Interviews
Happy Cog’s Zeldman gets interviewed. He gets interviewed a lot. No one knows why, least of all Zeldman himself. Nonetheless, there it is. Or rather, here it is:
Zeldman under the Iron
Waffle presents a lengthy interview with Zeldman originally published 13 November 2003.
Lounge 72
Design mag Lounge 72 published an interview with Jeffrey Zeldman on 14 October 2003.
Ultrashock
Craig Grannell of Ultrashock interviews Jeffrey Zeldman about art, inspiration, and designing with web standards. 31 July 2003.
Meet the Makers II
About the Author: Part Two of A Conversation With Jeffrey Zeldman covers “Zeldman’s career leading up to the web, online storytelling, his tools-of-the-trade and survivor guilt, as well as his most popular creations, A List Apart and zeldman.com.” 17 June 2003.
Since1968
Web application developer and computer book author Marc A. Garrett interviews Zeldman about Designing With Web Standards. Questions include: Why did the original title change? How can we bring standards compliance to server side tools? What does the latest news from Microsoft and AOL portend for standards-based design? And more. 17 June 2003.
Webreference.com
The Subject Was Banners: In the WebReference.com newsletter, Andy King interviews “Jeffrey Zeldman on Cause Campaigns.” 17 June 2003.
DMXZone
“We were interested in enhancing our ability to design and in simplifying our jobs.” Well-known accessibility advocate and publisher Bruce Lawson interviews Jeffrey Zeldman about peace, love, and designing with web standards. 11 June 2003.
Meet the Makers
Brian Alvey of Meet the Makers interviews Jeffrey Zeldman about designing with web standards and the book of the same name. The in-depth chat covers the book’s genesis, goals, and approach to its multiple audiences. It makes the business case for standards and examines how designers can persuade clients and managers to hop on board. 7 June 2003.
Older interviews
SXSW Interactive: Tech Report: “Jeffrey Zeldman is not Obsolete.” (12 November 2002)
SitePoint: Tom Cruise, ’zine publishing tips, and lucky little vessels: SitePoint interviews Mister Zeldman. Interview sparklingly conducted by Jeremy Wright, based on questions submitted by SitePoint readers. (8 May 2002)
Builder: Are 99 Percent of All Websites Obsolete? Preconference interview by Tim Haight (7 August 2002)
Wired News: In “Browsing Around For New Targets,” Wired’s Paul Boutin breaks the story of The Web Standards Project’s (WaSP’s) relaunch and discusses the group’s focus on developer education as the key to delivering the true power of standards. Jeffrey Zeldman (group leader) and Tim Bray (co-inventor of XML, WaSP Steering Committee member) speak for the Project. (10 June 2002)
Adobe: Taking Your Talent to the Web: the Adobe interview. “Many of our sites are more beautiful and impressive than they are communicative.” All about the web, the work, and the book we wrote. (July 2001)
CNET News.com: A Web Gadly Makes His Mark. Web—standards–related interview conducted by Paul Festa. Part of a CNET News.com “Newsmakers” series marking the 10th anniversary of the first American web page. (14 December 2001)
Library Journal: On the Same Page. Online version of deluxe print magazine joint interview: “Jeffrey Zeldman and NYPL’s Carrie Bickner discuss standards, XML, and the Digital Divide with Leo Robert Klein.” (1 January 2002)
Credits Magazine: Zeldman interview conducted by Hans van Dijk of skipintro.nl. (October 2001)
WebReview: Taking Your Talent to the Web: an Interview by Molly E. Holzschlag. “Designers are communicators, possessed of an almost magical ability to express ideas at the multiple levels of the individual visual element, the overall page layout, and the narrative flow of visitor movement.” (May 2001)
Eurekaville: Zeldman is honored to have been interviewed in the inaugural issue of Thinking Around the Corners, an arts and letters web ’zine designed and published by Kristian Walker. (5 June 2002)
Lemurzone: pixelview Interview (“behind the screen with independent designers, developers and others”) conducted by Alan Herrel. (14 December 2001)
Internet Business Forum: “A bad site works only one way when it works at all. A good site works exactly as its designers intended, yet I feel it works the way I want it to.” By some fluke, Meryl K. Evans managed to make us sound like we know what we’re talking about in this interview for Internet Business Forum. (March 2001)
Netdiver *Closeups*: “Q. Your work has this unique signature. How does one achieve this? A. Limitations as a graphic designer.” The Netdiver Zeldman interview. (February 2001) [Updated URL]
Design is Kinky: The Zeldman Interview. Wonderful questions about web standards, audience-building, and different approaches to designing for the medium. DIK is a funky design ’zine out of Australia. It’s a pleasure and an honor to be there. “Even if your site is terrible, if it sticks around long enough, it will get some kind of momentum.” (27 August 2000)
Slashdot: Zeldman Bites Back: Classic Slashdot format where community members interview the guest. No holds barred; rough crowd. Some useful tips about web typography and standards. (May 2000)
Adobe Web Center: Gallery: Jeffrey Zeldman: Biography, 1998 portfolio, and interview. “At some point the Web stopped being the medium for my work and the medium became the work itself. The Web is not a place to hang my art. The Web is the art.” (1998)
Speech Therapy: Interview with Jeffrey Zeldman: On the creative process, government regulation, authorship, credibility, and popularity. “Everyone thinks about their traffic. The trick is to look but not stare.” (29 September 2000; URL updated January 2002)
Waferbaby: Cornered: Short ’n sweet, just like you like it. Mostly about web standards. “It’s like the whole web was on eightballs and bourbon, speeding along in a stolen car...” (July 2000)
wrongwaygoback: Interview with Jeffrey Zeldman: On web standards, web awards, and Zeldman’s mystery past. (November 2000)
Digital Web Magazine: A one–on–one interview with Jeffrey Zeldman: “Pure web design,” interactivity, education, and style. “Web makers are enthralled by the medium’s possibilities, like parents watching their children grow. But to most folks, it’s no more intoxicating than a telephone... a slow telephone.” (1999)
Gizmo: HELP!html Magazine: A List Apart Launch: “Beside the mediocrity of my early designs, there were all kinds of subtle problems.” (March 1999)
NewBreed Librarian: Feature Interview: What are web standards? Who benefits? What can site owners do? And what’s this library business all about? (April 2001)
MacSlash: MacSlash reader interview: Maybe the best interview we’ve ever done on web standards; focuses on the WaSP Browser Upgrade campaign.
“We're looking at the difference between browsers that don't support standards worth spit, and those that do. The difference between browsers that don’t support accessibility, that don’t support CSS and the DOM, and those that do. The difference between mud huts and skyscrapers.” (March 2001)
Builder.com: Pre-conference interview: Zeldman on web standards pre–Builder.com 2000 conference. “Q. When will developers be able to work with XML, the DOM, and other Web standards? A. I’m a little more optimistic than Jakob Nielsen, so I'll say 2002.” (December 2000)
XML.COM: Grassroots Enforcers: The Web Standards Project: One on one with Edd Dumbill. Great questions about XML and other standards, and a reasonable explanation of The Web Standards Project’s purpose and perspectives. “The Internet is the fastest–growing economic sector, and it’s being built without a stable foundation.” (10 April 2000)
Newmedia.com: Q&A. On Astounding Websites and The Web Standards Project. “Dickens wrote these great novels satirizing workhouses and the orphanages. Everyone read them and laughed and wept, yet the workhouses and the orphanages continued.” (4 October 2000)
CNET: IE 5.5 angers Web standards advocates: Article by Paul Festa. There are some inaccuracies in this piece, but it’s fairly representative of WaSP coverage in the trade press. (July 2000)
Group Interviews
WebReview: Then, Now, Next: Christopher Schmitt interviews Zeldman, Jakob Nielsen, Todd Purgason, Lynda Weinman, and David Siegel about where the web has been, where it is now, and where it might be going. (1 June 2001)
AHREF.com: Fighting for Standards: An interview with George Olsen, Jeffrey Zeldman, and Steve Champeon at AHREF.com.
Surfstation: XPERT Advice: Designers talk about inspiration. With Todd Purgason, James Widegren, mschmidt, Andrew Johnstone, Johsua Davis, Justin Fox, and many others. “Don’t confuse style with design.” (Summer 2000)
Design Is Kinky: Theory: When Design Doesn't Communicate, Is It Still Design? Group interview with Kalle Everland and Brent Gustafson. (Click “Classics” to view this interview, which is archived inside a frameset.) “Some design WANTS to communicate basic things clearly but fails. That is bad design.” (Summer 2000)
Netscape Center: Writing for the Web (roundtable discussion), with Leslie Harpold, Alexis Massie, Derek Powazek, Shauna Wright. Hosted by Molly Wright Steenson.
“In explanatory copy that guides you through a site—and in longer, technical passages—wit is what helps make the medicine go down.
“Every writer and editor on the web is working in a three–minute pop–song environment. Shorter attention spans need quicker punchlines. Fast, witty, and out. Just because text is serving a utilitarian or technical purpose does not mean it should be, or needs to be, dull.” (August 1998)
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