Designing With Web Standards, 2nd Edition Web development book by Jeffrey Zeldman Designing with Web Standards, first published in 2003 with revised editions in 2007 and 2009, is a web development book by Jeffrey Zeldman. The book’s audience is primarily web development professionals who aim to produce design work that complies with web standards. The work is used as a textbook in over 85 colleges. Summary[edit] Written by Jeffrey Zeldman, a leading proponent of standards-compliant web design, Designing with Web Standards guides the reader on how to better utilize web standards pragmatically to create accessible, user-friendly web sites. The book first came out in 2003,[2] and appeared in two revised editions, one in 2007,[3] and another, co-authored with Ethan Marcotte, in 2009.[4] Also in 2009, a companion volume appeared from the same publisher under the title Developing with Web Standards, written by John Allsopp.[5] Critique[edit] The book’s third and most recent edition was released on October 25, 2009, by New Riders Press.
Pushing the boundaries of web design. The ultimate user interfac Designers by nature love to change things. If they aren’t dropping caps to suit a design, they are trying to push the boundaries of what the browser can do. I’ve recently been involved in a project that has needed some different looks for standard user interface elements such as forms. While I wouldn’t normally condone such activity (from a usability point of view, its a bad idea to change standard UI elements) sometimes graphic designers need “appeased.” (read “shut up”). JQuery related I looooove jquery. JNice JNice takes us to a fancy form, with fancy dropdowns. Load Content While Scrolling Demo: If you ever wondered how DZone or WikiSearch manage to allow continuous scrolling, then this is the snippet of Jquery for you. Interface Elements for JQuery Demo Page:
Learning from "bad" UI When Gruber first linked the TripLog/1040 UI by Stevens Creek, I wasn’t kind either. Bright colors, controls seemingly placed at random. It was the opposite of what designers strive for in our circles. The first charge against TripLog is “clutter,” that there’s too much on the screen at once. What does speed have to do with clutter? The trade-offs between elements adjacent in space versus stacked in time are always in the mind of a UI designer. So did Patt put too many elements adjacent in space on one screen when he should have separated them out in time? To answer that we should pull ourselves out of the computer and sink our feet firmly in the customer’s shoes. They want to log miles they just droveThey want to double-check that they logged a recent trip The first is obvious. There’s a very simple reason, which we know because we’ve been selling our Athlete’s Diary software for logging a different kind of mileage for nearly 20 years. Half the time people want to add new entries.
Web Form Design Patterns: Sign-Up Forms, Part 2 | How-To Advertisement Last week we have presented first findings of our web forms survey1. The main objective of the survey was to provide designers and developers with some intuition of how effective web forms are designed; we also presented some guidelines of how an effective and user-friendly web form can be achieved. We have focused on sign-up forms as we wanted to consider further crucial forms (e.g. checkout forms) separately. Please notice that this post is not about checkout forms — that’s a topic for another discussion, we may consider them separately in one of the upcoming posts. 3. In the first part of our research we have considered the placement of the sign-up links and sign-up forms as well as on the visual appearance of forms. 3.1. Apparently, to improve form completion rates designers try to avoid all kind of distractions and offer a clear, unambiguous and simple web form. 3.2. 3.3. If hints and help appear, they appear… 3.4. According to our research, 3.5. 3.6. 3.7. 3.8. 3.9.
10 Useful Techniques To Improve Your User Interface Designs | Ho Advertisement Web design consists, for the most part, of interface design. There are many techniques involved in crafting beautiful and functional interfaces. Here’s my collection of 10 that I think you’ll find useful in your work. They’re not related to any particular theme, but are rather a collection of techniques I use in my own projects. Without further ado, let’s get started. 1. Links (or anchors) are inline elements by default, which means that their clickable area spans only the height and width of the text. Obviously, the larger the clickable area is, the easier it is to click on the link because there is less of a chance of missing it. Make sure to also add a healthy dose of padding to the links, because converting a link into a block only affects its behavior and width; adding padding ensures that the link is high enough and has some room to breathe. 2. Attention to every detail is what separates a great product from a mediocre one. 3. All the text is set in black. 4. 5. 6. 7.
Forbes misses the point of the 4-day work week There’s a piece in Forbes called Why A Four-Day Work Week Doesn’t Work that suggests: But there are serious drawbacks. Packing 40 hours into four days isn’t necessarily an efficient way to work. Many people find that eight hours are tough enough; requiring them to stay for an extra two could cause morale and productivity to decrease. As for saving on the cost of commuting, it likely isn’t true. The article is right: More hours in fewer days is not an efficient way to work. The point of the 4-day work week is about doing less work. Besides, very few people work even 8 hours a day. Fewer official working hours help squeeze the fat out of the typical work week. So don’t think 4 days means cramming the same amount of time a shorter week.
Web 2.0 how-to design style guide In this tutorial, I describe various common graphic design elements in modern web “2.0” design style. I then attempt to explain why they work (i.e. why they have become common), as well as how, when and where you might use each element in your designs. It follows on from my Current Style article, and analyses in greater depth the design features of the current “Web 2.0” design style. To learn how to design Web2.0 sites yourself, you must read “Save the Pixel – The Art of Simple Web Design”, which is a comprehensive guidebook to the principles and techniques of Web2.0 design. Summary of Best Web Design Features The list below is a summary of many of the common features of typical “Web 2.0” sites. Clearly, a site doesn’t need to exhibit all these features to work well, and displaying these features doesn’t make a design “2.0” – or good! I’ve already addressed some of these factors in my introductory Current Style article. Best Website Design? Web 2.0 ?! Best Web Design Features 1. When? Always! 2.
Data Visualization: Modern Approaches | Graphics | Smashing Maga An exploration of the Highrise Edit Contacts Screen By Jason Zimdars, designer at 37signals This screen is used to make changes to the contact information for people and companies in your Highrise contact list. In the previous article (our exploration of the Basecamp Account Screen) we explored a variety of broad concepts then narrowed and refined to a solution. The original screen The previous version of the edit contacts screen had several areas that we thought could be better. Blank Slates The overall direction for this exploration was discovered pretty early in the process. When a user is completing a form, empty fields feel like failure. Another issue with exposing all the fields at once: The field outlines and shapes make it a bit harder to see, at a glance, which fields are filled in and which aren't. The blank slates also gave us the opportunity to add a little more copy about what the field is for when needed. In the end, we decided simple was best, but here are some directions we looked at for the blank slate. Flow Add a contact
12 Steps to Creating a Professional Web Design | Web Site Design Blog Before we share some of the necessary steps used to create a professional web design and website, the following question must be addressed: What constitutes a "professional web design"? More often than not, a web designer or web design company claims to offer professional web design services for their clients. However, should they be promoting "web design services" rather than "professional web design services"? When measuring the professionalism of a web design and website, one must take into consideration a number of factors/steps: To put it simply, what separates professional web design from web design is whether or not a designer or web design company takes into consideration the above items when designing and building a website. The good news is, you don't need to hire a professional web design company or professional web designer if you want a professional web design and website. As a supplemental resource, visit our H2O Playlist on Professional Web Design. Let's get started.
10 Backgrounds that Could Make Your Website Look Like the New En While searching the Web for our Webdesign Trend Hunting series, we’ve discovered a new small trend that could go bigger in the next few weeks – the blurry light bubbles background used by the new Envato website. And if the biggest inspirational web network isn’t enough for you, take a look at the new Opera website. So, if you like ‘em and want to be among the firsts who spot and use the new hype, we’ve made a roundup of 10 backgrounds in the same style. Sparkling Dots | $3 | Buy A nice layered package with amazing backgrounds, available in 5 colors Light Effect | $4 | Buy Hight quality abstract backgrounds contain 2 groups, one with 10 and the other one with 20 color variations Spring Abstract | $2 | Buy An abstract background depicting the freshness of spring – and the related nature rejuvenation. 3200 X 2400 at 150 dpi – layered and named for easier editing Web 2.0 Background Pack | $2 | Buy 8 different backgrounds 8 full layered Photoshop files Very easy add/change colors.