Mirificam Press Interview Series: Molly E. Holzschlag
June 3rd, 2009 in Web Design Culture
by: Matthew Griffin
It is an exceptional honor to have Molly E. Holzschlag here on Mirificam Press. Molly is a long-time web standards pioneer. She has authored or co-authored over thirty books, one of which is the enormously popular Zen of CSS Design. For years Molly has been a favorite speaker and instructor at conferences all over the world and has been involved in consulting projects with AOL, Yahoo!, BBC, Microsoft.
Molly is currently group lead for the Web Standards Project (WaSP) and an invited expert to the HTML and GEO working groups at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). For Molly's blog and a list of upcoming workshops and conferences, go to Molly.com. Special thanks to Molly Holzschlag for taking the time to answer these questions.
If you could sum up your philosphy of life in just a few sentences, what would you say?
To live authentically and as truthfully as possible. To be empathetic toward others. To own my mistakes, my flaws, my disorders and to work to make myself a better person, a better friend, a better colleague, and to be of service to the betterment of humanity and the beautiful world in
which we live.
Why have you chosen design as your life work?
I didn't choose Web design. It definitely chose me. What keeps me in the field is the passion I feel for the global community, and being able to be a part of that. It's a blessing to do something in life that is joyous and meaningful, even when the work is sometimes very challenging.
What is the purpose of design?
Communication.
Do you think your philosophy about life informs your understanding of the purpose of design? If so how?
Absolutely, because it is only through communication that we can exchange ideas at all. Any way in which we can enhance our abilities to communicate, be it through language, visual expression, symbolism or what have you, the better.
Do you think that design can communicate truth? Is it even important that design communicate truth?
I prefer to think of design as either being authentic or inauthentic. It's important that design communicates the authentic message of what a given product, service or information provider offers.
What is truth?
An authentic articulation of an individual or shared perspective.
Can design right the wrongs of this world? If so, to what extent?
Significantly, yes. I'm reminded of a conference session many years ago presented by my friend and colleague Jeffrey Veen. He was demonstrating simplicity in user experience via the US Department of Agriculture's site for hay. That's right! On one side of the screen, there was a link "Have Hay" and on the other "Need Hay." I thought, HEY! This is brilliant, this is the core of how the Web and the experience we create for those who use it can make a difference. Think "Have food/Need food; Have clean water sources/Need clean water sources; Have medicine/Need medicine and so on. At this level of simplicity, we find an endless range of opportunities to provide solutions to complex human problems. If that can't right some
wrongs in this world, I really don't know what can.
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