Jeffrey Zeldman
Jeffrey Zeldman
Jeffrey Zeldman is an entrepreneur, web designer, author, podcaster and speaker on web design. He is the founder of A List Apart Magazine and the design studio Happy Cog, and the co-founder of A Book Apart and the design conference An Event Apart. He also co-hosts The Big Web Show, a podcast about the web and online publishing...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionBusinessman
Date of Birth12 January 1955
CountryUnited States of America
real blow creating
That's the rational premise behind my spending hours of billable time adjusting my Facebook preferences. The real reason, of course, for all this stuff, is that it provides a way to blow off work you should be doing, while creating the illusion that you are achieving something.
boys white firsts
When I see Facebook, I feel like Howlin' Wolf must have felt when he first heard Elvis. 'They finally taught a white boy to do this.'
real writing design
Real web designers write code. Always have, always will.
tests assumption consciousness
Test everything, including assumptions
business use way
The best way to engage honestly with the marketplace via Twitter is to never use the words "engage," "honestly," or "marketplace."
design decoration
Content informs design; design without content is decoration.
people design missing
Good information architecture enables people to find and do what they came for. Great information architecture takes find out of the equation: the site behaves as the visitor expects. Poor or missing information architecture neuters content, design, and programming and devalues the site for its owners as well as the audience it was created to serve. It’s like a film with no director. The actors may be good, the sets may be lovely, but audiences will leave soon after the opening credits.
mistake love-you like-love
Usability is like love. You have to care, you have to listen, and you have to be willing to change. You’ll make mistakes along the way, but that’s where growth and forgiveness come in.
jobs writing design
Whether the task is writing, design, or hanging a picture straight, it is obvious that we do our best work when healthy, rested, refreshed, alert, and eager to do the job for its own sake.
voice design identity
Web design is the creation of digital environments that facilitate and encourage human activity; reflect or adapt to individual voices and content; and change gracefully over time while always retaining their identity.
design absence graphic-design
Content precedes design. Design in the absence of content is not design, it's decoration.
character design designer
Good Web design is about the character of the content, not the character of the designer.
business design-work starting-up
Don't worry about people stealing your design work. Worry about the day they stop.
million suffer thousand trillion
For my daughter I would suffer through a thousand divorces, a million uncomfortable phone calls, a trillion emotionally fraught text messages.