August 1998: Peta Thurling

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August 4, 1998

The following article was originally published for the Site Builder Network Workshop (now MSDN Online Web Workshop.)

"Be able to argue your reasons for all aspects of your design."

Peta Thurling is the senior graphic designer at Axis Media Group , one of Australia's leading digital business consultants. Her design experience encompasses a variety of design environments. She has worked for How Graphic Design, focusing on print and packaging; contracted to Tarragon Training International, producing graphics and illustrations for interactive training delivered via CD-ROM; and worked free-lance for Trovato Design in print artwork production for Qantas International timetables and the Qantas "Star Quarterly," an intranet magazine. At Signature Productions, Peta created multimedia presentations, speaker support presentations, and illustrations. Later, at Blue Sky Design, she produced annual reports, corporate brochures, and multimedia design for Director and the Web. She has produced corporate identities on a free-lance basis and has been involved in the production of large format exhibition and exposition displays.

At Axis Media Group, Peta works on what she describes as "Internet/extranet/intranet/software component interface design and production." As the team leader for the design and content creation team, Peta is responsible for the management of the studio. A career in Web site interface design was not a calculation, but more a matter of circumstance; it was the first job Peta interviewed for after completing her studies at the Design Centre in Sydney, Australia. Peta says she sees the Internet as "a fantastic opportunity for design. I feel Internet site design liberates me from delivery limitations generally experienced by traditional designers -- including the lengthy copy approval process, and the 'set in stone' nature of the printing process."

SBN: What are some of the highlights of your design career?

Peta Thurling: Every day, this is a fabulous job to have. Any day you are made aware that the client is proud of the design is a good day. I am a sucker for this. I really enjoy teaching something meaningful to junior designers Kirsty Fleeton and Nicole Morgan in studio. Workwise, some highlights have been working with AMG on the Sydney Futures Exchange Web site , the Hoeschst Marion Roussel intranet, and current design and production with Hannan Interactive/BBC Hardwarehouse on the BBC Hardwarehouse Web site -- soon to be released! I also work with charity sites each year, such as Netday Oz -- a site dedicated to organizing computer and Internet access for Australian children in their schools. Working on the AMG product design, Editio©, an intra/inter/extra/net publishing system, using Microsoft Word was a great experience. It is great to be involved in the production of products! Winning college prizes was a buzz. I created the Sydney Institute of Technology Libraries bookmark design, and my TAFE cover design was purchased. Working with the Blue Sky Design team on anything is always a fantastic experience. It's a great studio.

SBN: What is your latest, most satisfying Web achievement?

Peta Thurling: The Sydney Futures Exchange site has just been referred to by Australian "internet.au" magazine as "darn impressive." It has been altered since delivery -- a new linked SYCOM area, additional animated gifs on the right-hand side of the index page, and in some other areas of the site. Basically the site remains as delivered, though. The site makes use of the Axis Media Group's Editio©, which allows users to "publish" Microsoft Word documents to specific areas of their site through a designed content maintenance system. The site features lots of interactive items: Java (hand signal calculator, timeline of events, calculators, and so on), Shockwave (educational tutorials), digitized and manipulated video, and so on. It was a huge job.

SBN: What do you think is at the heart of the best current Web design, and how can digital design be improved?

Peta Thurling: The key is intuitive and succinct communication with users. This includes the high-quality technical production of images for the Web, an understanding of any target constraints prior to the design process, fast download, and an Internet user's approach regarding delivery of the design. The design industry is a large area with great options, rather than a closed set of specialist areas. I would like to incorporate traditional design delivery with digital delivery. Corporate identity, for example, should be a complete solution, encompassing digital delivery of the corporate identity. It is not enough to supply traditional stationary artwork. A Web site, PowerPoint or Acrobat templates, digital logo/logotype with Web-safe color identification, and so on are all aspects of the broader design solutions that will have to be addressed by all designers in the very near future. I see Web site design as being taken into the fold by enterprising designers. I spoke with a senior designer at one point who protested, "No, we will not touch Web site design!" and announced that its life span would be very limited. I think that attitude is folly. The Internet is here to stay.

SBN: If you were starting out to become a Web designer today, what would you do?

Peta Thurling: Study design. Have fun. Learn to use tools properly. Learn HTML and basic JavaScript. Do not trust WYSIWYG editors implicitly, as you will have to rationalize the implementation of your design to other people, including clients and IT departments. The perspective of these colleagues is to produce a quality product that is easy to make and efficient. A design or designer who makes their jobs difficult will not impress them. Be able to argue your reasons for all aspects of your design. Read quality Web design literature and utilize any available quality resources. Investigate technical restrictions, then question and push those restrictions. There are varied design workplaces. Web designers can work as in-house designers for large Web production companies, work for design groups that are contracted to produce Web design, or work as free-lance designers. Find a workplace that is good for your creativity and happiness, with good people as colleagues. Be prepared to work hard.

SBN: What creative tools do you use?

Peta Thurling: I like to use my hands as much as possible, as I think that drawing is a very personal way to design for the Web. I use Adobe Streamline to quickly transform line art to vector-based graphics. This is great fun -- and as a style, it has really been fostered by the development of applications, such as Macromedia Flash, where vector graphics can be resized to any browser resolution. I also use Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Quark, Macromedia Director, HomeSite for HTML coding, Adobe Premiere for video sampling, Alias Sketch occasionally for 3-D modeling, and GifBuilder for GIF animation. Mainly Photoshop and Illustrator for Web graphic preparation.

SBN: What do you think of the current state of Web design technology?

Peta Thurling: Current applications for the production of Web graphics are fabulous. Adobe Illustrator 7 was revolutionary in facilitating the use of RGB color within Illustrator files, so there is no more laying down Web-safe color pixel by pixel in Photoshop for one-off graphics. Having said that, the new editable text available under Photoshop 5 is very exiting. Generally, all of the applications that we use are fabulous when compared to versions available in 1993. Every time I am in danger of taking our tools for granted, a young child or non-user sits down at the application and has so much fun that I have to say, "Wow, I am so lucky to be using such tools on a daily basis." Tools such as these allow designers to clearly demarcate a "design" time and produce Web graphics cleanly and effectively, which creates more design time.

SBN: Do you have a preferred screen resolution?

Peta Thurling: Our target audience tends to be settling itself at a preference for 800x600 pixels. Personally, I don't think 640x480 screen resolution ever did justice to Web designs. Unfortunately, until recently it was the norm for our client specifications. It is a creative release to now be able to target the larger screen size. However, our definitive rule is the client-approved specifications; if this happens to be 640x480, then so be it. I believe it's really important to optimize wherever possible for the lowest possible denominator. To accommodate this, rather than have a color bar at the top of a Web page that is a graphic 700 pixels wide with a client logo ranged right, I'll use a background image that is 1024 wide and a logo graphic aligned right in a table that will adjust positionally according to user monitor settings. The AMG IT staff runs their monitors at 1024x768. Luckily, my pet hate is background images that "run out" or tile -- I think this saves me from being carried off by a lynch mob into the depths of the office, never to return.

SBN: Where does your inspiration come from?

Peta Thurling: Everywhere. The Internet is a public communication area, and is influenced by all media. When researching for a site, I generally start with client resources (visual guidelines, marketing material, etc), and then surf sites that are representative of the same industry to see what not to do as well as what works for that target audience. In ideal situations, we have a team brainstorming session, drawing on imagination, books, design resources, and so forth. Everything.

SBN: Describe your creative process.

Peta Thurling: First, I establish an accurate brief. Quite often, clients do not provide a structured brief. In this case, I take a verbal brief and create an appropriate written brief for the client to approve and sign off as accurate. I like the client to provide feedback as to what they do and do not like by having the client surf industry sites, as a lot of clients do not have an exhaustive idea of what is actually possible when delivering a Web site. Clients must feel confident that the solution presented to them is drawn from appropriate known possibilities. In effect, continuous research is required.

Next -- deadline allowing -- the design team will brainstorm for a period to highlight design possibilities, and sketch roughs arrived at through discussion of ideas. In most cases, my work load means that there are a couple of days leeway -- while working on sites that are in the production stage -- to be thinking about the new site design -- at home, on the train, before sleeping. My brain tends to sneak up on me. Once, a design woke me at 2 A.M. The roughs -- as Photoshop comps -- were finished by 4:30 A.M.

The next stage is to draw up thumbnail roughs on paper. Generally, navigation devices are indicated on the rough, but further explored by sketching. Roughs and design devices (navigation elements, button styles, and so forth) are scanned and colored in Photoshop for presentation via our client extranet. This is often used instead of color runouts, as it is convenient for delivery and is part of facilitating client use of the Web. This also requires preparing a written rationale as part of the design deliverable, as the design May not always be presented personally.

SBN: Do you conduct usability tests?

Peta Thurling: We spend time testing under a variety of browsers as a production release process, and generally test under a variety of platforms and browsers during site production in order to keep an eye out for anything strange. Educating users to accept testing as part of a production budget is a relatively new thing; however, the Axis Media Group emphasizes the importance of internal and user acceptance testing as a vital part of its methodology. Where budget allows, testing is undertaken under various controlled situations, with bug reporting sheets, etc.

SBN: Do you have any thoughts on the social or cultural implications of Web design?

Peta Thurling: The implications for cross-pollination are grand! I get really excited receiving feedback from a "surfer" or colleague from another country. With a greater basis for comparison on the Web, design and functionality standards are forced higher, as no one is able to dictate design style, or design in a vacuum. Another fab benefit of the global nature of Web design is that individuals like me who have a really hard time not travelling regularly are able to stay in touch with places in our hearts. I've been visiting Denmark's Louisiana Gallery Web site regularly since visiting it in person in May. Without getting sentimental about it, it means that you are still very much in touch -- presuming the site in question is updated regularly.

SBN: What do you think will be the biggest change in the way we use the Web 20 years from now?

Peta Thurling: I've heard talk of a new "phoneless" mobile phone that plugs straight into your portable computer for modem hookup. It's a short step to William Gibson's flat plastic rollup computer monitors that we sling over shoulders in tubes and unroll at the beach, anywhere on a whim. I can't wait! So much of what he foresees is happening.

Michael Moore/Microsoft Corporate Photographer