There are probably not a lot of people who can say that they are in their occupation of choice because of a dare. At least not an occupation that isn’t life threatening. I, however, am a Web designer as a direct result of a dare.

It was the mid-’90s. I had just graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology with a major in advertising/graphic design. I spent many evenings seeing local bands play at dive bars like the Continental and The Bitter End in NYC. Designing websites? Learning and writing code? Those are thoughts that never crossed my mind.

At this time, the Internet was just becoming accessible to everyone. Websites were pretty awful visually. Most were basically Word documents with an exorbitant amount of blinking animated GIFs accessed through a Web browser. Despite this, these sites were also a great way for bands to promote themselves. Fan sites were all the rage among teens and even tweens. Looking back, it was probably only a matter of time before someone asked me to design their band website. When that time came, I laughed in my friend’s face. So, he dared me.

I’m not one to give into a dare but it did make me think. And then research. And then start coding. It turns out coding is actually not really complicated. Once I learned the syntax, I found writing code to be primarily common sense. Who would have guessed?

Fast-forward 20 years. I’m the Senior Web Designer of 20/20. I spent the last year designing and redesigning our new website 2020mag.com until it finally became something that I am proud to say I designed.

There are quite a few things that you’ll notice as soon as the website opens. Most obviously, feature stories are prominently displayed on the homepage. Once you navigate to one of these features, you’ll see the images are considerably larger with increased clarity. Photographs have always been an important part of what 20/20 is about, and now the website reflects that. All of our product pages are now accessible on the website, not just through the digital edition. There is a more robust Education section called Pro to Pro as we’ve integrated the Opticians’ Handbook into the 20/20 website. Lastly, the website is now mobile friendly.

Go ahead and have a look… I dare you.

•Julie A. Zidel
Senior Web Designer
[email protected]