As my fellow colleague designer Goran Peuc wrote in his recent article, the web industry understanding gap between experts in the field and the rest of us is growing exponentially. He was right when he said that it is very difficult to apply the user-centric approach and the general industry knowledge on a client’s project within short time-span of two or three months (why yes, that’s fairly short for a serious UX work).

It takes time to educate companies. Even if you could educate them, that will not change the company culture. In most companies even the in-house web experts are fighting against windmills most of the time.

We, the people in web industry are extremely passionate. That’s why we are pushing so hard to bring the best possible results to our employers or clients.

However, if we didn’t receive enough affection and recognition back, we would feel exhausted and tired. Of course, a pat on the back is not enough. We really need to see the result of our effort. If we had done our part the best we could, we would have expected no less from other parties involved in the process.

I’m just speculating here, but it could be that the primary reason for leaving companies and client work has something to do with the outcomes that — despite all our efforts — didn’t turn exactly as we planned.

Being your own boss means having the whole process under your control and opportunity to apply an insane level of obsession over the tiniest details, a typical tendency of top experts in the field. I wonder what would happen if all the best of breed experts started building their own brands.

A major shift perhaps?

There has been a lot of talk about mobile first web design last year (2011). We had many great presentations and books by industry leaders about the core concepts and the big picture on the web. I’ll try to fill-in the gap with some practical tips when designing for mobile. Read more »