Flashes of Panic

Let me say, right up front, I like what I do. If I wanted to boil it down, my job is to take various company requests ("We'd like to do X, Y and Z") which have a technical component, figure out how to make it happen, then do it. I should also point out that I enjoy the "figure out how" more than the "do it" part.

So I find it particularly frustrating that I couldn't deliver on the new website design. A few months ago, they dropped a paper mock-up on my desk. I had a lot of other jobs passing through, so I worked on it here and there, but only in the last few days did I finally get a grip on it. And I just couldn't do it.

Now, I know that looks an awful lot like it's done. Assuming, of course, that you've got a screen resolution greater than 800x600px, and you're not using Mac OS 9, nor Netscape 4.x, nor IE of any version on a Mac. See what I'm getting at? There's technology to solve all the problems I faced (8-bit alpha transparency in a graphic? No problem... if you're not using IE. Something else? No problem... if you're not using Safari.) It became a "pick four out of five" situation for any change they wanted. And ultimately, I'm going to have to take most of the code I wrote to make this move, and junk it.

I challenged myself to make it look good on any browser, at (nearly) any resolution. I failed, and I'm frustrated with that.