A designer's lament

I live in a dream world apparently. A world where everybody is a mac user and everybody uses Firefox or Safari. Everyone adheres to WC3 standards, everyone who designs a website understands the concepts of form, function and color theory. I have far too much faith in people. I had an interview yesterday at a health management company and I met with their design team; all of three people. I walk in with my Macbook pro and I see an ugly Sony Vaio sitting on the table. Apparently their Internet will only work on their computers. Not only was this a PC, it was using Internet Explorer 5 or 6. My website was rendered ugly and useless. So okay, this fraction of the company is designing for the various number of affiliates and subsidiaries that the company serves. Even before I jumped onto the PC, I had a sinking feeling that the company did really awful, template looking design. By all means, please go to the company’s website phmc.org".

With a website like that, one would wonder what their design department does for other clients. So let us take a step back and see why I’m annoyed. #1: These designers are using PC’s. Now I know that photoshop on the PC does the same thing that it does on the mac, however, for years the designer’s platform has been mac. It’s what we used in school, and we little fledgling designers were told that a serious design studio will use macs. Go to any design school in the country; if they use PC’s, run far far away. #2: The particular computer I used was using, Internet Explorer. IE is the BANE of my existence. Microsoft helped to develop the W3C standards, yet their programs do not support them. My website has valid css according to the W3C, so why doesn’t IE realize that? The reason why it’s not even on my computer is because Microsoft stopped making it for Mac quite some time ago. #3: Look at their website.

Even if this job was offered to me, I doubt I would accept. Working on a PC makes me feel dirty. Designers that use a PC are few and far between. Often they scare me a little. If you want to use a system with dark, dull colors, and a plethora of viruses and security flaws, please go ahead. We can’t be friends.

If you’re going to use a PC, for the love of god, use Firefox or Safari! Or at least, UPGRADE YOUR VERSION OF IE!!! IE 7 improves upon it’s crappy older siblings somewhat. Think of it this way. Say you have the choice of two cars to buy. Any version of IE is a run down, rusty, near exploding, clunky, gas guzzling mini van that might fall apart at any moment (most PC’s match this description too). Firefox and Safari are brand new, shiny, beautifully made BMW’s (Macs are like that too!) Both are free. Which would you rather drive?

PC loyalists would give me a laundry list of reasons why I’m wrong, but I don’t care. I hate what Microsoft stands for and why they think they can create products that are so far below the quality of other comparable products.