10.24.2011

The Manual, Issue One

The web design publications we've become accustomed to are sharply focused on the technicalities of how to design and build web pages. However, while there is no shortage of undiscovered CSS tricks, I want to talk about the intangible too. Call me a romantic, but I want to talk about what web design – and creation as it relates to it – feels like. I want to talk about what it means to do what we do. There ought to be more emphasis on exploration and discovery and the connection between our findings and how they help other humans.

Enter The Manual, a successful Kickstarter project by Andy McMillan, Carolyn Wood, and Jez Burrows; The Manual is a unique approach to web design literature.

“If I choose, I can load a web–based generator and animate every conceivable CSS3 trick with some dirty copy/past code. But by doing so, I fail to understand exactly what is happening in that process and how I can apply craftsmanship to manipulate the details and in turn create something more thoughtful, nuanced, or even extraordinary.”

— Simon Collison, Maturity and the Weight of Learning from The Manual, Issue One

It's not the step–by–step, how–to guide that you might expect from a publication relating to web design. The Manual is a conversation far deeper than that sad routine. It's philosophical. It's more human. It asks more questions than it provides answers for. The Manual adds value to our profession that I don't feel many other publications do. It reminds me of how much we web designers are responsible for; that this medium we're creating is as fragile and as important as a child's mind and that we must make decisions with wisdom and care. It reminds me to explore.

I think it's worth mentioning that The Manual is also a magnificent looking artifact. The care that went in to its design and creation is ever apparent. I won't rob you of the experience by going into the physical details but I must say that its arrival was quite timely for me, as I've begun to explore the more abstract aspects of my craft.

“Every great story is surrounded by white space of some kind. Blank spaces are powerful. The Author and designer choose not to lay out a page with text to every edge. Its white space is part of the story it tells. What we choose to leave out creates the story.”

— Liz Danzico, Lesson from The Manual, Issue One

You can order a copy of The Manual at alwaysreadthemanual.com and live happily ever after.

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