About

I’m Steve McKinney, I write this blog about the design and build of websites. I aim to explore the craft behind web design.

This page is a work in progress

Who is this for?

Either you’re a developer wanting to improve their visual design skills, or a designer with some coding experience. You’re someone who understands the value of not only good design, but the requirement of making it look visually appealing too. Through sharing what I know and continue to learn, I hope to meet this need.

A thing that has always driven my writing is hearing things like “you can’t expect your designs to look the same as they do in design app”. And while that comes from a good place, it’s always struck me as a way to avoid challenges and learning something new.

Changing aim over the years

I made a decision to start writing this blog consistently in January 2015. Every week, for two years, a blog post went out. I started out writing about anything I was interested in, as long as it was related to websites.

It became clear to me over those two years, there was a lack of content focusing on the visual side of design. It’s tough to teach, that’s why, or maybe that’s just me.

As a designer, it’s the thing I aspire to be best at. And having this website as a place to explore and challenge myself. Through an approach where I consider the decisions I’m making—some of these are routine but are valuable.

Eventually, I stopped posting frequently for various reasons. I’ve accepted I’ll always be figuring things out, but with a vision in mind I can work towards my goal. I hope I’ll post regularly again.

About me

I’m a designer for the web based in Manchester. I specialise in visual design and user experience for websites. I enjoy building websites and writing about CSS, outside of just design.

My experience spans agency and in-house, working with a variety of clients in differing industries and differing needs, shops, subscriptions, services and marketing.

As a designer, someone might ask if you have a personal style. I do feel I have a personal style, I enjoy serif typefaces, use of colour, using illustration over photography. However, I will always design for the audience, goals and systems that are already in place with the brand. It’s good to have constraints.

Generally, I think it’s an enjoyment of creating things on the web. Be it icons, animation, illustration, CSS or JavaScript.