To start out, many print designers seem to think they learn web design by using Flash, since it “seems to allow the closest approximation of the print designer’s pasteboard,” wrote Vinh.

“But I think it’s absolutely the wrong way to start learning how to work on the Web. It leads too easily to the assumption that a similar amount of authorial control can be exerted in online design as can be achieved offline.”

Vinh’s first piece of advice to transitioning designers is thus to learn HTML and CSS, which are the foundations for anything on the web.

He also recommends two books to that effect, “HTML, XHTML and CSS Visual QuickStart Guide” by Elizabeth Castro and “Eric Meyer on CSS.”

But even learning HTML shouldn’t be the first step. However obvious this may seem, Vinh’s primary piece of advice is “is first embracing the medium as something different from print.”

In the same vein, but deeper: “on the Web, design is not a method for implementing narrative, as it is in print, but rather it’s a method for making behaviors possible.”

Many print designers tackling the Web make the wrong assumption that they can use their print techniques, and that users will approach content in the same way they read print.

Furthermore, many designers can be disappointed by the fact that Web design “is not commonly an effective tool for highly expressive displays of typographic, photographic or illustrative skill. Looking for opportunities to execute the sort of improvisational and dramatic creative visions that we see in printed periodicals, for instance, is likely to be an exercise in disappointment.”

Last but not least, Vinh advises – insists – that “in learning a new medium, enthusiasm and open-mindedness trump nearly everything.” Whether in print, online, for design or for other areas in life, this seems to be a golden rule. Print designers with the most curiosity and eagerness to learn about the Web will be the most successful ones.

Source: Substraction via News Designer and IFRA Executive News Service