Articles syndiqués tirés de ce site

In Defense of Eye Candy

Avril 2009, par nospam@example.com (Stephen P. Anderson)

Research proves attractive things work better. How we think cannot be separated from how we feel. The next time a boss, client, or co-worker scoffs at the notion that beauty is an important aspect of interface design, point their peepers (…)

Real Fonts on the Web : An Interview with The Font Bureau’s David Berlow

Avril 2009, par nospam@example.com (David Berlow), nospam@example.com ( Jeffrey Zeldman)

Is there life after Georgia ? We ask David Berlow, co-founder of The Font Bureau, Inc, and the first TrueType type designer, how type designers and web designers can work together to resolve licensing and technology issues that stand between us and real fonts on the (…)

Findings from the Web Design Survey, 2008

Avril 2009, par nospam@example.com (ALA Staff)

If we, the people who make websites, want the world to know who we are and what we do, it’s up to each of us to stand up and represent. This year, 30,055 of you did just that, taking time out of your busy work day to answer the detailed questions in the second A List Apart Survey. Find out what (…)

Coaching a Community

Mars 2009, par nospam@example.com (Laura Brunow Miner)

A key to running successful « social networking sites » is to remember that they’re just communities. All communities, online or off, have one thing in common : members want to belong—to feel like part of something larger than themselves. Communicating effectively, setting clear and specific (…)

The Elegance of Imperfection

Mars 2009, par nospam@example.com (David Sherwin)

Asymmetry, asperity, simplicity, modesty, intimacy, and the suggestion of a natural process : these attributes of elegant design may seem relevant only to a project’s aesthetics. But the most successful web designs reflect these considerations at every stage, from idea to finished product. Bring (…)

The Elements of Social Architecture

Mars 2009, par nospam@example.com (Christina Wodtke)

While our designs can never control people, they can encourage good behavior and discourage bad. In this excerpt from Information Architecture : Blueprints for the Web 2d Edition, Christina Wodtke tells us how to make products that delight people and change their lives by remembering the social (…)

Fluid Grids

Février 2009, par nospam@example.com (Ethan Marcotte)

How awesome would it be if you could combine the aesthetic rigor and clarity of fixed-width, grid-based layouts with the device- and screen size independence and user-focused flexibility of fluid layouts ? Completely awesome, that’s how awesome. And with a little cunning and a tad of easy math, (…)

In Defense of Readers

Février 2009, par nospam@example.com (Mandy Brown)

As web designers, we concern ourselves with how users move from page to page, but forget the needs of those whose purpose is to be still. Learn the design techniques that create a mental space for reading. Use typographic signals to help users shift from looking to reading, from skimming along (…)

Filling Your Dance Card in Hard Economic Times

Février 2009, par nospam@example.com (Pepi Ronalds)

In space no one can hear you scream, and in a global economic meltdown, no industry—not even web design—is safe. But as a web designer, your skills and products are suited to ride out hard times, as long as you stay busy. Learn the seven steps to (relative) security in good times or bad : 1. (…)

The Details That Matter

Janvier 2009, par nospam@example.com ( Kevin Potts)

We no longer lay out pages with composing sticks and straight edges, and design is no longer a trade position requiring a lengthy apprenticeship, but an eye for details is every bit as important today as it was in the early days of graphic arts. Learn the habits of successful designers, who (…)

Advanced Debugging with JavaScript

Janvier 2009, par nospam@example.com (Chris Mills), nospam@example.com (Hallvord R. M. Steen)

JavaScript debuggers help find and squash errors in code. To become an advanced debugger, you’ll need to know about the tools available to you, the typical JavaScript debugging workflow, and code requirements for effective debugging. In this article, using a sample web application, Steen and (…)

Elevate Web Design at the University Level

Janvier 2009, par nospam@example.com (Leslie Jensen-Inman)

Web education is out of date and fragmented. There are good people working hard to change this, but because of the structure of higher education, it will take time. As part of a year-long journey to discover where we are in web education and where we need to go, Leslie Jensen-Inman interviewed (…)

Brighter Horizons for Web Education

Janvier 2009, par nospam@example.com (Aarron Walter)

No industry can sustain itself if it doesn’t master the art of cultivating new talent—an art that requires close ties between practitioners and educators. Yet web design education consists mainly of introductory Flash classes and the occasional 90s-style HTML table layout tutorial. How drastic (…)

Semantics in HTML 5

Janvier 2009, par nospam@example.com ( John Allsopp)

The BBC’s dropping of hCalendar because of accessibility and usability concerns demonstrates that we have pushed the semantic capability of HTML far beyond what it can handle. The need to clearly and unambiguously add rich, meaningful semantics to markup is a driving goal of the HTML 5 project. (…)

Return of the Mobile Style Sheet

Janvier 2009, par nospam@example.com (Dominique Hazaël-Massieux)

At least 10% of your visitors access your site over a mobile device. They deserve a good experience (and if you provide one, they’ll keep coming back). Converting your multi-column layout to a single, linear flow is a good start. But mobile devices are not created equal, and their disparate (…)

The Discipline of Content Strategy

Décembre 2008, par nospam@example.com (Kristina Halvorson)

It’s time to stop pretending content is somebody else’s problem. If content strategy is all that stands between us and the next fix-it-later copy draft or beautifully polished but meaningless site launch, it’s time to take up the torch—time to make content matter. Halvorson tells how to (…)

Content-tious Strategy

Décembre 2008, par nospam@example.com (Jeffrey MacIntyre)

Every website faces two key questions : 1. What content do we have at hand ? 2. What content should we produce ? Answering those questions is the domain of the content strategist. Alas, real content strategy gets as little respect today as information architecture did in 1995. MacIntyre defines (…)

Getting Real About Agile Design

Novembre 2008, par nospam@example.com (Cennydd Bowles)

Agile development was made for tough economic times, but does not fit comfortably into the research-heavy, iteration-focused process designers trust to deliver user- and brand-based sites. How can we update our thinking and methods to take advantage of what agile (…)

Flexible Fuel : Educating the Client on IA

Novembre 2008, par nospam@example.com (Keith LaFerriere)

IA is about selling ideas effectively, designing with accuracy, and working with complex interactivity to guide different types of customers through website experiences. The more your client knows about IA’s processes and deliverables, the likelier the project is to (…)

A More Useful 404

Novembre 2008, par nospam@example.com (Dean Frickey)

When broken links frustrate your site’s visitors, a typical 404 page explains what went wrong and provides links that may relate to the visitor’s quest. That’s good, but now you can do better. With Dean Frickey’s custom 404, when something’s amiss, pertinent information is sent not only to the (…)

This is How the Web Gets Regulated

Novembre 2008, par nospam@example.com ( Joe Clark)

As in finance, so on the web : self-regulation has failed. Nearly ten years after specifications first required it, video captioning can barely be said to exist on the web. The big players, while swollen with self-congratulation, are technically incompetent, and nobody else is even trying. So (…)

Progressive Enhancement with JavaScript

Novembre 2008, par nospam@example.com ( Aaron Gustafson)

Our introductory series on progressive enhancement and the ways it can be implemented concludes with a look at the mindset needed to implement PE in JavaScript, and a survey of best practices for doing so.

Writing Content that Works for a Living

Octobre 2008, par nospam@example.com ( Erin Kissane)

Most web copy is still being written by people who aren’t writers and don’t have time. The good news ? Anyone who touches copy can make a difference by insisting that every chunk of text on the site do something concrete.

Working From Home : The Readers Respond

Octobre 2008, par nospam@example.com (Our Gentle Readers)

We asked. Our gentle readers answered. In A List Apart No. 263 we inquired how you walk the blurry line when you work from home. Here are your secrets—how to balance work and family, maintain energy and focus, get things done, and above all, how to remember the (…)

Progressive Enhancement with CSS

Octobre 2008, par nospam@example.com ( Aaron Gustafson)

Organize multiple style sheets to simplify the creation of environmentally appropriate visual experiences. Support older browsers while keeping your CSS hack-free. Use generated content to provide visual enhancements, and seize the power of advanced selectors to create wondrous (or amusing) (…)

Ten Years

Octobre 2008, par nospam@example.com ( Jeffrey Zeldman)

When Google was little more than a napkin sketch and the first dot-com boom was not even a blip, we started a magazine for people who make websites. Celebrate A List Apart’s first decade. Join Zeldman for a look back at the way we were—and why we were that way. Find out what we’ve done and who (…)

Understanding Progressive Enhancement

Octobre 2008, par nospam@example.com ( Aaron Gustafson)

Steven Champeon turned web development upside down, and created an instant best practice of standards-based design, when he introduced the notion of designing for content and experience instead of browsers. In part one of a series, ALA’s Gustafson refreshes us on the principles of progressive (…)

Test-Driven Progressive Enhancement

Septembre 2008, par nospam@example.com (Scott Jehl)

Starting with semantic HTML, and layering enhancements using JavaScript and CSS, is supposed to create good experiences for all. Alas, enhancements still find their way to aging browsers and under-featured mobile devices that don’t parse them properly. What’s a developer to do ? Scott Jehl makes (…)

Web Standards 2008 : Three Circles of Hell

Septembre 2008, par nospam@example.com (Molly E. Holzschlag)

Q. Why did the semantic web cross the road ? A. @#$% you. Standards promised to keep the web from fragmenting. But as the web standards movement advances in several directions at once, and as communication between those seeking to advance the web grows fractious, are our standards losing their (…)

Zebra Striping : More Data for the Case

Septembre 2008, par nospam@example.com (Jessica Enders)

As designers or marketers, we share a desire that our tables and forms be easy to scan, read, and use. Does the widely practiced shading of alternate rows help, hurt, or have no effect ? A previous study proving inconclusive, designer and researcher Jessica Enders has tackled the conundrum (…)

Look at it Another Way

Septembre 2008, par nospam@example.com (Indi Young)

Before you can solve a user’s problems, you must see them as that user sees them. Once you understand what drives people’s behavior, not only do new ideas flow freely, but the ideas that flow are appropriate and useful. Indi Young tells how to get out of your own way and hear what your users are (…)

CSS Sprites2 - It’s JavaScript Time

Août 2008, par nospam@example.com ( Dave Shea)

In 2004, Dave Shea took the CSS rollover where it had never gone before. Now he takes it further still—with a little help from jQuery. Say hello to hover animations that respond to a user’s behavior in ways standards-based sites never could before. Hide Your Shame : The A List Apart Store (…)

Mapping Memory : Web Designer as Information Cartographer

Août 2008, par nospam@example.com (Aaron Rester)

The rise of the social web demands that we rethink our traditional role as builders of digital monuments, and turn our attention to the close observation of the spaces that our users are producing around us. It’s time for a new metaphor. Consider cartography. Hide Your Shame : The A List (…)

Deafness and the User Experience

Août 2008, par nospam@example.com (Lisa Herrod)

Because of limited awareness around Deafness and accessibility in the web community, it seems plausible to many of us that good captioning will fix it all. It won’t. Before we can enhance the user experience for all deaf people, we must understand that the needs of deaf, hard of hearing, and (…)

Putting Our Hot Heads Together

Août 2008, par nospam@example.com (Carolyn Wood)

The web is a conversation, but not always a productive one. Web discussions too often degenerate into whines, jabs, sour grapes, and one-upmanship. How can we transform discussion forums and comment sections from shooting ranges into arenas of collaboration ? Hide Your Shame : The A List (…)

The Survey, 2008

Juillet 2008, par nospam@example.com (ALA Staff)

Calling all designers, developers, information architects, project managers, writers, editors, marketers, and everyone else who makes websites. It is time once again to pool our information so as to begin sketching a true picture of the way our profession is practiced worldwide. Hide Your (…)

How Do You Walk the Line Between Work and Home ? Share Your Best Practices With ALA

Juillet 2008, par nospam@example.com (ALA Staff)

Tell us how you overcome isolation, distractions, and temptation. How you deal with kids and deadlines. How you walk the blurry line between work and home. Share your best practices on working from home so we can present them in an upcoming issue of A List Apart. Hide Your Shame : The A (…)

Walking the Line When You Work from Home

Juillet 2008, par nospam@example.com (Natalie Jost)

Working from home as a freelance contractor or remote employee can be a great thing, particularly if you live alone. But what if you have a spouse and/or children at home with you while you work ? Every work environment offers distractions, but those who work from home with their families face a (…)

Getting Out of Binding Situations in JavaScript

Juin 2008, par nospam@example.com (Christophe Porteneuve)

Every wonder who you really are ? Congratulations ! You have a lot in common with JavaScript. Learn once and for all how to train your JavaScript to remember who it is and what it’s doing. Hide Your Shame : The A List Apart Store and T-Shirt Emporium is back. Hot new designs ! Old favorites (…)

Collaborate and Connect with Subversion

Juin 2008, par nospam@example.com (Ryan Irelan)

Managing subcontractors and distributed projects is easy and fun. No wait, that’s a lie. Luckily, a good version control may be just what you need to keep your projects on track. Hide Your Shame : The A List Apart Store and T-Shirt Emporium is back. Hot new designs ! Old favorites remixed ! (…)