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The Latest on Front-End Architecture

Wednesday July 5, 2006 / 6 Comments

The deeper I delve into front-end architecture, answer e-mails about it, and discuss with numerous people, the more value I see in bringing attention to the poor practices that are currently deemed acceptable.

Front-end architecture is about taking a more informed and holistic approach to creating user experiences. It’s not limited simply to technical implementation details, but also encompasses the softer topics of design, usability, accessibility, and more. It’s about considering and respecting all different aspects of the user experience to create not only better experiences, but systems that are easier to maintain, enhance, and extend.

If things have been a little quiet around here, it’s due to the amount of time I’m investing in refining and illustrating my thoughts in preparation for a deluge of information around front-end architecture. In the coming weeks and months, I’ll be working to go further in depth via several avenues.

Among these avenues, there will be a much more extensive 3-part series of articles published in the coming months at Digital Web as well as a session on front-end architecture for Web Visions, the Webmaster Jam Session here in Dallas, and the July 13th Refresh Dallas meeting. With any luck, this is all simply the beginning of a better way to build the next generation of online experiences, and we’ll all be able to reap the rewards of better code and more seamless experiences.

Featured Stuff - Resources: Wireframes & Page Description Diagrames

Omnigraffle and Visio versions of the wireframe templates and stencils I use on all of my projects. There’s even a few examples included for good measure. More about Wireframe & Page Description Diagram Stencils and Templates

I’ll be intersted to see to what degree of expertise you expect a “Front End Architect” to have in each of these disciplines.

While I agree there should be someone owning the overall solution from this perspective, I would (depending on the size of the project) be concerned if you expect the FEA to be the guiding light for all areas. Just like a Technical Lead needs to be educated in database priciples, he still may need a specialized DBA to handle the details.

Thinking way back to days at Sapient, we had a role called a Creative Lead (separate from a Creative Director). The Creative Lead’s job was really to be a project manager for the creative team. This was often quite disastrous as they rarely were qualified to be PMs, but what they really could do and did some of was FEA type stuff—more in the trenches than a Creative Director who might be 10 or 20% allicated to a project, but more leading and less doing.

russ

Russ – I completely believe that specialists are necessary in many cases. My focus is more based on the fact that specialists aren’t as suited to make higher level decisions.

For instance, many Markup/CSS specialists don’t know the first thing about DOM Scripting, but they could hack something together. However, that doesn’t mean they will make the most appropriate decisions on which technology is better suited for a given piece of functionality. Generally, they will be biased to stick with the technology they are more comfortable with.

That may mean they use CSS hover’s to accomplish something that’s more appropriate through scripting, or they might not recognize accessibility or design limitations of their solution. For that purpose, someone needs to have a better conceptual understanding of the different technologies.

Garrett

Garrett, I’m all ears and will tuning in to what you have to say in the coming months. Unfortunately, since I’m not in Dallas anymore, I won’t be able to hear your talk at the Refresh Dallas meeting, so any notes or presentation materials you’ll have would be good to get a hold of.

chuck

Chuck – I’ll definitely be putting everything online, possibly even creating a mini-site with all of the information.

Garrett

Garrett,

Looking forward to it – I enjoyed your last article regarding the Front End Architect.

Jeff L

I’m excited to read all about it. Your article of a few months ago on the subject really got me inspired to get learning. It’s funny because I used to wonder about the weirdos who get all excited about accessibility. Now after a few months I find I am one of them! I’m not by any means great at it (my own site is still a mess!) but I get over-the-top excited by accessibility challenges. Thanks for sharing.

Jennifer

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