard. Someone (not me, I don't do webdev professionally) should get on that.


YuushaRuby
@YuushaRuby

I’ll make a website for $200 for someone who isn’t a corporation or rich, I’ll do it good even


You must log in to comment.

in reply to @multioculate's post:

Isn't that just Wordpress tho? It's been pretty straightforward to put together a nonstandard layout without having to touch HTML or know what an API call is for well over a decade, and most remaining stuff you actually need any level of technical savvy to execute is specialized applications you'd need a skilled crew to maintain regardless.

The big unresolved issue is that being able to think in concrete terms about what you want your thing to do or look like is a skill in its own right; one lots of people assume they're just naturals at until they have to do it for the first time, at which point they immediately shut down whether presented with Notepad or a big graphical list of options to pick from or a skilled worker to verbally relay their vision to. Lots of beginning developers start out in the $200 ballpark, but unless you're a seasoned manager and very aggressive about shepherding your clients that inevitably translates to listening to a stranger have a breakdown for ~$1/hr because their problem was never the how