There’s not much here.

Just words.

And you’re reading them.

We’ve become obsessed with fancy designs, responsive layouts, and scripts
that do magical things.

But the most powerful tool on the web is still words.

I wrote these words, and you’re reading them: that’s magical.

I’m in a little city in British Columbia; you’re probably somewhere else.
I wrote this early in the morning, June 20th, 2013; you’re reading it at a
different time. I wrote this on my laptop; you could be reading this on
your phone, a tablet or a desktop.

You and I have been able to connect because I wrote this and
you’re reading it. That’s the web. Despite our
different locations, devices, and time-zones we can connect
here, on a simple HTML page.

I wrote this in a text editor. It’s 6 kB. I didn’t need a Content
Management System, a graphic designer, or a software developer. There’s
not much code on this page at all: just simple markup for paragraphs,
hierarchy, and emphasis.

I remember teaching my daughter to code HTML when she was 8. The first
thing she wrote was
a story about a squirrel. She
wasn’t “writing HTML”;
she was sharing something with the world. She couldn’t
believe that she could write a story on our home computer, and then
publish it for the world to see. She didn’t care about HTML; she cared
about sharing her stories.

You are still reading.

Think about all the things you could communicate with a simple page like
this. If you’re a businessperson, you could sell something. If you’re a
teacher, you could teach something. If you’re an artist, you could show
something you’ve made.
And if your words are good, people will read them.

If you’re a web designer, I challenge you to think about the words first.
Instead of starting with a style guide or a Photoshop mockup,
start with words on a page.

What do you have to say? If you don’t know,