Christopher Murphy and Nicklas Persson are web designers and digital artists who also teach design at the University of Ulster. Recently, they co-wrote a book, HTML and CSS Web Standards Solutions: A Web Standardistas' Approach. They actively promote Web standards in universities and are called Web standards people. The famous Web development and design website Six Revisions named them Interviewed. This is part two, see part one.
[Chris Wallace]: With CSS3 and HTML 5 emerging, how do you teach these concepts to technologies that have not yet been fully adopted by mainstream browsers?
[Christopher Murphy / Nicklas Persson]: It’s exciting to be able to learn and teach at the same time. We are constantly learning new knowledge and we encourage students to do the same. We have a responsibility to educate students to be self-sufficient and equip them with the skills to continue learning after graduation.
It is worth emphasizing that we mainly teach students basic principles rather than specific software or frameworks. We regard Web standards as a design methodology, or the most basic foundation.
[Chris Wallace]: Mainstream browsers are frequently upgraded, even some new browsers, such as Google Chrome. Teaching Web standards is not as clear as teaching 1+1=2. How do you prepare your students to cope with the latest browsers? , and possible BUGs in the new browser version?
[Christopher Murphy / Nicklas Persson]: Although we are teachers, we are also designers ourselves, working for clients or showing our work around the world. We believe that educators should combine theory with real-life cases, and we often incorporate our own work into teaching.
In order to keep students up to date with the ever-changing reality, we use a Japanese Just In Time teaching method. We rewrite lesson plans almost every week and stick to this for a long time. Although the theory and foundation will not change, we will modify it. The details reflect actual trends.
Although this requires us to update lesson plans every year, there is no other way to deal with such an evolving subject.
[Chris Wallace]: You must be passionate about your job? What makes you an author, teacher, and advocate for web standards?
We all learned a lot from the experience and were willing to stick with it. We also made a lot of mistakes and encountered setbacks in our careers, but we all wanted to pass these things on to our students.
We have a very open approach to sharing our work with students. We are passionate about Web standards and love working with students who are equally passionate. Many geniuses have come to us and we are happy to teach these things to students. them.
Our students are incredibly loyal, and we develop strong alumni relationships with our students that keep them in touch long after they graduate. We're slowly building a Belfast-centric web design community, and we're happy to be driving it all.
[Chris Wallace]: What are some of your influences?
[Christopher Murphy / Nicklas Persson]:
People who influence us: Jeffrey Zeldmann, Dan Cederholm, Mark Boulton and John Gruber.
Resources that influenced us: A List Apart, Design Observer, CSS Zen Garden and 37 Signals.
Others: You Look Nice Today, TED, The Wire and Lost.
As teachers, we are also inspired by students' works, and it is very inspiring to be with these talented students.
[Chris Wallace]: Before I end the interview, I can't help but ask about your book, HTML and CSS Web Standards Solutions: A Web Standardistas' Approach. How did you write this book? What can readers learn from it?
[Christopher Murphy / Nicklas Persson]:
Our approach was to stay up late, treat ourselves to the occasional sushi and beer, and then have those long weekend days. There are many books we can recommend to students, such as Dan Cederholm's inspiring Web Standards Solutions ; Paul Haine's meticulous HTML Mastery ; and Andy Budd's indispensable CSS Mastery . These books are all excellent, but none of them provide a complete and solid tutorial on Web standards, that is, a well-structured tutorial on Web standards based on XHTML and CSS.
Readers can learn a rigorous method of handwriting XHML + CSS web pages from this book.
Although the book has just been released, the feedback we have received has been unanimously positive. We are also pleased with the response to the book's companion website, Web Standardistas. This website launches topics related to Web design every day, and publishes some journal articles every month. It already has a solid visitor base, and we look forward to continuing to promote other Web standards projects based on this.