tobyx.com

November, 1999.
By Molly E. Holzschlag. (Link to original article.)

If you think you're too cool for school, think again. A visit to the pages available from Tobias Horvath's personal page will get Web designers rethinking their entire MOs.

Horvath has a real eye for color, space, shape, and type. His graphic images are well optimized. He's a careful developer, taking time to make sure his code is nice and clean. Cross-platform design is important to him, and even when he uses a technology specific to a browser, he ensures that his pages still look good and function well for other browsers. He's a philosopher, too, encouraging his site visitors to "think" about their design work before leaping into the fray.

Tobias Horvath is a great designer. Tobias Horvath is 16.

Figure 1. Horvath has a real eye for color, space, shape, and type.

An enthusiastic young man from Germany, I had the good fortune of meeting "Toby" on one of the Web design newsgroups on MSN's Web Design Community. I saw a post asking for a site critique, so I followed the link to give my critique. I was enjoying the design work a great deal, but I definitely did not expect to get to Toby's bio and see his very young face smiling back at me.

I emailed him and asked him about his background. Did he study art in school? Where did he learn computer technology? In my mind, this kid had to have some major influence. He just knows too much! But the fact is that he's working against all odds, with no support from his school. He's done all of this on his own. His eye for design is completely and truly a gift.

"Looking into my crystal ball, I see a very bright future for this talented young man."

Getting to know Toby better, we talked about tools. Imagine my Adobe-centric surprise to hear he uses Corel to design his graphics! He likes Adobe stuff, but it's too expensive for his young wallet, naturally. He's a fan of Flash and Dreamweaver and likes to hand-code, too.

Smart guy.

Figure 2. Horvath is working against all odds, with no support from his school.

Toby offers up some Web design wisdom on his site. The site is incredibly well organized, broken into five sections including commentary on layout, content, and the imagination. Toby has some great advice to designers. I particularly like this one:

"Don't use stupid colors, for example, dark gray on black."

You gotta love it! Another of his sites—a fan site for one of his favorite TV shows—is simply an awesome visual experience, with rich colors, fantastic type and layout, and easy navigation.

Figure 3. The site is incredibly well organized, broken into five sections including commentary on layout, content, and the imagination.

I'm going to rate his site design pages rather than any of his individual sites. Overall, Toby gets a five from me. He does everything right. The one place he loses a point is in content, and that's only because for his English-language sites, his grammar and spelling need a bit of tidying. Important, but totally forgivable, as Toby isn't a native English speaker.

Looking into my crystal ball, I see a very bright future for this talented young man. I remain in awe and inspired by his young presence in the world—and on the World Wide Web.

critic's rating

Usability
Navigation
Graphic design
Content
Compatibility
Load time
Functionality
Overall

designer's interview

Molly: What was your role in creating the site?

Horvath: Well, I do everything myself. I design the site, and I maintain it.

Molly: How did you plan the design and functionality of the site?

Horvath: Actually, I don't plan anything. I create some graphics and after that I think about how to use them on my site. At this point, it's very important to think about cross-browser compatibility and different operating systems. Usually, I find a way to make my sites visible for most people.

Molly: What did you have to leave out of the design that you would have liked to include?

Horvath: I had to leave out some DHTML aspects, because Netscape doesn't support that like Internet Explorer does, and I want to be cross-browser compatible.

Molly: What feature on the site are you most proud of?

Horvath: Maybe the Web Design area.

Molly: Is there anything you'd change on the site now that it's live?

Horvath: Yes, the home page. I don't like it myself.

Molly: What was the most important lesson or tip you learned while building this site that you'd pass on to other Web builders?

Horvath: Learn HTML yourself. Don't always rely on WYSIWYG editors.

Molly: What's your favorite Web site?

Horvath: MSDN Online.

Molly: What was your background before becoming involved with Web site design and development?

Horvath: The truth is that I had no background. I'm only a teenager.

Molly: When you're not busy building sites, what do you enjoy doing?

Horvath: Reading and watching TV.