As some of you may know the cost of VAT is increasing in the UK on January 4th, less than a month away. A couple of years ago this would have been alien to many, certainly in my lifetime the VAT had never changed, it’s always been 17.5%, right? But with the recession it’s yo-yo’d up and down the last couple of years, with the change always coming at the most inconvenient time of the year.

So with the fairly widespread coverage and lengthy time to prepare most companies will surely be well covered to deal with the change in VAT next month. Unfortunately for us this is a little idealistic. After previous experience the bright sparks at Bronco decided to act early rather than wait for the inevitable phone call on the 4th, our first day back to work after 2 weeks off, asking us to make the necessary changes to their ecommerce website.

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There is a massive divide between what can be taught about the web and what is actually going on in the trenches. Still I see numerous web courses of varying levels seemingly teaching old practices, it’s understandable that in a fast moving industry the academics are struggling to keep up but there’s no excuse to still be teaching table based design, for example. Some professionals are trying to help Universities provide more up to date curriculums but I wonder if there’s another approach.

Personally I love the idea that I could help someone with the knowledge I’ve gained whilst in the industry. Sure I’m not as well versed as those on the conference scene but I’m pretty positive I could have taught an 18 year old me better than some of my lecturers. The problem I see is there is a gap in the information being passed around in our community, with so much at a high level that it is making it difficult for many newbies to figure out where to start.

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When this BBC article popped up again in my Twitter feed this morning I actually decided to take the time to read the article that I had earlier ignored assuming it would tred the same path may design blogs had already walked. Yet with the exception of a nice history lesson the article seemed both short and lacking depth.

The BBC

Since the redesign of the BBC News site there does seem to be a move towards quantity over quality in their news output, yet this article annoys me more than most. The research that seems to have gone into the article seems almost none existent with the basis of the writers’ article being based on hearsay. Although the article flirts with the notion that Comic Sans is not fit for purpose in most cases it is used it does little to educate the reasons why or provide expert opinion in the matter.

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At least once in a designers life they will work tirelessly on a design that will never see the light of day. For whatever reason the final website will not use the design you have lovingly crafted over many hours. It may be that you have to create a new design, the client provides the design or the client leaves due a breakdown in the client/designer partnership. For whatever reason the design doesn’t get used you will feel bad that you now have what you might feel to be a gorgeous design lying unused whilst precious time was wasted creating something no one will be able to enjoy.

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