May 1998: Lisa Lopuck

May 5, 1998

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

"Do one thing and do it well."

Author, teacher, and visual designer, Lisa Lopuck is a well-known expert on user interface design. Prior to the formation of Electravision, a Web development firm in San Francisco, her interactive multimedia career, spanned 10 years and included such companies and clients as the original Apple Multimedia Lab, the George Lucas Educational Foundation, KidSoft, United Nations, PowerTV, and Microsoft. She has designed interfaces for interactive television systems, and created some of the first online entertainment sites.

Lopuck's first book, Designing Multimedia, has been translated into multiple languages. Her second publication, Kid's Web Kit, is a CD-ROM software and book set that steps kids through a fun, animated process of creating their own Web sites. Her latest book, Adobe Net Seminars: Web Page Design, published by Adobe Press, is co-authored with business partner Sheryl Hampton. In addition to writing, speaking, and serving as Creative Director of Electravision, Lisa has taught interactive design at Stanford, UCLA, University of Hawaii, and San Francisco State University. For online examples of Lisa's work, see Suspect (Murder on the High Seas and Dead Birds Don't Sing), Incan Mummies: Searching for Lost Clues >, and CATS: Plans for Perfection.

SBN: How did you get started in Web design?

Lisa Lopuck: I have been involved in interactive media as an art director and user interface designer since 1987, designing CD-ROMs and stand-alone kiosks. In 1993, it was an easy step over to the Web -- although at that time, it felt like a giant step backwards in terms of visual design and user interface limitations.

SBN: What is your background in design?

Lisa Lopuck: Since I could hold a pencil, I have been an illustrator and painter. In college, I applied my fine art and illustration skills to the field of graphic design. While studying design at UCLA, I discovered multimedia and decided to apply my skills to this new, uncharted territory.

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

Lisa Lopuck: As far as I've seen, the market has been great for individual Web designers consulting for a variety of companies. But because most production budgets are tight, no one wants to "pay you to learn." The most important thing you can do for yourself is gain real-world experience either by taking on internships, or by designing your own projects. For instance, find a Web site that needs to be redesigned and redesign it! Then use this before and after example as a hypothetical project in your portfolio. This will give a potential employer a good sense of your design and production capabilities.

Editor's note: See the MSDN Online VolunteerKiosk for opportunities to build your portfolio.

SBN: Describe your creative process.

Lisa Lopuck: When I begin a new Web site design, I begin by asking a lot of questions of the client. Who is the audience? What kind of browser configuration will the end user have? And what are the main goals of the site? Marketing? Information? I then follow up these questions with stylistic questions, asking the client to describe the site they are looking for with adjectives: "modern, clean, visually rich," and so forth. Armed with this information, I begin to look through various design resources, from Web sites to design journals, and begin sketching out different ideas on paper.

SBN: What do you think constitutes great Web design?

Lisa Lopuck: I think Web sites can be judged by not only how well the visual design, user interface design, information structure, and judicious use of technology work together, but also how these things "hit the target" in terms of delivering the intended message to the intended audience.

SBN: What do you do during a typical workday?

Lisa Lopuck: Because I own my own Web design company, a typical day in the life of Lisa Lopuck includes all of the mundane things like making to-do lists, checking email, and returning phone calls, as well as a lot of client and project management tasks, daily business operations, and brainstorming new ideas for books, products, user interface ideas, etc. In between all of this, I also try to block off uninterrupted time chunks for actual creative design work. The most difficult part of each day, however, is balancing mindshare for creative brainstorming, strategic planning, and mundane tactical work.

SBN: As a child, you couldn't have dreamed of designing for the Web. How did you end up working in this field?

Lisa Lopuck: When I was a kid, I never thought that there was a way to make a living as an artist until I met a commercial illustrator. From the moment I saw his studio, I knew what general direction I needed to go in. His advice to me then, and what I like to pass on now, is to do one thing and do it well. I discovered interactive multimedia in college, in 1987, and decided that this was going to be my "one thing that I did well."

SBN: How does designing for the Web differ from other types of design?

Lisa Lopuck: Web design is different from print design in that it is not a linear medium. Designers must understand user interface design and information architecture. Also, just as designing for print requires a working knowledge of offset printing and its associated production techniques, the Web presents its own set of technologies and constraints such as resolution, palettes, and file optimization that Web designers must master.

SBN: What adjustments would a traditional graphic designer need to make in order to enter this field?

Lisa Lopuck: The largest hurdle that I have seen for traditional graphic designers is understanding the Web as a medium. Often times, print designers feel too constricted by the screen size and resolution of Web pages and will ignore these inherent facts. They will design Web pages with elegant, yet too tiny typefaces and interfaces that take on the familiar, yet oversized for the Web, 8.5 x 11 page ratio. Lastly, traditional print designers are not used to dealing with a multi-layered, multi-faceted, dynamic medium. Therefore, traditional designers would do well to study user interface conventions and navigation for interactive media before embarking on a Web design career.

Michael Moore/Microsoft Corporate Photographer