November 1998: Tim Sullivan

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November 10, 1998

"Happy clients with successful Web sites are the highlights of my career."

Tim Sullivan, director of Web development for the mid-America region at Verio, says he landed in Web design by a fluke. While working at a hotel in New Orleans's French Quarter, Tim convinced the owner that he needed page on the World Wide Web. He got in touch with a company that had just launched The New Orleans Connection, an online city guide catering to the New Orleans travel and tourism market. During the process of setting up the hotel's site, The New Orleans Connection offered Sullivan a job designing Web sites. When Communiqué, a local ISP, purchased the company, Tim accepted a position and began to build a Web team. "A year later, Communiqué was acquired by Verio, where I stayed on as director of Web development."

"I have been lucky enough to work on some really great projects with very talented people," Tim told Microsoft's Site Builder Network (SBN). "It is the best feeling when the team meshes," Tim added. "The ideas come together, and you learn something in the process." Sullivan also finds it very satisfying to be involved in projects that completely meet or exceed the expectations of Verio's clients. "Happy clients with successful Web sites are the highlights of my career."

As creative director, Tim leads a team effort to create sites for companies such as the Cafe Du Monde Coffee Stand, Ruth's Chris Steak House, BeanieToons.com, and WDSU Channel 6 (NBC). He is especially proud of the work his team did on the Zapp's Potato Chips site.

SBN: What do you use the Web for personally?

Tim Sullivan: I use the Web for information retrieval. If I am looking for a piece of music equipment or a car, I want to be able to go to a Web site and in a few clicks have a brochure and pricing on the way to my mail box, and a list of local dealers printed out. If I can order it online, that's even better. I was over "browsing" a long time ago. The only browsing I do is to check out the Web development competition. I think the Web is the ultimate tool to empower consumers to make smart purchases. Companies that wake up to this notion and make the investment in e-commerce solutions now are going to reap the benefits.

SBN: How can designers create Web sites that people will come back to again and again?

Tim Sullivan: Usability testing shows that people don't read on the Web. People are looking for information and they want to get that information quickly. Use a bullet list or navigation bar instead of a paragraph with links highlighted throughout.

A site has to engage users, give them a reason to delve deeper into the site. Current content is probably the biggest reason for someone to return to a site. While this is probably the most important, it is also the most difficult for the designer to control -- at least for a shop like ours, where we build sites for many different companies, as opposed to a designer who works in-house on one corporate site. We find that a lot of clients go into a project with the best intentions and the highest hopes of a truly dynamic Web presence. It is our job to make them aware of the time investment involved on their part. I always tell potential clients that the first step is to define their team and look at us as a member of that team. A dynamic Web presence requires a commitment on their part for the site to be successful. I am not a banker, but I can build a site for a financial institution with cooperation from their marketing, communications, and IS departments.

SBN: What is great Web design?

Tim Sullivan: I consider a site's design to be great when the site fulfills the needs of the client, the user, and the designer. It is impossible to obtain 100 percent fulfillment on all three counts, but finding the middle ground where they overlap is the key to great Web design.

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

Tim Sullivan: I love it! I think that Macromedia's Fireworks is a brilliant product as well as Microsoft's Visual InterDev™.

SBN: What impact will the new technologies have on fine art?

Tim Sullivan: I think that they are already having a huge impact. There is the obvious impact of unknown artists having an expanded audience through the ability to set up an online gallery and have their work be as accessible as Picasso's. There are also some wonderful Web sites that have become online communities of artists, such as The Mining Co.'s Artists' Exchange. But I think the most exciting impact is the experimental art that is using the technology as the medium. For example, digital sculptures that can only exist as a Web page because of the way the images are layered and held together with HTML or Dynamic HTML. HotWired was doing some amazing stuff along these lines at one time -- although, I must admit, I have not checked in on them lately.

SBN: What subcategories do you see emerging within the field of Web design?

Tim Sullivan: I believe we will see more specialization. It is very difficult for a smaller shop to offer every Web development service under the sun and stay focused enough to be profitable. We are starting to focus more on e-commerce solutions, and will turn away certain types of projects that have shown poor margins in the past. I think it is important to clearly define the business you want to be in. If your clients are demanding services outside of what you do, find strong partners that offer those services.

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

Tim Sullivan: Forget everything you have been taught. I am just kidding. The fundamental principals of design apply no matter what you are designing. It's the technical differences between the two that cause confusion.

We have worked with many designers who have designed our client's print media. At first they have a hard time understanding that we don't care if the image is 600 or 300 dpi, because when we are through with it, it's going to be 72 dpi with a 216-color, browser-safe palette. I think some traditional designers who are interested in the Internet or see the necessity of moving in that direction have taken the time to at least become familiar with the technology, while others have embraced it completely. Every once in a while, I still see a home page that solely consists of a 400K JPEG screen shot of a Quark Xpress page layout.

SBN: What creative tools do you use?

Tim Sullivan: Many of the sites I consider to be my best work started out in my sketchbook. I find a pencil and a piece of paper to be invaluable creative tools. My favorite Web design tool is the team I work with. I have complete confidence that if we put our minds together, there isn't a design problem that we can't solve. It's really fun to work with talented people.

SBN: What will have changed the most in Web use 20 years from now?

Tim Sullivan: I think that it is really hard to comprehend what the Web will become 20 years from now. I think you hit it on the head when you said "the way we use the Web". The interface will be different. In 20 years, computers with unimaginably faster processor speeds will be immersed in everything around us. I believe the Internet will be closer to the vision described in Neal Stephenson's novel Snow Crash than anything that remotely compares to the Web today. In the novel, the Net has evolved into a virtual world where people have grabbed real estate and set up homes and offices. Once you are jacked in, your physical being is represented by an avatar, and people go online to conduct business or go on dates. All you need is a computer, a connection, and a pair of goggles -- and you are in another world. The book's main character is living in a crappy little warehouse, but on the Net, he has a lavish home and office.

SBN: Where do you look for inspiration?

Tim Sullivan: Everywhere I can -- friends, family, music, art, and the Verio Web development team I work with.

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

Tim Sullivan: Work, work, work. I would take a position somewhere as an intern, if possible. I would try to find a team whose work I admired and that seemed willing to share their knowledge in exchange for my blood, sweat, and tears.

Michael Moore/Microsoft Corporate Photographer