{"rowid": 102, "title": "Art Directing with Looking Room", "contents": "Using photographic composition techniques to start to art direct on the template-driven web.\n\nThink back to last night. There you are, settled down in front of the TV, watching your favourite soap opera, with nice hot cup of tea in hand. Did you notice \u2013 whilst engrossed in the latest love-triangle \u2013 that the cameraman has worked very hard to support your eye\u2019s natural movement on-screen? He\u2019s carefully framed individual shots to create balance.\n\nThink back to last week. There you were, sat with your mates watching the big match. Did you notice that the cameraman frames the shot to go with the direction of play? A player moving right will always be framed so that he is on the far left, with plenty of \u2018room\u2019 to run into.\n\nBoth of these cameramen use a technique called Looking Room, sometimes called Lead Room. Looking Room is the space between the subject (be it a football, or a face), and the edge of the screen. Specifically, Looking Room is the negative space on the side the subject is looking or moving. The great thing is, it\u2019s not just limited to photography, film or television; we can use it in web design too.\n\nBasic Framing\n\nBefore we get into Looking Room, and how it applies to web, we need to have a look at some basics of photographic composition.\n\nMany web sites use imagery, or photographs, to enhance the content. But even with professionally shot photographs, without a basic understanding of framing or composition, you can damage how the image is perceived. \n\nA simple, easy way to make photographs more interesting is to fill the frame. \n\nTake this rather mundane photograph of a horse:\n\n\n\nA typical point and click affair. But, we can work with this.\n\nBy closely cropping, and filling the frame, we can instantly change the mood of the shot.\n\n\n\nI\u2019ve also added Looking Room on the right of the horse. This is space that the horse would be walking into. It gives the photograph movement.\n\nSubject, Space, and Movement\n\nGenerally speaking, a portrait photograph will have a subject and space around them. Visual interest in portrait photography can come from movement; how the eye moves around the shot. To get the eye moving, the photographer modifies the space around the subject.\n\nLook at this portrait:\n\n\n\nThe photography has framed the subject on the right, allowing for whitespace, or Looking Room, in the direction the subject is looking. The framing of the subject (1), with the space to the left (2) \u2013 the Looking Room \u2013 creates movement, shown by the arrow (3).\n\n\n\nNote the subject is not framed centrally (shown by the lighter dotted line).\n\nIf the photographer had framed the subject with equal space either side, the resulting composition is static, like our horse.\n\n\n\nIf the photographer framed the subject way over on the left, as she is looking that way, the resulting whitespace on the right leads a very uncomfortable composition.\n\n\n\nThe root of this discomfort is what the framing is telling our eye to do. The subject, looking to the left, suggests to us that we should do the same. However, the Looking Room on the right is telling our eye to occupy this space. The result is a confusing back and forth.\n\nHow Looking Room applies to the web\n\nWe can apply the same theory to laying out a web page or application. Taking the three same elements \u2013 Subject, Space, and resulting Movement \u2013 we can guide a user\u2019s eye to the elements we need to. As designers, or content editors, framing photographs correctly can have a subtle but important effect on how a page is visually scanned. Take this example:\n\n\n\nThe BBC homepage uses great photography as a way of promoting content. Here, they have cropped the main photograph to guide the user\u2019s eye into the content. \n\nBy applying the same theory, the designer or content editor has applied considerable Looking Room (2) to the photograph to create balance with the overall page design, but also to create movement of the user\u2019s eye toward the content (1)\n\n\n\nIf the image was flipped horizontally. The Looking Room is now on the right. The subject of the photograph is looking off the page, drawing the user\u2019s eye away from the content. Once again, this results in a confusing back and forth as your eye fights its way over to the left of the page.\n\n\n\nA little bit of Art Direction\n\nArt Direction can be described as the act or process of managing the visual presentation of content. Art Direction is difficult to do on the web, because content and presentation are, more often than not, separated. But where there are images, and when we know the templates that those images will populate, we can go a little way to bridging the gap between content and presentation.\n\nBy understanding the value of framing and Looking Room, and the fact that it extends beyond just a good looking photograph, we can start to see photography playing more of an integral role in the communication of content. \n\nWe won\u2019t just be populating templates. We\u2019ll be art directing.\n\nPhoto credits: \n\n\n\tPortrait by Carsten Tolkmit\n\tHorse by Mike Pedroncelli", "year": "2008", "author": "Mark Boulton", "author_slug": "markboulton", "published": "2008-12-05T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2008/art-directing-with-looking-room/", "topic": "design"}
{"rowid": 148, "title": "Typesetting Tables", "contents": "Tables have suffered in recent years on the web. They were used for laying out web pages. Then, following the Web Standards movement, they\u2019ve been renamed by the populous as `data tables\u2019 to ensure that we all know what they\u2019re for. There have been some great tutorials for the designing tables using CSS for presentation and focussing on the semantics in the displaying of data in the correct way. However, typesetting tables is a subtle craft that has hardly had a mention.\n\nTable design can often end up being a technical exercise. What data do we need to display? Where is the data coming from and what form will it take? When was the last time your heard someone talk about lining numerals? Or designing to the reading direction?\n\nTables are not read like sentences\n\nWhen a reader looks at, and tries to understand, tabular data, they\u2019re doing a bunch of things at the same time.\n\n\n\tGenerally, they\u2019re task based; they\u2019re looking for something.\n\tThey are reading horizontally AND vertically\n\n\nReading a table is not like reading a paragraph in a novel, and therefore shouldn\u2019t be typeset in the same way. Designing tables is information design, it\u2019s functional typography\u2014it\u2019s not a time for eye candy.\n\nTypesetting tables\n\nTypesetting great looking tables is largely an exercise in restraint. Minimal interference with the legibility of the table should be in the forefront of any designers mind.\n\nWhen I\u2019m designing tables I apply some simple rules:\n\n\n\tPlenty of negative space\n\tUse the right typeface\n\tGo easy on the background tones, unless you\u2019re giving reading direction visual emphasis\n\tDesign to the reading direction\n\n\nBy way of explanation, here are those rules as applied to the following badly typeset table.\n\nYour default table\n\nThis table is a mess. There is no consideration for the person trying to read it. Everything is too tight. The typeface is wrong. It\u2019s flat. A grim table indeed.\n\n\n\nLet\u2019s see what we can do about that.\n\nPlenty of negative space\n\nThe badly typeset table has been set with default padding. There has been little consideration for the ascenders and descenders in the type interfering with the many horizontal rules.\n\nThe first thing we do is remove most of the lines, or rules. You don\u2019t need them \u2013 the data in the rows forms its own visual rules. Now, with most of the rules removed, the ones that remain mean something; they are indicating some kind of hierarchy to the help the reader understand what the different table elements mean \u2013 in this case the column headings.\n\n\n\nNow we need to give the columns and rows more negative space. Note the framing of the column headings. I\u2019m giving them more room at the bottom. This negative space is active\u2014it\u2019s empty for a reason. The extra air in here also gives more hierarchy to the column headings.\n\n\n\nUse the right typeface\n\nThe default table is set in a serif typeface. This isn\u2019t ideal for a couple of reasons. This serif typeface has a standard set of text numerals. These dip below the baseline and are designed for using figures within text, not on their own. What you need to use is a typeface with lining numerals. These align to the baseline and are more legible when used for tables.\n\n\n\nSans serif typefaces generally have lining numerals. They are also arguably more legible when used in tables.\n\nGo easy on the background tones, unless you\u2019re giving reading direction visual emphasis \n\nWe\u2019ve all seen background tones on tables. They have their use, but my feeling is that use should be functional and not decorative.\n\nIf you have a table that is long, but only a few columns wide, then alternate row shading isn\u2019t that useful for showing the different lines of data. It\u2019s a common misconception that alternate row shading is to increase legibility on long tables. That\u2019s not the case. Shaded rows are to aid horizontal reading across multiple table columns. On wide tables they are incredibly useful for helping the reader find what they want.\n\n\n\nBackground tone can also be used to give emphasis to the reading direction. If we want to emphasis a column, that can be given a background tone.\n\n\n\nHierarchy\n\nAs I said earlier, people may be reading a table vertically, and horizontally in order to find what they want. Sometimes, especially if the table is complex, we need to give them a helping hand.\n\nVisually emphasising the hierarchy in tables can help the reader scan the data. Column headings are particularly important. Column headings are often what a reader will go to first, so we need to help them understand that the column headings are different to the stuff beneath them, and we also need to give them more visual importance. We can do this by making them bold, giving them ample negative space, or by including a thick rule above them. We can also give the row titles the same level of emphasis.\n\n\n\nIn addition to background tones, you can give emphasis to reading direction by typesetting those elements in bold. You shouldn\u2019t use italics\u2014with sans serif typefaces the difference is too subtle.\n\nSo, there you have it. A couple of simple guidelines to make your tables cleaner and more readable.", "year": "2007", "author": "Mark Boulton", "author_slug": "markboulton", "published": "2007-12-07T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2007/typesetting-tables/", "topic": "design"}
{"rowid": 183, "title": "Designing For The Switch", "contents": "For a long time on the web, we\u2019ve been typographically spoilt. Yes, you heard me correctly. Think about it: our computers come with web fonts already installed; fonts that have been designed specifically to work well online and at small size; and fonts that we can be sure other people have too. \n\nYes, we\u2019ve been spoilt. We don\u2019t need to think about using Verdana, Arial, Georgia or Cambria. \n\nYet, for a long time now, designers have felt we needed more. We want to choose whatever typeface we feel necessary for our designs. We did bad things along the way in pursuit of this goal such as images for text. Smart people dreamt up tools to help us such as sIFR, or Cuf\u00f3n. Only fairly recently, @font-face is supported in most browsers. The floodgates are opening. It really is the dawn of a new typographic era on the web. And we must tread carefully. \n\nThe New Typesetters \n\nMany years ago, before the advent of desktop publishing, if you wanted words set in a particular typeface, you had to go to a Typesetter. A Typesetter, or Compositor, as they were sometimes called, was a person whose job it was to take the written word (in the form of a document or manuscript) and \u2018set\u2019 the type in the desired typeface. The designer would chose what typeface they wanted \u2013 and all the ligatures, underlines, italics and whatnot \u2013 and then scribble all over the manuscript so the typesetter could set the correct type.  \n\nThen along came Desktop Publishing and every Tom, Dick and Harry could choose type on their computer and an entire link in the typographic chain was removed within just a few years. Well, that\u2019s progress I guess. That was until six months ago when Typesetting was reborn on the web in the guise of a font service: Typekit. \n\nTypekit \u2013 and services like Typekit such as Typotheque, Kernest and the upcoming Fontdeck \u2013 are typesetting services for the web. You supply them with your content, in the form of a webpage, and they provide you with some JavaScript to render that webpage in the typeface you\u2019ve specified simply by adding the font name in your CSS file. \n\nThanks to services like these, font foundries are now talking to create licensing structures to allow us to embed fonts into our web pages legally \u2013 which has always been a sticking point in the past. So, finally, us designers can get what we want: whatever typeface we want on the web. \n\nYes, but\u2026 there are hurdles. One of which is the subject of this article. \n\nThe differences between Web Fonts and other fonts \n\nWeb fonts are different to normal fonts. They differ in a whole bunch of ways, from loose letter spacing to larger x-heights. But perhaps the most notable practical difference is file size. Let\u2019s take a look at one of Typekit\u2019s latest additions from the FontFont library, Meta. \n\nMeta Roman weighs in at 42 KB. This is a fairly typical file size for a single weight of a good font. Now, let\u2019s have a look at Verdana. Verdana is 186 KB. For one weight. The four weight family for Verdana weighs in at 686 KB. Four weights for half a megabyte!? Why so huge? \n\nWell, Verdana has a lot of information packed into its 186 KB. It has the largest hinting data table of any typeface (the information carried by a font that tells it how to align itself to the pixels on your screen). As it has been shipped with Microsoft products since 1996, it has had time to grow to support many, many languages. Along with its cousin, Georgia (283 KB), Verdana was a new breed of typeface. And it\u2019s grown fat.  \n\nIf really serious web typography takes off \u2013 and by that I mean typefaces specifically designed for the screen \u2013 then we\u2019re going to see more fonts increase in file size as the font files include more data. So, if you\u2019re embedding a font weighing in at 100 KB, what happens? \n\nThe Flash of Unstyled Text \n\nWe all remember the Flash of Unstyled Content bug on Internet Explorer, right? That annoying bug that caused a momentary flash of unstyled HTML page. Well, the same thing can happen with embedding fonts using @font-face. An effect called The Flash of Unstyled Text (FOUT), first coined by Paul Irish. Personally, I prefer to call it the Flash of UnTypeset Text (still FOUT), as the text is styled, just not with what you want. \n\nIf you embed a typeface in your CSS, then the browser will download that typeface. Typically, browsers differ in the way they handle this procedure. \n\nFirefox and Opera will render the text using the next font in your font stack until the first (embedded) font is loaded. It will then switch to the embedded font. \n\nWebkit takes the approach that you asked for that font so it will wait until it\u2019s completely loaded before showing it you. \n\nIn Opera and Firefox, you get a FOUT. In Webkit, you don\u2019t. You wait. \n\nHang on there. Didn\u2019t I say that good web fonts weigh in considerably more than \u2018normal\u2019 fonts?   And whilst the browser is downloading the font, the user gets what to look at? Some pictures, background colours and whatever else isn\u2019t HTML? I believe Webkit\u2019s handling of font embedding \u2013 as deliberate as it is \u2013 is damaging to the practice of font embedding. Why? Well, we can design to a switch in typeface (as jarring as that is for the user), but we can\u2019t design to blank space. \n\nLet\u2019s have a closer look at how we can design to FOUT. \n\nMore considered font stacks \n\nWe all know that font stacks in CSS are there for when a user doesn\u2019t have a font; the browser will jump to the next one in the stack. Adding embedded fonts into the font stack means that because of FOUT (in gecko and Opera), the user can see a switch, and depending on their connection that switch could happen well into any reading that the user may be doing. \n\nThe practicalities of this are that a user could be reading and be towards the end of a line when the paragraph they are reading changes shape. The word they were digesting suddenly changes to three lines down. It\u2019s the online equivalent of someone turning the page for you when you least expect it. So, how can we think about our font stacks slightly differently so we can minimise the switch? \n\nTwo years ago, Richard Rutter wrote on this very site about increasing our font stacks. By increasing the font stacks (by using his handy matrix) we can begin to experiment with different typefaces. However, when we embed a typeface, we must look very carefully at the typefaces in the font stack and the relationship between them. Because, previously, the user would not see a switch from one typeface to another, they\u2019d just get either one or the other. Not both. With FOUT, the user sees two typefaces. \n\nBy carefully looking at the characteristics of the typefaces you choose, you can minimise the typographic \u2018distance\u2019 between the type down the stack. In doing so, you minimise the jarring effect of the switch. \n\nLet\u2019s take a look at an example of how to go about this.  \n\nMicro Typography to build better font stacks \n\nLet\u2019s say I want to use a recent edition to Typekit \u2013 Meta Serif Book \u2013 as my embedded font. My font stack would start like this: \n\nfont-family: 'Meta Serif Bold'; \n\nWhere do you go from here? Well, first, familiarise yourself with Richard\u2019s Font Matrix so you get an idea of what fonts are available for different people. Then start by looking closely at the characters of the embedded font and then compare them to different fonts from the matrix. \n\nWhen I do this, I\u2019m looking to match type characteristics such as x-height, contrast (the thickness and thinness of strokes), the stress (the angle of contrast) and the shape of the serifs (if the typeface has any). \n\n\n\nUsing just these simple comparative metrics means you can get to a \u2018best fit\u2019 reasonably quickly. And remember, you\u2019re not after an ideal match. You\u2019re after a match that means the switch is less painful for the reader, but also a typeface that carries similar characteristics so your design doesn\u2019t change too much. \n\nBuilding upon my choice of embedded font, I can quickly build up a stack by comparing letters. \n\n\n\nThis then creates my \u2018best fit\u2019 stack. \n\n\n\nThis translates to the CSS as: \n\nfont-family: 'Meta Serif Bold', 'Lucida Bright', Cambria, Georgia, serif \n\nFollowing this process, and ending up with considered font stacks, means that we can design to the Flash of UnTypeset Content and ensure that our readers don\u2019t get a diminished experience.", "year": "2009", "author": "Mark Boulton", "author_slug": "markboulton", "published": "2009-12-16T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2009/designing-for-the-switch/", "topic": "design"}
{"rowid": 72, "title": "Designing with Contrast", "contents": "When an appetite for aesthetics over usability becomes the bellwether of user interface design, it\u2019s time to reconsider who we\u2019re designing for.\nOver the last few years, we have questioned the signifiers that gave obvious meaning to the function of interface elements. Strong textures, deep shadows, gradients \u2014 imitations of physical objects \u2014 were discarded. And many, rightfully so. Our audiences are now more comfortable with an experience that feels native to the technology, so we should respond in kind.\nYet not all of the changes have benefitted users. Our efforts to simplify brought with them a trend of ultra-minimalism where aesthetics have taken priority over legibility, accessibility and discoverability. The trend shows no sign of losing popularity \u2014 and it is harming our experience of digital content.\n\nA thin veneer\nWe are in a race to create the most subdued, understated interface. Visual contrast is out. In its place: the thinnest weights of a typeface and white text on bright color backgrounds. Headlines, text, borders, backgrounds, icons, form controls and inputs: all grey.\nWhile we can look back over the last decade and see minimalist trends emerging on the web, I think we can place a fair share of the responsibility for the recent shift in priorities on Apple. The release of iOS 7 ushered in a radical change to its user interface. It paired mobile interaction design to the simplicity and eloquence of Apple\u2019s marketing and product design. It was a catalyst. We took what we saw, copied and consumed the aesthetics like pick-and-mix.\nNew technology compounds this trend. Computer monitors and mobile devices are available with screens of unprecedented resolutions. Ultra-light type and subtle hues, difficult to view on older screens, are more legible on these devices. It would be disingenuous to say that designers have always worked on machines representative of their audience\u2019s circumstances, but the gap has never been as large as it is now. We are running the risk of designing VIP lounges where the cost of entry is a Mac with a Retina display.\nMinimalist expectations\nLike progressive enhancement in an age of JavaScript, many good and sensible accessibility practices are being overlooked or ignored. We\u2019re driving unilateral design decisions that threaten accessibility. We\u2019ve approached every problem with the same solution, grasping on to the integrity of beauty, focusing on expression over users\u2019 needs and content. \nSomeone once suggested to me that a client\u2019s website should include two states. The first state would be the ideal experience, with low color contrast, light font weights and no differentiation between links and text. It would be the default. The second state would be presented in whatever way was necessary to meet accessibility standards. Users would have to opt out of the default state via a toggle if it wasn\u2019t meeting their needs. A sort of first-class, upper deck cabin equivalent of graceful degradation. That this would divide the user base was irrelevant, as the aesthetics of the brand were absolute. \nIt may seem like an unusual anecdote, but it isn\u2019t uncommon to see this thinking in our industry. Again and again, we place the burden of responsibility to participate in a usable experience on others. We view accessibility and good design as mutually exclusive. Taking for granted what users will tolerate is usually the forte of monopolistic services, but increasingly we apply the same arrogance to our new products and services.\n\nImitation without representation\nAll of us are influenced in one way or another by one another\u2019s work. We are consciously and unconsciously affected by the visual and audible activity around us. This is important and unavoidable. We do not produce work in a vacuum. We respond to technology and culture. We channel language and geography. We absorb the sights and sounds of film, television, news. To mimic and copy is part and parcel of creating something an audience of many can comprehend and respond to. Our clients often look first to their competitors\u2019 products to understand their success.\nHowever, problems arise when we focus on style without context; form without function; mimicry as method. Copied and reused without any of the ethos of the original, stripped of deliberate and informed decision-making, the so-called look and feel becomes nothing more than paint on an empty facade.\nThe typographic and color choices so in vogue today with our popular digital products and services have little in common with the brands they are meant to represent.\n\nFor want of good design, the message was lost\nThe question to ask is: does the interface truly reflect the product? Is it an accurate characterization of the brand and organizational values? Does the delivery of the content match the tone of voice?\nThe answer is: probably not. Because every organization, every app or service, is unique. Each with its own personality, its own values and wonderful quirks. Design is communication. We should do everything in our role as professionals to use design to give voice to the message. Our job is to clearly communicate the benefits of a service and unreservedly allow access to information and content. To do otherwise, by obscuring with fashionable styles and elusive information architecture, does a great disservice to the people who chose to engage with and trust our products.\nWe can achieve hierarchy and visual rhythm without resorting to extreme reduction. We can craft a beautiful experience with fine detail and curiosity while meeting fundamental standards of accessibility (and strive to meet many more).\nStandards of excellence\nIt isn\u2019t always comfortable to step back and objectively question our design choices. We get lost in the flow of our work, using patterns and preferences we\u2019ve tried and tested before. That our decisions often seem like second nature is a gift of experience, but sometimes it prevents us from finding our blind spots.\nI was first caught out by my own biases a few years ago, when designing an interface for the Bank of England. After deciding on the colors for the typography and interactive elements, I learned that the site had to meet AAA accessibility standards. My choices quickly fell apart. It was eye-opening. I had to start again with restrictions and use size, weight and placement instead to construct the visual hierarchy.\nEven now, I make mistakes. On a recent project, I used large photographs on an organization\u2019s website to promote their products. Knowing that our team had control over the art direction, I felt confident that we could compose the photographs to work with text overlays. Despite our best effort, the cropped images weren\u2019t always consistent, undermining the text\u2019s legibility. If I had the chance to do it again, I would separate the text and image.\nSo, what practical things can we consider to give our users the experience they deserve?\nPut guidelines in place\n\nThink about your brand values. Write down keywords and use them as a framework when choosing a typeface. Explore colors that convey the organization\u2019s personality and emotional appeal.\nDefine a color palette that is web-ready and meets minimum accessibility standards. Note which colors are suitable for use with text. Only very dark hues of grey are consistently legible so keep them for non-essential text (for example, as placeholders in form inputs).\nFind which background colors you can safely use with white text, and consider integrating contrast checks into your workflow.\nUse roman and medium weights for body copy. Reserve lighter weights of a typeface for very large text. Thin fonts are usually the first to break down because of aliasing differences across platforms and screens.\nCheck that the size, leading and length of your type is always legible and readable. Define lower and upper limits. Small text is best left for captions and words in uppercase.\nAvoid overlaying text on images unless it\u2019s guaranteed to be legible. If it\u2019s necessary to optimize space in the layout, give the text a container. Scrims aren\u2019t always reliable: the text will inevitably overlap a part of the photograph without a contrasting ground.\n\nTest your work\n\nReview legibility and contrast on different devices. It\u2019s just as important as testing the layout of a responsive website. If you have a local device lab, pay it a visit.\nFind a computer monitor near a window when the sun is shining. Step outside the studio and try to read your content on a mobile device with different brightness levels. \nAsk your friends and family what they use at home and at work. It\u2019s one way of making sure your feedback isn\u2019t always coming from a closed loop.\n\nPush your limits\n\nYou define what the user sees. If you\u2019ve inherited brand guidelines, question them. If you don\u2019t agree with the choices, make the case for why they should change.\nExperiment with size, weight and color to find contrast. Objects with low contrast appear similar to one another and undermine the visual hierarchy. Weak relationships between figure and ground diminish visual interest. A balanced level of contrast removes ambiguity and creates focal points. It captures and holds our attention.\nIf you\u2019re lost for inspiration, look to graphic design in print. We have a wealth of history, full of examples that excel in using contrast to establish visual hierarchy.\nEmbrace limitations. Use boundaries as an opportunity to explore possibilities.\n\nMore than just a facade\nDesigning with standards encourages legibility and helps to define a strong visual hierarchy. Design without exclusion (through neither negligence or intent) gets around discussions of demographics, speaks to a larger audience and makes good business sense. Following the latest trends not only weakens usability but also hinders a cohesive and distinctive brand.\nUsers will make means when they need to, by increasing browser font sizes or enabling system features for accessibility. But we can do our part to take as much of that burden off of the user and ask less of those who need it most.\nIn architecture, it isn\u2019t buildings that mimic what is fashionable that stand the test of time. Nor do we admire buildings that tack on separate, poorly constructed extensions to meet a bare minimum of safety regulations. We admire architecture that offers well-considered, remarkable, usable spaces with universal access.\nPerhaps we can take inspiration from these spaces. Let\u2019s give our buildings a bold voice and make sure the doors are open to everyone.", "year": "2015", "author": "Mark Mitchell", "author_slug": "markmitchell", "published": "2015-12-13T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2015/designing-with-contrast/", "topic": "design"}
{"rowid": 143, "title": "Marking Up a Tag Cloud", "contents": "Everyone\u2019s doing it. \n\nThe problem is, everyone\u2019s doing it wrong. \n\nHarsh words, you might think. But the crimes against decent markup are legion in this area. You see, I\u2019m something of a markup and semantics junkie. So I\u2019m going to analyse some of the more well-known tag clouds on the internet, explain what\u2019s wrong, and then show you one way to do it better. \n\ndel.icio.us \n\nI think the first ever tag cloud I saw was on del.icio.us. Here\u2019s how they mark it up. \n\n<div class=\"alphacloud\">\n\t<a href=\"/tag/.net\" class=\"lb s2\">.net</a>\n\t<a href=\"/tag/advertising\" class=\" s3\">advertising</a>\n\t<a href=\"/tag/ajax\" class=\" s5\">ajax</a>\n\t...\n</div>\n\nUnfortunately, that is one of the worst examples of tag cloud markup I have ever seen. The page states that a tag cloud is a list of tags where size reflects popularity. However, despite describing it in this way to the human readers, the page\u2019s author hasn\u2019t described it that way in the markup. It isn\u2019t a list of tags, just a bunch of anchors in a <div>. This is also inaccessible because a screenreader will not pause between adjacent links, and in some configurations will not announce the individual links, but rather all of the tags will be read as just one link containing a whole bunch of words. Markup crime number one. \n\nFlickr \n\nAh, Flickr. The darling photo sharing site of the internet, and the biggest blind spot in every standardista\u2019s vision. Forgive it for having atrocious markup and sometimes confusing UI because it\u2019s just so much damn fun to use. Let\u2019s see what they do. \n\n<p id=\"TagCloud\">\n\t\u00a0<a href=\"/photos/tags/06/\" style=\"font-size: 14px;\">06</a>\u00a0\n\t\u00a0<a href=\"/photos/tags/africa/\" style=\"font-size: 12px;\">africa</a>\u00a0\n\t\u00a0<a href=\"/photos/tags/amsterdam/\" style=\"font-size: 14px;\">amsterdam</a>\u00a0\n\t...\n</p>\n\nAgain we have a simple collection of anchors like del.icio.us, only this time in a paragraph. But rather than using a class to represent the size of the tag they use an inline style. An inline style using a pixel-based font size. That\u2019s so far away from the goal of separating style from content, they might as well use a <font> tag. You could theoretically parse that to extract the information, but you have more work to guess what the pixel sizes represent. Markup crime number two (and extra jail time for using non-breaking spaces purely for visual spacing purposes.)\n\nTechnorati \n\nAh, now. Here, you\u2019d expect something decent. After all, the Overlord of microformats and King of Semantics Tantek \u00c7elik works there. Surely we\u2019ll see something decent here? \n\n<ol class=\"heatmap\">\n\t<li><em><em><em><em><a href=\"/tag/Britney+Spears\">Britney Spears</a></em></em></em></em></li>\n\t<li><em><em><em><em><em><em><em><em><em><a href=\"/tag/Bush\">Bush</a></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></li>\n\t<li><em><em><em><em><em><em><em><em><em><em><em><em><em><a href=\"/tag/Christmas\">Christmas</a></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></li>\n\t...\n\t<li><em><em><em><em><em><em><a href=\"/tag/SEO\">SEO</a></em></em></em></em></em></em></li>\n\t<li><em><em><em><em><em><em><em><em><em><em><em><em><em><em><em><a href=\"/tag/Shopping\">Shopping</a></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></em></li>\n\t...\n</ol>\n\nUnfortunately it turns out not to be that decent, and stop calling me Shirley. It\u2019s not exactly terrible code. It does recognise that a tag cloud is a list of links. And, since they\u2019re in alphabetical order, that it\u2019s an ordered list of links. That\u2019s nice. However \u2026 fifteen nested <em> tags? FIFTEEN? That\u2019s emphasis for you. Yes, it is parse-able, but it\u2019s also something of a strange way of looking at emphasis. The HTML spec states that <em> is emphasis, and <strong> is for stronger emphasis. Nesting <em> tags seems counter to the idea that different tags are used for different levels of emphasis. Plus, if you had a screen reader that stressed the voice for emphasis, what would it do? Shout at you? Markup crime number three. \n\nSo what should it be? \n\nAs del.icio.us tells us, a tag cloud is a list of tags where the size that they are rendered at contains extra information. However, by hiding the extra context purely within the CSS or the HTML tags used, you are denying that context to some users. The basic assumption being made is that all users will be able to see the difference between font sizes, and this is demonstrably false. \n\nA better way to code a tag cloud is to put the context of the cloud within the content, not the markup or CSS alone. As an example, I\u2019m going to take some of my favourite flickr tags and put them into a cloud which communicates the relative frequency of each tag. \n\nTo start with a tag cloud in its most basic form is just a list of links. I am going to present them in alphabetical order, so I\u2019ll use an ordered list. Into each list item I add the number of photos I have with that particular tag. The tag itself is linked to the page on flickr which contains those photos. So we end up with this first example. To display this as a traditional tag cloud, we need to alter it in a few ways: \n\n\n\tThe items need to be displayed next to each other, rather than one-per-line\n\tThe context information should be hidden from display (but not from screen readers)\n\tThe tag should link to the page of items with that tag\n\n\nDisplaying the items next to each other simply means setting the display of the list elements to inline. The context can be hidden by wrapping it in a <span> and then using the off-left method to hide it. And the link just means adding an anchor (with rel=\"tag\" for some extra microformats bonus points). So, now we have a simple collection of links in our second example. \n\nThe last stage is to add the sizes. Since we already have context in our content, the size is purely for visual rendering, so we can just use classes to define the different sizes. For my example, I\u2019ll use a range of class names from not-popular through ultra-popular, in order of smallest to largest, and then use CSS to define different font sizes. If you preferred, you could always use less verbose class names such as  size1 through size6. Anyway, adding some classes and CSS gives us our final example, a semantic and more accessible tag cloud.", "year": "2006", "author": "Mark Norman Francis", "author_slug": "marknormanfrancis", "published": "2006-12-09T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2006/marking-up-a-tag-cloud/", "topic": "code"}
{"rowid": 164, "title": "My Other Christmas Present Is a Definition List", "contents": "A note from the editors:  readers should note that the HTML5 redefinition of definition lists has come to pass and is now \u00e0 la mode.\n                \n                \n                      \n                Last year, I looked at how the markup for tag clouds was generally terrible. I thought this year I would look not at a method of marking up a common module, but instead just at a simple part of HTML and how it generally gets abused.\n\nNo, not tables. Definition lists. Ah, definition lists. Often used but rarely understood.\n\nExamining the definition of definitions\n\nTo start with, let\u2019s see what the HTML spec has to say about them.\n\n\n\tDefinition lists vary only slightly from other types of lists in that list items consist of two parts: a term and a description.\n\n\nThe canonical example of a definition list is a dictionary. Words can have multiple descriptions (even the word definition has at least five). Also, many terms can share a single definition (for example, the word colour can also be spelt color, but they have the same definition).\n\nExcellent, we can all grasp that. But it very quickly starts to fall apart. Even in the HTML specification the definition list is mis-used.\n\n\n\tAnother application of DL, for example, is for marking up dialogues, with each DT naming a speaker, and each DD containing his or her words.\n\n\nWrong. Completely and utterly wrong. This is the biggest flaw in the HTML spec, along with dropping support for the start attribute on ordered lists. \u201cWhy?\u201d, you may ask. Let me give you an example from Romeo and Juliet, act 2, scene 2.\n\n<dt>Juliet</dt>\n\t<dd>Romeo!</dd>\n<dt>Romeo</dt>\n\t<dd>My niesse?</dd>\n<dt>Juliet</dt>\n\t<dd>At what o'clock tomorrow shall I send to thee?</dd>\n<dt>Romeo</dt>\n\t<dd>At the hour of nine.</dd>\n\nNow, the problem here is that a given definition can have multiple descriptions (the DD). Really the dialog \u201cdescriptions\u201d should be rolled up under the terms, like so:\n\n<dt>Juliet</dt>\n\t<dd>Romeo!</dd>\n\t<dd>At what o'clock tomorrow shall I send to thee?</dd>\n<dt>Romeo</dt>\n\t<dd>My niesse?</dd>\n\t<dd>At the hour of nine.</dd>\n\nSuddenly the play won\u2019t make anywhere near as much sense. (If it\u2019s anything, the correct markup for a play is an ordered list of CITE and BLOCKQUOTE elements.)\n\nThis is the first part of the problem. That simple example has turned definition lists in everyone\u2019s mind from pure definitions to more along the lines of a list with pre-configured heading(s) and text(s).\n\nScreen reader, enter stage left.\n\nIn many screen readers, a simple definition list would be read out as \u201cdefinition term equals definition description\u201d. So in our play excerpt, Juliet equals Romeo! That\u2019s not right, either. But this also leads a lot of people astray with definition lists to believing that they are useful for key/value pairs.\n\nBehaviour and convention\n\nThe WHAT-WG have noticed the common mis-use of the DL, and have codified it into the new spec. In the HTML5 draft, a definition list is no longer a definition list.\n\n\n\tThe dl element introduces an unordered association list consisting of zero or more name-value groups (a description list). Each group must consist of one or more names (dt elements) followed by one or more values (dd elements).\n\n\nThey also note that the \u201cdl element is inappropriate for marking up dialogue, since dialogue is ordered\u201d. So for that example they have created a DIALOG (sic) element.\n\nStrange, then, that they keep DL as-is but instead refer to it an \u201cassociation list\u201d. They have not created a new AL element, and kept DL for the original purpose. They have chosen not to correct the usage or to create a new opportunity for increased specificity in our HTML, but to \u201cpave the cowpath\u201d of convention.\n\nHow to use a definition list\n\nGiven that everyone else is using a DL incorrectly, should we? Well, if they all jumped off a bridge, would you too? No, of course you wouldn\u2019t. We don\u2019t have HTML5 yet, so we\u2019re stuck with the existing semantics of HTML4 and XHTML1. Which means that:\n\n\n\tListing dialogue is not defining anything.\n\tListing the attributes of a piece of hardware (resolution = 1600\u00d71200) is illustrating sample values, not defining anything (however, stating what \u2018resolution\u2019 actually means in this context would be a definition).\n\tListing the cast and crew of a given movie is not defining the people involved in making movies. (Stuart Gordon may have been the director of Space Truckers, but that by no means makes him the true definition of a director.)\n\tA menu of navigation items is simply a nested ordered or unordered list of links, not a definition list.\n\tApplying styling handles to form labels and elements is not a good use for a definition list.\n\n\nAnd so on.\n\nLiving by the specification, a definition list should be used for term definitions \u2013 glossaries, lexicons and dictionaries \u2013 only.\n\nAnything else is a crime against markup.", "year": "2007", "author": "Mark Norman Francis", "author_slug": "marknormanfrancis", "published": "2007-12-05T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2007/my-other-christmas-present-is-a-definition-list/", "topic": "code"}
{"rowid": 310, "title": "Fairytale of new Promise", "contents": "There are only four good Christmas songs.\nI know, yeah, JavaScript or whatever. We\u2019ll get to that in a minute, I promise.\nFirst\u2014and I cannot stress this enough\u2014 there are four good Christmas songs. You\u2019re free to disagree with me here, of course, but please try to understand that you will be wrong.\nThey don\u2019t all have the most safe-for-work titles; I can\u2019t list all of them here, but if you choose to let your fingers do the walkin\u2019 to your nearest search engine, I will say that one was released by the band FEAR way back in 1982 and one was on Run the Jewels\u2019 self-titled debut album. The lyrics are a hell of a lot worse than the titles, so maybe wait until you get home from work before you queue them up. Wear headphones, if you\u2019ve got thin walls.\nFor my money, though, the two I can reference by name are the top of that small heap: Tom Waits\u2019 Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis, and The Pogues\u2019 Fairytale of New York. The former once held the honor of being the only good Christmas song\u2014about which which I was also unequivocally correct, right up until I changed my mind. It\u2019s not the song up for discussion today, but feel free to familiarize yourself just the same\u2014I\u2019ll wait.\nFairytale of New York\u2014the top of the list\u2014starts out by hinting at some pretty standard holiday fare; dreams and cheer and whatnot. Typical seasonal stuff, so long as you ignore that the story seems to be recounted as a drunken flashback in a jail cell. You can probably make a few guesses at the underlying spirit of the song based on that framing: following a lucky break, our bright-eyed protagonists move to New York in search of fame and fortune, only to quickly descend into bad decisions, name-calling, and vaguely festive chaos.\nThis song speaks to me on a couple of levels, not the least of which is as a retelling of my day-to-day interactions with JavaScript. Each day\u2019s melody might vary a little bit, granted, but the lyrics almost always follow a pretty clear arc toward \u201cPARENTAL ADVISORY: EXPLICIT CONTENT.\u201d You might have heard a similar tune yourself; it goes a little somethin\u2019 like setTimeout(function() { console.log( \"this should be happening last\" ); }, 1000); . Callbacks are calling callbacks calling callbacks and something is happening somewhere, as the JavaScript interpreter plods through our code start-to-finish, line-by-line, step-by-step. If we need to take actions based on the results of something that could take its sweet time resolving, well, we\u2019d better fiddle with the order of things to make sure those actions don\u2019t happen too soon.\n\u201cBut I can see a better time,\u201d as the song says, \u201cwhen all our dreams come true.\u201d So, with that Pogues brand of holiday spirit squarely in mind\u2014by which I mean that your humble narrator is almost certainly drunk, and may be incarcerated at the time of publication\u2014gather \u2019round for a story of hope, of hardships, of semi-asynchronous JavaScript programming, and ultimately: of Promise unfulfilled.\nThe Main Thread\nJavaScript is single-minded, in a manner of speaking. Anything we tell the JavaScript runtime to do goes into a single-file queue; you\u2019ll see it referred to as the \u201cmain thread,\u201d or \u201cUI thread.\u201d That thread can be shared by a number of critical browser processes, like rendering and re-rendering parts of the page, and user interactions ranging from the simple\u2014say, highlighting text\u2014to the more complex\u2014interacting with form elements.\nIf that sounds a little scary to you, well, that\u2019s because it is. The more complex our scripts, the more we\u2019re cramming into that single-file main thread, to be processed along with\u2014say\u2014some of our CSS animations. Too much JavaScript clogging up the main thread means a lot of user-facing performance jankiness. Getting away from that single thread is a big part of all the excitement around Web Workers, which allow us to offload entire scripts into their own dedicated background threads\u2014though not without limitations of their own. Outside of Web Workers, that everything-thread is the only game in town: scripts executed one thing at a time, functions calling functions calling functions, taking numbers and crowding up the same deli counter as a user\u2019s interactions\u2014which, in this already strained metaphor, would be ham, I guess?\nAsynchronous JavaScript\nNow, those queued actions may include asynchronous things. For example: AJAX callbacks, setTimeout/setInterval, and addEventListener won\u2019t block the main thread while we\u2019re waiting for a request to come back, a timer to tick away, or an event to trigger. Once those things do kick in, though, the actions they\u2019re meant to perform will get shuffled right back into that single-thread queue.\nThere are a couple of places you might have written asynchronously-fired JavaScript, even if you\u2019re not super familiar with the overarching concept: XMLHttpRequest\u2014\u201cAJAX,\u201d if ya nasty\u2014or just kicking off a function once a user triggers a click or mouseenter event. Event-driven development is writ a little larger, with the overall flow of the script dictated by events, both internal and external. Writing event-driven JavaScript applications is a step in the right direction for sure\u2014it won\u2019t cure what ails the main thread, but it does work with the medium in a reasonable way. Event-driven development allows us to manage our use of the main thread in a way that makes sense. If any of this rings a bell for you, the motivation for Promises should feel familiar.\nFor example, a custom init event might kick things off, and fire a create event that applies our classes and restructures our markup which, on completion, fires a bindEvents event to handle all the event listeners for user interaction. There might not sound like much difference between that and one big function that kicks off, manipulates the DOM, and binds our events line-by-line\u2014but in a script of sufficient size and complexity we\u2019re not only provided with a decoupled flow through the script, but obvious touchpoints for future updates and a predictable structure for ongoing maintenance. \nThis pattern falls apart a little where we were still creating, binding, and listening for events in the same top-to-bottom, one-item-at-a-time way\u2014we had to set a listener on a given object before the event fires, or nothing would happen:\n// Create the event:\nvar event = document.createEvent( \"Event\" );\n\n// Name the event:\nevent.initEvent( \"doTheStuff\", true, true );\n\n// Listen for the custom `doTheStuff` event on `window`:\nwindow.addEventListener( \"doTheStuff\", initializeEverything );\n\n// Fire the custom event\nwindow.dispatchEvent( event );\nThis example is a little contrived, and this stuff is a lot more manageable for sure with the addition of a framework, but that\u2019s the basic gist: create and name the event, add a listener for the event, and\u2014after setting our listener\u2014dispatch the event.\nEvents and callbacks aren\u2019t the only game in town for weaving our way in and out of the main thread, though\u2014at least, not anymore. \nPromises\nA Promise is, at the risk of sounding sentimental, pure potential\u2014an empty container into which a value eventually results. A Promise can exist in several states: \u201cpending,\u201d while the computation they contain is being performed or \u201cresolved\u201d once that computation is complete. Once resolved, a Promise is \u201cfulfilled\u201d if it gave us back something we expect, or \u201crejected\u201d if it didn\u2019t.\nThe Promise constructor accepts a callback with two arguments: resolve and reject. We perform an action\u2014asynchronous or otherwise\u2014within that callback. If everything in there has gone according to plan, we call resolve. If something has gone awry, we call reject\u2014with an error, conventionally. To illustrate, let\u2019s tack something together with a pretty decent chance of doing what we don\u2019t want: a promise meant only to give us the number 1, but has a chance of giving us back a 2. No reasonable person would ever do this, of course, but I wouldn\u2019t necessarily put it past me.\nvar promisedOne = new Promise( function( resolve, reject ) {\n  var coinToss = Math.floor( Math.random() * 2 ) + 1;\n\n  if( coinToss === 1 ) {\n    resolve( coinToss );\n  } else {\n    reject( new Error( \"That ain\u2019t a one.\" ) );\n  }\n});\nThere\u2019s nothing too surprising in there, after you boil it all down. It\u2019s a little return-y, with the exception that we\u2019re flagging results as \u201cas expected\u201d or \u201csomething went wrong.\u201d\nTapping into that Promise uses another new keyword: then\u2014and as someone who attempts to make sense of JavaScript by breaking it down to plain ol\u2019 human-language, I\u2019m a big fan of this syntax. then is tacked onto our Promise identifier, and does just what it says on the tin: once the Promise is resolved, then do one of two things, both supplied as callbacks: the first in the case of a fulfilled promise, and the second in the case of a rejected one. Those two callbacks will have, as arguments, the results we specified with resolve orreject, respectively. It sounds like a lot in prose, but in code it\u2019s a pretty simple pattern:\npromisedOne.then( function( result ) {\n  console.log( result );\n}, function( error ) {\n  console.error( error );\n});\nIf you\u2019ve spent any time working with AJAX\u2014jQuery-wise, in particular\u2014you\u2019ve seen something like this pattern before: a success callback and an error callback. The state of a promise, once fulfilled or rejected, cannot be changed\u2014any reference we make to promisedOne will have a single, fixed result.\nIt may not look like too much the way I\u2019m using it here, but it\u2019s powerful stuff\u2014a pattern for asynchronously resolving anything. I\u2019ve recently used Promises alongside a script that emulates Font Load Events, to apply webfonts asynchronously and avoid a potential performance hit. Font Face Observer allows us to, as the name implies, determine when the files referenced by our @font-face rules have finished loading. \nvar fontObserver = new FontFaceObserver( \"Fancy Font\" );\n\nfontObserver.check().then(function() {\n  document.documentElement.className += \" fonts-loaded\";\n}, function( error ) {\n  console.error( error );\n});\nfontObserver.check() gives us back a Promise, allowing us to chain on a then containing our callbacks for success and failure. We use the fulfilled callback to bolt a class onto the page once the font file has been fully transferred. We don\u2019t bother including an argument in the first function, since we don\u2019t care about the result itself so much as we care that the promise resolved without error\u2014we\u2019re not doing anything with the resolved value, just adding a class to the page. We do include the error argument, since we\u2019ll want to know what happened should something go wrong.\nNow, this isn\u2019t the tidiest syntax around\u2014at least to my eyes\u2014with those two functions just kinda floating in a then. Luckily there\u2019s an similar alternative syntax; one that I find a bit easier to parse at-a-glance:\nfontObserver.check()\n  .then(function() {\n    document.documentElement.className += \" fonts-loaded\";\n  })\n  .catch(function( error ) {\n    console.log( error );\n  });\nThe first callback inside then provides us with our success state, while the catch provides us with a single, explicit \u201csomething went wrong\u201d callback. The two syntaxes aren\u2019t completely identical in all situations, but for a simple case like this, I find it a little neater.\nThe Common Thread\nI guess I still owe you an explanation, huh. Not about the JavaScript-whatever; I think I\u2019ve explained that plenty. No, I mean Fairytale of New York, and why it\u2019s perched up there at the top of the four (4) song heap.\nFairytale is a sad song, ostensibly. If you follow the main thread\u2014start to finish, line-by-line, step by step\u2014 Fairytale is a sad song. And I can see you out there, visions of Die Hard dancing in your heads: \u201cbut is it a Christmas song?\u201d\nWell, for my money, nothing says \u201cholidays\u201d quite like unreliable narration.\nShane MacGowan, the song\u2019s author, has placed the first verse about \u201cChristmas Eve in the drunk tank\u201d as happening right after the \u201clucky one, came in eighteen-to-one\u201d\u2014not at the chronological end of the story. That means the song might not be mostly drunken flashback, but all of it a single, overarching flashback including a Christmas Eve in protective custody. It could be that the man and woman are, together, recounting times long past\u2014good times and bad times\u2014maybe not even in chronological order. Hell, the \u201cNYPD Choir\u201d mentioned in the chorus? There\u2019s no such thing.\nWe\u2019re not big Christmas folks, my family and I. But just the same, every year, the handful of us get together, and every year\u2014like clockwork\u2014there\u2019s a lull in conversation, there\u2019s a sharp exhale, and Ma says \u201cwe all made it.\u201d Not to a house, not to a dinner, but through another year, to another Christmas. At this point, without fail, someone starts telling a story\u2014and one begets another, and so on. Sometimes the stories are happy, sometimes they\u2019re sad, more often than not they\u2019re both. Some are about things we were lucky to walk away from, some are about a time when another one of us didn\u2019t.\nStart-to-finish, line-by-line, step-by-step, the main thread through the year doesn\u2019t change, and maybe there isn\u2019t a whole lot we can do to change it. But by carefully weaving our way in and out of that thread\u2014stories all out of sync and resolving one way or the other, with the results determined by questionably reliable narrators\u2014we can change the way we interact with it and, little by little, we can start making sense of it.", "year": "2016", "author": "Mat Marquis", "author_slug": "matmarquis", "published": "2016-12-19T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2016/fairytale-of-new-promise/", "topic": "code"}
{"rowid": 268, "title": "Getting the Most Out of Google Analytics", "contents": "Something a bit different for today\u2019s 24 ways article. For starters, I\u2019m not a designer or a developer. I\u2019m an evil man who sells things to people on the internet. Second, this article will likely be a little more nebulous than you\u2019re used to, since it covers quite a number of points in a relatively short space. \n\nThis isn\u2019t going to be the complete Google Analytics Conversion University IQ course compressed into a single article, obviously. What it will be, however, is a primer on setting up and using Google Analytics in real life, and a great deal of what I\u2019ve learned using Google Analytics nearly every working day for the past six (crikey!) years.\n\nAlso, to be clear, I\u2019ll be referencing new Google Analytics here; old Google Analytics is for loooosers (and those who want reliable e-commerce conversion data per site search term, natch).\n\nYou may have been running your Analytics account for several years now, dipping in and out, checking traffic levels, seeing what\u2019s popular\u2026 and that\u2019s about it. Google Analytics provides so much more than that, but the number of reports available can often intimidate users, and documentation and case studies on their use are minimal at best. \n\nLet\u2019s start! Setting up your Analytics profile\n\nBefore we plough on, I just want to run through a quick checklist that some basic settings have been enabled for your profile. If you haven\u2019t clicked it, click the big cog on the top-right of Google Analytics and we\u2019ll have a poke about.\n\n\n\tIf you have an e-commerce site, e-commerce tracking has been enabled\u2028\n\tIf your site has a search function, site search tracking has been enabled.\n\tQuery string parameters that you do not want tracked as separate pages have been excluded (for example, any parameters needed for your platform to function, otherwise you\u2019ll get multiple entries for the same page appearing in your reports)\n\tFilters have been enabled on your main profile to exclude your office IP address and any IPs of people who frequently access the site for work purposes. In decent numbers they tend to throw data off a tad.\u2028\n\tYou may also find the need to set up multiple profiles prefiltered for specific audience segments. For example, at Lovehoney we have seventeen separate profiles that allow me quick access to certain countries, devices and traffic sources without having to segment first. You\u2019ll also find load time for any complex reports much improved. Use the same filter screen as above to set up a series of profiles that only include, say, mobile visits, or UK visitors, so you can quickly analyse important segments.\n\n\nMatt, what\u2019s a segment?\n\nA segment is a subsection of your visitor base, which you define and then call on in reports to see specific data for that subsection. For example, in this report I\u2019ve defined two segments, the first for IE6 users and the second for IE7.\n\n\n\nSegments are easily created by clicking the Advanced Segments tabs at the top of any report and clicking +New Custom Segment.\n\n\n\nWhat does your site do?\n\nUnderstanding the goals of your site is an oft-covered topic, but it\u2019s necessary not just to form a better understand of your business and prioritize your time. Understanding what you wish visitors to do on your site translates well into a goal-driven analytics package like Google Analytics.  \n\nEvery site exists essentially to sell something, either financially through e-commerce, or to sell an idea or impart information, get people to download a CV or enquire about service, or to sell space on that website to advertisers. If the site did not provide a positive benefit to its owners, it would not have a reason for being. \n\nOnce you have understood the reason why you have a site, you can map that reason on to one of the three goal types Google Analytics provides. \n\nE-commerce \n\nThis conversion type registers transactions as part of a sales process which requires a monetary value, what products have been bought, an SKU (stock keeping unit), affiliation (if you\u2019re then attributing the sale to a third party or franchise) and so on.\n\nThe benefit of e-commerce tracking is not only assigning non-arbitrary monetary value to behaviour of visitors on your site, as well as being able to see ancillary costs such as shipping, but seeing product-level information, like which products are preferred from various channels, popular categories, and so on.\n\n\n\nHowever, I find the e-commerce tracking options also useful for non-e-commerce sites. For example, if you\u2019re offering downloads or subscriptions and having an email address or user\u2019s details is worth something to you, you can set up e-commerce tracking to understand how much value your site is bringing. For example, an email address might be worth 20p to you, but if it also includes a name it\u2019s worth 50p. A contact telephone number is worth \u00a32, and so on.\n\nPage goals\n\nPage goals, unsurprisingly, track a visit to a page (often with a sequence of pages leading up to that page). This is what\u2019s referred to as a goal funnel, and is generally used to track how visitors behave in a multistep checkout. \n\n\n\nInterestingly, the page doesn\u2019t have to actually exist. For example, if you have a single page checkout, you can register virtual page views using trackPageview() when a visitor clicks into a particular section of the checkout or other form. If your site is geared towards getting someone to a particular page, but where there isn\u2019t a transaction (for example, a subscription page) this is for you.\n\nThere are also behavioural goals, such as time on site and number of pages viewed, which are geared towards sites that make money from advertising.\n\nBut, going back to the page goals, these can be abstracted using regular expressions, meaning that you can define a funnel based on page type rather than having to set individual folders.\n\n\n\nIn this example, I\u2019ve created regexes for the main page types on my site, so I can create a wide funnel that captures visitors from where they enter through to checkout.\n\nEvents\n\nEvent tracking registers a predefined event, such as playing a video, or some interaction that can trigger JavaScript, such as a Tweet This button. Events can then be triggered using the trackEvent() call. If you want someone to complete watching a video, you would code your player to fire trackEvent() upon completion. \n\nWhile I don\u2019t use events as goals, I use events elsewhere to see how well a video play aids to conversion. This not only helps me justify the additional spend on creating video content, but also quickly highlights which videos are underperforming as sales tools.\n\n\n\nWhat a visitor can tell you\n\n\u2028Now you have some proper goals set up, we can start to see how changes in content (on-site and external) affect those goals. \n\nUltimately, when a visitor comes to your site, they bring information with them:\n\n\n\twhere they came from (a search engine \u2013 including: keyword searched for; a referral; direct; affiliate; or ad campaign)\n\tdemographics (country; whether they\u2019re new or returning, within thirty days)\n\ttechnical information (browser; screen size; device; bandwidth)\n\tsite-specific information (landing page; next click; previous values assigned to them as custom variables*)\n\n\n * A note about custom variables. There\u2019s no hope in hell that I can cover custom variables in this article. Go research them. Custom variables are the single best way to hack Google Analytics and bend it to your will. Custom variables allow you to record anything you want about a visitor, which that visitor will then carry around with them between visits. It\u2019s also great for plugging other services into Google Analytics (as shown by the marvelous way Visual Website Optimizer allows you to track and segment tests within the GA interface). Just make sure not to breach the terms of service, eh?\n\nCSI your website\n\nPolice procedural TV shows are all the same: the investigators are called to a crime and come across a clue; there\u2019s then an autopsy; new evidence leads them to a new location; they find a new clue; they put two and two together; they solve the mystery.\n\nThis is your life now. Exciting!\n\nSo, now you\u2019re gathering a wealth of information about what sort of people visit your site, what they do when they\u2019re there, and what eventually gets them to drive value to you. It\u2019s now your job to investigate all these little clues to see which types of people drive the most value, and what you can change to improve it.\n\nMaybe not that exciting.\n\nHowever, Google Analytics comes pre-armed with extensive reports for you to delve into. As an e-commerce guy (as opposed to a page goal guy) my day pretty much follows the pattern below.\n\n\n\tLook at e-commerce conversion rate by traffic source compared to the same day in the previous week and previous month. As ours is an e-commerce site, we have weekly and monthly trends. A big spike on Sundays and Mondays, and payday towards the end of the month is always good; on the third week of a month there tends to be a lull. Spend time letting your Google Analytics data brew, understand your own trends and patterns, and you\u2019ll start to get a feel for when something isn\u2019t quite right.\n\t\n\t\tTraffic Sources \u2192 Sources \u2192 All Traffic\n\t\n\tLook at the conversion rate by landing page for any traffic source that feels significantly different to what\u2019s expected. Check bounce rates, drill down to likely landing pages and check search keyword or referral site to see if it\u2019s a particular subset of visitor. You can do this by clicking Secondary Dimension and choosing Keyword or Source. If it\u2019s direct, choose Visitor Type to break down by new or returning visitor.\n\t\n\t\tContent \u2192 Site Content \u2192 Landing Pages\n\t\n\tI then tend to flip into Content Drilldown to see what the next clicks were from those landing pages, and whether they changed significantly to the date I\u2019m comparing with. If they have, that\u2019s usually an indicator of changed content (or its relevancy). Remember, if a bunch of people have found their way to your page via a method you\u2019re not expecting (such as a mention on a Spanish radio station \u2013 this actually happened to me once), while the content hasn\u2019t changed, the relevancy of it to the audience may have.\n\t\n\t\tContent \u2192 Site Content \u2192 Content Drilldown\n\t\n\tOnce I have an idea of what content was consumed, and whether it was relevant to the user, I then look at the visitor specifics, such as browser or demographic data, to see again whether the change was limited to a specific subset. Site speed, for example, is normally a good factor towards bounce rate, so compare that with previous data as well.\n\n\nNow, to be investigating at this level you still need a serious amount of data, in order to tell what\u2019s a significant change or not. If you\u2019re struggling with a small number of visitors, you might find reporting on a weekly or fortnightly basis more appropriate. \n\nHowever, once you\u2019ve looked into the basics of why changes happen to the value of your site, you\u2019ll soon find yourself limited by the reports offered in Standard Reporting. So, it\u2019s time to build your own. Hooray!\n\nCustom reporting\n\nGoogle Analytics provides the tools to build reports specific to the types of investigations you frequently perform. \n\n\n\nWelcome to my world.\n\nCustom reports are quite simple to build: first, you determine the metric you want the report to cover (number of visitors, bounce rate, conversion rate, and so on), then choose a set of dimensions that you\u2019d like to segment the report by (say, the source of the traffic, and whether they were new or returning users). You can filter the report, including or excluding particular dimension values, and you can assign the report to any of the profiles you created earlier. \n\nIn the example below, I\u2019ve created a report that shows me visits and conversion rate for any Google traffic that landed directly only on a product page. I can then drill down on each product page to see the complete phrases use to search. I can use this information in two ways:\n\n\n\tI can see which products aren\u2019t converting, which shows me where I need to work harder on merchandising.\n\tI can give this information to my content team, showing them the actual phrases visitors used to reach our product content, helping them write better targeted product descriptions.\n\n\n\n\nThe possibilities here are nearly endless, but here are a few examples of reports I find useful:\n\n\n\tNon-brand inbound search\nBy creating a report that shows inbound search traffic which doesn\u2019t include your brand, you can see more clearly the behaviour of visitors most likely to be unfamiliar with your site and brand values, without having to rely on the clumsy new or returning demographic date.\n\tTraffic/conversion/sales by hour\nThis is pure stats porn, but actually more useful than real-time data. By seeing this data broken down at an hourly level, you can not only compare the current day to previous days, but also see the best performing times for email broadcasts and tweets.\n\tVisits, load time, conversion and sales by page and browser\nPage speed can often kill conversion rates, but it\u2019s difficult to prove the value of focusing on speed in monetary terms. Having this report to hand helps me drive Operation Greenbelt, our effort to get into the sub-1.5 second band in Google Webmaster Tools.\n\n\nUseful things you can\u2019t do in custom reporting\n\nIf you have a search function on your website, then Conversion Rate and Products Bought by Site Search Term is an incredibly useful report that allows you to measure the effectiveness of your site\u2019s search engine at returning products and content related to the search term used. By including the products actually bought by visitors who searched for each term, you can use this information to better searchandise these results, escalating high propensity and high value products to the top of the results.\n\nHowever, it\u2019s not possible to get this information out of new Google Analytics. \n\nTry it, select the following in the report builder:\n\n\n\tMetrics: total unique searches; e-commerce or goal conversion rate\n\tDimensions: search term; product\n\n\nYou\u2019ll see that the data returned is a little nonsensical, though a 2,000% conversion rate would be nice. However, you can get more accurate information using advanced segments. By creating individual segments to define users who have searched for a particular term, you can run the sales performance and product performance reports as normal. It\u2019s laborious, but it teaches a good lesson: data that seems inaccessible can normally be found another way!\n\nReporting infrastructure\n\nNow that you have a series of reports that you can refer to on a daily or weekly basis, it\u2019s time to put together a regular reporting infrastructure. \n\nEven if you\u2019re not reporting to someone, having a set of key performance indicators that you can use to see how your performance is improving over time allows you to set yourself business goals on a monthly and annual basis.\n\nFor my own reporting, I take some high-level metrics (such as visitors, conversion rate and average order value), and segment them by traffic source and, separately, landing page. These statistics I record weekly and report:\n\n\n\tcurrent week compared with previous week\n\tsame week previous year (if available)\n\t4 week average\n\t13 week average\n\t52 week average (if available)\n\n\nThis takes into account weekly, monthly, seasonal and annual trends, and gives you a much clearer view of your performance.\n\nGetting data in other ways\n\nIf you\u2019re using Google Analytics frequently, with any large site you\u2019ll come to a couple of conclusions:\n\n\n\tDoing any kind of practical comparative analysis is unwieldy.\n\tBoy, Google Analytics is slow!\n\n\nAs you work with bigger datasets and put together more complex queries, you\u2019ll see the loading graphic more than you\u2019ll see actual data. So when you reach that level, there are ways to completely bypass the Google Analytics interface altogether, and get data into your own spreadsheet application for manipulation.\n\nData Feed Query Explorer\n\nIf you just want to pull down some quick statistics but still use complex filters and exotic metric and dimension combinations, the Data Feed Query Explorer is the quickest way of doing so. Authenticate with your Google Analytics account, select a profile, and you can start selecting metrics and dimensions to be generated in a handy, selectable tabulated format.\n\nGoogle Analytics API\n\nIf you\u2019re feeling clever, you can bypass having to copy and paste data by pulling in directly into Excel, Google Docs or your own application using the Google Analytics API. There are several scripts and plugins available to do this. I use Automate Analytics Google Docs code (there\u2019s also a paid version that simplifies setup and creates some handy reports for you).\n\nNew shiny things\n\nWell, now that that\u2019s over, I can show you some cool stuff. Well, at least it\u2019s cool to me. Google Analytics is being constantly improved and new functionality is introduced nearly every month. Here are a couple of my favourites.\n\nMultichannel attribution\n\nNot every visitor converts on your site on the first visit. They may not even do so on the second visit, or third. If they convert on the fourth visit, but each time they visit they do so via a different channel (for example, Search PPC, Search Organic, Direct, Email), which channel do you attribute the conversion to? The last channel, or the first? Dilemma!  \n\nGoogle now has a Multichannel Attribution report, available in the Conversion category, which shows how each channel assists in converting, the overlap between channels, and where in the process that channel was important. \n\n\n\nFor example, you may have analysed your blog traffic from Twitter and become disheartened that not many people were subscribing after visiting from Twitter links, but instead your high-value subscribers were coming from natural search. On the face of it, you\u2019d spend less time tweeting, but a multichannel report may tell you that visitors first arrived via a Twitter link and didn\u2019t subscribe, but then came back later after searching for your blog name on Google, after which they did. Don\u2019t pack Twitter in yet!\n\nVisitor and goal flow\n\nVisitor and goal flow are amazing reports that help you visualize the flow of traffic through your site and, ultimately, into your checkout funnel or similar goal path. Flow reports are perfect for understanding drop-off points in your process, as well as what the big draws are on each page. \n\n\n\nPreviously, if you wanted to visualize this data you had to set up several abstracted microgoals and chain them together in custom reports. Frankly, it was a pain in the arse and burned through your precious and limited goal allocation.\n\nVisitor flow bypasses all that and produces the report in an interactive flow diagram. While it doesn\u2019t show you the holy grail of conversion likelihood by each path, you can segment visitor flow so that you can see very specifically how different segments of your visitor base behave.\n\nGo play with it now!", "year": "2011", "author": "Matt Curry", "author_slug": "mattcurry", "published": "2011-12-18T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2011/getting-the-most-out-of-google-analytics/", "topic": "business"}
{"rowid": 107, "title": "Using Google App Engine as Your Own Content Delivery Network", "contents": "Do you remember, years ago, when hosting was expensive, domain names were the province of the rich, and you hosted your web pages on Geocities? It seems odd to me now that there was a time when each and every geek didn\u2019t have his own top-level domain and super hosting setup. But as the parts became more and more affordable a man could become an outcast if he didn\u2019t have his own slightly surreal-sounding TLD.\n\nAnd so it will be in the future when people realise with surprise there was a time before affordable content delivery networks.\n\nA content delivery network, or CDN, is a system of servers spread around the world, serving files from the nearest physical location. Instead of waiting for a file to find its way from a server farm in Silicon Valley 8,000 kilometres away, I can receive it from London, Dublin, or Paris, cutting down the time I wait. The big names \u2014 Google, Yahoo, Amazon, et al \u2014 use CDNs for their sites, but they\u2019ve always been far too expensive for us mere mortals. Until now.\n\nThere\u2019s a service out there ready for you to use as your very own CDN. You have the company\u2019s blessing, you won\u2019t need to write a line of code, and \u2014 best of all \u2014 it\u2019s free. The name? Google App Engine.\n\nIn this article you\u2019ll find out how to set up a CDN on Google App Engine. You\u2019ll get the development software running on your own computer, tell App Engine what files to serve, upload them to a web site, and give everyone round the world access to them.\n\nCreating your first Google App Engine project\n\nBefore we do anything else, you\u2019ll need to download the Google App Engine software development kit (SDK). You\u2019ll need Python 2.5 too \u2014 you won\u2019t be writing any Python code but the App Engine SDK will need it to run on your computer. If you don\u2019t have Python, App Engine will install it for you (if you use Mac OS X 10.5 or a Linux-based OS you\u2019ll have Python; if you use Windows you won\u2019t).\n\nDone that? Excellent, because that\u2019s the hardest step. The rest is plain sailing.\n\nYou\u2019ll need to choose a unique \u2018application id\u2019 \u2014 nothing more than a name \u2014 for your project. Make sure it consists only of lowercase letters and numbers. For this article I\u2019ll use 24ways2008, but you can choose anything you like.\n\nOn your computer, create a folder named after your application id. This folder can be anywhere you want: your desktop, your documents folder, or wherever you usually keep your web files. Within your new folder, create a folder called assets, and within that folder create three folders called images, css, and javascript. These three folders are the ones you\u2019ll fill with files and serve from your content delivery network. You can have other folders too, if you like.\n\nThat will leave you with a folder structure like this:\n\n24ways2008/\n\t\tassets/\n\t\t\tcss/\n\t\t\timages/\n\t\t\tjavascript/\n\nNow you need to put a few files in these folders, so we can later see our CDN in action. You can put anything you want in these folders, but for this example we\u2019ll include an HTML file, a style sheet, an image, and a Javascript library.\n\nIn the top-level folder (the one I\u2019ve called 24ways2008), create a file called index.html. Fill this with any content you want. In the assets/css folder, create a file named core.css and throw in a couple of CSS rules for good measure. In the assets/images directory save any image that takes your fancy \u2014 I\u2019ve used the silver badge from the App Engine download page. Finally, to fill the JavaScript folder, add in this jQuery library file. If you\u2019ve got the time and the inclination, you can build a page that uses all these elements.\n\nSo now we should have a set of files and folders that look something like this:\n\n24ways2008/\n\t\tassets/\n\t\t\t\tindex.html\n\t\t\t\tcss/\n\t\t\t\t\t\tcore.css\n\t\t\t\timages/\n\t\t\t\t\t\tappengine-silver-120x30.gif\n\t\t\t\tjavascript/\n\t\t\t\t\t\tjquery-1.2.6.min.js\n\nWhich leaves us with one last file to create. This is the important one: it tells App Engine what to do with your files. It\u2019s named app.yaml, it sits at the top-level (inside the folder I\u2019ve named 24ways2008), and it needs to include these lines:\n\napplication: 24ways2008\nversion: 1\nruntime: python\napi_version: 1\n\nhandlers:\n- url: /\n\tstatic_files: assets/index.html\n\tupload: assets/index.html\n\n- url: /\n\tstatic_dir: assets\n\nYou need to make sure you change 24ways2008 on the first line to whatever you chose as your application id, but otherwise the content of your app.yaml file should be identical. And with that, you\u2019ve created your first App Engine project. If you want it, you can download a zip file containing my project.\n\nTesting your project\n\nAs it stands, your project is ready to be uploaded to App Engine. But we couldn\u2019t call ourselves professionals if we didn\u2019t test it, could we? So, let\u2019s put that downloaded SDK to good use and run the project from your own computer.\n\nOne of the files you\u2019ll find App Engine installed is named dev_appserver.py, a Python script used to simulate App Engine on your computer. You\u2019ll find lots of information on how to do this in the documentation on the development web server, but it boils down to running the script like so (the space and the dot at the end are important):\n\ndev_appserver.py .\n\nYou\u2019ll need to run this from the command-line: Mac users can run the Terminal application, Linux users can run their favourite shell, and Windows users will need to run it via the Command Prompt (open the Start menu, choose \u2018Run\u2026\u2019, type \u2018cmd\u2018, and click \u2018OK\u2019). Before you run the script you\u2019ll need to make sure you\u2019re in the project folder \u2014 in my case, as I saved it to my desktop I can go there by typing \n\ncd ~/Desktop/24ways2008\n\nin my Mac\u2019s Terminal app; if you\u2019re using Windows you can type \n\ncd \"C:\\Documents and Settings\\username\\Desktop\\24ways2008\"\n\nIf that\u2019s successful, you\u2019ll see a few lines of output, the last looking something like this:\n\nINFO     2008-11-22 14:35:00,830 dev_appserver_main.py] Running application 24ways2008 on port 8080: http://localhost:8080\n\nNow you can power up your favourite browser, point it to http://localhost:8080/, and you\u2019ll see the page you saved as index.html. You\u2019ll also find your CSS file at http://localhost:8080/css/core.css. In fact, anything you put inside the assets folder in the project will be accessible from this domain. You\u2019re running our own App Engine web server!\n\nNote that no-one else will be able to see your files: localhost is a special domain that you can only see from your computer \u2014 and once you stop the development server (by pressing Control\u2013C) you\u2019ll not be able to see the files in your browser until you start it again.\n\nYou might notice a new file has turned up in your project: index.yaml. App Engine creates this file when you run the development server, and it\u2019s for internal App Engine use only. If you delete it there are no ill effects, but it will reappear when you next run the development server. If you\u2019re using version control (e.g. Subversion) there\u2019s no need to keep a copy in your repository.\n\nSo you\u2019ve tested your project and you\u2019ve seen it working on your own machine; now all you need to do is upload your project and the world will be able to see your files too.\n\nUploading your project\n\nIf you don\u2019t have a Google account, create one and then sign in to App Engine. Tell Google about your new project by clicking on the \u2018Create an Application\u2019 button. Enter your application id, give the application a name, and agree to the terms and conditions. That\u2019s it. All we need do now is upload the files.\n\nOpen your Mac OS X Terminal, Windows Command Prompt, or Linux shell window again, move to the project folder, and type (again, the space and the dot at the end are important):\n\nappcfg.py update .\n\nEnter your email address and password when prompted, and let App Engine do it\u2019s thing. It\u2019ll take no more than a few seconds, but in that time App Engine will have done the equivalent of logging in to an FTP server and copying files across. It\u2019s fairly understated, but you now have your own project up and running. You can see mine at http://24ways2008.appspot.com/, and everyone can see yours at http://your-application-id.appspot.com/. Your files are being served up over Google\u2019s content delivery network, at no cost to you!\n\nBenefits of using Google App Engine\n\nThe benefits of App Engine as a CDN are obvious: your own server doesn\u2019t suck up the bandwidth, while your visitors will appreciate a faster site. But there are also less obvious benefits.\n\nFirst, once you\u2019ve set up your site, updating it is an absolute breeze. Each time you update a file (or a batch of files) you need only run appcfg.py to see the changes appear on your site. To paraphrase Joel Spolsky, a good web site must be able to be updated in a single step. Many designers and developers can\u2019t make that claim, but with App Engine, you can.\n\nApp Engine also allows multiple people to work on one application. If you want a friend to be able to upload files to your site you can let him do so without giving him usernames and passwords \u2014 all he needs is his own Google account. App Engine also gives you a log of all actions taken by collaborators, so you can see who\u2019s made updates, and when.\n\nAnother bonus is the simple version control App Engine offers. Do you remember the file named app.yaml you created a while back? The second line looked like this:\n\nversion: 1\n\nIf you change the version number to 2 (or 3, or 4, etc), App Engine will keep a copy of the last version you uploaded. If anything goes wrong with your latest version, you can tell App Engine to revert back to that last saved version. It\u2019s no proper version control system, but it could get you out of a sticky situation.\n\nOne last thing to note: if you\u2019re not happy using your-application-id.appspot.com as your domain, App Engine will quite happily use any domain you own.\n\nThe weak points of Google App Engine\n\nIn the right circumstances, App Engine can be a real boon. I run my own site using the method I\u2019ve discussed above, and I\u2019m very happy with it. But App Engine does have its disadvantages, most notably those discussed by Aral Balkan in his post \u2018Why Google App Engine is broken and what Google must do to fix it\u2018.\n\nAral found the biggest problems while using App Engine as a web application platform; I wouldn\u2019t recommend using it as such either (at least for now) but for our purposes as a CDN for static files, it\u2019s much more worthy. Still, App Engine has two shortcomings you should be aware of.\n\nThe first is that you can\u2019t host a file larger than one megabyte. If you want to use App Engine to host that 4.3MB download for your latest-and-greatest desktop software, you\u2019re out of luck. The only solution is to stick to smaller files.\n\nThe second problem is the quota system. Google\u2019s own documentation says you\u2019re allowed 650,000 requests a day and 10,000 megabytes of bandwidth in and out (20,000 megabytes in total), which should be plenty for most sites. But people have seen sites shut down temporarily for breaching quotas \u2014 in some cases after inexplicable jumps in Google\u2019s server CPU usage. Aral, who\u2019s seen it happen to his own sites, seemed genuinely frustrated by this, and if you measure your hits in the hundreds of thousands and don\u2019t want to worry about uptime, App Engine isn\u2019t for you.\n\nThat said, for most of us, App Engine offers a fantastic resource: the ability to host files on Google\u2019s own content delivery network, at no charge.\n\nConclusion\n\nIf you\u2019ve come this far, you\u2019ve seen how to create a Google App Engine project and host your own files on Google\u2019s CDN. You\u2019ve seen the great advantages App Engine offers \u2014 an excellent content delivery network, the ability to update your site with a single command, multiple authors, simple version control, and the use of your own domain \u2014 and you\u2019ve come across some of its weaknesses \u2014 most importantly the limit on file sizes and the quota system. All that\u2019s left to do is upload those applications \u2014 but not before you\u2019ve finished your Christmas shopping.", "year": "2008", "author": "Matt Riggott", "author_slug": "mattriggott", "published": "2008-12-06T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2008/using-google-app-engine-as-your-own-cdn/", "topic": "process"}
{"rowid": 274, "title": "Adaptive Images for Responsive Designs", "contents": "So you\u2019ve been building some responsive designs and you\u2019ve been working through your checklist of things to do:\n\n\n\tYou started with the content and designed around it, with mobile in mind first.\n\tYou\u2019ve gone liquid and there\u2019s nary a px value in sight; % is your weapon of choice now.\n\tYou\u2019ve baked in a few media queries to adapt your layout and tweak your design at different window widths.\n\tYou\u2019ve made your images scale to the container width using the fluid Image technique.\n\tYou\u2019ve even done the same for your videos using a nifty bit of JavaScript.\n\n\nYou\u2019ve done a good job so pat yourself on the back. But there\u2019s still a problem and it\u2019s as tricky as it is important: image resolutions.\n\nHTML has an <img> problem\n\nCSS is great at adapting a website design to different window sizes \u2013 it allows you not only to tweak layout but also to send rescaled versions of the design\u2019s images. And you want to do that because, after all, a smartphone does not need a 1,900-pixel background image1.\n\nHTML is less great. In the same way that you don\u2019t want CSS background images to be larger than required, you don\u2019t want that happening with <img>s either. A smartphone only needs a small image but desktop users need a large one. Unfortunately <img>s can\u2019t adapt like CSS, so what do we do?\n\nWell, you could just use a high resolution image and the fluid image technique would scale it down to fit the viewport; but that\u2019s sending an image five or six times the file size that\u2019s really needed, which makes it slow to download and unpleasant to use. Smartphones are pretty impressive devices \u2013 my ancient iPhone 3G is more powerful in every way than my first proper computer \u2013 but they\u2019re still terribly slow in comparison to today\u2019s desktop machines. Sending a massive image means it has to be manipulated in memory and redrawn as you scroll. You\u2019ll find phones rapidly run out of RAM and slow to a crawl.\n\nWell, OK. You went mobile first with everything else so why not put in mobile resolution <img>s too? Because even though mobile devices are rapidly gaining share in your analytics stats, they\u2019re still not likely to be the major share of your user base. I don\u2019t think desktop users would be happy with pokey little mobile resolution images, do you? What we need are adaptive images.\n\nAdaptive image techniques\n\nThere are a number of possible solutions, each with pros and cons, and it\u2019s not as simple to find a graceful solution as you might expect.\n\nYour first thought might be to use JavaScript to trawl through the markup and rewrite the source attribute. That\u2019ll get you the right end result, but it\u2019ll have done it in a way you absolutely don\u2019t want. That\u2019s because of the way browsers load resources. It starts to load the HTML and builds the page on-the-fly; as soon as it finds an <img> element it immediately asks the server for that image. After the HTML has finished loading, the JavaScript will run, change the src attribute, and then the browser will request that new image too. Not instead of, but as well as. Not good: that\u2019s added more bloat instead of cutting it.\n\nPlain JavaScript is out then, which is a problem, because what other tools do we have to work with as web designers? Let\u2019s ignore that for now and I\u2019ll outline another issue with the concept of serving different resolution images for different window widths: a basic file management problem. To request a different image, that image has to exist on the server. How\u2019s it going to get there? That\u2019s not a trivial problem, especially if you have non-technical users that update content through a CMS. Let\u2019s say you solve that \u2013 do you plan on a simple binary switch: big image|little image? Is that really efficient or future-proof? What happens if you have an archive of existing content that needs to behave this way? Can you apply such a solution to existing content or markup?\n\nThere\u2019s a detailed round-up of potential techniques for solving the adaptive images problem over at the Cloud Four blog if you fancy a dig around exploring all the options currently available. But I\u2019m here to show you what I think is the most flexible and easy to implement solution, so here we are.\n\nAdaptive Images\n\nAdaptive Images aims to mitigate most of the issues surrounding the problems of bringing the venerable <img> tag into the 21st century. And it works by leaving that tag completely alone \u2013 just add that desktop resolution image into the markup as you\u2019ve been doing for years now. We\u2019ll fix it using secret magic techniques and bottled pixie dreams. Well, fine: with one .htaccess file, one small PHP file and one line of JavaScript. But you\u2019re killing the mystique with that kind of talk.\n\nSo, what does this solution do?\n\n\n\tIt allows <img>s to adapt to the same break points you use in your media queries, giving granular control in the same way you get with your CSS.\n\tIt installs on your server in five minutes or less and after that is automatic and you don\u2019t need to do anything.\n\tIt generates its own rescaled images on the server and doesn\u2019t require markup changes, so you can apply it to existing web content.\n\tIf you wish, it will make all of your images go mobile-first (just in case that\u2019s what you want if JavaScript and cookies aren\u2019t available).\n\n\nSound good? I hope so. Here\u2019s what you do.\n\nSetting up and rolling out\n\nI\u2019ll assume you have some basic server knowledge along with that wealth of front-end wisdom exploding out of your head: that you know not to overwrite any existing .htaccess file for example, and how to set file permissions on your server. Feeling up to it? Excellent.\n\n\n\tDownload the latest version of Adaptive Images either from the website or from the GitHub repository.\n\tUpload the included .htaccess and adaptive-images.php files into the root folder of your website.\n\tCreate a directory called ai-cache and make sure the server can write to it (CHMOD 755 should do it).\n\tAdd the following line of JavaScript into the <head> of your site:\n\n\n<script>document.cookie='resolution='+Math.max(screen.width,screen.height)+'; path=/\u2018;</script>\n\nThat\u2019s it, unless you want to tweak the default settings. You likely do, but essentially you\u2019re already up and running.\n\nHow it works\n\nAdaptive Images does a number of things depending on the scenario the script has to handle, but here\u2019s a basic overview of what it does when you load a page running it:\n\n\n\tA session cookie is written with the value of the visitor\u2019s screen size in pixels.\n\tThe HTML encounters an <img> tag and sends a request to the server for that image. It also sends the cookie, because that\u2019s how browsers work.\n\tApache sits on the server and receives the request for the image. Apache then has a look in the .htaccess file to see if there are any special instructions for files in the requested URL.\n\tThere are! The .htaccess says \u201cHey, server! Any request you get for a JPG, GIF or PNG file just send to the adaptive-images.php file instead.\u201d\n\tThe PHP file then does some intelligent thinking which can cover a number of scenarios, but I\u2019ll illustrate one path that can happen:\n\n\n\t\n\t\tThe PHP file looks for the cookie and finds out that the user has a maximum screen width of 480px.\n\t\tThe PHP has a look at the available media query sizes that were configured and decides which one matches the user\u2019s device.\n\t\tIt then has a look inside the /ai-cache/480/ folder to see if a rescaled image already exists there.\n\t\tWe\u2019ll pretend it doesn\u2019t \u2013 the PHP then goes to the actual requested URI and finds that the original file does exist.\n\t\tIt has a look to see how wide that image is. If it\u2019s already smaller than the user\u2019s screen width it sends it along and stops there. But, let\u2019s pretend the image is 1,000px wide.\n\t\tThe PHP then resizes the image and saves it into the /ai-cache/480 folder ready for the next time someone needs it.\n\t\n\nIt also does a few other things when needs arise, for example:\n\n\n\tIt sends images with a cache header field that tells proxies not to cache the image, while telling browsers they should. This avoids problems with proxy servers and network caching systems grabbing the wrong image and storing it.\n\tIt handles cases where there isn\u2019t a cookie set, and you can choose whether to then send the mobile version or the largest configured media query size.\n\tIt compares timestamps between the source image and the generated cache image \u2013 to ensure that if the source image gets updated, the old cached file won\u2019t be sent.\n\n\nCustomizing\n\nThere are a few options you can customize if you don\u2019t like the default values. By looking in the PHP\u2019s configuration section at the top of the file, you can:\n\n\n\tSet the resolution breakpoints to match your media query break points.\n\tChange the name and location of the ai-cache folder.\n\tChange the quality level any generated JPG images are saved at.\n\tHave it perform a subtle sharpen on rescaled images to help keep detail.\n\tToggle whether you want it to compare the files in the cache folder with the source ones or not.\n\tSet how long the browser should cache the images for.\n\tSwitch between a mobile-first or desktop-first approach when a cookie isn\u2019t found.\n\n\nMore importantly, you probably want to omit a few folders from the AI behaviour. You don\u2019t need or want it resizing the images you\u2019re using in your CSS, for example. That\u2019s fine \u2013 just open up the .htaccess file and follow the instructions to list any directories you want AI to ignore. Or, if you\u2019re a dab hand at RewriteRules you can remove the exclamation mark at the start of the rule and it\u2019ll only apply AI behaviour to a given list of folders.\n\nCaveats\n\nAs I mentioned, I think this is one of the most flexible, future-proof, retrofittable and easy to use solutions available today. But, there are problems with this approach as there are with all of the ones I\u2019ve seen so far.\n\nThis is a PHP solution\n\nI wish I was smarter and knew some fancy modern languages the cool kids discuss at parties, but I don\u2019t. So, you need PHP on your server. That said, Adaptive Images has a Creative Commons licence2 and I would welcome anyone to contribute a port of the code3. \n\nContent delivery networks\n\nAdaptive Images relies on the server being able to: intercept requests for images; do some logic; and send one of a given number of responses. Content delivery networks are generally dumb caches, and they won\u2019t allow that to happen. Adaptive Images will not work if you\u2019re using a CDN to deliver your website.\n\nA minor but interesting cookie issue.\n\nAs Yoav Weiss pointed out in his article Preloaders, cookies and race conditions, there is no way to guarantee that a cookie will be set before images are requested \u2013 even though the JavaScript that sets the cookie is loaded by the browser before it finds any <img> tags. That could mean images being requested without a cookie being available. Adaptive Images has a two-fold mechanism to avoid this being a problem:\n\n\n\tThe $mobile_first toggle allows you to choose what to send to a browser if a cookie isn\u2019t set. If FALSE then it will send the highest configured resolution; if TRUE it will send the lowest.\n\tEven if set to TRUE, Adaptive Images checks the User Agent String. If it discovers the user is on a desktop environment, it will override $mobile_first and set it to FALSE.\n\n\nThis means that if $mobile_first is set to TRUE and the user was unlucky (their browser didn\u2019t write the cookie fast enough), mobile devices will be supplied with the smallest image, and desktop devices will get the largest.\n\nThe best way to get a cookie written is to use JavaScript as I\u2019ve explained above, because it\u2019s the fastest way. However, for those that want it, there is a JavaScript-free method which uses CSS and a bogus PHP \u2018image\u2019 to set the cookie. A word of caution: because it requests an external file, this method is slower than the JavaScript one, and it is very likely that the cookie won\u2019t be set until after images have been requested.\n\nThe future\n\nFor today, this is a pretty good solution. It works, and as it doesn\u2019t interfere with your markup or source material in any way, the process is non-destructive. If a future solution is superior, you can just remove the Adaptive Images files and you\u2019re good to go \u2013 you\u2019d never know AI had been there.\n\nHowever, this isn\u2019t really a long-term solution, not least because of the intermittent problem of the cookie and image request race condition. What we really need are a number of standardized ways to handle this in the future.\n\nFirst, we could do with browsers sending far more information about the user\u2019s environment along with each HTTP request (device size, connection speed, pixel density, etc.), because the way things work now is no longer fit for purpose. The web now is a much broader entity used on far more diverse devices than when these technologies were dreamed up, and we absolutely require the server to have better knowledge about device capabilities than is currently possible. Relying on cookies to do this job doesn\u2019t cut it, and the User Agent String is a complete mess incapable of fulfilling the various purposes we are forced to hijack it for.\n\nSecondly, we need a W3C-backed markup level solution to supply semantically different content at different resolutions, not just rescaled versions of the same content as Adaptive Images does.\n\nI hope you\u2019ve found this interesting and will find Adaptive Images useful.\n\nFootnotes\n\n1 While I\u2019m talking about preventing smartphones from downloading resources they don\u2019t need: you should be careful of your media query construction if you want to stop WebKit downloading all the images in all of the CSS files.\n\n2 Adaptive Images has a very broad Creative Commons licence and I warmly welcome feedback and community contributions via the GitHub repository. \n\n3 There is a ColdFusion port of an older version of Adaptive Images. I do not have anything to do with ported versions of Adaptive Images.", "year": "2011", "author": "Matt Wilcox", "author_slug": "mattwilcox", "published": "2011-12-04T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2011/adaptive-images-for-responsive-designs/", "topic": "ux"}
{"rowid": 153, "title": "JavaScript Internationalisation", "contents": "or:  Why Rudolph Is More Than Just a Shiny Nose\n\nDunder sat, glumly staring at the computer screen.\n\n\u201cWhat\u2019s up, Dunder?\u201d asked Rudolph, entering the stable and shaking off the snow from his antlers.\n\n\u201cWell,\u201d Dunder replied, \u201cI\u2019ve just finished coding the new reindeer intranet Santa Claus asked me to do. You know how he likes to appear to be at the cutting edge, talking incessantly about Web 2.0, AJAX, rounded corners; he even spooked Comet recently by talking about him as if he were some pushy web server.\n\n\u201cI\u2019ve managed to keep him happy, whilst also keeping it usable, accessible, and gleaming \u2014 and I\u2019m still on the back row of the sleigh! But anyway, given the elves will be the ones using the site, and they come from all over the world, the site is in multiple languages. Which is great, except when it comes to the preview JavaScript I\u2019ve written for the reindeer order form. Here, have a look\u2026\u201d\n\nAs he said that, he brought up the textileRef:8234272265470b85d91702:linkStartMarker:\u201corder\n    form in French\u201d:/examples/javascript-internationalisation/initial.fr.html on the screen. (Same in English).\n\n\u201cLooks good,\u201d said Rudolph.\n\n\u201cBut if I add some items,\u201d said Dunder, \u201cthe preview appears in English, as it\u2019s hard-coded in the JavaScript. I don\u2019t want separate code for each language, as that\u2019s just silly \u2014 I thought about just having if statements, but that doesn\u2019t scale at all\u2026\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd there\u2019s more, you aren\u2019t displaying large numbers in French properly, either,\u201d added Rudolph, who had been playing and looking at part of the source code:\n\nfunction update_text() {\n\tvar hay = getValue('hay');\n\tvar carrots = getValue('carrots');\n\tvar bells = getValue('bells');\n\tvar total = 50 * bells + 30 * hay + 10 * carrots;\n\tvar out = 'You are ordering '\n\t\t+ pretty_num(hay) + ' bushel' + pluralise(hay) + ' of hay, '\n\t\t+ pretty_num(carrots) + ' carrot' + pluralise(carrots)\n\t\t+ ', and ' + pretty_num(bells) + ' shiny bell' + pluralise(bells)\n\t\t+ ', at a total cost of <strong>' + pretty_num(total)\n\t\t+ '</strong> gold pieces. Thank you.';\n\tdocument.getElementById('preview').innerHTML = out;\n}\nfunction pretty_num(n) {\n\tn += '';\n\tvar o = '';\n\tfor (i=n.length; i>3; i-=3) {\n\t\to = ',' + n.slice(i-3, i) + o;\n\t}\n\to = n.slice(0, i) + o;\n\treturn o;\n}\nfunction pluralise(n) {\n\tif (n!=1) return 's';\n\treturn '';\n}\n\n\u201cOh, botheration!\u201d cried Dunder. \u201cThis is just so complicated.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt doesn\u2019t have to be,\u201d said Rudolph, \u201cyou just have to think about things in a slightly different way from what you\u2019re used to. As we\u2019re only a simple example, we won\u2019t be able to cover all possibilities, but for starters, we need some way of providing different information to the script dependent on the language. We\u2019ll create a global i18n object, say, and fill it with the correct language information. The first variable we\u2019ll need will be a thousands separator, and then we can change the pretty_num function to use that instead:\n\nfunction pretty_num(n) {\n\tn += '';\n\tvar o = '';\n\tfor (i=n.length; i>3; i-=3) {\n\t\to = i18n.thousands_sep + n.slice(i-3, i) + o;\n\t}\n\to = n.slice(0, i) + o;\n\treturn o;\n}\n\n\u201cThe i18n object will also contain our translations, which we will access through a function called _() \u2014 that\u2019s just an underscore. Other languages have a function of the same name doing the same thing. It\u2019s very simple:\n\nfunction _(s) {\n\tif (typeof(i18n)!='undefined' && i18n[s]) {\n\t\treturn i18n[s];\n\t}\n\treturn s;\n}\n\n\u201cSo if a translation is available and provided, we\u2019ll use that; otherwise we\u2019ll default to the string provided \u2014 which is helpful if the translation begins to lag behind the site\u2019s text at all, as at least something will be output.\u201d\n\n\u201cGot it,\u201d said Dunder. \u201c _('Hello Dunder') will print the translation of that string, if one exists, \u2018Hello Dunder\u2019 if not.\u201d\n\n\u201cExactly. Moving on, your plural function breaks even in English if we have a word where the plural doesn\u2019t add an s \u2014 like \u2018children\u2019.\u201d\n\n\u201cYou\u2019re right,\u201d said Dunder. \u201cHow did I miss that?\u201d\n\n\u201cNo harm done. Better to provide both singular and plural words to the function and let it decide which to use, performing any translation as well:\n\nfunction pluralise(s, p, n) {\n\tif (n != 1) return _(p);\n\treturn _(s);\n}\n\n\u201cWe\u2019d have to provide different functions for different languages as we employed more elves and got more complicated \u2014 for example, in Polish, the word \u2018file\u2019 pluralises like this: 1 plik, 2-4 pliki, 5-21 plik\u00f3w, 22-24 pliki, 25-31 plik\u00f3w, and so on.\u201d (More information on plural forms)\n\n\u201cGosh!\u201d\n\n\u201cNext, as different languages have different word orders, we must stop using concatenation to construct sentences, as it would be impossible for other languages to fit in; we have to keep coherent strings together. Let\u2019s rewrite your update function, and then go through it:\n\nfunction update_text() {\n\tvar hay = getValue('hay');\n\tvar carrots = getValue('carrots');\n\tvar bells = getValue('bells');\n\tvar total = 50 * bells + 30 * hay + 10 * carrots;\n\thay = sprintf(pluralise('%s bushel of hay', '%s bushels of hay', hay), pretty_num(hay));\n\tcarrots = sprintf(pluralise('%s carrot', '%s carrots', carrots), pretty_num(carrots));\n\tbells = sprintf(pluralise('%s shiny bell', '%s shiny bells', bells), pretty_num(bells));\n\tvar list = sprintf(_('%s, %s, and %s'), hay, carrots, bells);\n\tvar out = sprintf(_('You are ordering %s, at a total cost of <strong>%s</strong> gold pieces.'),\n\t\tlist, pretty_num(total));\n\tout += ' ';\n\tout += _('Thank you.');\n\tdocument.getElementById('preview').innerHTML = out;\n}\n\n\u201c sprintf is a function in many other languages that, given a format string and some variables, slots the variables into place within the string. JavaScript doesn\u2019t have such a function, so we\u2019ll write our own. Again, keep it simple for now, only integers and strings; I\u2019m sure more complete ones can be found on the internet.\n\nfunction sprintf(s) {\n\tvar bits = s.split('%');\n\tvar out = bits[0];\n\tvar re = /^([ds])(.*)$/;\n\tfor (var i=1; i<bits.length; i++) {\n\t\tp = re.exec(bits[i]);\n\t\tif (!p || arguments[i]==null) continue;\n\t\tif (p[1] == 'd') {\n\t\t\tout += parseInt(arguments[i], 10);\n\t\t} else if (p[1] == 's') {\n\t\t\tout += arguments[i];\n\t\t}\n\t\tout += p[2];\n\t}\n\treturn out;\n}\n\n\u201cLastly, we need to create one file for each language, containing our i18n object, and then include that from the relevant HTML. Here\u2019s what a blank translation file would look like for your order form:\n\nvar i18n = {\n\tthousands_sep: ',',\n\t\"%s bushel of hay\": '',\n\t\"%s bushels of hay\": '',\n\t\"%s carrot\": '',\n\t\"%s carrots\": '',\n\t\"%s shiny bell\": '',\n\t\"%s shiny bells\": '',\n\t\"%s, %s, and %s\": '',\n\t\"You are ordering %s, at a total cost of <strong>%s</strong> gold pieces.\": '',\n\t\"Thank you.\": ''\n};\n\n\u201cIf you implement this across the intranet, you\u2019ll want to investigate the xgettext program, which can automatically extract all strings that need translating from all sorts of code files into a standard .po file (I think Python mode works best for JavaScript). You can then use a different program to take the translated .po file and automatically create the language-specific JavaScript files for us.\u201d (e.g. German .po file for PledgeBank, mySociety\u2019s .po-.js script, example output)\n\nWith a flourish, Rudolph finished editing. \u201cAnd there we go, localised JavaScript in English, French, or German, all using the same main code.\u201d\n\n\u201cThanks so much, Rudolph!\u201d said Dunder.\n\n\u201cI\u2019m not just a pretty nose!\u201d Rudolph quipped. \u201cOh, and one last thing \u2014 please comment liberally explaining the context of strings you use. Your translator will thank you, probably at the same time as they point out the four hundred places you\u2019ve done something in code that only works in your language and no-one else\u2019s\u2026\u201d\n\nThanks to Tim Morley and Edmund Grimley Evans for the French and German translations respectively.", "year": "2007", "author": "Matthew Somerville", "author_slug": "matthewsomerville", "published": "2007-12-08T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2007/javascript-internationalisation/", "topic": "code"}
{"rowid": 250, "title": "Build up Your Leadership Toolbox", "contents": "Leadership. It can mean different things to different people and vary widely between companies. Leadership is more than just a job title. You won\u2019t wake up one day and magically be imbued with all you need to do a good job at leading. If we don\u2019t have a shared understanding of what a Good Leader looks like, how can we work on ourselves towards becoming one? How do you know if you even could be a leader? Can you be a leader without the title?\nWhat even is it?\nI got very frustrated way back in my days as a senior developer when I was given \u201cadvice\u201d about my leadership style; at the time I didn\u2019t have the words to describe the styles and ways in which I was leading to be able to push back. I heard these phrases a lot:\n\nyou need to step up\nyou need to take charge\nyou need to grab the bull by its horns\nyou need to have thicker skin\nyou need to just be more confident in your leading\nyou need to just make it happen\n\nI appreciate some people\u2019s intent was to help me, but honestly it did my head in. WAT?! What did any of this even mean. How exactly do you \u201cstep up\u201d and how are you evaluating what step I\u2019m on? I am confident, what does being even more confident help achieve with leading? Does that not lead you down the path of becoming an arrogant door knob? >___<\nWhile there is no One True Way to Lead, there is an overwhelming pattern of people in positions of leadership within tech industry being held by men. It felt a lot like what people were fundamentally telling me to do was to be more like an extroverted man. I was being asked to demonstrate more masculine associated qualities (#notallmen). I\u2019ll leave the gendered nature of leadership qualities as an exercise in googling for the reader.\nI\u2019ve never had a good manager and at the time had no one else to ask for help, so I turned to my trusted best friends. Books.\nI <3 books\nI refused to buy into that style of leadership as being the only accepted way to be. There had to be room for different kinds of people to be leaders and have different leadership styles.\nThere are three books that changed me forever in how I approach and think about leadership.\n\nPrimal leadership, by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee\nQuiet, by Susan Cain\nDaring Greatly - How the Courage to be Vulnerable transforms the way we live, love, parent and Lead, by Bren\u00e9 Brown\n\nI recommend you read them. Ignore the slightly cheesy titles and trust me, just read them.\nPrimal leadership helped to give me the vocabulary and understanding I needed about the different styles of leadership there are, how and when to apply them.\nQuiet really helped me realise how much I was being undervalued and misunderstood in an extroverted world. If I\u2019d had managers or support from someone who valued introverts\u2019 strengths, things would\u2019ve been very different. I would\u2019ve had someone telling others to step down and shut up for a change rather than pushing on me to step up and talk louder over everyone else. It\u2019s OK to be different and needing different things like time to recharge or time to think before speaking. It also improved my ability to work alongside my more extroverted colleagues by giving me an understanding of their world so I could communicate my needs in a language they would get.\nBren\u00e9 Brown\u2019s book I am forever in debt to. Her work gave me the courage to stand up and be my own kind of leader. Even when no-one around me looked or sounded like me, I found my own voice.\nIt takes great courage to be vulnerable and open about what you can and can\u2019t do. Open about your mistakes. Vocalise what you don\u2019t know and asking for help. In some lights, these are seen as weaknesses and many have tried to use them against me, to pull me down and exclude me for talking about them. Dear reader, it did not work, they failed. The truth is, they are my greatest strengths. The privileges I have, I use for good as best and often as I can.\nJust like gender, leadership is not binary\nIf you google for what a leader is, you\u2019ll get many different answers. I personally think Bren\u00e9\u2019s version is the best as it is one that can apply to a wider range of people, irrespective of job title or function.\n\nI define a leader as anyone who takes responsibility for finding potential in people and processes, and who has the courage to develop that potential.\nBren\u00e9 Brown\n\nBeing a leader isn\u2019t about being the loudest in a room, having veto power, talking over people or ignoring everyone else\u2019s ideas. It\u2019s not about \u201ctelling people what to do\u201d. It\u2019s not about an elevated status that you\u2019re better than others. Nor is it about creating a hand wavey far away vision and forgetting to help support people in how to get there.\nBeing a Good Leader is about having a toolbox of leadership styles and skills to choose from depending on the situation. Knowing how and when to apply them is part of the challenge and difficulty in becoming good at it. It is something you will have to continuously work on, forever. There is no Done.\nLeaders are Made, they are not Born.\nBe flexible in your leadership style\n\nTypically, the best, most effective leaders act according to one or more of six distinct approaches to leadership and skillfully switch between the various styles depending on the situation.\n\nFrom the book, Primal Leadership, it gives a summary of 6 leadership styles which are:\n\nVisionary\nCoaching\nAffiliative\nDemocratic\nPacesetting\nCommanding\n\nVisionary, moves people toward a shared dream or future. When change requires a new vision or a clear direction is needed, using a visionary style of leadership helps communicate that picture. By learning how to effectively communicate a story you can help people to move in that direction and give them clarity on why they\u2019re doing what they\u2019re doing.\nCoaching, is about connecting what a person wants and helping to align that with organisation\u2019s goals. It\u2019s a balance of helping someone improve their performance to fulfil their role and their potential beyond.\nAffiliative, creates harmony by connecting people to each other and requires effective communication to aid facilitation of those connections. This style can be very impactful in healing rifts in a team or to help strengthen connections within and across teams. During stressful times having a positive and supportive connection to those around us really helps see us through those times.\nDemocratic, values people\u2019s input and gets commitment through participation. Taking this approach can help build buy-in or consensus and is a great way to get valuable input from people. The tricky part about this style, I find, is that when I gather and listen to everyone\u2019s input, that doesn\u2019t mean the end result is that I have to please everyone.\nThe next two, sadly, are the ones wielded far too often and have the greatest negative impact. It\u2019s where the \u201ctelling people what to do\u201d comes from. When used sparingly and in the right situations, they can be a force for good. However, they must not be your default style.\nPacesetting, when used well, it is about meeting challenging and exciting goals. When you need to get high-quality results from a motivated and well performing team, this can be great to help achieve real focus and drive. Sadly it is so overused and poorly executed it becomes the \u201cjust make it happen\u201d and driver of unrealistic workload which contributes to burnout.\nCommanding, when used appropriately soothes fears by giving clear direction in an emergency or crisis. When shit is on fire, you want to know that your leadership ability can help kick-start a turnaround and bring clarity. Then switch to another style. This approach is also required when dealing with problematic employees or unacceptable behaviour.\nCommanding style seems to be what a lot of people think being a leader is, taking control and commanding a situation. It should be used sparingly and only when absolutely necessary.\nBe responsible for the power you wield\nIf reading through those you find yourself feeling a bit guilty that maybe you overuse some of the styles, or overwhelmed that you haven\u2019t got all of these down and ready to use in your toolbox\u2026\nTake a breath. Take responsibility. Take action.\nNo one is perfect, and it\u2019s OK. You can start right now working on those. You can have a conversation with your team and try being open about how you\u2019re going to try some different styles. You can be vulnerable and own up to mistakes you might\u2019ve made followed with an apology. You can order those books and read them. Those books will give you more examples on those leadership styles and help you to find your own voice.\nThe impact you can have on the lives of those around you when you\u2019re a leader, is huge. You can help be that positive impact, help discover and develop potential in someone.\n\nTime spent understanding people is never wasted.\nCate Huston.\n\nI believe in you. <3 Mazz.", "year": "2018", "author": "Mazz Mosley", "author_slug": "mazzmosley", "published": "2018-12-10T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2018/build-up-your-leadership-toolbox/", "topic": "business"}
{"rowid": 67, "title": "What I Learned about Product Design This Year", "contents": "2015 was a humbling year for me. In September of 2014, I joined a tiny but established startup called SproutVideo as their third employee and first designer. The role interests me because it affords the opportunity to see how design can grow a solid product with a loyal user-base into something even better. \nThe work I do now could also have a real impact on the brand and user experience of our product for years to come, which is a thrilling prospect in an industry where much of what I do feels small and temporary. I got in on the ground floor of something special: a small, dedicated, useful company that cares deeply about making video hosting effortless and rewarding for our users.\nI had (and still have) grand ideas for what thoughtful design can do for a product, and the smaller-scale product design work I\u2019ve done or helped manage over the past few years gave me enough eager confidence to dive in head first. Readers who have experience redesigning complex existing products probably have a knowing smirk on their face right now. As I said, it\u2019s been humbling. A year of focused product design, especially on the scale we are trying to achieve with our small team at SproutVideo, has taught me more than any projects in recent memory. I\u2019d like to share a few of those lessons.\nProduct design is very different from marketing design\nThe majority of my recent work leading up to SproutVideo has been in marketing design. These projects are so fun because their aim is to communicate the value of the product in a compelling and memorable way. In order to achieve this goal, I spent a lot of time thinking about content strategy, responsive design, and how to create striking visuals that tell a story. These are all pursuits I love.\nProduct design is a different beast. When designing a homepage, I can employ powerful imagery, wild gradients, and somewhat-quirky fonts. When I began redesigning the SproutVideo product, I wanted to draw on all the beautiful assets I\u2019ve created for our marketing materials, but big gradients, textures, and display fonts made no sense in this new context.\nThat\u2019s because the product isn\u2019t about us, and it isn\u2019t about telling our story. Product design is about getting out of the way so people can do their job. The visual design is there to create a pleasant atmosphere for people to work in, and to help support the user experience. Learning to take \u201cus\u201d out of the equation took some work after years of creating gorgeous imagery and content for the sales-driven side of businesses.\nI\u2019ve learned it\u2019s very valuable to design both sides of the experience, because marketing and product design flex different muscles. If you\u2019re currently in an environment where the two are separate, consider switching teams in 2016. Designing for product when you\u2019ve mostly done marketing, or vice versa, will deepen your knowledge as a designer overall. You\u2019ll face new unexpected challenges, which is the only way to grow.\nProduct design can not start with what looks good on Dribbble\nI have an embarrassing confession: when I began the redesign, I had a secret goal of making something that would look gorgeous in my portfolio. I have a collection of product shots that I admire on Dribbble; examples of beautiful dashboards and widgets and UI elements that look good enough to frame. I wanted people to feel the same way about the final outcome of our redesign. Mistakenly, this was a factor in my initial work. I opened Photoshop and crafted pixel-perfect static buttons and form elements and color palettes that\u200a\u2014\u200awhen applied to our actual product\u200a\u2014\u200alooked like a toddler beauty pageant. It added up to a lot of unusable shininess, noise, and silliness.\nI was disappointed; these elements seemed so lovely in isolation, but in context, they felt tacky and overblown. I realized: I\u2019m not here to design the world\u2019s most beautiful drop down menu. Good design has nothing to do with ego, but in my experience designers are, at least a little bit, secret divas. I\u2019m no exception. I had to remind myself that I am not working in service of a bigger Dribbble following or to create the most Pinterest-ing work. My function is solely to serve the users\u200a\u2014\u200ato make life a little better for the good people who keep my company in business.\nThis meant letting go of pixel-level beauty to create something bigger and harder: a system of elements that work together in harmony in many contexts. The visual style exists to guide the users. When done well, it becomes a language that users understand, so when they encounter a new feature or have a new goal, they already feel comfortable navigating it. This meant stripping back my gorgeous animated menu into something that didn\u2019t detract from important neighboring content, and could easily fit in other parts of the app. In order to know what visual style would support the users, I had to take a wider view of the product as a whole.\nJust accept that designing a great product \u2013 like many worthwhile pursuits \u2013 is initially laborious and messy\nOnce I realized I couldn\u2019t start by creating the most Dribbble-worthy thing, I knew I\u2019d have to begin with the unglamorous, frustrating, but weirdly wonderful work of mapping out how the product\u2019s content could better be structured. Since we\u2019re redesigning an existing product, I assumed this would be fairly straightforward: the functionality was already in place, and my job was just to structure it in a more easily navigable way.\nI started by handing off a few wireframes of the key screens to the developer, and that\u2019s when the questions began rolling in: \u201cIf we move this content into a modal, how will it affect this similar action here?\u201d \u201cWhat happens if they don\u2019t add video tags, but they do add a description?\u201d \u201cWhat if the user has a title that is 500 characters long?\u201d \u201cWhat if they want their video to be private to some users, but accessible to others?\u201d.\nHow annoying (but really, fantastic) that people use our product in so many ways. Turns out, product design isn\u2019t about laying out elements in the most ideal scenario for the user that\u2019s most convenient for you. As product designers, we have to foresee every outcome, and anticipate every potential user need.\nWhich brings me to another annoying epiphany: if you want to do it well, and account for every user, product design is so much more snarly and tangled than you\u2019d expect going in. I began with a simple goal: to improve the experience on just one of our key product pages. However, every small change impacts every part of the product to some degree, and that impact has to be accounted for. Every decision is based on assumptions that have to be tested; I test my assumptions by observing users, talking to the team, wireframing, and prototyping. Many of my assumptions are wrong. There are days when it\u2019s incredibly frustrating, because an elegant solution for users with one goal will complicate life for users with another goal. It\u2019s vital to solve as many scenarios as possible, even though this is slow, sometimes mind-bending work.\nAs a side bonus, wireframing and prototyping every potential state in a product is tedious, but your developers will thank you for it. It\u2019s not their job to solve what happens when there\u2019s an empty state, error, or edge case. Showing you\u2019ve accounted for these scenarios will win a developer\u2019s respect; failing to do so will frustrate them.\nWhen you\u2019ve created and tested a system that supports user needs, it will be beautiful\nRemember what I said in the beginning about wanting to create a Dribbble-worthy product? When I stopped focusing on the visual details of the design (color, spacing, light and shadow, font choices) and focused instead on structuring the content to maximize usability and delight, a beautiful design began to emerge naturally.\nI began with grayscale, flat wireframes as a strategy to keep me from getting pulled into the visual style before the user experience was established. As I created a system of elements that worked in harmony, the visual style choices became obvious. Some buttons would need to be brighter and sit off the page to help the user spot important actions. Some elements would need line separators to create a hierarchy, where others could stand on their own as an emphasized piece of content. As the user experience took shape, the visual style emerged naturally to support it. The result is a product that feels beautiful to use, because I was thoughtful about the experience first.\n\nA big takeaway from this process has been that my assumptions will often be proven wrong. My assumptions about how to design a great product, and how users will interact with that product, have been tested and revised repeatedly. At SproutVideo we\u2019re about to undertake the biggest test of our work; we\u2019re going to launch a small part of the product redesign to our users. If I\u2019ve learned anything, it\u2019s that I will continue to be humbled by the ongoing effort of making the best product I can, which is a wonderful thing.\nNext year, I hope you all get to do work that takes you out of our comfort zone. Be regularly confounded and embarrassed by your wrong assumptions, learn from them, and come back and tell us what you learned in 2016.", "year": "2015", "author": "Meagan Fisher", "author_slug": "meaganfisher", "published": "2015-12-14T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2015/what-i-learned-about-product-design-this-year/", "topic": "design"}
{"rowid": 185, "title": "Make Your Mockup in Markup", "contents": "We aren\u2019t designing copies of web pages, we\u2019re designing web pages.\n\n\t Andy Clarke, via Quotes on Design\n\n\nThe old way\n\nI used to think the best place to design a website was in an image editor. I\u2019d create a pixel-perfect PSD filled with generic content, send it off to the client, go through several rounds of revisions, and eventually create the markup.\n\nDoes this process sound familiar? You\u2019re not alone. In a very scientific and official survey I conducted, close to 90% of respondents said they design in Photoshop before the browser.  \n\nThat process is whack, yo!\n\nRecently, thanks in large part to the influence of design hero Dan Cederholm, I\u2019ve come to the conclusion that a website\u2019s design should begin where it\u2019s going to live: in the browser.\n\nDie Photoshop, die\n\nSome of you may be wondering, \u201cwhat\u2019s so bad about using Photoshop for the bulk of my design?\u201d Well, any seasoned designer will tell you that working in Photoshop is akin to working in a minefield: you never know when it\u2019s going to blow up in your face.\n\n The application Adobe Photoshop CS4 has unexpectedly ruined your day.\n\nPhotoshop\u2019s propensity to crash at crucial moments is a running joke in the industry, as is its barely usable interface. And don\u2019t even get me started on the hot, steaming pile of crap that is  text rendering.\n\n Text rendered in Photoshop (left) versus Safari (right).\n\nCrashing and text rendering issues suck, but we\u2019ve learned to live with them. The real issue with using Photoshop for mockups is the expectations you\u2019re setting for a client. When you send the client a static image of the design, you\u2019re not giving them the whole picture \u2014 they can\u2019t see how a fluid grid would function, how the design will look in a variety of browsers, basic interactions like :hover effects, or JavaScript behaviors. For more on the disadvantages to showing clients designs as images rather than websites, check out Andy Clarke\u2019s Time to stop showing clients static design visuals.\n\nA necessary evil?\n\nIn the past we\u2019ve put up with Photoshop because it was vital to achieving our beloved rounded corners, drop shadows, outer glows, and gradients. However, with the recent adaptation of CSS3 in major browsers, and the slow, joyous death of IE6, browsers can render mockups that are just as beautiful as those created in an image editor. With the power of RGBA, text-shadow, box-shadow, border-radius, transparent PNGs, and @font-face combined, you can create a prototype that radiates shiny awesomeness right in the browser. If you can see this epic article through to the end, I\u2019ll show you step by step how to create a gorgeous mockup using mostly markup.\n\nGet started by getting naked \n\n\n\tContent precedes design. Design in the absence of content is not design, it\u2019s decoration.\n\n\t Jeffrey Zeldman\n\n\nIn the beginning, don\u2019t even think about style. Instead, start with the foundation: the content. Lay the groundwork for your markup order, and ensure that your design will be useable with styles and images turned off. This is great for prioritizing the content, and puts you on the right path for accessibility and search engine optimization. Not a bad place to start, amirite?\n\n An example of unstyled content, in all its naked glory. View it large.\n\nFlush out the layout \n\nThe next step is to structure the content in a usable way. With CSS, making basic layout changes is as easy as switching up a float, so experiment to see what structure suits the content best.\n\n The mockup with basic layout work done.\n\nGot your grids covered\n\nThere are a variety of tools that allow you to layer a grid over your browser window. For Mac users I recommend using Slammer, and PC users can check out one of the bookmarklets that are available, such as 960 Gridder.\n\n The mockup with a grid applied using Slammer.\n\nOnce you\u2019ve found a layout that works well for the content, pass it along to the client for review. This keeps them involved in the design process, and gives them an idea of how the site will be structured when it\u2019s live.\n\nStart your styling\n\nNow for the fun part: begin applying the presentation layer. Let usability considerations drive your decisions about color and typography; use highlighted colors and contrasting typefaces on elements you wish to emphasize.\n\nRGBA? More like RGByay!\n\nIntroducing color is easy with RGBA. I like to start with the page\u2019s main color, then use white at varying opacities to empasize content sections.\n\n In the example mockup the body background is set to rgba(203,111,21), the content containers are set to rgba(255,255,255,0.7), and a few elements are highlighted with rgba(255,255,255,0.1) If you\u2019re not sure how RGBA works, check out Drew McLellan\u2019s super helpful 24ways article.\n\nLaying down type\n\nJust like with color, you can use typography to evoke a feeling and direct a user\u2019s attention. Have contrasting typefaces (like serif headlines and sans-serif body text) to group the content into meaningful sections.\n\nIn a recent A List Apart article, the Master of Web Typography\u2122 Jason Santa Maria offers excellent advice on how to choose your typefaces:\n\n\n\tWrite down a general description of the qualities of the message you are trying to convey, and then look for typefaces that embody those qualities.\n\n\nSounds pretty straightforward. I wanted to give my design a classic feel with a hint of nostalgia, so I used Georgia for the headlines, and incorporated the ornate ampersand from Baskerville into the header.\n\n A closeup on the site\u2019s header.\n\nLet\u2019s get sexy\n\nThe design doesn\u2019t look too bad as it is, but it\u2019s still pretty flat. We can do better, and after mixing in some CSS3 and a couple of PNGs, it\u2019s going to get downright steamy in here.\n\nGive it some glow\n\nObjects in the natural world reflect light, so to make your design feel tangible and organic, give it some glow. In the example design I achieved this by creating two white to transparent gradients of varying opacities. Both have a solid white border across their top, which gives edges a double border effect and makes them look sharper. Using CSS3\u2019s text-shadow on headlines and box-shadow on content modules is another quick way to add depth.\n\n A wide and closeup view of the design with gradients, text-shadow and box-shadow added. For information on how to implement text-shadow and box-shadow using RGBA, check out the article I wrote on it last week.\n\n\n37 pieces of flair\n\nOkay, maybe you don\u2019t need that much flair, but it couldn\u2019t hurt to add a little; it\u2019s the details that will set your design apart. Work in imagery and texture, using PNGs with an alpha channel so you can layer images and still tweak the color later on.\n\n The design with grungy textures, a noisy diagonal stripe pattern, and some old transportation images layered behind the text. Because the colors are rendered using RGBA, these images bleed through the content, giving the design a layered feel. Best viewed large.\n\n\nSend it off\n\nHey, look at that. You\u2019ve got a detailed, well structured mockup for the client to review. Best of all, your markup is complete too. If the client approves the design at this stage, your template is practically finished. Bust out the party hats!\n\nNot so fast, Buster!\n\nSo I don\u2019t know about you, but I\u2019ve never gotten a design past the client\u2019s keen eye for criticism on the first go. Let\u2019s review some hypothetical feedback (none of which is too outlandish, in my experience), and see how we\u2019d make the requested changes in the browser. \n\nUpdating the typography\n\n\n\tMy ex-girlfriend loved Georgia, so I never want to see it again. Can we get rid of it? I want to use a font that\u2019s chunky and loud, just like my stupid ex-girlfriend.\n\n\t Fakey McClient\n\n\nYikes! Thankfully with CSS, removing Georgia is as easy as running a find and replace on the stylesheet. In my revised mockup, I used @font-face and League Gothic on the headlines to give the typography the, um, unique feel the client is looking for.\n\n The same mockup, using @font-face on the headlines. If you\u2019re unfamiliar with implementing @font-face, check out Nice Web Type\u2018s helpful article.\n\nAdding rounded corners\n\n\n\tI\u2019m not sure if I\u2019ll like it, but I want to see what it\u2019d look like with rounded corners. My cousin, a Web 2.0 marketing guru, says they\u2019re trendy right now.\n\n\t Fakey McClient\n\n\nSwitching to rounded corners is a nightmare if you\u2019re doing your mockup in Photoshop, since it means recreating most of the shapes and UI elements in the design. Thankfully, with CSS border-radius comes to our rescue! By applying this gem of a style to a handful of classes, you\u2019ll be rounded out in no time.\n\n The mockup with rounded corners, created using border-radius. If you\u2019re not sure how to implement border-radius, check out CSS3.info\u2018s quick how-to.\n\nMaking changes to the color\n\n\n\tThe design is too dark, it\u2019s depressing! They call it \u2018the blues\u2019 for a reason, dummy. Can you try using a brighter color? I want orange, like Zeldman uses.\n\n\t Fakey McClient\n\n\nMaking color changes is another groan-inducing task when working in Photoshop. Finding and updating every background layer, every drop shadow, and every link can take forever in a complex PSD. However, if you\u2019ve done your mockup in markup with RGBA and semi-transparent PNGs, making changes to your color is as easy as updating the body background and a few font colors.\n\n The mockup with an orange color scheme. Best viewed large.\n\nAhem, what about Internet Explorer?\n\nGee, thanks for reminding me, buzzkill. Several of the CSS features I\u2019ve suggested you use, such as RGBA, text-shadow and box-shadow, and border-radius, are not supported in Internet Explorer. I know, it makes me sad too. However, this doesn\u2019t mean you can\u2019t try these techniques out in your markup based mockups.  The point here is to get your mockups done as efficiently as possible, and to keep the emphasis on markup from the very beginning.\n\nOnce the design is approved, you and the client have to decide if you can live with the design looking different in different browsers. Is it so bad if some users get to see drop shadows and some don\u2019t? Or if the rounded corners are missing for a portion of your audience? The design won\u2019t be broken for IE people, they\u2019re just missing out on a few visual treats that other users will see.\n\nThe idea of rewarding users who choose modern browsers is not a new concept; Dan covers it thoroughly in Handcrafted CSS, and it\u2019s been written about in the past by Aaron Gustafson and Andy Clarke on several occasions. I believe we shouldn\u2019t have to design for the lowest common denominator (cough, IE6 users, cough); instead we should create designs that are beautiful in modern browsers, but still degrade nicely for the other guy. However, some clients just aren\u2019t that progressive, and in that case you can always use background images for drop shadows and rounded corners, as you have in the past. \n\nClosing thoughts\n\nWith the advent of CSS3, browsers are just as capable of giving us beautiful, detailed mockups as Photoshop, and in half the time. I\u2019m not the only one to make an argument for this revised process; in his article Time to stop showing clients static design visuals, and in his presentation Walls Come Tumbling Down, Andy Clarke makes a fantastic case for creating your mockups in markup.\n\nSo I guess my challenge to you for 2010 is to get out of Photoshop and into the code. Even if the arguments for designing in the browser aren\u2019t enough to make you change your process permanently, it\u2019s worthwhile to give it a try. Look at the New Year as a time to experiment; applying constraints and evaluating old processes can do wonders for improving your efficiency and creativity.", "year": "2009", "author": "Meagan Fisher", "author_slug": "meaganfisher", "published": "2009-12-24T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2009/make-your-mockup-in-markup/", "topic": "process"}
{"rowid": 218, "title": "Put Yourself in a Corner", "contents": "Some backstory, and a shameful confession\n\nFor the first couple years of high school I was one of those jerks who made only the minimal required effort in school. Strangely enough, how badly I behaved in a class was always in direct proportion to how skilled I was in the subject matter. In the subjects where I was confident that I could pass without trying too hard, I would give myself added freedom to goof off in class.\n\nBecause I was a closeted lit-nerd, I was most skilled in English class. I\u2019d devour and annotate required reading over the weekend, I knew my biblical and mythological allusions up and down, and I could give you a postmodern interpretation of a text like nobody\u2019s business. But in class, I\u2019d sit in the back and gossip with my friends, nap, or scribble patterns in the margins of my textbooks. I was nonchalant during discussion, I pretended not to listen during lectures. I secretly knew my stuff, so I did well enough on tests, quizzes, and essays. But I acted like an ass, and wasn\u2019t getting the most I could out of my education.\n\nThe day of humiliation, but also epiphany\n\nOne day in Ms. Kaney\u2019s AP English Lit class, I was sitting in the back doodling. An earbud was dangling under my sweater hood, attached to the CD player (remember those?) sitting in my desk. Because of this auditory distraction, the first time Ms. Kaney called my name, I barely noticed. I definitely heard her the second time, when she didn\u2019t call my name so much as roar it. I can still remember her five feet frame stomping across the room and grabbing an empty desk. It screamed across the worn tile as she slammed it next to hers. She said, \u201cThis is where you sit now.\u201d My face gets hot just thinking about it.\n\nI gathered my things, including the CD player (which was now impossible to conceal), and made my way up to the newly appointed Seat of Shame. There I sat, with my back to the class, eye-to-eye with Ms. Kaney. From my new vantage point I couldn\u2019t see my friends, or the clock, or the window. All I saw were Ms. Kaney\u2019s eyes, peering at me over her reading glasses while I worked. In addition to this punishment, I was told that from now on, not only would I participate in class discussions, but I would serve detention with her once a week until an undetermined point in the future.\n\nDuring these detentions, Ms. Kaney would give me new books to read, outside the curriculum, and added on to my normal homework. They ranged from classics to modern novels, and she read over my notes on each book. We\u2019d discuss them at length after class, and I grew to value not only our private discussions, but the ones in class as well. After a few weeks, there wasn\u2019t even a question of this being punishment. It was heaven, and I was more productive than ever.\n\nTo the point\n\nPlease excuse this sentimental story. It\u2019s not just about honoring a teacher who cared enough to change my life, it\u2019s really about sharing a lesson. The most valuable education Ms. Kaney gave me had nothing to do with literature. She taught me that I (and perhaps other people who share my special brand of crazy) need to be put in a corner to flourish. When we have physical and mental constraints applied, we  accomplish our best work.\n\nFor those of you still reading, now seems like a good time to insert a pre-emptive word of mediation. Many of you, maybe all of you, are self-disciplined enough that you don\u2019t require the rigorous restrictions I use to maximize productivity. Also, I know many people who operate best in a stimulating and open environment. I would advise everyone to seek and execute techniques that work best for them. But, for those of you who share my inclination towards daydreams and digressions, perhaps you\u2019ll find something useful in the advice to follow.\n\nIn which I pretend to be Special Agent Olivia Dunham\n\nNow that I\u2019m an adult, and no longer have Ms. Kaney to reign me in, I have to find ways to put myself in the corner. By rejecting distraction and shaping an environment designed for intense focus, I\u2019m able to achieve improved productivity.\n\nLately I\u2019ve been obsessed with the TV show Fringe, a sci-fi series about an FBI agent and her team of genius scientists who save the world (no, YOU\u2019RE a nerd). There\u2019s a scene in the show where the primary character has to delve into her subconscious to do extraordinary things, and she accomplishes this by immersing herself in a sensory deprivation tank. The premise is this: when enclosed in a space devoid of sound, smell, or light, she will enter a new plane of consciousness wherein she can tap into new levels of perception.\n\nThis might sound a little nuts, but to me this premise has some real-world application. When I am isolated from distraction, and limited to only the task at hand, I\u2019m able to be productive on a whole new level. Since I can\u2019t actually work in an airtight iron enclosure devoid of input, I find practical ways to create an interruption-free environment.\n\nSince I work from home, many of my methods for coping with distractions wouldn\u2019t be necessary for my office-bound counterpart. However for some of you 9-to-5-ers, the principles will still apply.\n\nConsider your visual input\n\nFirst, I have to limit my scope to the world I can (and need to) affect. In the largest sense, this means closing my curtains to the chaotic scene of traffic, birds, the post office, a convenience store, and generally lovely weather that waits outside my window. When the curtains are drawn and I\u2019m no longer surrounded by this view, my sphere is reduced to my desk, my TV, and my cat. Sometimes this step alone is enough to allow me to focus. \n\nBut, my visual input can be whittled down further still. For example, the desk where I usually keep my laptop is littered with twelve owl figurines, a globe, four books, a three-pound weight, and various nerdy paraphernalia (hard drives, Wacom tablets, unnecessary bluetooth accessories, and so on). It\u2019s not so much a desk as a dumping ground for wacky flea market finds and impulse technology buys. Therefore, in addition to this Official Desk, I have an adult version of Ms. Kaney\u2019s Seat of Shame. It\u2019s a rusty old student\u2019s desk I picked up at the Salvation Army, almost an exact replica of the model Ms. Kaney dragged across the classroom all those years ago.  This tiny reproduction Seat of Shame is literally in a corner, where my only view is a blank wall. When I truly need to focus, this is where I take refuge, with only a notebook and a pencil (and occasionally an iPad).\n\nFind out what works for your ears\n\nEven from my limited sample size of two people, I know there are lots of different ways to cope with auditory distraction. I prefer silence when focused on independent work, and usually employ some form of a white noise generator. I\u2019ve yet to opt for the fancy \u2018real\u2019 white noise machines; instead, I use a desktop fan or our allergy filter machine. This is usually sufficient to block out the sounds of the dishwasher and the cat, which allows me to think only about the task of hand.\n\nMy boyfriend, the other half of my extensive survey, swears by another method. He  calls it The Wall of Sound, and it\u2019s basically an intense blast of raucous music streamed directly into his head. The outcome of his technique is really the same as mine; he\u2019s blocking out unexpected auditory input. If you can handle the grating sounds of noisy music while working, I suggest you give The Wall of Sound a try.\n\nDon\u2019t count the minutes\n\nWhen I sat in the original Seat of Shame in lit class, I could no longer see the big classroom clock slowly ticking away the seconds until lunch. Without the marker of time, the class period often flew by. The same is true now when I work; the less aware of time I am, the less it feels like time is passing too quickly or slowly, and the more I can focus on the task (not how long it takes). \n\nNowadays, to assist in my effort to forget the passing of time, I sometimes put a sticky note over the clock on my monitor. If I\u2019m writing, I\u2019ll use an app like WriteRoom, which blocks out everything but a simple text editor. \n\nThere are situations when it\u2019s not advisable to completely lose track of time. If I\u2019m working on a project with an hourly rate and a tight scope, or if I need to be on time to a meeting or call, I don\u2019t want to lose myself in the expanse of the day. In these cases, I\u2019ll set an alarm that lets me know it\u2019s time to reign myself back in (or on some days, take a shower).\n\nPut yourself in a mental corner, too\n\nWhen Ms. Kaney took action and forced me to step up my game, she had the insight to not just change things physically, but to challenge me mentally as well. She assigned me reading material outside the normal coursework, then upped the pressure by requiring detailed reports of the material. While this additional stress was sometimes uncomfortable, it pushed me to work harder than I would have had there been less of a demand. Just as there can be freedom in the limitations of a distraction-free environment, I\u2019d argue there is liberty in added mental constraints as well.\n\nDeadlines as a constraint\n\nMuch has been written about the role of deadlines in the creative process, and they seem to serve different functions in different cases. I find that deadlines usually act as an important constraint and, without them, it would be nearly impossible for me to ever consider a project finished. There are usually limitless ways to improve upon the work I do and, if there\u2019s no imperative for me to be done at a certain point, I will revise ad infinitum. (Hence, the personal site redesign that will never end \u2013 Coming Soon, Forever!). But if I have a clear deadline in mind, there\u2019s a point when the obsessive tweaking has to stop. I reach a stage where I have to gather up the nerve to launch the thing.\n\nPutting the pro in procrastination\n\nSometimes I\u2019ve found that my tendency to procrastinate can help my productivity. (Ducks, as half the internet throws things at her.) I understand the reasons why procrastination can be harmful, and why it\u2019s usually a good idea to work diligently and evenly towards a goal. I try to divide my projects up in a practical way, and sometimes I even pull it off. But for those tasks where you work aimlessly and no focus comes, or you find that every other to-do item is more appealing, sometimes you\u2019re forced to bring it together at the last moment. And sometimes, this environment of stress is a formula for magic. Often when I\u2019m down to the wire and have no choice but to produce, my mind shifts towards a new level of clarity. There\u2019s no time to endlessly browse for inspiration, or experiment with convoluted solutions that lead nowhere.\n\nObviously a life lived perpetually on the edge of a deadline would be a rather stressful one, so it\u2019s not a state of being I\u2019d advocate for everyone, all the time. But every now and then, the work done when I\u2019m down to the wire is my best.\n\nKeep one toe outside your comfort zone\n\nWhen I\u2019m choosing new projects to take on, I often seek out work that involves an element of challenge. Whether it\u2019s a design problem that will require some creative thinking, or a coding project that lends itself to using new technology like HTML5, I find a manageable level of difficulty to be an added bonus. The tension that comes from learning a new skill or rethinking an old standby is a useful constraint, as it keeps the work interesting, and ensures that I continue learning.\n\nThere you have it\n\nWell, I think I\u2019ve spilled most of my crazy secrets for forcing my easily distracted brain to focus. As with everything we web workers do, there are an infinite number of ways to encourage productivity. I hope you\u2019ve found a few of these to be helpful, and please share your personal techniques in the comments. Have a happy and productive new year!", "year": "2010", "author": "Meagan Fisher", "author_slug": "meaganfisher", "published": "2010-12-20T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2010/put-yourself-in-a-corner/", "topic": "process"}
{"rowid": 261, "title": "Surviving\u2014and Thriving\u2014as a Remote Worker", "contents": "Remote work is hot right now. Many people even say that remote work is the future. Why should a company limit itself to hiring from a specific geographic location when there\u2019s an entire world of talent out there?\nI\u2019ve been working remotely, full-time, for five and a half years. I\u2019ve reached the point where I can\u2019t even fathom working in an office. The idea of having to wake up at a specific time and commute into an office, work for eight hours, and then commute home, feels weirdly anachronistic. I\u2019ve grown attached to my current level of freedom and flexibility.\nHowever, it took me a lot of trial and error to reach success as a remote worker \u2014 and sometimes even now, I slip up. Working remotely requires a great amount of discipline, independence, and communication. It can feel isolating, especially if you lean towards the more extroverted side of the social spectrum. Remote working isn\u2019t for everyone, but most people, with enough effort, can make it work \u2014 or even thrive. Here\u2019s what I\u2019ve learned in over five years of working remotely.\nExperiment with your environment\nAs a remote worker, you have almost unprecedented control of your environment. You can often control the specific desk and chair you use, how you accessorize your home office space \u2014 whether that\u2019s a dedicated office, a corner of your bedroom, or your kitchen table. (Ideally, not your couch\u2026 but I\u2019ve been there.) Hate fluorescent lights? Change your lightbulbs. Cover your work area in potted plants. Put up blackout curtains and work in the dark like a vampire. Whatever makes you feel most comfortable and productive, and doesn\u2019t completely destroy your eyesight.\nWorking remotely doesn\u2019t always mean working from home. If you don\u2019t have a specific reason you need to work from home (like specialized equipment), try working from other environments (which is especially helpful it you have roommates, or children). Cafes are the quintessential remote worker hotspot, but don\u2019t just limit yourself to your favorite local haunt. More cities worldwide are embracing co-working spaces, where you can rent either a roaming spot or a dedicated desk. If you\u2019re a social person, this is a great way to build community in your work environment. Most have phone rooms, so you can still take calls.\nCo-working spaces can be expensive, and not everyone has either the extra income, or work-provided stipend, to work from one. Local libraries are also a great work location. They\u2019re quiet, usually have free wi-fi, and you have the added bonus of being able to check out books after work instead of, ahem, spending too much money on Kindle books. (I know most libraries let you check out ebooks, but reader, I am impulsive and impatient person. When I want a book now, I mean now.) \nJust be polite \u2014 make sure your headphones don\u2019t leak, and don\u2019t work from a library if you have a day full of calls.\nRemember, too, that you don\u2019t have to stay in the same spot all day. It\u2019s okay to go out for lunch and then resume work from a different location. If you find yourself getting restless, take a walk. Wash some dishes while you mull through a problem. Don\u2019t force yourself to sit at your desk for eight hours if that doesn\u2019t work for you.\nSet boundaries\nIf you\u2019re a workaholic, working remotely can be a challenge. It\u2019s incredibly easy to just\u2026 work. All the time. My work computer is almost always with me. If I remember at 11pm that I wanted to do something, there\u2019s nothing but my own willpower keeping me from opening up my laptop and working until 2am. Some people are naturally disciplined. Some have discipline instilled in them as children. And then some, like me, are undisciplined disasters that realize as adults that wow, I guess it\u2019s time to figure this out, eh?\nLearning how to set boundaries is one of the most important lessons I\u2019ve learned working remotely. (And honestly, it\u2019s something I still struggle with). \nFor a long time, I had a bad habit of waking up, checking my phone for new Slack messages, seeing something I need to react to, and then rolling over to my couch with my computer. Suddenly, it\u2019s noon, I\u2019m unwashed, unfed, starting to get a headache, and wondering why suddenly I hate all of my coworkers. Even when I finally tear myself from my computer to shower, get dressed, and eat, the damage is done. The rest of my day is pretty much shot.\nI recently had a conversation with a coworker, in which she remarked that she used to fill her empty time with work. Wake up? Scroll through Slack and email before getting out of bed. Waiting in line for lunch? Check work. Hanging out on her couch in the evening? You get the drift. She was only able to break the habit after taking a three month sabbatical, where she had no contact with work the entire time.\nI too had just returned from my own sabbatical. I took her advice, and no longer have work Slack on my phone, unless I need it for an event. After the event, I delete it. I also find it too easy to fill empty time with work. Now, I might wake up and procrastinate by scrolling through other apps, but I can\u2019t get sucked into work before I\u2019m even dressed. I\u2019ve gotten pretty good at forbidding myself from working until I\u2019m ready, but building any new habit requires intentionality. \nSomething else I experimented with for a while was creating a separate account on my computer for social tasks, so if I wanted to hang out on my computer in the evening, I wouldn\u2019t get distracted by work. It worked exceptionally well. The only problems I encountered were technical, like app licensing and some of my work proxy configurations. I\u2019ve heard other coworkers have figured out ways to work through these technical issues, so I\u2019m hoping to give it another try soon.\nYou might noticed that a lot of these ideas are just hacks for making myself not work outside of my designated work times. It\u2019s true! If you\u2019re a more disciplined person, you might not need any of these coping mechanisms. If you\u2019re struggling, finding ways to subvert your own bad habits can be the difference between thriving or burning out.\nCreate intentional transition time\nI know it\u2019s a stereotype that people who work from home stay in their pajamas all day, but\u2026 sometimes, it\u2019s very easy to do. I\u2019ve found that in order to reach peak focus, I need to create intentional transition time. \nThe most obvious step is changing into different clothing than I woke up in. Ideally, this means getting dressed in real human clothing. I might decide that it\u2019s cold and gross out and I want to work in joggers and a hoody all day, but first, I need to change out of my pajamas, put on a bra, and then succumb to the lure of comfort. \nI\u2019ve found it helpful to take similar steps at the end of my day. If I\u2019ve spent the day working from home, I try to end my day with something that occupies my body, while letting my mind unwind. Often, this is doing some light cleaning or dinner prep. If I try to go straight into another mentally heavy task without allowing myself this transition time, I find it hard to context switch. \nThis is another reason working from outside your home is advantageous. Commutes, even if it\u2019s a ten minute walk down the road, are great transition time. Lunch is a great transition time. You can decompress between tasks by going out for lunch, or cooking and eating lunch in your kitchen \u2014 not next to your computer. \nEmbrace async\nIf you\u2019re used to working in an office, you\u2019ve probably gotten pretty used to being able to pop over to a colleague\u2019s desk if you need to ask a question. They\u2019re pretty much forced to engage with you at that point. When you\u2019re working remotely, your coworkers might not be in the same timezone as you. They might take an hour to finish up a task before responding to you, or you might not get an answer for your entire day because dangit Gary\u2019s in Australia and it\u2019s 3am there right now. \nFor many remote workers, that\u2019s part of the package. When you\u2019re not co-located, you have to build up some patience and tolerance around waiting. You need to intentionally plan extra time into your schedule for waiting on answers.\nAsynchronous communication is great. Not everyone can be present for every meeting or office conversation \u2014 and the same goes for working remotely. However, when you\u2019re remote, you can read through your intranet messages later or scroll back a couple hours in Slack. My company has a bunch of internal blogs (\u201cp2s\u201d) where we record major decisions and hold asynchronous conversations. I feel like even if I missed a meeting, or something big happened while I was asleep, I can catch up later. We have a phrase \u2014 \u201cp2 or it didn\u2019t happen.\u201d\nWorking remotely has made me a better communicator largely because I\u2019ve gotten into the habit of making written updates. I\u2019ve also trained myself to wait before responding, which allows me to distance myself from what could potentially be an emotional reaction. (On the internet, no one can see you making that face.) Having the added space that comes from not being in the same physical location with somebody else creates an opportunity to rein myself in and take the time to craft an appropriate response, without having the pressure of needing to reply right meow. Lean into it!\n(That said, if you\u2019re stuck, sometimes the best course of action is to hop on a video call with someone and hash out the details. Use the tools most appropriate for the problem. They invented Zoom for a reason.)\nSeek out social opportunities\nEven introverts can feel lonely or isolated. When you work remotely, there isn\u2019t a built-in community you\u2019re surrounded by every day. You have to intentionally seek out social opportunities that an office would normally provide.\nI have a couple private Slack channels where I can joke around with work friends. Having that kind of safe space to socialize helps me feel less alone. (And, if the channels get too noisy, I can mute them for a couple hours.)\nEvery now and then, I\u2019ll also hop on a video call with some work friends and just hang out for a little while. It feels great to actually see someone laugh.\nIf you work from a co-working space, that space likely has events. My co-working space hosts social hours, holiday parties, and sometimes even lunch-and-learns. These events are great opportunities for making new friends and forging professional connections outside of work. \nIf you don\u2019t have access to a co-working space, your town or city likely has meetups. Create a Meetup.com account and search for something that piques your interest. If you\u2019ve been stuck inside your house for days, heads-down on a hard deadline, celebrate by getting out of the house. Get coffee or drinks with friends. See a show. Go to a religious service. Take a cooking class. Try yoga. Find excuses to be around someone other than your cats. When you can\u2019t fall back on your work to provide community, you need to build your own.\n\nThese are tips that I\u2019ve found help me, but not everyone works the same way. Remember that it\u2019s okay to experiment \u2014 just because you\u2019ve worked one way, doesn\u2019t mean that\u2019s the best way for you. Check in with yourself every now and then. Are you happy with your work environment? Are you feeling lonely, down, or exhausted? Try switching up your routine for a couple weeks and jot down how you feel at the end of each day. Look for patterns. You deserve to have a comfortable and productive work environment!\nHope to see you all online soon \ud83d\ude4c", "year": "2018", "author": "Mel Choyce", "author_slug": "melchoyce", "published": "2018-12-09T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2018/thriving-as-a-remote-worker/", "topic": "process"}
{"rowid": 10, "title": "Home Kanban for Domestic Bliss", "contents": "My wife is an architect. I\u2019m a leader of big technical teams these days, but for many years after I was a dev I was a project/program manager. Our friends and family used to watch Grand Designs and think that we would make the ideal team \u2014 she could design, I could manage the project of building or converting whatever dream home we wanted.\n\nThen we bought a house.\n\nA Victorian terrace in the north-east of England that needed, well, a fair bit of work. The big decisions were actually pretty easy: yes, we should knock through a double doorway from the dining room to the lounge; yes, we should strip out everything from the utility room and redo it; yes, we should roll back the hideous carpet in the bedrooms upstairs and see if we could restore the original wood flooring.\n\nThose could be managed like a project.\n\nWhat couldn\u2019t be was all the other stuff. Incremental improvements are harder to schedule, and in a house that\u2019s over a hundred years old you never know what you\u2019re going to find when you clear away some tiles, or pull up the carpets, or even just spring-clean the kitchen (\u201cErm, hon? The paint seems to be coming off. Actually, so does the plaster\u2026\u201d). A bit like going in to fix bugs in code or upgrade a machine \u2014 sometimes you end up quite far down the rabbit hole.\n\nAnd so, as we tried to fit in those improvements in our evenings and weekends, we found ourselves disagreeing. Arguing, even. We were both trying to do the right thing (make the house better) but since we were fitting it in where we could, we often didn\u2019t get to talk and agree in detail what was needed (exactly how to make the house better). And it\u2019s really frustrating when you stay up late doing something, just to find that your other half didn\u2019t mean that they meant this instead, and so your effort was wasted.\n\nThen I saw this tweet from my friend and colleague Jamie Arnold, who was using the same kanban board approach at home as we had instituted at the UK Government Digital Service to manage our portfolio.\n\nMrs Arnold embraces Kanban wall at home. Disagreements about work in progress and priority significantly reduced.. ;) pic.twitter.com/407brMCH\u2014 Jamie Arnold (@itsallgonewrong) October 27, 2012\n\nAnd despite Jamie\u2019s questionable taste in fancy dress outfits (look closely at that board), he is a proper genius when it comes to processes and particularly agile ones. So I followed his example and instituted a home kanban board.\n\nWhat is this kanban of which you speak?\n\nKanban boards are an artefact from lean manufacturing \u2014 basically a visualisation of a production process. They are used to show you where your bottlenecks are, or where one part of the process is producing components faster than another part of the process can cope. Identifying the bottlenecks leads you to set work in progress (WIP) limits, so that you get an overall more efficient system.\n\nIncreasingly kanban is used as an agile software development approach, too, especially where support work (like fixing bugs) needs to be balanced with incremental enhancement (like adding new features).\n\nI\u2019m a big advocate of kanban when you have a system that needs to be maintained and improved by the same team at the same time. Rather than the sprint-based approach of scrum (where the next sprint\u2019s stories or features to be delivered are agreed up front), kanban lets individuals deal with incidents or problems that need investigation and bug fixing when urgent and important. Then, when someone has capacity, they can just go to the board and pull down the next feature to develop or test.\n\nSo, how did we use it?\n\nOne of the key tenets of kanban is that you visualise your workflow, so we put together a whiteboard with columns: Icebox; To Do Next; In Process; Done; and also a section called Blocked. Then, for each thing that needed to happen in the house, we put it on a Post-it note and initially chucked them all in the Icebox \u2014 a collection with no priority assigned yet.\n\nEach week we looked at the Icebox and pulled out a set of things that we felt should be done next. This was pulled into the To Do Next column, and then each time either of us had some time, we could just pull a new thing over into the In Process column. We agreed to review at the end of each week and move things to Done together, and to talk about whether this kanban approach was working for us or not.\n\nWe quickly learned for ourselves why kanban has WIP limits as a key tenet \u2014 it\u2019s tempting to pull everything into the To Do Next column, but that\u2019s unrealistic. And trying to do more than one or two things each at a given time isn\u2019t terribly productive owing to the cost of task switching. So we tend to limit our To Do Next to about seven items, and our In Process to about four (a max of two each, basically).\n\nWe use the Blocked column when something can\u2019t be completed \u2014 perhaps we can\u2019t fix something because we discovered we don\u2019t have the required tools or supplies, or if we\u2019re waiting for a call back from a plumber. But it\u2019s nice to put it to one side, knowing that it won\u2019t be forgotten.\n\nWhat helped the most?\n\nIt wasn\u2019t so much the visualisation that helped us to see what we needed to do, but the conversation that happened when we were agreeing priorities, moving them to In Process and then on to Done made the biggest difference. Getting clear on the order of importance really is invaluable \u2014 as is getting clear on what Done really means!\n\nThe Blocked column is also great, as it helps us keep track of things we need to do outside the house to make sure we can make progress. We also found it really helpful to examine the process itself and figure out whether it was working for us. For instance, one thing we realised is it\u2019s worth tracking some regular tasks that need time invested in them (like taking recycling that isn\u2019t picked up to the recycling centre) and these used to cycle around and around. So they were moved to Done as part of our weekly review, but then immediately put back in the Icebox to float back to the top again at a relevant time.\n\nBut the best thing of all? That moment where we get to mark something as done! It\u2019s immensely satisfying to review at the end of the week and have a physical marker of the progress you\u2019ve made.\n\nAll in all, a home kanban board turned out to be a very effective way to pull tasks through stages rather than always trying to plan them out in advance, and definitely made collaboration on our home tasks significantly smoother. Give it a try!", "year": "2013", "author": "Meri Williams", "author_slug": "meriwilliams", "published": "2013-12-14T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2013/home-kanban-for-domestic-bliss/", "topic": "process"}
{"rowid": 113, "title": "What Your Turkey Can Teach You About Project Management", "contents": "The problem with project management is that everyone thinks it\u2019s boring. Well, that\u2019s not really the problem. The problem is that everyone thinks it\u2019s boring but it\u2019s still really important. Project management is what lets you deliver your art \u2013 whether that be design or development. \n\nIn the same way, a Christmas dinner cooked by a brilliant chef with no organizational skills is disastrous \u2013 courses arrive in the wrong order, some things are cold whilst others are raw and generally it\u2019s a trip to the ER waiting to happen. Continuing the Christmas dinner theme, here are my top tips for successful projects, wrapped up in a nice little festive analogy. Enjoy!\n\nTip 1: Know What You\u2019re Aiming For\n\n(Turkey? Ham? Both??)\n\nThe underlying cause for the failure of so many projects is mismatched expectations. Christmas dinner cannot be a success if you serve glazed ham and your guests view turkey as the essential Christmas dinner ingredient. It doesn\u2019t matter how delicious and well executed your glazed ham is, it\u2019s still fundamentally just not turkey. You might win one or two adventurous souls over, but the rest will go home disappointed.\n\nAdd to the mix the fact that most web design projects are nowhere near as emotive as Christmas dinner (trust me, a ham vs turkey debate will rage much longer than a fixed vs fluid debate in normal human circles) and the problem is compounded. In particular, as technologists, we forget that our ability to precisely imagine the outcome of a project, be it a website, a piece of software, or similar, is much more keenly developed than the average customer of such projects. \n\nSo what\u2019s the solution? Get very clear, from the very beginning, on exactly what the project is about. What are you trying to achieve? How will you measure success? Is the presence of turkey a critical success factor?\n\nSummarize all this information in some form of document (in PM-speak, it\u2019s called a Project Initiation Document typically). Ideally, get the people who are the real decision makers to sign their agreement to that summary in their own blood. Well, you get the picture, I suppose actual blood is not strictly necessary, but a bit of gothic music to set the tone can be useful!\n\nTip 2: Plan at the Right Level of Detail\n\nHugely detailed and useless Gantt charts are a personal bugbear of mine. For any project, you should plan at the appropriate level of detail (and in an appropriate format) for the project itself. In our Christmas dinner example, it may be perfectly fine to have a list of tasks for the preparation work, but for the intricate interplay of oven availability and cooking times, something more complex is usually due. Having cooked roast dinners for fourteen in a student house where only the top oven and two of the rings on the hob actually worked, I can attest to the need for sequence diagrams in some of these situations!\n\nThe mistake many small teams make is to end up with a project plan that is really the amalgamation of their individual todo lists. What is needed is a project plan that will:\n\n\n\treflect reality\n\tbe easy to update\n\thelp to track progress (i.e. are we on track or not?)\n\n\nA good approach is to break your project into stages (each representing something tangible) and then into deliverables (again, something tangible for each milestone, else you\u2019ll never know if you\u2019ve hit it or not!). \n\nMy personal rule of thumb is that the level of granularity needed on most projects is 2-3 days \u2013 i.e. we should never be more than two to three days from a definitive milestone which will either be complete or not. The added advantage of this approach is that if find yourself off track, you can only be two to three days off track\u2026 much easier to make up than if you went weeks or even months working hard but not actually delivering what was needed!\n\nIn our Christmas dinner example, there are a number of critical milestones \u2013 a tick list of questions. Do we have all the ingredients? Check. Has the turkey been basted? Check. On the actual day, the sequencing and timing will mean more specific questions: It\u2019s 12pm. Are the Brussels sprouts cooked to death yet? Check. (Allowing for the extra hour of boiling to go from soft and green to mushy and brown\u2026 Yeuch!) \n\nTip 3: Actively Manage Risks and Issues\n\nA risk is something that could go wrong. An issue is something that has already gone wrong. Risks and issues are where project management superstars are born. Anyone can manage things when everything is going according to plan; it\u2019s what you do when Cousin Jim refuses to eat anything but strawberry jam sandwiches that sorts the men from the boys. \n\nThe key with a Christmas dinner, as with any project, is to have contingency plans for the most likely and most damaging risks. These depend on your own particular situation, but some examples might be:\n\n \n\t\t\n\t\t\tRISK\n\t\t\tCONTINGENCY PLAN\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\tCousin Jim is a picky eater.\n\t\t\tHave strawberry jam and sliced white bread on hand to placate.\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\tPrime organic turkey might not be available at Waitrose on Christmas eve.\n\t\t\tShop in advance!\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\tYou live somewhere remote that seems to lose power around Christmas on a disturbingly regular basis.\n\t\t\t(number of options here depending on how far you want to go\u2026)\n\n\t\t\t\t\tBuy a backup generator.\n\n\t\t\t\t\tInvent a new cooking method using only candles.\n\n\t\t\t\t\tStock up on \u201cChristmas dinner in a tin\u201d.\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\tYour mother in law is likely to be annoying.\n\t\t\tBottle of sherry at the ready (whether it\u2019s for you or her, you can decide!).\n\t\t\n \n\n\nThe point of planning in advance is so that most of your issues don\u2019t blindside you \u2013 you can spring into action with the contingency plan immediately. This leaves you with plenty of ingenuity and ability to cope in reserve for those truly unexpected events. \n\nBack in your regular projects, you should have a risk management plan (developed at the beginning of the project and regularly reviewed) as well as an issue list, tracking open, in progress and closed issues. Importantly, your issue list should be separate from any kind of bug list \u2013 issues are at a project level, bugs are at a technical level.\n\nTip 4: Have a Project Board\n\nA project board consists of the overall sponsor of your project (often, but not always, the guy with the cheque book) and typically a business expert and a technical expert to help advise the sponsor. The project board is the entity that is meant to make the big, critical decisions. As a project manager, your role is to prepare a recommendation, but leave the actual decision up to the board. \n\nAdmittedly this is where our Christmas dinner analogy has to stretch the most, but if you imagine that instead of just cooking for your family you are the caterer preparing a Christmas feast for a company. In this case, you obviously want to please the diners who will be eating the food, but key decisions are likely to be taken by whoever is organizing the event. They, in turn, will involve the boss if there are really big decisions that would affect the project drastically \u2013 for instance, having to move it to January, or it exceeding the set budget by a significant amount.\n\nMost projects suffer from not having a project board to consult for these major decisions, or from having the wrong people selected. The first ailment is eased by ensuring that you have a functioning project board, with whom you either meet regularly to update on status, or where there is a special process for convening the board if they are needed. The second problem is a little more subtle. Key questions to ask yourself are:\n\n\n\tWho is funding this project?\n\tWho has the authority to stop the project if it was the right thing to do?\n\tWho are the right business and technical advisors?\n\tWho are the folks who don\u2019t look like they are powerful on the org chart, but in fact might scupper this project? (e.g. administrators, tech support, personal assistants\u2026)\n\n\nTip 5: Finish Unequivocably and Well\n\nNo one is ever uncertain as to when Christmas dinner ends. Once the flaming pudding has been consumed and the cheese tray picked at, the end of the dinner is heralded by groaning and everyone collapsing in their chairs. Different households have different rituals, so you might only open your presents after Christmas dinner (unlikely if you have small children!), or you might round off the afternoon watching the Queen\u2019s speech (in Britland, certainly) or if you live in warmer climes you might round off Christmas dinner with a swim (which was our tradition in Cape Town \u2013 after 30 mins of food settling so you didn\u2019t get cramp, of course!). \n\nThe problem with projects is that they are one time efforts and so nowhere near as ritualized. Unless you have been incredibly lucky, you\u2019ve probably worked on a project where you thought you were finished but seemed unable to lose your \u201czombie customers\u201d \u2013 those folks who just didn\u2019t realise it was over and kept coming back with more and more requests. You might even have fallen prey to this yourself, believing that the website going live was the end of the project and not realising that a number of things still needed to be wrapped up.\n\nThe essence of this final tip is to inject some of that end-of-Christmas finality ritual into your projects. Find your own ritual for closing down projects \u2013 more than just sending the customer the invoice and archiving the files. Consider things like documentation, support structure handover and training to make sure that those zombies are going to the right people (hopefully not you!). \n\nSo, to summarise:\n\n\n\tMake sure you start your projects well \u2013 with an agreed (written) vision of what you\u2019re trying to achieve.\n\tPlan your projects at the right level of detail and in an appropriate format \u2013 never be more than a few days away from knowing for sure whether you\u2019re on track or not.\n\tPlan for likely and important risks and make sure you track and resolve those you actually encounter.\n\tInstitute a project board, made up of the people with the real power over your project.\n\tCreate rituals for closing projects well \u2013 don\u2019t leave anyone in doubt that the project has been delivered, or of who they should go to for further help.", "year": "2008", "author": "Meri Williams", "author_slug": "meriwilliams", "published": "2008-12-16T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2008/what-your-turkey-can-teach-you-about-project-management/", "topic": "business"}
{"rowid": 312, "title": "Preparing to Be Badass Next Year", "contents": "Once we\u2019ve eaten our way through the holiday season, people will start to think about new year\u2019s resolutions. We tend to focus on things that we want to change\u2026 and often things that we don\u2019t like about ourselves to \u201cfix\u201d. We set rules for ourselves, or try to start new habits or stop bad ones. We focus in on things we will or won\u2019t do. \nFor many of us the list of things we \u201cought\u201d to be spending time on is just plain overwhelming \u2013 family, charity/community, career, money, health, relationships, personal development. \nIt\u2019s kinda scary even just listing it out, isn\u2019t it? I want to encourage you to think differently about next year.\nThe ever-brilliant Kathy Sierra articulates a better approach really well when talking about the attitude we should have to building great products. She tells us to think not about what the user will do with our product, but about what they are trying to achieve in the real world and how our product helps them to be badass1.\nWhen we help the user be badass, then we are really making a difference. \nI suppose this is one way of saying: focus not on what you will do, focus on what it will help you achieve. How will it help you be awesome?\nIn what ways do you want to be more badass next year?\nA professional lens\nThough of course you might want to focus in on health or family or charity or community or another area next year, many people will want to become more badass in their chosen career. \nSo let\u2019s talk about a scaffold to help you figure out your professional / career development next year. \nFirst up, an assumption: everyone wants to be awesome. Nobody gets up in the morning aiming to be crap at their job. Nobody thinks to themselves \u201cToday I am aiming for just south of mediocre, and if I can mess up everybody else\u2019s ability to do good work then that will be just perfect2\u201d. \nErgo, you want to be awesome. So what does awesome look like? \nDanger!\nThe big trap that people fall into when think about their professional development is to immediately focus on the things that they aren\u2019t good at. When you ask people \u201cwhat do you want to work on getting better at next year?\u201d they frequently gravitate to the things that they believe they are bad at. \nWhy is this a trap? Because if you focus all your time and energy on improving the areas that you suck at, you are going to end up middling at everything. Going from bad \u2192 mediocre at a given skill / behaviour takes a bunch of time and energy. So if you spend all your time going from bad \u2192 mediocre at things, what do you think you end up? That\u2019s right, mediocre. \nMediocrity is not a great career goal, kids. \nWhat do you already rock at?\nThe much better investment of time and energy is to go from good \u2192 awesome. It often takes the same amount of relative time and energy, but wow the end result is better! So first, ask yourself and those who know you well what you are already pretty damn good at. Combat imposter syndrome by asking others. \nThen figure out how to double down on those things. What does brilliant look like for a given skill? What\u2019s the knowledge or practice that you need to level yourself up even further in that thing?\nBut what if I really really suck?\nAdmittedly, sometimes something you suck at really is holding you back. But it\u2019s important to separate out weaknesses (just something you suck at) from controlling weaknesses (something you suck at that actually matters for your chosen career). \nIf skill x is just not an important thing for you to be good at, you may never need to care that you aren\u2019t good at it. If your current role or the one you aspire to next really really requires you to be great at x, then it\u2019s worth investing your time and energy (and possibly money too) getting better at it.\nSo when you look at the things that you aren\u2019t good at, which of those are actually essential for success?\nThe right ratio\nA good rule of thumb is to pick three things you are already good at to work on becoming awesome at and limit yourself to one weakness that you are trying to improve on. That way you are making sure that you get to awesome in areas where you already have an advantage, and limit the amount of time you are spending on going from bad \u2192 mediocre. \nLevelling up learning\nSo once you\u2019ve figured out your areas you want to focus on next year, what do you actually decide to do? \nMost of all, you should try to design your day-to-day work in a way that it is also an effective learning experience. This means making sure you have a good feedback loop \u2013 you get to try something, see if it works, learn from it, rinse and repeat. \nIt\u2019s also about balance: you want to be challenged enough for work to be interesting, without it being so hard it\u2019s frustrating. You want to do similar / the same things often enough that you get to learn and improve, without it being so repetitive that it\u2019s boring. \nContinuously getting better at things you are already good at is actually both easier and harder than it sounds. The advantage is that it\u2019s pretty easy to add the feedback loop to make sure that you are improving; the disadvantage is that you\u2019re already good at these skills so you could easily just \u201cdo\u201d without ever stopping to reflect and improve. Build in time for personal retrospectives (\u201cWhat went well? What didn\u2019t? What one thing will I choose to change next time?\u201d) and find a way of getting feedback from outside sources as well. \nAs for the new skills, it\u2019s worth knowing that skill development follows a particular pattern:\n\nWe all start out unconsciously incompetent (we don\u2019t know what to do and if we tried we\u2019d unwittingly get it wrong), progress on to conscious incompetence (we now know we\u2019re doing it wrong) then conscious competence (we\u2019re doing it right but wow it takes effort and attention) and eventually get to unconscious competence (automatically getting it right). \nYour past experiences and knowledge might let you move faster through these stages, but no one gets to skip them. Invest the time and remember you need the feedback loop to really improve. \nWhat about keeping up?\nEverything changes very fast in our industry. We need to invest in not falling behind, in keeping on top of what great looks like. There are a bunch of ways to do this, from reading blog posts, following links on Twitter, reading books to attending conferences or workshops, or just finding time to build things in new ways or with new technologies. \nWhich will work best for you depends on how you best learn. Do you prefer to swallow a book? Do you learn most by building or experimenting? \nWhatever your learning style though, remember that there are three real needs:\n\nScan the landscape (what\u2019s changing, does it matter)\nGain the knowledge or skills (get the detail)\nApply the knowledge or skills (use it in reality)\n\nWhen you remember that you need all three of these things it can help you get more of what you do. \nFor me personally, I use a combination of conferences and blogs / Twitter to scan the landscape. Half of what I want out of a conference is just a list of things to have on my radar that might become important. I then pick a couple of things to go read up on more (I personally learn most effectively by swallowing a book or spec or similar). And then I pick one thing at a time to actually apply in real life, to embed the skill / knowledge. \nIn summary\n\nAim to be awesome (mediocrity is not a career goal).\nFigure out what you already rock at.\nOnly care about stuff you suck at that matters for your career.\nPick three things to go from good \u2192 awesome and one thing to go from bad \u2192 mediocre (or mediocre \u2192 good) this year.\nDesign learning into your daily work.\nScan the landscape, learn new stuff, apply it for real. \nBe badass!\n\n\n\n\n\nShe wrote a whole book about it. You should read it: Badass: Making Users Awesome\u00a0\u21a9\n\n\nBefore you argue too vehemently: I suppose some antisocial sociopathic bastards do exist. Identify them, and then RUN AWAY FAST AS YOU CAN #realtalk\u00a0\u21a9", "year": "2016", "author": "Meri Williams", "author_slug": "meriwilliams", "published": "2016-12-22T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2016/preparing-to-be-badass-next-year/", "topic": "business"}
{"rowid": 322, "title": "Introduction to Scriptaculous Effects", "contents": "Gather around kids, because this year, much like in that James Bond movie with Denise Richards, Christmas is coming early\u2026 in the shape of scrumptuous smooth javascript driven effects at your every whim.\n\nNow what I\u2019m going to do, is take things down a notch. Which is to say, you don\u2019t need to know much beyond how to open a text file and edit it to follow this article. Personally, I for instance can\u2019t code to save my life.\n\nWell, strictly speaking, that\u2019s not entirely true. If my life was on the line, and the code needed was really simple and I wasn\u2019t under any time constraints, then yeah maybe I could hack my way out of it\n\nBut my point is this: I\u2019m not a programmer in the traditional sense of the word. In fact, what I do best, is scrounge code off of other people, take it apart and then put it back together with duct tape, chewing gum and dumb blind luck.\n\nNo, don\u2019t run! That happens to be a good thing in this case. You see, we\u2019re going to be implementing some really snazzy effects (which are considerably more relevant than most people are willing to admit) on your site, and we\u2019re going to do it with the aid of Thomas Fuchs\u2019 amazing Script.aculo.us library. And it will be like stealing candy from a child.\n\nWhat Are We Doing?\n\nI\u2019m going to show you the very basics of implementing the Script.aculo.us javascript library\u2019s Combination Effects. These allow you to fade elements on your site in or out, slide them up and down and so on.\n\nWhy Use Effects at All?\n\nBefore get started though, let me just take a moment to explain how I came to see smooth transitions as something more than smoke and mirror-like effects included for with little more motive than to dazzle and make parents go \u2018uuh, snazzy\u2019.\n\nEarlier this year, I had the good fortune of meeting the kind, gentle and quite knowledgable Matt Webb at a conference here in Copenhagen where we were both speaking (though I will be the first to admit my little talk on Open Source Design was vastly inferior to Matt\u2019s talk). Matt held a talk called Fixing Broken Windows (based on the Broken Windows theory), which really made an impression on me, and which I have since then referred back to several times.\n\nYou can listen to it yourself, as it\u2019s available from Archive.org. Though since Matt\u2019s session uses many visual examples, you\u2019ll have to rely on your imagination for some of the examples he runs through during it. Also, I think it looses audio for a few seconds every once in a while.\n\nAnyway, one of the things Matt talked a lot about, was how our eyes are wired to react to movement. The world doesn\u2019t flickr. It doesn\u2019t disappear or suddenly change and force us to look for the change. Things move smoothly in the real world. They do not pop up.\n\nHow it Works\n\nOnce the necessary files have been included, you trigger an effect by pointing it at the ID of an element. Simple as that.\n\nImplementing the Effects\n\nSo now you know why I believe these effects have a place in your site, and that\u2019s half the battle. Because you see, actually getting these effects up and running, is deceptively simple.\n\nFirst, go and download the latest version of the library (as of this writing, it\u2019s version 1.5 rc5). Unzip itand open it up.\n\nNow we\u2019re going to bypass the instructions in the readme file. Script.aculo.us can do a bunch of quite advanced things, but all we really want from it is its effects. And by sidestepping the rest of the features, we can shave off roughly 80KB of unnecessary javascript, which is well worth it if you ask me.\n\nAs with Drew\u2019s article on Easy Ajax with Prototype, script.aculo.us also uses the Prototype framework by  Sam Stephenson. But contrary to Drew\u2019s article, you don\u2019t have to download Prototype, as a version comes bundled with script.aculo.us (though feel free to upgrade to the latest version if you so please).\n\nSo in the unzipped folder, containing the script.aculo.us files and folder, go into \u2018lib\u2019 and grab the \u2018prototype.js\u2019 file. Move it to whereever you want to store the javascript files. Then fetch the \u2018effects.js\u2019 file from the \u2018src\u2019 folder and put it in the same place.\n\nTo make things even easier for you to get this up and running, I have prepared a small javascript snippet which does some checking to see what you\u2019re trying to do. The script.aculo.us effects are all either \u2018turn this off\u2019 or \u2018turn this on\u2019. What this snippet does, is check to see what state the target currently has (is it on or off?) and then use the necessary effect.\n\nYou can either skip to the end and download the example code, or copy and paste this code into a file manually (I\u2019ll refer to that file as combo.js):\n\nEffect.OpenUp = function(element) {\n     element = $(element);\n     new Effect.BlindDown(element, arguments[1] || {});\n }\n\n Effect.CloseDown = function(element) {\n     element = $(element);\n     new Effect.BlindUp(element, arguments[1] || {});\n }\n\n Effect.Combo = function(element) {\n     element = $(element);\n     if(element.style.display == 'none') { \n          new Effect.OpenUp(element, arguments[1] || {}); \n     }else { \n          new Effect.CloseDown(element, arguments[1] || {}); \n     }\n }\n\nCurrently, this code uses the BlindUp and BlindDown code, which I personally like, but there\u2019s nothing wrong with you changing the effect-type into one of the other effects available.\n\nNow, include the three files in the header of your code, like so:\n\n<script src=\"prototype.js\" type=\"text/javascript\"></script>\n<script src=\"effects.js\" type=\"text/javascript\"></script>\n<script src=\"combo.js\" type=\"text/javascript\"></script>\n\nNow insert the element you want to use the effect on, like so:\n\n<div id=\"content\" style=\"display: none;\">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.</div>\n\nThe above element will start out invisible, and when triggered will be revealed. If you want it to start visible, simply remove the style parameter.\n\nAnd now for the trigger \n\n<a href=\"javascript:Effect.Combo('content');\">Click Here</a>\n\nAnd that, is pretty much it. Clicking the link should unfold the DIV targeted by the effect, in this case \u2018content\u2019.\n\nEffect Options\n\nNow, it gets a bit long-haired though. The documentation for script.aculo.us is next to non-existing, and because of that you\u2019ll have to do some digging yourself to appreciate the full potentialof these effects.\n\nFirst of all, what kind of effects are available? Well you can go to the demo page and check them out, or you can open the \u2018effects.js\u2019 file and have a look around, something I recommend doing regardlessly, to gain an overview of what exactly you\u2019re dealing with.\n\nIf you dissect it for long enough, you can even distill some of the options available for the various effects. In the case of the BlindUp and BlindDown effect, which we\u2019re using in our example (as triggered from combo.js), one of the things that would be interesting to play with would be the duration of the effect. If it\u2019s too long, it will feel slow and unresponsive. Too fast and it will be imperceptible.\n\nYou set the options like so:\n\n<a href=\"javascript:Effect.Combo('content', {duration: .2});\">Click Here</a>\n\nThe change from the previous link being the inclusion of , {duration: .2}. In this case, I have lowered the duration to 0.2 second, to really make it feel snappy.\n\nYou can also go all-out and turn on all the bells and whistles of the Blind effect like so (slowed down to a duration of three seconds so you can see what\u2019s going on):\n\n<a href=\"javascript:Effect.Combo('content', {duration: 3, scaleX: true, scaleContent: true});\">Click Here</a>\n\nConclusion\n\nAnd that\u2019s pretty much it. The rest is a matter of getting to know the rest of the effects and their options as well as finding out just when and where to use them. Remember the ancient Chinese saying: Less is more.\n\nDownload Example\n\nI have prepared a very basic example, which you can download and use as a reference point.", "year": "2005", "author": "Michael Heilemann", "author_slug": "michaelheilemann", "published": "2005-12-12T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2005/introduction-to-scriptaculous-effects/", "topic": "code"}
{"rowid": 125, "title": "Accessible Dynamic Links", "contents": "Although hyperlinks are the soul of the World Wide Web, it\u2019s worth using them in moderation. Too many links becomes a barrier for visitors navigating their way through a page. This difficulty is multiplied when the visitor is using assistive technology, or is using a keyboard; being able to skip over a block of links doesn\u2019t make the task of finding a specific link any easier.\n\nIn an effort to make sites easier to use, various user interfaces based on the hiding and showing of links have been crafted. From drop-down menus to expose the deeper structure of a website, to a decluttering of skip links so as not to impact design considerations. Both are well intentioned with the aim of preserving a good usability experience for the majority of a website\u2019s audience; hiding the real complexity of a page until the visitor interacts with the element.\n\nWhen JavaScript is not available\n\nThe modern dynamic link techniques rely on JavaScript and CSS, but regardless of whether scripting and styles are enabled or not, we should consider the accessibility implications, particularly for screen-reader users, and people who rely on keyboard access.\n\nIn typical web standards-based drop-down navigation implementations, the rough consensus is that the navigation should be structured as nested lists so when JavaScript is not available the entire navigation map is available to the visitor. This creates a situation where a visitor is faced with potentially well over 50 links on every page of the website. Keyboard access to such structures is frustrating, there\u2019s far too many options, and the method of serially tabbing through each link looking for a specific one is tedious.\n\nInstead of offering the visitor an indigestible chunk of links when JavaScript is not available, consider instead having the minimum number of links on a page, and when JavaScript is available bringing in the extra links dynamically. Santa Chris Heilmann offers an excellent proof of concept in making Ajax navigation optional.\n\nWhen JavaScript is enabled, we need to decide how to hide links. One technique offers a means of comprehensively hiding links from keyboard users and assistive technology users. Another technique allows keyboard and screen-reader users to access links while they are hidden, and making them visible when reached.\n\nHiding the links\n\nIn JavaScript enhanced pages whether a link displays on screen depends on a certain event happening first. For example, a visitor needs to click a top-level navigation link that makes a set of sub-navigation links appear. In these cases, we need to ensure that these links are not available to any user until that event has happened.\n\nThe typical way of hiding links is to style the anchor elements, or its parent nodes with display: none. This has the advantage of taking the links out of the tab order, so they are not focusable. It\u2019s useful in reducing the number of links presented to a screen-reader or keyboard user to a minimum. Although the links are still in the document (they can be referenced and manipulated using DOM Scripting), they are not directly triggerable by a visitor.\n\nOnce the necessary event has happened, like our visitor has clicked on a top-level navigation link which shows our hidden set of links, then we can display the links to the visitor and make them triggerable. This is done simply by undoing the display: none, perhaps by setting the display back to block for block level elements, or inline for inline elements. For as long as this display style remains, the links are in the tab order, focusable by keyboard, and triggerable.\n\nA common mistake in this situation is to use visibility: hidden, text-indent: -999em, or position: absolute with left: -999em to position these links off-screen. But all of these links remain accessible via keyboard tabbing even though the links remain hidden from screen view. In some ways this is a good idea, but for hiding sub-navigation links, it presents the screen-reader user and keyboard user with too many links to be of practical use.\n\nMoving the links out of sight\n\nIf you want a set of text links accessible to screen-readers and keyboard users, but don\u2019t want them cluttering up space on the screen, then style the links with position: absolute; left: -999em. Links styled this way remain in the tab order, and are accessible via keyboard. (The position: absolute is added as a style to the link, not to a parent node of the link \u2013 this will give us a useful hook to solve the next problem).\n\na.helper {\n\tposition: absolute;\n\tleft: -999em;\n}\n\nOne important requirement when displaying links off-screen is that they are visible to a keyboard user when they receive focus. Tabbing on a link that is not visible is a usability mudpit, since the visitor has no visible cue as to what a focused link will do, or where it will go.\n\nThe simple answer is to restyle the link so that it appears on the screen when the hidden link receives focus. The anchor\u2019s :focus pseudo-class is a logical hook to use, and with the following style repositions the link onscreen when it receives the focus:\n\na.helper:focus, a.helper.focus {\n\ttop: 0;\n\tleft: 0;\n}\n\nThis technique is useful for hiding skip links, and options you want screen-reader and keyboard users to use, but don\u2019t want cluttering up the page. Unfortunately Internet Explorer 6 and 7 don\u2019t support the focus pseudo-class, which is why there\u2019s a second CSS selector a.helper.focus so we can use some JavaScript to help out. When the page loads, we look for all links that have a class of helper and add in onfocus and onblur event handlers:\n\nif (anchor.className == \"helper\") {\n\tanchor.onfocus = function() {\n\t\tthis.className = 'helper focus';\n\t}\n\tanchor.onblur = function() {\n\t\tthis.className = 'helper';\n\t}\n}\n\nSince we are using JavaScript to cover up for deficiencies in Internet Explorer, it makes sense to use JavaScript initially to place the links off-screen. That way an Internet Explorer user with JavaScript disabled can still use the skip link functionality.\n\nIt is vital that the number of links rendered in this way is kept to a minimum. Every link you offer needs to be tabbed through, and gets read out in a screen reader. Offer these off-screen links that directly benefit these types of visitor.\n\nAndy Clarke and Kimberly Blessing use a similar technique in the Web Standards Project\u2018s latest design, but their technique involves hiding the skip link in plain sight and making it visible when it receives focus. Navigate the page using just the tab key to see the accessibility-related links appear when they receive focus.\n\nThis technique is also a good way of hiding image replaced text. That way the screen-readers still get the actual text, and the website still gets its designed look.\n\nWhich way?\n\nIf the links are not meant to be reachable until a certain event has occurred, then the display: none technique is the preferred approach. If you want the links accessible but out of the way until they receive focus, then the off-screen positioning (or Andy\u2019s hiding in plain sight technique) is the way to go.", "year": "2006", "author": "Mike Davies", "author_slug": "mikedavies", "published": "2006-12-05T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2006/accessible-dynamic-links/", "topic": "ux"}
{"rowid": 187, "title": "A New Year's Resolution", "contents": "The end of 2009 is fast approaching.  Yet another year has passed in a split second. Our Web Designing careers are one year older and it\u2019s time to reflect on the highs and lows of 2009. What was your greatest achievement and what could you have done better? Perhaps, even more importantly, what are your goals for 2010?\n\nSomething that I noticed in 2009 is that being a web designer 24/7; it\u2019s easy to get consumed by the web. It\u2019s easy to get caught up in the blog posts, CSS galleries, web trends and Twitter!  Living in this bubble can lead to one\u2019s work becoming stale, boring and basically like everyone else\u2019s work on the web. No designer wants this.\n\nSo, I say on 1st January 2010 let\u2019s make it our New Year\u2019s resolution to create something different, something special or even ground-breaking! Make it your goal to break the mold of current web design trends and light the way for your fellow web designer comrades!\n\nOf course I wouldn\u2019t let you embark on the New Year empty handed. To help you on your way I\u2019ve compiled a few thoughts and ideas to get your brains ticking!\n\nDon\u2019t design for the web, just design\n\nA key factor in creating something original and fresh for the web is to stop thinking in terms of web design. The first thing we need to do is forget the notion of headers, footers, side bars etc. A website doesn\u2019t necessarily need any of these, so even before we\u2019ve started we\u2019ve already limited our design possibilities by thinking in these very conventional and generally accepted web terms. The browser window is a 2D canvas like any other and we can do with it what we like. \n\nWith this in mind we can approach web design from a fresh perspective. We can take inspiration for web design from editorial design, packaging design, comics, poster design, album artwork, motion design, street signage and anything else you can think of. Web design is way more than the just the web and by taking this more wide angled view of what web design is and can be you\u2019ll find there are a thousand more exiting design possibilities.\n\nNote: Try leaving the wire framing till after you\u2019ve gone to town with some initial design concepts. You might find it helps keep your head out of that \u2018web space\u2019 a little bit longer, thus enabling you to think more freely about your design. Really go crazy with these as you can always pull it back into line later. The key is to think big initially and then work backwards. There\u2019s no point restricting your creativity early on because your technical knowledge can foresee problems down the line. You can always sort these problems out later on\u2026 let your creative juices flow!\n\n Inspiration can come from anywhere! (Photo: modomatic)\n\nTry something new!\n\nProgress in web design or in any design discipline is a sort of evolution. Design trends and solutions merge and mutate to create new design trends and hopefully better solutions. This is fine but the real leaps are made when someone has the guts to do something different. \n\nDon\u2019t be afraid to challenge the status quo. To create truly original work you have to be prepared to get it wrong and that\u2019s hard to do. When you\u2019re faced with this challenge just remind yourself that in web design there is rarely a \u2018best way to do something\u2019, or why would we ever do it any other way? \n\nIf you do this and get it right the pay off can be immense. Not only will you work stand out from the crowd by a mile, you will have become a trend setter as opposed to a trend follower.\n\nTell a story with your design\n\nGreat web design is way more than just the aesthetics, functionality or usability. Great web design goes beyond the pixels on the screen. For your website to make a real impact on it\u2019s users it has to connect with them emotionally. So, whether your website is promoting your own company or selling cheese it needs to move people. You need to weave a story into your design. It\u2019s this story that your users will connect with. \n\nTo do this the main ingredients of your design need to be strongly connected. In my head those main ingredients are Copy, Graphic Design, Typography, imagery and colour. \n\nCopy\n\nStrong meaningful copy is the backbone to most great web design work. Pay special attention to strap lines and headlines as these are often the sparks that start the fire. All the other elements can be inspired by this backbone of strong copy.\n\nGraphic Design\n\nUse the copy to influence how you treat the page with your graphic design. Let the design echo the words.\n\nTypography\n\nWhat really excites me about typography isn\u2019t the general text presentation on a page, most half decent web designer have a grasp of this already. What excites me is the potential there is to base a whole design on words and letters. Using the strong copy you already have, one has the opportunity the customise, distort, build and arrange words and letters to create beautiful and powerful compositions that can be the basis for an entire site design.\n\n Get creative with Typography (Photo: Pam Sattler)\n\nImagery and Colour\n\nWith clever use of imagery (photographs or illustrations) and colour you further have the chance to deepen the story you are weaving into your design. The key is to use meaningful imagery, don\u2019t to insert generic imagery for the sake of filling space\u2026 it\u2019s just a wasted opportunity.\n\nRemember, the main elements of your design combined are greater than the sum of their parts. Whatever design decisions you make on a page, make them for a good reason. It\u2019s not good enough to try and seduce your users with slick and shiny web pages. For your site to leave a lasting impression on the user you need to make that emotional connection.\n\n Telling the Story (Advertising Agency: Tita, Milano, Italy, Art Director: Emanuele Basso)\n\nGo one step further\n\nSo you\u2019ve almost finished your latest website design. You\u2019ve fulfilled the brief, you\u2019re happy with the result and you\u2019re pretty sure your client will be too. It\u2019s at this point we should ask ourselves \u201cCan I push this further\u201d? What touches could you add to the site that\u2019ll take it beyond what was required and into something exceptional? The truth is, to produce exceptional work we need to do more than is required of us. We need to answer the brief and then some!\n\nGo back through your site and make a note of what enhancements could be made to make the site not just good but outstanding. It might be revisiting a couple of pages that were neglected in the design process, it might be adding some CSS 3 gloss for the users that can benefit from it or it might just be adding some clever little easter eggs to show that you care. These touches will soon add up and make a massive difference to the finished product.\n\nSo, go one step further\u2026 take it further than you anyone else will. Then your work will stand out for sure.\n\nParting message\n\nI love being a designer for many of reasons but the main one being that with every new project we embark on we have the chance to express ourselves. We have the chance to create something special, something that people will talk about. It\u2019s this chance that drives us onwards day after day, year after year. So in 2010 shout louder than you ever have before, take chances, try something new and above all design your socks off!", "year": "2009", "author": "Mike Kus", "author_slug": "mikekus", "published": "2009-12-10T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2009/a-new-years-resolution/", "topic": "business"}
{"rowid": 217, "title": "Beyond Web Mechanics \u2013 Creating Meaningful Web Design", "contents": "It was just over three years ago when I embarked on becoming a web designer, and the first opinion piece about the state of web design I came across was a conference talk by Elliot Jay Stocks called \u2018Destroy the Web 2.0 Look\u2019. Elliot\u2019s presentation was a call to arms, a plea to web designers the world over to stop the endless reproductions of the so called \u2018Web 2.0 look\u2019.\n\nThree and a half years on from Elliot\u2019s talk, what has changed? Well, from an aesthetic standpoint, not a whole lot. The Web 2.0 look has evolved, but it\u2019s still with us and much of the web remains filled with cookie cutter websites that bear a striking resemblance to one another. This wouldn\u2019t matter so much if these websites were selling comparable services or products, but they\u2019re not. They look similar, they follow the same web design trends; their aesthetic style sends out a very similar message, yet they\u2019re selling completely different services or products. How can you be communicating effectively with your users when your online book store is visually indistinguishable from an online cosmetic store? This just doesn\u2019t make sense. \n\nI don\u2019t want to belittle the current version of the Web 2.0 look for the sake of it. I want to talk about the opportunity we have as web designers to create more meaningful experiences for the people using our websites. Using design wisely gives us the ability to communicate messages, ideas and attitudes that our users will understand and connect with.\n\nBeing human\n\nAs human beings we respond emotionally to everything around us \u2013 people, objects, posters, packaging or websites. We also respond in different ways to different kinds of aesthetic design and style. We care about style and aesthetics deeply, whether we realise it or not. Aesthetic design has the power to attract or repel. We often make decisions based purely on aesthetics and style \u2013 and don\u2019t retailers the world over know it! We connect attitudes and strongly held beliefs to style. Individuals will proudly associate themselves with a certain style or aesthetic because it\u2019s an expression of who they are. You know that old phrase, \u2018Don\u2019t judge a book by its cover\u2019?  Well, the problem is that people do, so it\u2019s important we get the cover right.\n\nMuch is made of how to structure web pages, how to create a logical information hierarchy, how to use layout and typography to clearly communicate with your users. It\u2019s important, however, not to mistake clarity of information or legibility with getting your message across. Few users actually read websites word by word: it\u2019s far more likely they\u2019ll just scan the page. If the page is copy-heavy and nothing grabs their attention, they may well just move on. This is why it\u2019s so important to create a visual experience that actually means something to the user. \n\nMeaningful design\n\nWhen we view a poster or website, we make split-second assessments and judgements of what is in front of us. Our first impressions of what a website does or who it is aimed at are provoked by the style and aesthetic of the website. For example, with clever use of colour, typography, graphic design and imagery we can communicate to users that an organisation is friendly, edgy, compassionate, fun or environmentally conscious.\n\nUsing a certain aesthetic we can convey the personality of that organisation, target age ranges, different sexes or cultural groups, communicate brand attributes, and more. We can make our users feel like they\u2019re part of something and, perhaps even more importantly, we can make new users want to be a part of something. And we can achieve all this before the user has read a single word. \n\nBy establishing a website\u2019s aesthetic and creating a meaningful visual language, a design is no longer just a random collection of pretty gradients that have been plucked out of thin air. There can be a logic behind the design decisions we make. So, before you slap another generic piece of ribbon or an ultra shiny icon into the top-left corner of your website, think about why you are doing it. If you can\u2019t come up with a reason better than \u201cI saw it on another website\u201d, it\u2019s probably a poor application of style.\n\nDesign and style\n\nThere are a number of reasons why the web suffers from a lack meaningful design. Firstly, there are too many preconceptions of what a website should look like. It\u2019s too easy for designers to borrow styles from other websites, thereby limiting the range of website designs we see on the web. Secondly, many web designers think of aesthetic design as of secondary importance, which shouldn\u2019t be the case. Designing websites that are accessible and easy to use is, of course, very important but this is the very least a web designer should be delivering. Easy to use websites should come as standard \u2013 it\u2019s equally important to create meaningful, compelling and beautiful experiences for everyone who uses our websites. The aesthetics of your site are part of the design, and to ignore this and play down the role of aesthetic design is just a wasted opportunity. \n\nNo compromise necessary\n\nEasy to use, accessible websites and beautiful, meaningful aesthetics are not mutually exclusive. The key is to apply style and aesthetic design appropriately. We need to think about who and what we\u2019re designing for and ask ourselves why we\u2019re applying a certain kind of aesthetic style to our design. If you do this, there\u2019s no reason why effective, functional design should come at the expense of jaw-dropping, meaningful aesthetics.\n\nWeb designers need to understand the differences between functional design and aesthetic design but, even more importantly, they need to know how to make them work together.  It\u2019s combining these elements of design successfully that makes for the best web design in the world.", "year": "2010", "author": "Mike Kus", "author_slug": "mikekus", "published": "2010-12-05T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2010/beyond-web-mechanics-creating-meaningful-web-design/", "topic": "design"}
{"rowid": 281, "title": "Nine Things I've Learned", "contents": "I\u2019ve been a professional graphic designer for fourteen years and for just under four of those a professional web designer. Like most designers I\u2019ve learned a lot in my time, both from a design point of view and in business as freelance designer. A few of the things I\u2019ve learned stick out in my mind, so I thought I\u2019d share them with you. They\u2019re pretty random and in no particular order.\n\n1. Becoming the designer you want to be\n\nWhen I started out as a young graphic designer, I wanted to design posters and record sleeves, pretty much like every other young graphic designer. The problem is that the reality of the world means that when you get your first job you\u2019re designing the back of a paracetamol packet or something equally weird. I recently saw a tweet that went something like this: \u201cYou\u2019ll never become the designer you always dreamt of being by doing the work you never wanted to do\u201d. This is so true; to become the designer you want to be, you need to be designing the things you\u2019re passionate about designing. This probably this means working in the evenings and weekends for little or no money, but it\u2019s time well spent. Doing this will build up your portfolio with the work that really shows what you can do! Soon, someone will ask you to design something based on having seen this work. From this point, you\u2019re carving your own path in the direction of becoming the designer you always wanted to be.\n\n2. Compete on your own terms\n\nAs well as all being friends, we are also competitors. In order to win new work we need a selling point, preferably a unique selling point. Web design is a combination of design disciplines \u2013 user experience design, user interface Design, visual design, development, and so on. Some companies will sell themselves as UX specialists, which is fine, but everyone who designs a website from scratch does some sort of UX, so it\u2019s not really a unique selling point. Of course, some people do it better than others.\n\nOne area of web design that clients have a strong opinion on, and will judge you by, is visual design. It\u2019s an area in which it\u2019s definitely possible to have a unique selling point. Designing the visual aesthetic for a website is a combination of logical decision making and a certain amount of personal style. If you can create a unique visual style to your work, it can become a selling point that\u2019s unique to you.\n\n3. How much to charge and staying motivated\n\nWhen you\u2019re a freelance designer one of the hardest things to do is put a price on your work and skills. Finding the right amount to charge is a fine balance between supplying value to your customer and also charging enough to stay motivated to do a great job. It\u2019s always tempting to offer a low price to win work, but it\u2019s often not the best approach: not just for yourself but for the client as well.\n\nA client once asked me if I could reduce my fee by \u00a31,000 and still be motivated enough to do a good job. In this case the answer was yes, but it was the question that resonated with me. I realized I could use this as a gauge to help me price projects. Before I send out a quote I now always ask myself the question \u201cIs the amount I\u2019ve quoted enough to make me feel motivated to do my best on this project?\u201d I never send out a quote unless the answer is yes. In my mind there\u2019s no point in doing any project half-heartedly, as every project is an opportunity to build your reputation and expand your portfolio to show potential clients what you can do. Offering a client a good price but not being prepared to put everything you have into it, isn\u2019t value for money.  \n\n4. Supplying the right design\n\nWhen I started out as a graphic designer it seemed to be the done thing to supply clients with a ton of options for their logo or brochure designs. In a talk given by Dan Rubin, he mentioned that this was a legacy of agencies competing with each other in a bid to create the illusion of offering more value for money. Over the years, I\u2019ve realized that offering more than one solution makes no sense. The reason a client comes to you as a designer is because you\u2019re the person than can get it right. If I  were to supply three options, I\u2019d be knowingly offering my client at least two options that I didn\u2019t think worked.\n\nTo this day I still get asked how many homepage design options I\u2019ll supply for the quoted amount. The answer is one. Of course, I\u2019m more than happy to iterate upon the design to fine-tune it and, on the odd occasion, I do revisit a design concept if I just didn\u2019t nail the design first time around. Your time is much better spent refining the right design option than rushing out three substandard designs in the same amount of time.\n\n5. Colour is key\n\nThere are many contributing factors that go into making a good visual design, but one of the simplest ways to do this is through the use of colour. The colour palette used in a design can have such a profound effect on a visual design that it almost feels like you\u2019re cheating. It\u2019s easy to add more and more subtle shades of colour to add a sense of sophistication and complexity to a design, but it dilutes the overall visual impact. When I design, I almost have a rule that only allows me to use a very limited colour palette. I don\u2019t always stick to it, but it\u2019s always in mind and something I\u2019m constantly reviewing through my design process.\n\n6. Creative thinking is central to good or boundary-pushing web design\n\nWhen we think of creativity in web design we often link this to the visual design, as there is an obvious opportunity to be creative in this area if the brief allows it. Something that I\u2019ve learnt in my time as a web designer is that there\u2019s a massive need for creative thinking in the more technical aspects of web design. The tools we use for building websites are there to be manipulated and used in creative ways to design exciting and engaging user experiences. Great developers are constantly using their creativity to push the boundaries of what can be done with CSS, jQuery and JavaScript. \n\nBeing creative and creative thinking are things we should embrace as an industry and they are qualities that can be found in anyone, whether they be a visual designer or Rails developer.\n\n7. Creative block: don\u2019t be afraid to get things wrong\n\nCreative block can be a killer when designing. It\u2019s often applied to visual design, which is more subjective. I suffer from creative block on a regular basis. It\u2019s hugely frustrating and can screw up your schedule. Having thought about what creative block actually is, I\u2019ve come to the conclusion that it\u2019s actually more of a lack of direction than a lack of ideas. You have ideas and solutions in mind but don\u2019t feel committed to any of them. You\u2019re scared that whatever direction you take, it\u2019ll turn out to be wrong. I\u2019ve found that the best remedy for this is to work through this barrier. It\u2019s a bit like designing with a blindfold on \u2013 you don\u2019t really know where you\u2019re going. If you stick to your guns and keep pressing forward I find that, nine times out of ten, this process leads to a solution. As the page begins to fill, the direction you\u2019re looking for slowly begins to take shape.\n\n8. You get better at designing by designing\n\nI often get emails asking me what books someone can read to help them become a better designer. There are a lot of good books on subjects like HTML5, CSS, responsive web design and the like, that will really help improve anyone\u2019s web design skills. But, when it comes to visual design, the best way to get better is to design as much as possible. You can\u2019t follow instructions for these things because design isn\u2019t following instructions. A large part of web design is definitely applying a set of widely held conventions, but there\u2019s another part to it that is invention and the only way to get better at this is to do it as much as possible.\n\n9. Self-belief is overrated\n\nThroughout our lives we\u2019re told to have self-belief. Self-belief and confidence in what we do, whatever that may be. The problem is that some people find it easier than others to believe in themselves. I\u2019ve spent years trying to convince myself to believe in what I do but have always found it difficult to have complete confidence in my design skills. Self-doubt always creeps in.\n\nI\u2019ve realized that it\u2019s ok to doubt myself and I think it might even be a good thing!  I\u2019ve realized that it\u2019s my self-doubt that propels me forward and makes me work harder to achieve the best results. The reason I\u2019m sharing this is because I know I\u2019m not the only designer that feels this way. You can spend a lot of time fighting self-doubt only to discover that it\u2019s your body\u2019s natural mechanism to help you do the best job possible.", "year": "2011", "author": "Mike Kus", "author_slug": "mikekus", "published": "2011-12-11T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2011/nine-things-ive-learned/", "topic": "business"}
{"rowid": 212, "title": "Refactoring Your Way to a Design System", "contents": "I love refactoring code. Absolutely love it. There\u2019s something about taking a piece of UI or a bit of code and reworking it in a way that is simpler, modular, and reusable that makes me incredibly happy.\nI also love design systems work. It gives hybrids like me a home. It seems like everyone is talking about design systems right now. Design systems teams are perfect for those who enjoy doing architectural work and who straddle the line between designer and developer. \nUna Kravets recently identified some of the reasons that design systems fail, and chief among them are lack of buy-in, underlying architecture, and communication. While it\u2019s definitely easier to establish these before project work begins, that doesn\u2019t mean it is the only path to success. \nIt\u2019s a privilege to work on a greenfield project, and one that is not afforded to many. Companies with complex and/or legacy codebases may not be able to support a full rewrite of their product. In addition, many people feel overwhelmed at the thought of creating a complete system and are at a loss of how or where to even begin the process. \nThis is where refactoring comes into play.\nAccording to Martin Fowler, \u201crefactoring is the process of changing a software system in such a way that it does not alter the external behavior of the code yet improves its internal structure.\u201d It\u2019s largely invisible work, and if you do it right, the end user will never know the difference. What it will do is provide a decent foundation to begin more systematic work.\nBuild a solid foundation\nWhen I was first asked to create Pantsuit, the design system for Hillary for America, I was tasked with changing our codebase to be more modular and scalable, without changing the behavior or visual design of the UI. We needed a system in place that would allow for the rapid creation of new projects while maintaining a consistent visual language. In essence, I was asked to refactor our code into a design system.\nDuring that refactor, I focused the majority of my efforts on creating a scalable architecture based on the UI components in a single workflow. Since I needed to maintain a 1:1 parity with production, the only changes I could create were under-the-hood. I started with writing coding standards and deciding on a CSS architecture that I would then use as I rewrote sections of the codebase. \nIf you already have these in place, great! If not, then this is an excellent place to start. Even if your dream of a design system is never fully realized, having a coding philosophy and architecture in place will still have far-reaching benefits and implications.\nI want to note that if your refactor includes creating new coding standards or a CSS architecture, don\u2019t try to switch everything over right away. Instead, focus on a single new feature and isolate/encapsulate your work from the rest of the codebase.\nFocus on the features\n\nThe key principle to cleaning up a complex codebase is to always refactor in the service of a feature. \n\u2014 Max Kanat-Alexander\n\nRefactoring for the sake of refactoring can easily lead to accusations of misused time and lack of results. Another danger of refactoring is that it can turn into yak-shaving if you aren\u2019t disciplined in your approach. To that end, tying your refactored components to feature work is a great way to limit scope and reduce the rest of unintended changes.\nFor example, the initial work on Pantsuit focused only on components related to the donations flow. Every line of code I wrote was in service to improving the maintainability and modularity of that UI. Because we didn\u2019t have any standards in place, I started with those. From there, I identified all the components present in every step of the donations flow, which included some type styles, buttons, form inputs and error states. Then came the refactor of each individual component. Finally, I reintegrated the newly refactored components into the existing donations flow and tested it against production, checking for visual and behavioral diffs. At the end of this process, I had the beginning of a design system that would grow to serve over 50 applications, and a case study to demonstrate its effectiveness.\nIdeally, you\u2019ll want to get buy-in from your stakeholders and product owners before you begin any design systems work. However, in the absence of buy-in, linking your work to new feature development is a good way to both limit the scope of your refactor and jump start component creation.\nIn addition, if you\u2019re still trying to convince your team of the benefits of a design system, starting small and using the newly refactored, feature-driven work as a case study is one way showcase a design systems\u2019 value. By providing a concrete example of how working towards a design system contributed to the project\u2019s success, you\u2019re gathering the data necessary to secure buy-in for a larger-scale effort. It\u2019s a great way to show value, rather than just talking about it.\nShow, don\u2019t tell\nPerhaps the most important thing you can do for any design system is to document it. The key is to create a frictionless way to keep the documentation up-to-date, otherwise no one will contribute to it, and in turn, it will become obsolete and useless. \nThere are lots of tools out there to help you get started documenting your new system. One of my favorites is KSS, which parses comments in the code and uses them to generate a style guide. For Pantsuit, I used the node version of KSS, along with a template to quickly spin up a documentation site.\nI\u2019ve listed just a few tools below; for even more, check out the tools sections of styleguides.io.\n\nFractal\nPattern Lab\nDrizzle\nFabricator\nAstrum\nCatalog\n\nRegardless of what tool you settle on, it needs to integrate well with your current workflow. \nConclusion: always be refactoring\nIf you\u2019re not lucky enough to be able to start a new design system from scratch, you can start small and work on a single feature or component. With each new project comes a new opportunity to flesh out a new part of the system, and another potential case study to secure buy-in and showcase its value. Make sure to carefully and thoroughly document each new portion of the system as it\u2019s built. After a few projects, you\u2019ll find yourself with a decent start to a design system. \nGood luck, and happy holidays!\nFurther reading:\n\nWhy Design Systems Fail\nCSS Architecture for Design Systems\nRefactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code\nRefactoring CSS: The Three I\u2019s\nRefactoring is About Features", "year": "2017", "author": "Mina Markham", "author_slug": "minamarkham", "published": "2017-12-23T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2017/refactoring-your-way-to-a-design-system/", "topic": "code"}
{"rowid": 159, "title": "How Media Studies Can Massage Your Message", "contents": "A young web designer once told his teacher \u2018just get to the meat already.\u2019 He was frustrated with what he called the \u2018history lessons and name-dropping\u2019 aspects of his formal college course. He just wanted to learn how to build Web sites, not examine the reasons why.\n\nTechnique and theory are both integrated and necessary portions of a strong education. The student\u2019s perspective has direct value, but also holds a distinct sorrow: Knowing the how without the why creates a serious problem. Without these surrounding insights we cannot tap into the influence of the history and evolved knowledge that came before. We cannot properly analyze, criticize, evaluate and innovate beyond the scope of technique.\n\nHistory holds the key to transcending former mistakes. Philosophy encourages us to look at different points of view. Studying media and social history empowers us as Web workers by bringing together myriad aspects of humanity in direct relation to the environment of society and technology. Having an understanding of media, communities, communication arts as well as logic, language and computer savvy are all core skills of the best of web designers in today\u2019s medium.\n\nControlling the Message\n\n\n\t\u2018The computer can\u2019t tell you the emotional story. It can give you the exact mathematical design, but what\u2019s missing is the eyebrows.\u2019 \u2013 Frank Zappa\n\n\nMedia is meant to express an idea. The great media theorist Marshall McLuhan suggests that not only is media interesting because it\u2019s about the expression of ideas, but that the media itself actually shapes the way a given idea is perceived.  This is what McLuhan meant when he uttered those famous words: \u2018The medium is the message.\u2019\n\nIf instead of actually serving a steak to a vegetarian friend, what might a painting of the steak mean instead? Or a sculpture of a cow? Depending upon the form of media in question, the message is altered.\n\nFigure 1\n\nMust we know the history of cows to appreciate the steak on our plate? Perhaps not, but if we begin to examine how that meat came to be on the plate, the social, cultural and ideological associations of that cow, we begin to understand the complexity of both medium and message. A piece of steak on my plate makes me happy. A vegetarian friend from India might disagree and even find that that serving her a steak was very insensitive.\n\nTakeaway: Getting the message right involves understanding that message in order to direct it to your audience accordingly.\n\nA Separate Piece\n\nIf we revisit the student who only wants technique, while he might become extremely adept at the rendering of an idea, without an understanding of the medium, how is he to have greater control over how that idea is perceived?  Ultimately, his creativity is limited and his perspective narrowed, and the teacher has done her student a disservice without challenging him, particularly in a scholastic environment, to think in liberal, creative and ultimately innovative terms.\n\nFor many years, web pundits including myself have promoted the idea of separation as a core concept within creating effective front-end media for the Web. By this, we\u2019ve meant literal separation of the technologies and documents: Markup for content; CSS for presentation; DOM Scripting for behavior. While the message of separation was an important part of understanding and teaching best practices for manageable, scalable sites, that separation is really just a separation of pieces, not of entire disciplines.\n\nFor in fact, the medium of the Web is an integrated one. That means each part of the desired message must be supported by the media silos within a given site.  The visual designer must study the color, space, shape and placement of visual objects (including type) into a meaningful expression. The underlying markup is ideally written as semantically as possible, promote the meaning of the content it describes. Any interaction and functionality must make the process of the medium support, not take away from, the meaning of the site or Web application.  \n\nExamination: The Glass Bead Game\n\nFigure 2\n\nFigure 2 shows two screenshots of CoreWave\u2019s historic \u2018Glass Bead Game.\u2019 Fashioned after Herman Hesse\u2019s novel of the same name, the game was an exploration of how ideas are connected to other ideas via multiple forms of media. It was created for the Web in 1996 using server-side randomization with .htmlx files in order to allow players to see how random associations are in fact not random at all.\n\nTakeaway: We can use the medium itself to explore creative ideas, to link us from one idea to the next, and to help us better express those ideas to our audiences.\n\nComputers and Human Interaction\n\nSince our medium involves computers and human interaction, it does us well to look to foundations of computers and reason. Not long ago I was chatting with Jared Spool on IM about this and that, and he asked me \u2018So how do you feel about that?\u2019 This caused me no end of laughter and I instantly quipped back \u2018It\u2019s okay by me ELIZA.\u2019 We both enjoyed the joke, but then I tried to share it with another dare I say younger colleague, and the reference was lost.\n\nRaise your hand if you got the reference! Some of you will, but many people who come to the Web medium do not get the benefit of such historical references because we are not formally educated in them. Joseph Weizenbaum created the ELIZA program, which emulates a Rogerian Therapist, in 1966. It was an early study of computers and natural human language. I was a little over 2 years old, how about you?\n\nConversation with Eliza\n\nThere are fortunately a number of ELIZA emulators on the Web. I found one at http://www.chayden.net/eliza/Eliza.html that actually contains the source code (in Java) that makes up the ELIZA script.\n\nFigure 3 shows a screen shot of the interaction. ELIZA first welcomes me, says \u2018Hello, How do you do. Please state your problem\u2019 and we continue in a short loop of conversation, the computer using cues from my answers to create new questions and leading fragments of conversation.\n\nFigure 3\n\nAlbeit a very limited demonstration of how humans could interact with a computer in 1966, it\u2019s amusing to play with now and compare it to something as richly interactive as the Microsoft Surface (Figure 4). Here, we see clear Lucite blocks that display projected video. Each side of the block has a different view of the video, so not only does one have to match up the images as they are moving, but do so in the proper directionality.\n\nFigure 4\n\nTakeway: the better we know our environment, the more we can alter it to emulate, expand and even supersede our message.\n\nLeveraging Holiday Cheer\n\nSince most of us at least have a few days off for the holidays now that Christmas is upon us, now\u2019s a perfect time to reflect on ones\u2019 environment and examine the messages within it. Convince your spouse to find you a few audio books for stocking stuffers. Find interactive games to play with your kids and observe them, and yourself, during the interaction. Pour a nice egg-nog and sit down with a copy of Marshall McLuhan\u2019s \u2018The Medium is the Massage.\u2019 Leverage that holiday cheer and here\u2019s to a prosperous, interactive new year.", "year": "2007", "author": "Molly Holzschlag", "author_slug": "mollyholzschlag", "published": "2007-12-22T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2007/how-media-studies-can-massage-your-message/", "topic": "ux"}
{"rowid": 317, "title": "Putting the World into \"World Wide Web\"", "contents": "Despite the fact that the Web has been international in scope from its inception, the predominant mass of Web sites are written in English or another left-to-right language. Sites are typically designed visually for Western culture, and rely on an enormous body of practices for usability, information architecture and interaction design that are by and large centric to the Western world.\n\nThere are certainly many reasons this is true, but as more and more Web sites realize the benefits of bringing their products and services to diverse, global markets, the more demand there will be on Web designers and developers to understand how to put the World into World Wide Web.\n\nInternationalization\n\nAccording to the W3C, Internationalization is:\n\n\n\t\u201c\u2026the design and development of a product, application or document content that enables easy localization for target audiences that vary in culture, region, or language.\u201d\n\n\nMany Web designers and developers have at least heard, if not read, about Internationalization. We understand that the Web is in fact worldwide, but many of us never have the opportunity to work with Internationalization. Or, when we do, think of it in purely technical terms, such as \u201cwhich character set do I use?\u201d\n\nAt first glance, it might seem to many that Internationalization is the act of making Web sites available to international audiences. And while that is in fact true, this isn\u2019t done by broad-stroking techniques and technologies. Instead, it involves a far more narrow understanding of geographical, cultural and linguistic differences in specific areas of the world. This is referred to as localization and is the act of making a Web site make sense in the context of the region, culture and language(s) the people using the site are most familiar with.\n\nInternationalization itself includes the following technical tasks:\n\n\n\tEnsuring no barrier exists to the localization of sites. Of critical importance in the planning stages of a site for Internationalized audiences, the role of the developer is to ensure that no barrier exists. This means being able to perform such tasks as enabling Unicode and making sure legacy character encodings are properly handled.\n\tPreparing markup and CSS with Internationalization in mind. The earlier in the site development process this occurs, the better. Issues such as ensuring that you can support bidirectional text, identifying language, and using CSS to support non-Latin typographic features.\n\tEnabling code to support local, regional, language or culturally related references. Examples in this category would include time/date formats, localization of calendars, numbering systems, sorting of lists and managing international forms of addresses.\n\tEmpowering the user. Sites must be architected so the user can easily choose or implement the localized alternative most appropriate to them.\n\n\nLocalization\n\nAccording to the W3C, Localization is the:\n\n\n\t\u2026adaptation of a product, application or document content to meet the language, cultural and other requirements of a specific target market (a \u201clocale\u201d).\n\n\nSo here\u2019s where we get down to thinking about the more sociological and anthropological concerns. Some of the primary localization issues are:\n\n\n\tNumeric formats. Different languages and cultures use numbering systems unlike ours. So, any time we need to use numbers, such as in an ordered list, we have to have a means of representing the accurate numbering system for the locale in question.\n\tMoney, honey!  That\u2019s right. I\u2019ve got a pocketful of ugly U.S. dollars (why is U.S. money so unimaginative?). But I also have a drawer full of Japanese Yen, Australian Dollars, and Great British Pounds. Currency, how it\u2019s calculated and how it\u2019s represented is always a consideration when dealing with localization.\n\tUsing symbols, icons and colors properly. Using certain symbols or icons on sites where they might offend or confuse is certainly not in the best interest of a site that wants to sell or promote a product, service or information type. Moreover, the colors we use are surprisingly persuasive \u2013 or detrimental. Think about colors that represent death, for example. In many parts of Asia, white is the color of death. In most of the Western world, black represents death. For Catholic Europe, shades of purple (especially lavender) have represented Christ on the cross and mourning since at least Victorian times. When Walt Disney World Europe launched an ad campaign using a lot of purple and very glitzy imagery, millions of dollars were lost as a result of this seeming subtle issue. Instead of experiencing joy and celebration at the ads, the European audience, particularly the French, found the marketing to be overly American, aggressive, depressing and basically unappealing. Along with this and other cultural blunders, Disney Europe has become a well-known case study for businesses wishing to become international. By failing to understand localization differences, and how powerful color and imagery act on the human psyche, designers and developers are put to more of a disadvantage when attempting to communicate with a given culture.\n\tChoosing appropriate references to objects and ideas. What seems perfectly natural in one culture in terms of visual objects and ideas can get confused in another environment. One of my favorite cases of this has to do with Gerber baby food. In the U.S., the baby food is marketed using a cute baby on the package. Most people in the U.S. culturally do not make an immediate association that what is being represented on the label is what is inside the container. However, when Gerber expanded to Africa, where many people don\u2019t read, and where visual associations are less abstract, people made the inference that a baby on the cover of a jar of food represented what is in fact in the jar. You can imagine how confused and even angry people became. Using such approaches as a marketing ploy in the wrong locale can and will render the marketing a failure.\n\n\nAs you can see, the act of localization is one that can have profound impact on the success of a business or organization as it seeks to become available to more and more people across the globe.\n\nRethinking Design in the Context of Culture\n\nWhile well-educated designers and those individuals working specifically for companies that do a lot of localization understand these nuances, most of us don\u2019t get exposed to these ideas. Yet, we begin to see how necessary it becomes to have an awareness of not just the technical aspects of Internationalization, but the socio-cultural ones within localization.\n\nWhat\u2019s more, the bulk of information we have when it comes to designing sites typically comes from studies and work done on sites built in English and promoted to Western culture at large. We\u2019re making a critical mistake by not including diverse languages and cultural issues within our usability and information architecture studies.\n\nConsider the following design from the BBC:\n\n\n\nIn this case, we\u2019re dealing with English, which is read left to right. We are also dealing with U.K. cultural norms. Notice the following:\n\n\n\tLocation of of navigation\n\tUse of the color red\n\tUse of diverse symbols\n\tMix of symbols, icons and photos\n\tLocation of Search\n\n\nNow look at this design, which is the Arabic version of the BBC News, read right to left, and dealing with cultural norms within the Arabic-speaking world.\n\n\n\nNotice the following:\n\n\n\tLocation of of navigation (location switches to the right)\n\tUse of the color blue (blue is considered the \u201csafest\u201d global color)\n\tNo use of symbols and icons whatsoever\n\tLimitation of imagery to photos\n\tIn most cases, the photos show people, not objects\n\tLocation of Search\n\n\nAdmittedly, some choices here are more obvious than others in terms of why they were made. But one thing that stands out is that the placement of search is the same for both versions. Is this the result of a specific localization decision, or based on what we believe  about usability at large? This is exactly the kind of question that designers working on localization have to seek answers to, instead of relying on popular best practices and belief systems that exist for English-only Web sites.\n\nIt\u2019s a Wide World Web After All\n\nFrom this brief article on Internationalization, it becomes apparent that the art and science of creating sites for global audiences requires a lot more preparation and planning than one might think at first glance.  Developers and designers not working to address these issues specifically due to time or awareness will do well to at least understand the basic process of making sites more culturally savvy, and better prepared for any future global expansion.\n\nOne thing is certain: We not only are on a dramatic learning curve for designing and developing Web sites as it is, the need to localize sites is going to become more and more a part of the day to day work. Understanding aspects of what makes a site international and local will not only help you expand your skill set and make you more marketable, but it will also expand your understanding of the world and the people within it, how they relate to and use the Web, and how you can help make their experience the best one possible.", "year": "2005", "author": "Molly Holzschlag", "author_slug": "mollyholzschlag", "published": "2005-12-09T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2005/putting-the-world-into-world-wide-web/", "topic": "ux"}
{"rowid": 197, "title": "Designing for Mobile Performance", "contents": "Last year, some colleagues at Google ran a research study titled \u201cThe Need for Mobile Speed\u201d to find out what the impact of performance and perception of speed had on the way people use the web on their mobile devices. \nThat\u2019s not a trivial distinction; when considering performance, how fast something feels is often more important than how fast it actually is. When dealing with sometimes underpowered mobile devices and slow mobile networks, designing experiences that feel fast is exceptionally important.\nOne of the most startling numbers we found in the study was that 53% of mobile site visits are abandoned if pages take longer than 3 seconds to load.\nWe wanted to find out more, so following on from this study, we conducted research to define what the crucial elements of speed are. We took into consideration the user experience (UX), overall perception of speed, and how differing contexts the user finds themselves in can alter how fast a user thinks something loaded.\nTo understand speed and load times first we must understand that user mobile web behaviour is broken down into three buckets;\n\nIntention\nLocation\nState of mind\n\nLet\u2019s look at each of those in turn.\nIntention\nUsers browse sites on a mobile device for many different reasons. To be able to effectively design a performant user experience for them, it\u2019s important to understand what those reasons might be. When asked to describe their reason for visiting a site, approximately 30% of people asked by the study claimed that they were simply browsing without a particular purpose in mind. Looking deeper, we found that this number increased slightly (34%) for retail sites. 30% said they were just there to find out some information for a future task or action, such as booking a flight.\nInterestingly, the research shows that users are actually window shopping using their mobile browser. Only 29% actually said they had a specific goal or intent in mind, and this number increases significantly for financial services like banking sites (57%). This goes against a traditionally held view of users wanting to perform simple actions efficiently on their mobile device. Sure, some users are absolutely doing that, but many are just browsing around without a goal in mind, just like they would on a desktop browser.\nThis gives great insight into the user\u2019s intentions. It tells us that users are actively using sites on their mobile, but a large majority do not intend to do anything instantly. There\u2019s no goal they\u2019re under pressure to achieve. If a site\u2019s performance is lousy or janky, this will only reaffirm to the user to that they can hold off on completing a task, so they might just give up. \nHowever, if a site is quick to load, sophisticated in expressing its value proposition quickly, and enables the user to perform their actions seamlessly, then turning that \u201cbrowsing user\u201d into a \u201cbuying user\u201d becomes all that much easier. When the user has no goal, there\u2019s more opportunity to convert, and you stand a greater chance of doing that if the performance is good enough so they stick around.\nLocation\nObviously, mobile devices by their nature can be used in many different locations. This is an interesting consideration, because it\u2019s not something we traditionally need to take into account designing experiences for static platforms like desktop computers.\nThe in the study, we found that 82% of users browse the web on their mobile phone while in their home. In contrast, only 7% do the same while at work. This might come across as a bit of a shock, but when you look at mobile usage \u2013 in particular app usage \u2013 most of the apps being used are either a social network or some sort of entertainment or media app. Due to the unreliability of network connections, users will often alternate between these two types of apps.\nThe consequence being that if a site doesn\u2019t work offline, or otherwise compensate for bad network connectivity in some way by providing opportunities to allow users to browse their site, then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy as to why users mostly view the mobile web from the comfort of their homes where there is a strong WiFi connection. They\u2019re using mobile devices, but they\u2019re not actually mobile themselves.\nAnother thing to bear in mind is how users alternate between devices, a study by comScore found that 80% of transactions take place on desktop while 69% of the browsing takes place on mobile. Any given user might access from more than one location - they might visit one day from a bus queue on their phone, and then next day from a laptop at home.\nState of mind\nOne more thing we need to take into consideration is the user\u2019s state of mind. Whilst browsing at home, users tend to be more relaxed, and in the research 76% stated they were generally calmer at home. The user\u2019s state of mind can have quite a big impact on how they perceive things. The calmer they are, the quicker a site might appear to load. If the user is anxious and impatiently drumming their fingers on the table, things seem to take longer, and even a small wait can feel like an eternity.\nThis is quite key. Over 40% of sites take longer than 4 seconds to load for users who are are out and about and using a mobile data connection. Coupled with our perception, and amplified by a potentially less-than-calm state of mind, this can seem like an age.\nWhat does this all mean?\nI think we can all agree that users prefer strong, steady connections and comfort when completing transactions. It seems like common sense when we say it out loud. Recreating these feelings and sensations of comfort and predictability under all circumstances therefore becomes paramount. Equally, when asked in the study, users all claimed that speed was the most important factor impacting their mobile web usage. Over 40%, in fact, said it was the most important UX feature of a site, and nobody asked considered it to be of no importance at all.\n\nThe meaning of speed\nWhen it comes to performance, speed is measured in two ways \u2013 real speed; as measured on a clock, and perceived speed; how responsive an interaction feels.  We can, of course, improve how quickly a site loads by simply making files smaller. Even then, the study showed that 32% of users felt a site can feel slow even when it loads in less than 4 seconds. This gets even worse when you look at it by age group, with 50% if young people (18-24 year olds) thinking a site was slower than it actually was. When you add to the mix that users think a site loaded faster when they are sitting compared to when they are standing up, then you are in a world of trouble if your site doesn\u2019t have any clear indicators to let the user know the loading state of you website or app.\nSo what can we do about this to improve our designs?\nHow to fix / hack user perception\nThere are some golden rules of speed, the first thing is hacking response time. If a page takes more than 3 seconds to load, you will certainly start to lose your users. However, if that slowness is part of a UX flow such as processing information, the user understands it might take a little time. Under those circumstances, a load time of under 5 seconds is acceptable, but even then, you should take caution. Anything above 8 seconds and you are in very real danger of losing your audience completely.  \n\n\n\nLoad time\nUser impression\n\n\n\n\n200 ms\nFeels instant\n\n\n1 s\nFeels it is performing smoothly\n\n\n5 s\nPart of user flow\n\n\n8 s\nLose attention\n\n\n\nRemove the tap delay\nMobile browsers often use a 300-350ms delay between the triggering of the touchend and click events. This delay was added so the browser could determine if there was going to be a double-tap triggered or not, since double-tap is a common gesture used to zoom into text. This delay can have the side effect of making interactions feel laggy, and therefore giving the user the impression that the site is slow, even if it\u2019s their own browser causing the problem.\nFortunately there\u2019s a way to remove the delay. Add following in the <head> of your page, and the delay no longer takes effect:\n<meta name=\"viewport\" content=\"width=device-width\">\nYou can also use touch-action: manipulation in newer browsers to eliminate click delay. For old browsers, FastClick by FT Labs uses touch events to trigger clicks faster and remove the double-tap gesture.\nMake use of Skeleton Screens\nA skeleton layout is a wireframe version of your app that displays while content is being loaded. This demonstrates to the user that content is about to be loaded, giving the impression that something is happening more quickly than it really is. Consider also using a preloader UI as well, with a text label informing the user that the app is loading. One example would be to pulsate the wireframe content giving the app the feeling that it is alive and loading. This reassures the user that something is happening and helps prevent resubmissions or refreshes of your app. Razvan Caliman created a Codepen example of how to create this effect in purely CSS. \nOne thing to consider though, if data doesn\u2019t load then you might need to create a fallback 404 or error page to let the user know what happened.  \n\nExample by Owen-Campbell Moore\nResponsive Touch Feedback\nCarefully designing the process by which items load is one aspect of increasing the perceived speed of your page, but reassuring the user that an action they have taken is in process is another. At Google we use something called a Ripple, which is is animating dot that expands or ripples in order to confirm to the user that their input has been triggered. This happens immediately, expanding outward from the point of touch. This reaffirms to the user that their input has been received and is being acted on, even before the site has had a chance to process or respond to the action. From the user\u2019s point of view, they\u2019ve tapped and the page has responded immediately, so it feels really quick and satisfying.\nYou can mimic this same behavior using our Material Design Components Web GitHub repo.\n\nProgress bars\nThese UI elements have existed for a very long time, but research conducted by Chris Harrison and published in New Scientist found that the style of a progress bar can alter the perception of speed drastically. As a matter of fact, progress bars with ripples that animate towards the left appear like they are loading faster by at least 11% percent. So when including them in your site, take into consideration that ripples and progress bars that pulsate faster as they get to the end will make your sites seem quicker.\n\n    \n  \n  Faster Progress Bars: Manipulating Perceived Duration with Visual Augmentations\nNavigation\nThe speed with which a user can locate navigational items or call to actions adds to their perceived performance of a site. If the user\u2019s next action is quick to spot on the screen, they don\u2019t spend time hunting around the interface with their eyes and fingers. So no matter how quickly your code runs, hiding items behind a nav bar will make a site feel slower than it actually is. \nFacebook found that switching to using bottom navigation saw an increase in engagement, satisfaction, revenue, speed, and importantly, perception of speed. If the user sees the navigation items they\u2019re looking for quickly, the interaction feels fast. What\u2019s more, end-to-end task completion is quicker too, as the interface not only feels quicker, but actually measures quicker as well. Similar reactions were found with Spotify and Redbooth.\nLuke Wroblewski gave a talk last year in Ireland titled \u201cObvious Always Wins\u201d which he demonstrated through the work he did with Google+. Luke\u2019s message is that by making the core features of your app obvious to your user, you will see engagement go up. This again seems obvious, right? However, it is important to note that adding bottom navigation doesn\u2019t just mean a black bar at the bottom of your screen like some kind of performance magic bullet. The goal is to make the items clear to the user so they know what they need to be doing, and how you achieve that could be different from one interface to the next. Google keeps experimenting with different navigation styles, but finally settled with the below when they conducted user research and testing.\n\nConclusion\nBy utilizing a collection of UI patterns and speed optimisation techniques, you can improve not only the actual speed of a site, but the perception of how quickly a user thinks your site is loading. It is critical to remember that users will not always be using your site in a calm and relaxed manner and that even their age can impact how they will use or not use your site. By improving your site\u2019s stability, you increase the likelihood of positive user engagement and task completion.\nYou can learn more about techniques to hack user perception and improve user speed by taking a look at an E-Book we published with Awwwards.com called Speed Matters: Design for Mobile Performance.", "year": "2017", "author": "Mustafa Kurtuldu", "author_slug": "mustafakurtuldu", "published": "2017-12-18T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2017/designing-for-mobile-performance/", "topic": "ux"}
{"rowid": 123, "title": "Fast and Simple Usability Testing", "contents": "Everyone knows by now that they should test the usability of their applications, but still hardly anybody actually does it. In this article I\u2019ll share some tips I\u2019ve picked up for doing usability tests quickly and effectively.\n\nRelatively recent tools like Django and Ruby on Rails allow us to develop projects faster and to make significant changes later in the project timeline. Usability testing methods should now be adapted to fit this modern approach to development.\n\nWhen to test\n\nIn an ideal world usability tests would be carried out frequently from an early stage of the project. Time and budget constraints lead this to be impractical; usability is often the first thing to get dropped from the project plan.\n\nIf you can only test at one stage in the project, whatever the size, the most valuable time is before your first public beta \u2014 leaving long enough to fix issues and not so late that you can\u2019t rethink your scope.\n\nThere are three main categories of usability test:\n\n\n\tTesting design mockups\n\tTesting a new working application\n\tTesting established applications\n\n\nEach category requires a slightly different approach. For small modern web projects you are most likely to be testing a new working application. You will of course have already done functional tests so you won\u2019t be worried about the user breaking things. The main differences between the categories apply in how you word The Script.\n\nTesting an established application is the most fun in my opinion. Humans are remarkably adaptable and rapidly develop coping strategies to work around usability issues in software they are forced to use. Uncovering these strategies may lead you to understand previously unspoken needs of your users. Often small changes to the application will have a dramatic affect on their everyday lives.\n\nWho to test\n\nWhen you have built a project to scratch your own itch, your intended audience will be people just like you. Test subjects in this case should be easy to find \u2013 friends, co-workers etc.\n\nThis is not always the case; your users may not be like you at all. When they are not, it\u2019s all the more important to run usability tests. Testing on friends, family and co-workers is better than not doing usability tests at all, but it can\u2019t be compared to testing on actual samples of your intended audience. People who would use the system will provide more genuine feedback and deeper insight.\n\nNever let your test subjects put themselves in the shoes of your \u2018actual\u2019 users. For example, you should discourage comments like \u201cWell, I would do this BUT if I was a bus driver I\u2019d do that\u201d. Users are not qualified to put themselves in the position of others. Inaccurate data is often worse than no data.\n\nAim for five or six test subjects: any more and you probably won\u2019t learn anything new; any less and you\u2019re likely to be overwhelmed by issues stemming from people\u2019s individual personalities.\n\nThe Script\n\nThe Script is a single side of A4 (or letter) paper, consisting of questions for your testers and reminders for yourself. Have a balance of task-based questions and expectation analysis. This helps maintain consistency across tests. Expectation analysis is more important for testing designs and new applications: \u201cWhere would you find X?\u201d, \u201cWhat would you expect to happen if you clicked on Y?\u201d. In an established system users will probably know where these things are though it can still be illuminating to ask these questions though phrased slightly differently.\n\nTask-based questions involve providing a task for the user to complete. If you are testing an established system it is a good idea to ask users to bring in tasks that they would normally perform. This is because the user will be more invested in the outcome of the task and will behave in a more realistic fashion. When designing tasks for new systems and designs ensure you only provide loose task details for the same reason. Don\u2019t tell testers to enter \u201cChantelle\u201d; have them use their own name instead. Avoid introducing bias with the way questions are phrased.\n\nIt\u2019s a good idea to ask for users\u2019 first impressions at the beginning of the test, especially when testing design mockups. \u201cWhat are the main elements on the page?\u201d or \u201cWhat strikes you first?\u201d.\n\nYou script should run for a maximum of 45 minutes. 30-35 minutes is better; after this you are likely to lose their attention. Tests on established systems can take longer as there is more to learn from them. When scheduling the test you will need to leave yourself 5 minutes between each one to collate your notes and prepare for the next. Be sure to run through the script beforehand.\n\nYour script should be flexible. It is possible that during the test a trend will come to light that opens up whole new avenues of possible questioning. For example, during one initial test of an established system I noticed that the test subject had been printing off items from the application and placing them in a folder in date order (the system ordered alphabetically). I changed the script to ask future participants in that run, if they ever used external tools to help them with tasks within the system. This revealed a number of interesting issues that otherwise would not have been found.\n\nRunning the tests\n\nTreat your test subjects like hedgehogs. Depending on your target audience they probably feel a little nervous and perhaps even scared of you. So make them a little nest out of straw, stroke their prickles and give them some cat food. Alternatively, reassure them that you are testing the system and that they can\u2019t give a wrong answer. Reward them with a doughnut or jam tart at the end. Try to ensure the test environment is relaxed and quiet, but also as close as possible to the situation where they would actually use the system.\n\nHave your subjects talk out loud is very important as you can\u2019t read their minds, but it is a very unnatural process. To loosen up your subjects and get them talking in the way you want them to, try the Stapler Trick. Give them a stapler or similar item and ask them to open it, take the staples out, replace them, shut the stapler and staple some paper \u2013 talking all the time about what they see, what they expect to happen, what actually happens and how that matches up. Make them laugh at you.\n\nSay how long the test will take up front, and tell your subject why you are doing it. After the test has been completed, conclude by thanking them for their time and assuring them that they were very useful. Then give them the sugary treat.\n\nWhat to look for\n\nPrimarily, you should look out for incidents where the user stops concentrating on her tasks and starts thinking about the tool and how she is going to use it. For example, when you are hammering in a nail you don\u2019t think about how to use a hammer; good software should be the same. Words like \u2018it\u2019 and \u2018the system\u2019 and are good indications that the test subject has stopped thinking about the task in hand. Note questioning words, especially where testers question their own judgement, \u201cwhy can\u2019t I find \u2026\u201d, \u201cI expected to see \u2026\u201d etc. as this indicates that the work flow for the task may have broken down.\n\nAlso keep an eye on occasions where the user completely fails to do a task. They may need some prompting to unstick them, but you should be careful not to bias the test. These should be the highest priority issues for you to fix. If users recover from getting stuck, make a note of how they recovered. Prolonged periods of silence from the test subject may also require prompting as they should be talking all the time. Ask them what they are thinking or looking for but avoid words like \u2018try\u2019 (e.g. \u2018what are you trying to do?\u2019) as this implies that they are currently failing.\n\nBe wary of users\u2019 opinions on aesthetics and be prepared to bring them back to the script if they get side-tracked.\n\nWriting it up\n\nEven if you are the only developer it\u2019s important to summarise the key issues that emerged during testing: your notes won\u2019t make much sense to you a week or so after the test.\n\nIf you are writing for other people, include a summary no longer than two pages; this can consist of a list or table of the issues including recommendations and their priorities. Remember to anonymise the users in the report. In team situations, you may be surprised at how many people are interested in the results of the usability test even if it doesn\u2019t relate directly to something that they can fix.\n\nTo conclude\u2026\n\nSome usability testing is better than none at all, even for small projects or those with strict deadlines. Make the most of the time and resources available. Choose your users carefully, make them comfortable, summarise your report and don\u2019t forget to leave a doughnut for yourself!", "year": "2006", "author": "Natalie Downe", "author_slug": "nataliedowne", "published": "2006-12-16T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2006/fast-and-simple-usability-testing/", "topic": "process"}
{"rowid": 167, "title": "Back To The Future of Print", "contents": "By now we have weathered the storm that was the early days of web development, a dangerous time when we used tables, inline CSS and separate pages for print only versions. We can reflect in a haggard old sea-dog manner (\u201cyarrr\u2026 I remember back in the browser wars\u2026\u201d) on the bad practices of the time. We no longer need convincing that print stylesheets are the way to go1, though some of the documentation for them is a little outdated now.\n\nI am going to briefly cover 8 tips and 4 main gotchas when creating print stylesheets in our more enlightened era.\n\nGetting started\n\nAs with regular stylesheets, print CSS can be included in a number of ways2, for our purposes we are going to be using the link\nelement.\n\n<link rel=\"stylesheet\" type=\"text/css\" media=\"print\" href=\"print.css\">\n\nThis is still my favourite way of linking to CSS files, its easy to see what files are being included and to what media they are being applied to. Without the media attribute specified the link element defaults to the media type \u2018all\u2019 which means that the styles within then apply to print and screen alike. The media type \u2018screen\u2019 only applies to the screen and wont be picked up by print, this is the best way of hiding styles from print.\n\nMake sure you include your print styles after all your other CSS, because you will need to override certain rules and this is a lot easier if you are flowing with the cascade than against it!\n\nAnother thing you should be thinking is \u2018does it need to be printed\u2019. Consider the context3, if it is not a page that is likely to be printed, such as a landing page or a section index then the print styles should resemble the way the page looks on the screen.\n\nContext is really important for the design of your print stylesheet, all the tips and tricks that follow should be taken in the context of the page. If for example you are designing a print stylesheet for an item in a shopping cart, it is irrelevant for the user to know the exact url of the link that takes them to your checkout.\n\nTips and tricks\n\nDuring these tip\u2019s we are going to build up print styles for a textileRef:11112857385470b854b8411:linkStartMarker:\u201csimple\nexample\u201d:/examples/back-to-the-future-of-print/demo-1.html\n\n1. Remove the cruft\n\nFirst things first, navigation, headers and most page furniture are pretty much useless and dead space in print so they will need to be removed, using display:none;.\n\n2. Linearise your content\n\nContent doesn\u2019t work so well in columns in print, especially if the content columns are long and intend to stretch over multiple columns (as mentioned in the gotcha section below). You might want to consider Lineariseing the content to flow down the page. If you have your source order in correct priority this will make things a lot easier4.\n\n3. Improve your type\n\nOnce you have removed all the useless cruft and jiggled things about a bit, you can concentrate more on the typography of the page.\n\nTypography is a complex topic5, but simply put serif-ed fonts such as Georgia work better on print and sans serif-ed fonts such as Verdana are more appropriate for screen use. You will probably want to increase font size and line height and change from px to pt (which is specifically a print measurement).\n\n4. Go wild on links\n\nThere are some incredibly fun things you can do with links in print using CSS. There are two schools of thought, one that consider it is best to disguise inline links as body text because they are not click-able on paper. Personally I believe it is useful to know for reference that the document did link to somewhere originally.\n\nWhen deciding which approach to take, consider the context of your document, do people need to know where they would have gone to? will it help or hinder them to know this information? Also for an alternative to the below, take a look at Aaron Gustafson\u2019s article on generating footnotes for print6.\n\nUsing some clever selector trickery and CSS generated content you can have the location of the link generated after the link itself.\n\nHTML:\n\n<p>I wish <a href=\"http://www.google.com/\">Google</a> could find <a href=\"/photoOfMyKeys.jpg\">my keys</a></p>\n\nCSS:\n\na:link:after,\na:visited:after,\na:hover:after,\na:active:after {\n\tcontent: \" <\" attr(href) \"> \";\n}\n\nBut this is not perfect, in the above example the content of the href is just naively plonked after the link text:\n\nI wish Google <http://www.google.com/> would find my keys </photoOfMyKeys.jpg>\n\nAs looking back over this printout the user is not immediately aware of the location of the link, a better solution is to use even more crazy selectors to deal with relative links. We can also add a style to the generated content so it is distinguishable from the link text itself.\n\nCSS:\n\na:link:after,\na:visited:after,\na:hover:after,\na:active:after {\n\tcontent: \" <\" attr(href) \"> \";\n\tcolor: grey;\n\tfont-style: italic;\n\tfont-weight: normal;\n}\na[href^=\"/\"]:after {\n\tcontent: \" <http://www.example.com\"attr(href)\"> \";\n}\n\nThe output is now what we were looking for (you will need to replace example.com with your own root URL):\n\nI wish Google <http://www.google.com/> would find my keys <http://www.example.com/photoOfMyKeys.jpg>\n\nUsing regular expressions on the attribute selectors, one final thing you can do is to suppress the generated content on mailto: links, if for example you know the link text always reflects the email address. Eg:\n\nHTML:\n\n<a href=\"mailto:me@example.com\">me@example.com</a>\n\nCSS:\n\na[href^=\"mailto\"]:after {\n\tcontent: \"\";\n}\n\nThis example shows the above in action.\n\nOf course with this clever technique, there are the usual browser support issues. While it won\u2019t look as intended in browsers such as Internet Explorer 6 and 7 (IE6 and IE7) it will not break either and will just degrade gracefully because IE cannot do generated content. To the best of my knowledge Safari 2+ and Opera 9.X support a colour set on generated content whereas Firefox 2 & Camino display this in black regardless of the link or inherited text colour.\n\n5. Jazz your headers for print\n\nThis is more of a design consideration, don\u2019t go too nuts though; there are a lot more limitations in print media than on screen. For this example we are going to go for is having a bottom border on h2\u2019s and styling other headings with graduating colors or font sizes.\n\nAnd here is the example complete with jazzy headers.\n\n6. Build in general hooks\n\nIf you are building a large site with many different types of page, you may find it useful to build into your CSS structure, classes that control what is printed (e.g. noprint and printonly). This may not be semantically ideal, but in the past I have found it really useful for maintainability of code across large and varied sites\n\n7. For that extra touch of class\n\nWhen printing pages from a long URL, even if the option is turned on to show the location of the page in the header, browsers may still display a truncated (and thus useless) version.\n\nUsing the above tip (or just simply setting to display:none in screen and display:block in print) you can insert the URL of the page you are currently on for print only, using JavaScript\u2019s window.location.href variable.\n\nfunction addPrintFooter() {\n\tvar p = document.createElement('p');\n\tp.className = 'print-footer';\n\tp.innerHTML = window.location.href;\n\tdocument.body.appendChild(p);\n}\n\nYou can then call this function using whichever onload or ondomready handler suits your fancy. Here is our familiar demo to show all the above in action\n\n8. Tabular data across pages\n\nIf you are using tabled data in your document there are a number of things you can do to increase usability of long tables over several pages. If you use the <thead> element this should repeat your table headers on the next page should your table be split. You will need to set thead {display: table-header-group;} explicitly for IE even though this should be the default value.\n\nAlso if you use tr {page-break-inside: avoid;} this should (browser support depending) stop your table row from breaking across two pages. For more information on styling tables for print please see the CSS discuss wiki7.\n\nGotchas\n\n1. Where did all my content go?\n\nAbsolutely the most common mistake I see with print styles is the truncated content bug. The symptom of this is that only the first page of a div\u2019s content will be printed, the rest will look truncated after this.\n\nFloating long columns may still have this affect, as mentioned in Eric Meyer\u2019s article on \u2018A List Apart\u2019 article from 20028; though in testing I am no longer able to replicate this. Using overflow:hidden on long content in Firefox however still causes this truncation. Overflow hidden is commonly used to clear floats9.\n\nA simple fix can be applied to resolve this, if the column is floated you can override this with float:none similarly overflow:hidden can be overridden with overflow:visible or the offending rules can be banished to a screen only stylesheet.\n\nUsing position:absolute on long columns also has a very similar effect in truncating the content, but can be overridden in print with position:static;\n\nWhilst I only recommend having a print stylesheet for content pages on your site; do at least check other landing pages, section indexes and your homepage. If these are inaccessible in print possibly due to the above gotcha, it might be wise to provide a light dusting of print styles or move the offending overflow / float rules to a screen only stylesheet to fix the issues.\n\n2. Damn those background browser settings\n\nOne of the factors of life you now need to accept is that you can\u2019t control the user\u2019s browser settings, no more than you can control whether or not they use IE6. Most browsers by default will not print background colours or images unless explicitly told to by the user.\n\nNaturally this causes a number of problems, for starters you will need to rethink things like branding. At this point it helps if you are doing the print styles early in the project so that you can control the logo not being a background image for example.\n\nWhere colour is important to the meaning of the document, for example a status on an invoice, bear in mind that a textural representation will also need to be supplied as the user may be printing in black and white. Borders will print however regardless of setting, so assuming the user is printing in colour you can always use borders to indicate colour.\n\nCheck the colour contrast of the text against white, this may need to be altered without backgrounds. You should check how your page looks with backgrounds turned on too, for consistency with the default browser settings you may want to override your background anyway.\n\nOne final issue with backgrounds being off is list items. It is relatively common practice to suppress the list-style-type and replace with a background image to finely control the bullet positioning. This technique doesn\u2019t translate to print, you will need to disable this background bullet and re-instate your trusty friend the list-style-type.\n\n3. Using JavaScript in your CSS? \u2026 beware IE6\n\nInternet explorer has an issue that when Javascript is used in a stylesheet it applies this to all media types even if only applied to screen. For example, if you happen to be using expressions to set a width for IE, perhaps to mimic min-width, a simple width:100% !important rule can overcome the effects the expression has on your print styles10.\n\n4. De-enhance your Progressive enhancements\n\nQuite a classic \u201cdoh\u201d moment is when you realise that, of course paper doesn\u2019t support Javascript. If you have any dynamic elements on the page, for example a document collapsed per section, you really should have been using Progressive enhancement techniques11 and building for browsers without Javascript first, adding in the fancy stuff later.\n\nIf this is the case it should be trivial to override your wizzy JS styles in your print stylesheet, to display all your content and make it accessible for print, which is by far the best method of achieving this affect.\n\nAnd Finally\u2026\n\nI refer you back to the nature of the document in hand, consider the context of your site and the page. Use the tips here to help you add that extra bit of flair to your printed media.\n\nBe careful you don\u2019t get caught out by the common gotchas, keep the design simple, test cross browser and relish in the medium of print.\n\nFurther Reading\n\n1 For more information constantly updated, please see the CSS discuss wiki on print stylesheets\n\n2 For more information on media types and ways of including CSS please refer to the CSS discuss wiki on Media Stylesheets\n\n3 Eric Meyer talks to ThinkVitamin about the importance of context when designing your print strategy.\n\n4 Mark Boulton describes how he applies a newspaper like print stylesheet to an article in the Guardian website. Mark also has some persuasive arguments that print should not be left to last\n\n5 Richard Rutter Has a fantastic resource on typography which also applies to print.\n\n6 Aaron Gustafson has a great solution to link problem by creating footnotes at the end of the page.\n\n7 The CSS discuss wiki has more detailed information on printing tables and detailed browser support\n\n8 This \u2018A List Apart\u2019 article is dated May 10th 2002 though is still mostly relevant\n\n9 Float clearing technique using \u2018overflow:hidden\u2019\n\n10 Autistic Cuckoo describes the interesting insight with regards to expressions specified for screen in IE6 remaining in print\n\n11 Wikipedia has a good article on the definition of progressive enhancement\n\n12 For a really neat trick involving a dynamically generated column to displaying <abbr> and <dfn> meanings (as well as somewhere for the user to write notes), try print previewing on Brian Suda\u2019s site", "year": "2007", "author": "Natalie Downe", "author_slug": "nataliedowne", "published": "2007-12-09T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2007/back-to-the-future-of-print/", "topic": "design"}
{"rowid": 180, "title": "Going Nuts with CSS Transitions", "contents": "I\u2019m going to show you how CSS 3 transforms and WebKit transitions can add zing to the way you present images on your site.\n\nLaying the foundations\n\nFirst we are going to make our images look like mini polaroids with captions. Here\u2019s the markup:\n\n<div class=\"polaroid pull-right\">\n\t<img src=\"../img/seal.jpg\" alt=\"\">\n\t<p class=\"caption\">Found this little cutie on a walk in New Zealand!</p>\n</div>\n\nYou\u2019ll notice we\u2019re using a somewhat presentational class of pull-right here. This means the logic is kept separate from the code that applies the polaroid effect. The polaroid class has no positioning, which allows it to be used generically anywhere that the effect is required. The pull classes set a float and add appropriate margins\u2014they can be used for things like blockquotes as well.\n\n.polaroid {\n\twidth: 150px;\n\tpadding: 10px 10px 20px 10px;\n\tborder: 1px solid #BFBFBF;\n\tbackground-color: white;\n\t-webkit-box-shadow: 2px 2px 3px rgba(135, 139, 144, 0.4);\n\t-moz-box-shadow: 2px 2px 3px rgba(135, 139, 144, 0.4);\n\tbox-shadow: 2px 2px 3px rgba(135, 139, 144, 0.4);\n}\n\nThe actual polaroid effect itself is simply applied using padding, a border and a background colour. We also apply a nice subtle box shadow, using a property that is supported by modern WebKit browsers and Firefox 3.5+. We include the box-shadow property last to ensure that future browsers that support the eventual CSS3 specified version natively will use that implementation over the legacy browser specific version.\n\nThe box-shadow property takes four values: three lengths and a colour. The first is the horizontal offset of the shadow\u2014positive values place the shadow on the right, while negative values place it to the left. The second is the vertical offset, positive meaning below. If both of these are set to 0, the shadow is positioned equally on all four sides. The last length value sets the blur radius\u2014the larger the number, the blurrier the shadow (therefore the darker you need to make the colour to have an effect).\n\nThe colour value can be given in any format recognised by CSS. Here, we\u2019re using rgba as explained by Drew behind the first door of this year\u2019s calendar.\n\nRotation\n\nFor browsers that understand it (currently our old favourites WebKit and FF3.5+) we can add some visual flair by rotating the image, using the transform CSS 3 property.\n\n-webkit-transform: rotate(9deg);\n-moz-transform: rotate(9deg);\ntransform: rotate(9deg);\n\nRotations can be specified in degrees, radians (rads) or grads. WebKit also supports turns unfortunately Firefox doesn\u2019t just yet.\n\nFor our example, we want any polaroid images on the left hand side to be rotated in the opposite direction, using a negative degree value:\n\n.pull-left.polaroid {\n\t-webkit-transform: rotate(-9deg);\n\t-moz-transform: rotate(-9deg);\n\ttransform: rotate(-9deg);\n}\n\nMultiple class selectors don\u2019t work in IE6 but as luck would have it, the transform property doesn\u2019t work in any current IE version either. The above code is a good example of progressive enrichment: browsers that don\u2019t support box-shadow or transform will still see the image and basic polaroid effect.\n\n\n\nAnimation\n\nWebKit is unique amongst browser rendering engines in that it allows animation to be specified in pure CSS. Although this may never actually make it in to the CSS 3 specification, it degrades nicely and more importantly is an awful lot of fun!\n\nLet\u2019s go nuts.\n\nIn the next demo, the image is contained within a link and mousing over that link causes the polaroid to animate from being angled to being straight.\n\nHere\u2019s our new markup:\n\n<a href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/nataliedowne/2340993237/\" class=\"polaroid\">\n\t<img src=\"../img/raft.jpg\" alt=\"\">\n\tWhite water rafting in Queenstown\n</a>\n\nAnd here are the relevant lines of CSS:\n\na.polaroid {\n\t/* ... */\n   -webkit-transform: rotate(10deg);\n   -webkit-transition: -webkit-transform 0.5s ease-in;\n}\na.polaroid:hover,\na.polaroid:focus,\na.polaroid:active {\n\t/* ... */\n\t-webkit-transform: rotate(0deg);\n}\n\nThe @-webkit-transition@ property is the magic wand that sets up the animation. It takes three values: the property to be animated, the duration of the animation and a \u2018timing function\u2019 (which affects the animation\u2019s acceleration, for a smoother effect).\n\n-webkit-transition only takes affect when the specified property changes. In pure CSS, this is done using dynamic pseudo-classes. You can also change the properties using JavaScript, but that\u2019s a story for another time.\n\nThrowing polaroids at a table\n\nImagine there are lots of differently sized polaroid photos scattered on a table. That\u2019s the effect we are aiming for with our next demo.\n\n\n\nAs an aside: we are using absolute positioning to arrange the images inside a flexible width container (with a minimum and maximum width specified in pixels). As some are positioned from the left and some from the right when you resize the browser they shuffle underneath each other. This is an effect used on the UX London site.\n\nThis demo uses a darker colour shadow with more transparency than before. The grey shadow in the previous example worked fine, but it was against a solid background. Since the images are now overlapping each other, the more opaque shadow looked fake.\n\n-webkit-box-shadow: 2px 2px 4px rgba(0,0, 0, 0.3);\n-moz-box-shadow: 2px 2px 4px rgba(0,0, 0, 0.3);\nbox-shadow: 2px 2px 4px rgba(0,0, 0, 0.3);\n\nOn hover, as well as our previous trick of animating the image rotation back to straight, we are also making the shadow darker and setting the z-index to be higher than the other images so that it appears on top.\n\nAnd Finally\u2026\n\nFinally, for a bit more fun, we\u2019re going to simulate the images coming towards you and lifting off the page. We\u2019ll achieve this by making them grow larger and by offsetting the shadow & making it longer.\n\n\n\n\nScreenshot 1 shows the default state, while 2 shows our previous hover effect. Screenshot 3 is the effect we are aiming for, illustrated by demo 4.\n\na.polaroid {\n\t/* ... */\n\tz-index: 2;\n\t-webkit-box-shadow: 2px 2px 4px rgba(0,0, 0, 0.3);\n\t-moz-box-shadow: 2px 2px 4px rgba(0,0, 0, 0.3);\n\tbox-shadow: 2px 2px 4px rgba(0,0, 0, 0.3);\n\t-webkit-transform: rotate(10deg);\n\t-moz-transform: rotate(10deg);\n\ttransform: rotate(10deg);\n\t-webkit-transition: all 0.5s ease-in;\n}\na.polaroid:hover,\na.polaroid:focus,\na.polaroid:active {\n\tz-index: 999;\n\tborder-color: #6A6A6A;\n\t-webkit-box-shadow: 15px 15px 20px rgba(0,0, 0, 0.4);\n\t-moz-box-shadow: 15px 15px 20px rgba(0,0, 0, 0.4);\n\tbox-shadow: 15px 15px 20px rgba(0,0, 0, 0.4);\n\t-webkit-transform: rotate(0deg) scale(1.05);\n\t-moz-transform: rotate(0deg) scale(1.05);\n\ttransform: rotate(0deg) scale(1.05);\n}\n\nYou\u2019ll notice we are now giving the transform property another transform function: scale, which takes increases the size by the specified factor. Other things you can do with transform include skewing, translating or you can go mad creating your own transforms with a matrix.\n\nThe box-shadow has both its offset and blur radius increased dramatically, and is darkened using the alpha channel of the rgba colour.\n\nAnd because we want the effects to all animate smoothly, we pass a value of all to the -webkit-transition property, ensuring that any changed property on that link will be animated.\n\nDemo 5 is the finished example, bringing everything nicely together.\n\nCSS transitions and transforms are a great example of progressive enrichment, which means improving the experience for a portion of the audience without negatively affecting other users. They are also a lot of fun to play with!\n\nFurther reading\n\n\n\t-moz-transform \u2013 the mozilla developer center has a comprehensive explanation of transform that also applies to -webkit-transform and transform.\n\tCSS: Animation Using CSS Transforms \u2013 this is a good, more indepth tutorial on animations.\n\tCSS Animation \u2013 the Safari blog explains the usage of -webkit-transform.\n\tDinky pocketbooks with transform \u2013 another use for transforms, create your own printable pocketbook.\n\tA while back, Simon wrote a little bookmarklet to spin the entire page\u2026 warning: this will spin the entire page.", "year": "2009", "author": "Natalie Downe", "author_slug": "nataliedowne", "published": "2009-12-14T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2009/going-nuts-with-css-transitions/", "topic": "code"}
{"rowid": 256, "title": "Develop Your Naturalist Superpowers with Observable Notebooks and iNaturalist", "contents": "We\u2019re going to level up your knowledge of what animals you might see in an area at a particular time of year - a skill every naturalist* strives for -  using technology! Using iNaturalist and Observable Notebooks we\u2019re going to prototype seasonality graphs for particular species in an area, and automatically create a guide to what animals you might see in each month.\n*(a Naturalist is someone who likes learning about nature, not someone who\u2019s a fan of being naked, that\u2019s a \u2018Naturist\u2019\u2026 different thing!)\nLooking for critters in rocky intertidal habitats\nOne of my favourite things to do is going rockpooling, or as we call it over here in California, \u2018tidepooling\u2019. Amounting to the same thing, it\u2019s going to a beach that has rocks where the tide covers then uncovers little pools of water at different times of the day. All sorts of fun creatures and life can be found in this \u2018rocky intertidal habitat\u2019\nA particularly exciting creature that lives here is the Nudibranch, a type of super colourful \u2018sea slug\u2019. There are over 3000 species of Nudibranch worldwide. (The word \u201cnudibranch\u201d comes from the Latin nudus, naked, and the Greek \u03b2\u03c1\u03b1\u03bd\u03c7\u03b9\u03b1 / brankhia, gills.)\n\u200b\n\nThey are however quite tricky to find! Even though they are often brightly coloured and interestingly shaped, some of them are very small, and in our part of the world in the Bay Area in California their appearance in our rockpools is seasonal. We see them more often in Summer months, despite the not-as-low tides as in our Winter and Spring seasons.\nMy favourite place to go tidepooling here is Pillar Point in Half Moon bay (at other times of the year more famously known for the surf competition \u2018Mavericks\u2019). The rockpools there are rich in species diversity, of varied types and water-coverage habitat zones as well as being relatively accessible.\n\u200b\n\nI was rockpooling at Pillar Point recently with my parents and we talked to a lady who remarked that she hadn\u2019t seen any Nudibranchs on her visit this time. I realised that having an idea of what species to find where, and at what time of year is one of the many superpower goals of every budding Naturalist. \nUsing technology and the croudsourced species observations of the iNaturalist community we can shortcut our way to this superpower!\nFinding nearby animals with iNaturalist\nWe\u2019re going to be getting our information about what animals you can see in Pillar Point using iNaturalist. iNaturalist is a really fun platform that helps connect people to nature and report their findings of life in the outdoors. It is also a community of nature-loving people who help each other identify and confirm those observations. iNaturalist is a project run as a joint initiative by the California Academy of Sciences and the National Geographic Society.\nI\u2019ve been using iNaturalist for over two years to record and identify plants and animals that I\u2019ve found in the outdoors. I use their iPhone app to upload my pictures, which then uses machine learning algorithms to make an initial guess at what it is I\u2019ve seen. The community is really active, and I often find someone else has verified or updated my species guess pretty soon after posting. \nThis process is great because once an observation has been identified by at least two people it becomes \u2018verified\u2019 and is considered research grade. Research grade observations get exported and used by scientists, as well as being indexed by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, GBIF.\n\u200b\n\niNaturalist has a great API and API explorer, which makes interacting and prototyping using iNaturalist data really fun. For example, if you go to the API explorer and expand the Observations : Search and fetch section and then the GET /observations API, you get a selection of input boxes that allow you to play with options that you can then pass to the API when you click the \u2018Try it out\u2019 button.\n\u200b\n\nYou\u2019ll then get a URL that looks a bit like\nhttps://api.inaturalist.org/v1/observations?captive=false &geo=true&verifiable=true&taxon_id=47113&lat=37.495461&lng=-122.499584 &radius=5&order=desc&order_by=created_at \nwhich you can call and interrrogate using a programming language of your choice.\nIf you would like to see an all-JavaScript application that uses the iNaturalist API, take a look at OwlsNearMe.com which Simon and I built one weekend earlier this year. It gets your location and shows you all iNaturalist observations of owls near you and lists which species you are likely to see (not adjusted for season).\nRapid development using Observable Notebooks\nWe\u2019re going to be using Observable Notebooks to prototype our examples, pulling data down from iNaturalist. I really like using visual notebooks like Observable, they are great for learning and building things quickly. You may be familiar with Jupyter notebooks for Python which is similar but takes a bit of setup to get going - I often use these for prototyping too. Observable is amazing for querying and visualising data with JavaScript and since it is a hosted product it doesn\u2019t require any setup at all.\nYou can follow along and play with this example on my Observable notebook. If you create an account there you can fork my notebook and create your own version of this example. \nEach \u2018notebook\u2019 consists of a page with a column of \u2018cells\u2019, similar to what you get in a spreadsheet. A cell can contain Markdown text or JavaScript code and the output of evaluating the cell appears above the code that generated it. There are lots of tutorials out there on Observable Notebooks, I like this code introduction one from Observable (and D3) creator Mike Bostock.\nDeveloping your Naturalist superpowers\nIf you have an idea of what plants and critters you might see in a place at the time you visit, you can hone in on what you want to study and train your Naturalist eye to better identify the life around you.\nFor our example, we care about wildlife we can see at Pillar Point, so we need a way of letting the iNaturalist API know which area we are interested in.\nWe could use a latitide, longitude and radius for this, but a rectangular bounding box is a better shape for the reef. We can use this tool to draw the area we want to search within: boundingbox.klokantech.com\n\u200b\n\nThe tool lets you export the bounding box in several forms using the dropdown at the bottom left under the map givese We are going to use the \u2018DublinCore\u2019 format as it\u2019s closest to the format needed by the iNaturalist API.\n westlimit=-122.50542; southlimit=37.492805; eastlimit=-122.492738; northlimit=37.499811\nA quick map primer:\nThe higher the latitude the more north it is\nThe lower the latitude the more south it is\nLatitude 0 = the equator\n\nThe higher the longitude the more east it is of Greenwich\nThe lower the longitude the more west it is of Greenwich\nLongitude 0 = Greenwich\nIn the iNaturalst API we want to use the parameters nelat, nelng, swlat, swlng to create a query that looks inside a bounding box of Pillar Point near Half Moon Bay in California:\nnelat = highest latitude = north limit = 37.499811\nnelng = highest longitude = east limit = -122.492738\nswlat = smallest latitude = south limit = 37.492805\nswlng = smallest longitude = west limit = 122.50542\nAs API parameters these look like this:\n?nelat=37.499811&nelng=-122.492738&swlat=37.492805&swlng=122.50542\nThese parameters in this format can be used for most of the iNaturalist API methods.\nNudibranch seasonality in Pillar Point\nWe can use the iNaturalist observation_histogram API to get a count of Nudibranch observations per week-of-year across all time and within our Pillar Point bounding box.\nIn addition to the geographic parameters that we just worked out, we are also sending the taxon_id of 47113, which is iNaturalists internal number associated with the Nudibranch taxon. By using this we can get all species which are under the parent \u2018Order Nudibranchia\u2019. \nAnother useful piece of naturalist knowledge is understanding the biological classification scheme of Taxanomic Rank - roughly, when a species has a Latin name of two words eg \u2018Glaucus Atlanticus\u2019 the first Latin word is the \u2018Genus\u2019 like a family name \u2018Glaucus\u2019, and the second word identifies that particular species, like a given name \u2018Atlanticus\u2019. \nThe two Latin words together indicate a specific species, the term we use colloquially to refer to a type of animal often differs wildly region to region, and sometimes the same common name in two countries can refer to two different species. The common names for the Glaucus Atlanticus (which incidentally is my favourite sea slug) include: sea swallow, blue angel, blue glaucus, blue dragon, blue sea slug and blue ocean slug! Because this gets super confusing, Scientists like using this Latin name format instead.\nThe following piece of code asks the iNaturalist Histogram API to return per-week counts for verified observations of Nudibranchs within our Pillar Point bounding box:\npillar_point_counts_per_week = fetch(\n  \"https://api.inaturalist.org/v1/observations/histogram?taxon_id=47113&nelat=37.499811&nelng=-122.492738&swlat=37.492805&swlng=-122.50542&date_field=observed&interval=week_of_year&verifiable=true\"\n  ).then(response => {\n  return response.json();\n})\nOur next step is to take this data and draw a graph! We\u2019ll be using Vega-Lite for this, which is a fab JavaScript graphing libary that is also easy and fun to use with Observable Notebooks. \n(Here is a great tutorial on exploring data and drawing graphs with Observable and Vega-Lite)\nThe iNaturalist API returns data that looks like this:\n{\n  \"total_results\": 53,\n  \"page\": 1,\n  \"per_page\": 53,\n  \"results\": {\n    \"week_of_year\": {\n      \"1\": 136,\n      \"2\": 20,\n      \"3\": 150,\n      \"4\": 65,\n      \"5\": 186,\n      \"6\": 74,\n      \"7\": 47,\n      \"8\": 87,\n      \"9\": 64,\n      \"10\": 56,\nBut for our Vega-Lite graph we need data that looks like this:\n[{\n  \"week\": \"01\",\n  \"value\": 136\n}, {\n  \"week\": \"02\",\n  \"value\": 20\n}, ...]\nWe can convert what we get back from the API to the second format using a loop that iterates over the object keys:\nobjects_to_plot = {\n  let objects = [];\n  Object.keys(pillar_point_counts_per_week.results.week_of_year).map(function(week_index) {\n    objects.push({\n      week: `Wk ${week_index.toString()}`,\n      observations: pillar_point_counts_per_week.results.week_of_year[week_index]\n    });\n  })\n  return objects;\n}\nWe can then plug this into Vega-Lite to draw us a graph:\nvegalite({\n  data: {values: objects_to_plot},\n  mark: \"bar\",\n  encoding: {\n    x: {field: \"week\", type: \"nominal\", sort: null},\n    y: {field: \"observations\", type: \"quantitative\"}\n  },\n  width: width * 0.9\n})\n\nIt\u2019s worth noting that we have a lot of observations of Nudibranchs particularly at Pillar Point due in no small part to the intertidal monitoring research that Alison Young and Rebecca Johnson facilitate for the California Achademy of Sciences. \nSo, what if we want to look for the seasonality of observations of a particular species of adorable sea slug? We want our interface to have a select box with a list of all the species you might find at any time of year. We can do this using the species_counts API to create us an object with the iNaturalist species ID and common & Latin names.\npillar_point_nudibranches = {\n  let api_results = await fetch(\n  \"https://api.inaturalist.org/v1/observations/species_counts?taxon_id=47113&nelat=37.499811&nelng=-122.492738&swlat=37.492805&swlng=-122.50542&date_field=observed&verifiable=true\"\n  ).then(r => r.json())\n\n  let species_list = api_results.results.map(i => ({\n      value: i.taxon.id,\n      label: `${i.taxon.preferred_common_name} (${i.taxon.name})`\n  }));\n\n  return species_list\n}\nWe can create an interactive select box by importing code from Jeremy Ashkanas\u2019 Observable Notebook: add import {select} from \"@jashkenas/inputs\" to a cell anywhere in our notebook. Observable is magic: like a spreadsheet, the order of the cells doesn\u2019t matter - if one cell is referenced by any other cell then when that cell updates all the other cells refresh themselves. You can also import and reference one notebook from another!\nviewof select_species = select({\n    title: \"Which Nudibranch do you want to see seasonality for?\",\n    options: [{value: \"\", label: \"All the Nudibranchs!\"}, ...pillar_point_nudibranches],\n    value: \"\"\n})\nThen we go back to our old favourite, the histogram API just like before, only this time we are calling it with the value created by our select box ${select_species} as taxon_id instead of the number 47113.\npillar_point_counts_per_month_per_species = fetch(\n  `https://api.inaturalist.org/v1/observations/histogram?taxon_id=${select_species}&nelat=37.499811&nelng=-122.492738&swlat=37.492805&swlng=-122.50542&date_field=observed&interval=month_of_year&verifiable=true`\n).then(r => r.json())\nNow for the fun graph bit! As we did before, we re-format the result of the API into a format compatible with Vega-Lite:\nobjects_to_plot_species_month = {\n  let objects = [];\n  Object.keys(pillar_point_counts_per_month_per_species.results.month_of_year).map(function(month_index) {\n    objects.push({\n      month: (new Date(2018, (month_index - 1), 1)).toLocaleString(\"en\", {month: \"long\"}),\n      observations: pillar_point_counts_per_month_per_species.results.month_of_year[month_index]\n    });\n  })\n  return objects;\n}\n(Note that in the above code we are creating a date object with our specific month in, and using toLocalString() to get the longer English name for the month. Because the JavaScript Date object counts January as 0, we use month_index -1 to get the correct month)\nAnd we draw the graph as we did before, only now if you interact with the select box in Observable the graph will dynamically update!\nvegalite({\n  data: {values: objects_to_plot_species_month},\n  mark: \"bar\",\n  encoding: {\n    x: {field: \"month\", type: \"nominal\", sort:null},\n    y: {field: \"observations\", type: \"quantitative\"}\n  },\n  width: width * 0.9\n})\nNow we can see when is the best time of year to plan to go tidepooling in Pillar Point if we want to find a specific species of Nudibranch.\n\u200b\n\nThis tool is great for planning when we to go rockpooling at Pillar Point, but what about if you are going this month and want to pre-train your eye with what to look for in order to impress your friends with your knowledge of Nudibranchs?\nWell\u2026 we can create ourselves a dynamic guide that you can with a list of the species, their photo, name and how many times they have been observed in that month of the year!\nOur select box this time looks as follows, simpler than before but assigning the month value to the variable selected_month.\nviewof selected_month = select({\n    title: \"When do you want to see Nudibranchs?\",\n    options: [\n      { label: \"Whenever\", value: \"\" },\n      { label: \"January\", value: \"1\" },\n      { label: \"February\", value: \"2\" },\n      { label: \"March\", value: \"3\" },\n      { label: \"April\", value: \"4\" },\n      { label: \"May\", value: \"5\" },\n      { label: \"June\", value: \"6\" },\n      { label: \"July\", value: \"7\" },\n      { label: \"August\", value: \"8\" },\n      { label: \"September\", value: \"9\" },\n      { label: \"October\", value: \"10\" },\n      { label: \"November\", value: \"11\" },\n      { label: \"December\", value: \"12\" },\n    ],\n    value: \"\"\n })\nWe then can use the species_counts API to get all the relevant information about which species we can see in month=${selected_month}. We\u2019ll be able to reference this response object and its values later with the variable we just created, eg: all_species_data.results[0].taxon.name.\nall_species_data = fetch(\n    `https://api.inaturalist.org/v1/observations/species_counts?taxon_id=47113&month=${selected_month}&nelat=37.499811&nelng=-122.492738&swlat=37.492805&swlng=-122.50542&verifiable=true`\n).then(r => r.json())\nYou can render HTML directly in a notebook cell using Observable\u2019s html tagged template literal:\n<style> \n.collection { margin-top: 2em }\n.collection .species { display: inline-block; width: 9em; margin-bottom: 2em; }\n.collection .species-name { font-size: 1em; margin: 0; padding: 0 } \n.collection .species-count { margin: 0 0 0.3em 0; padding: 0; font-size: 0.75em; color: #999; font-style: italic; }\n.collection img { display: block; width: 100% }\n.collection select { font-size: 1.5em; }\n</style>\n\n<h2>If you go to Pillar Point ${\n  {\"\": \"\",\n   \"1\":\"in January\",\n   \"2\":\"in Febrary\",\n   \"3\":\"in March\",\n   \"4\":\"in April\",\n   \"5\":\"in May\",\n   \"6\":\"in June\",\n   \"7\":\"in July\",\n   \"8\":\"in August\",\n   \"9\":\"in September\",\n   \"10\":\"in October\",\n   \"11\":\"in November\",\n   \"12\":\"in December\",\n  }[selected_month]\n } you might see\u2026</h2>\n\n<div class=\"collection\">\n${all_species_data.results.map(s => `<div class=\"species\"><h3 class=\"species-name\">${s.taxon.name}</h3>\n  <p class=\"species-count\">Seen ${s.count} times</p>\n  <img src=\"${s.taxon.default_photo.medium_url}\"></div>\n`)}\n</div>\nThese few lines of HTML are all you need to get this exciting dynamic guide to what Nudibranchs you will see in each month!\n\u200b\n\nPlay with it yourself in this Observable Notebook.\nConclusion\nI hope by playing with these examples you have an idea of how powerful it can be to prototype using Observable Notebooks and how you can use the incredible crowdsourced community data and APIs from iNaturalist to augment your naturalist skills and impress your friends with your new \u2018knowledge of nature\u2019 superpower.\nLastly I strongly encourage you to get outside on a low tide to explore your local rocky intertidal habitat, and all the amazing critters that live there.\nHere is a great introduction video to tidepooling / rockpooling, by Rebecca Johnson and Alison Young from the California Academy of Sciences.", "year": "2018", "author": "Natalie Downe", "author_slug": "nataliedowne", "published": "2018-12-18T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2018/observable-notebooks-and-inaturalist/", "topic": "code"}
{"rowid": 126, "title": "Intricate Fluid Layouts in Three Easy Steps", "contents": "The Year of the Script may have drawn attention away from CSS but building fluid, multi-column, cross-browser CSS layouts can still be as unpleasant as a lump of coal. Read on for a worry-free approach in three quick steps.\n\nThe layout system I developed, YUI Grids CSS, has three components. They can be used together as we\u2019ll see, or independently.\n\nThe Three Easy Steps\n\n\n\tChoose fluid or fixed layout, and choose the width (in percents or pixels) of the page.\n\tChoose the size, orientation, and source-order of the main and secondary blocks of content.\n\tChoose the number of columns and how they distribute (for example 50%-50% or 25%-75%), using stackable and nestable grid structures.\n\n\nThe Setup\n\nThere are two prerequisites: We need to normalize the size of an em and opt into the browser rendering engine\u2019s Strict Mode.\n\nEms are a superior unit of measure for our case because they represent the current font size and grow as the user increases their font size setting. This flexibility\u2014the container growing with the user\u2019s wishes\u2014means larger text doesn\u2019t get crammed into an unresponsive container. We\u2019ll use YUI Fonts CSS to set the base size because it provides consistent-yet-adaptive font-sizes while preserving user control.\n\nThe second prerequisite is to opt into Strict Mode (more info on rendering modes) by declaring a Doctype complete with URI. You can choose XHTML or HTML, and Transitional or Strict. I prefer HTML 4.01 Strict, which looks like this:\n\n<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN\" \"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd\">\n\nIncluding the CSS\n\nA single small CSS file powers a nearly-infinite number of layouts thanks to a recursive system and the interplay between the three distinct components. You could prune to a particular layout\u2019s specific needs, but why bother when the complete file weighs scarcely 1.8kb uncompressed? Compressed, YUI Fonts and YUI Grids combine for a miniscule 0.9kb over the wire.\n\nYou could save an HTTP request by concatenating the two CSS files, or by adding their contents to your own CSS, but I\u2019ll keep them separate for now:\n\n<link href=\"fonts.css\" rel=\"stylesheet\" type=\"text/css\">\n<link href=\"grids.css\" rel=\"stylesheet\" type=\"text/css\">\n\nExample: The Setup\n\nNow we\u2019re ready to build some layouts.\n\nStep 1: Choose Fluid or Fixed Layout\n\nChoose between preset widths of 750px, 950px, and 100% by giving a document-wrapping div an ID of doc, doc2, or doc3. These options cover most use cases, but it\u2019s easy to define a custom fixed width.\n\nThe fluid 100% grid (doc3) is what I\u2019ve been using almost exclusively since it was introduced in the last YUI released.\n\n<body>\n\t<div id=\"doc3\"></div>\n</body>\n\nAll pages are centered within the viewport, and grow with font size. The 100% width page (doc3) preserves 10px of breathing room via left and right margins. If you prefer your content flush to the viewport, just add doc3 {margin:auto} to your CSS.\n\nRegardless of what you choose in the other two steps, you can always toggle between these widths and behaviors by simply swapping the ID value. It\u2019s really that simple.\n\nExample: 100% fluid layout\n\nStep 2: Choose a Template Preset\n\nThis is perhaps the most frequently omitted step (they\u2019re all optional), but I use it nearly every time. In a source-order-independent way (good for accessibility and SEO), \u201cTemplate Presets\u201d provide commonly used template widths compatible with ad-unit dimension standards defined by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, an industry association.\n\nChoose between the six Template Presets (.yui-t1 through .yui-t6) by setting the class value on the document-wrapping div established in Step 1. Most frequently I use yui-t3, which puts the narrow secondary block on the left and makes it 300px wide. \n\n<body>\n\t<div id=\"doc3\" class=\"yui-t3\"></div>\n</body>\n\nThe Template Presets control two \u201cblocks\u201d of content, which are defined by two divs, each with yui-b (\u201cb\u201d for \u201cblock\u201d) class values. Template Presets describe the width and orientation of the secondary block; the main block will take up the rest of the space.\n\n<body>\n\t<div id=\"doc3\" class=\"yui-t3\">\n\t  <div class=\"yui-b\"></div>\n\t  <div class=\"yui-b\"></div>\n\t</div>\n</body>\n\nUse a wrapping div with an ID of yui-main to structurally indicate which block is the main block. This wrapper\u2014not the source order\u2014identifies the main block.\n\n<body>\n\t<div id=\"doc3\" class=\"yui-t3\">\n\t  <div id=\"yui-main\">\n\t    <div class=\"yui-b\"></div>\n\t  </div>\n\t  <div class=\"yui-b\"></div>\n\t</div>\n</body>\n\nExample: Main and secondary blocks sized and oriented with .yui-t3 Template Preset\n\nAgain, regardless of what values you choose in the other steps, you can always toggle between these Template Presets by toggling the class value of your document-wrapping div. It\u2019s really that simple.\n\nStep 3: Nest and Stack Grid Structures.\n\nThe bulk of the power of the system is in this third step. The key is that columns are built by parents telling children how to behave. By default, two children each consume half of their parent\u2019s area. Put two units inside a grid structure, and they will sit side-by-side, and they will each take up half the space. Nest this structure and two columns become four. Stack them for rows of columns.\n\nAn Even Number of Columns\n\nThe default behavior creates two evenly-distributed columns. It\u2019s easy. Define one parent grid with .yui-g (\u201cg\u201d for grid) and two child units with .yui-u (\u201cu\u201d for unit). The code looks like this:\n\n<div class=\"yui-g\">\n\t<div class=\"yui-u first\"></div>\n\t<div class=\"yui-u\"></div>\n</div>\n\nBe sure to indicate the \u201cfirst\u201c unit because the :first-child pseudo-class selector isn\u2019t supported across all A-grade browsers. It\u2019s unfortunate we need to add this, but luckily it\u2019s not out of place in the markup layer since it is structural information.\n\nExample: Two evenly-distributed columns in the main content block\n\nAn Odd Number of Columns\n\nThe default system does not work for an odd number of columns without using the included \u201cSpecial Grids\u201d classes. To create three evenly distributed columns, use the \u201cyui-gb\u201c Special Grid:\n\n<div class=\"yui-gb\">\n\t<div class=\"yui-u first\"></div>\n\t<div class=\"yui-u\"></div>\n\t<div class=\"yui-u\"></div>\n</div>\n\nExample: Three evenly distributed columns in the main content block\n\nUneven Column Distribution\n\nSpecial Grids are also used for unevenly distributed column widths. For example, .yui-ge tells the first unit (column) to take up 75% of the parent\u2019s space and the other unit to take just 25%.\n\n<div class=\"yui-ge\">\n\t<div class=\"yui-u first\"></div>\n\t<div class=\"yui-u\"></div>\n</div>\n\nExample: Two columns in the main content block split 75%-25%\n\nPutting It All Together\n\nStart with a full-width fluid page (div#doc3). Make the secondary block 180px wide on the right (div.yui-t4). Create three rows of columns: Three evenly distributed columns in the first row (div.yui-gb), two uneven columns (66%-33%) in the second row (div.yui-gc), and two evenly distributed columns in the thrid row.\n\n<body>\n\t<!-- choose fluid page and Template Preset -->\n\t<div id=\"doc3\" class=\"yui-t4\">\n\t\t<!-- main content block -->\n\t\t<div id=\"yui-main\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"yui-b\">\n\t\t\t\t<!-- stacked grid structure, Special Grid \"b\" -->\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"yui-gb\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"yui-u first\"></div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"yui-u\"></div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"yui-u\"></div>\n\t\t\t\t</div>\n\t\t\t\t<!-- stacked grid structure, Special Grid \"c\" -->\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"yui-gc\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"yui-u first\"></div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"yui-u\"></div>\n\t\t\t\t</div>\n\t\t\t\t<!-- stacked grid structure -->\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"yui-g\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"yui-u first\"></div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"yui-u\"></div>\n\t\t\t\t</div>\n\t\t\t</div>\n\t\t</div>\n\t\t<!-- secondary content block -->\n\t\t<div class=\"yui-b\"></div>\n\t</div>\n</body>\n\nExample: A complex layout.\n\nWasn\u2019t that easy? Now that you know the three \u201clevers\u201d of YUI Grids CSS, you\u2019ll be creating headache-free fluid layouts faster than you can say \u201cPeace on Earth\u201d.", "year": "2006", "author": "Nate Koechley", "author_slug": "natekoechley", "published": "2006-12-20T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2006/intricate-fluid-layouts/", "topic": "code"}
{"rowid": 75, "title": "A Harder-Working Class", "contents": "Class is only becoming more important. Focusing on its original definition as an attribute for grouping (or classifying) as well as linking HTML to CSS, recent front-end development practices are emphasizing class as a vessel for structured, modularized style packages. These patterns reduce the need for repetitive declarations that can seriously bloat file sizes, and instil human-readable understanding of how the interface, layout, and aesthetics are constructed.\n\nIn the next handful of paragraphs, we will look at how these emerging practices \u2013 such as object-oriented CSS and SMACSS \u2013 are pushing the relevance of class. We will also explore how HTML and CSS architecture can be further simplified, performance can be boosted, and CSS utility sharpened by combining class with the attribute selector.\n\nA primer on attribute selectors\n\nWhile attribute selectors were introduced in the CSS 2 spec, they are still considered rather exotic. These well-established and well-supported features give us vastly improved flexibility in targeting elements in CSS, and offer us opportunities for smarter markup. With an attribute selector, you can directly style an element based on any of its unique \u2013 or uniquely shared \u2013 attributes, without the need for an ID or extra classes. Unlike pseudo-classes, pseudo-elements, and other exciting features of CSS3, attribute selectors do not require any browser-specific syntax or prefix, and are even supported in Internet Explorer 7. \n\nFor example, say we want to target all anchor tags on a page that link to our homepage. Where otherwise we might need to manually identify and add classes to the HTML for these specific links, we could simply write:\n\n[href=index.html] {  }\n\nThis selector reads: target every element that has an href attribute of \u201cindex.html\u201d. \n\nAttribute selectors are more faceted, though, as they also give us some very simple regular expression-like logic that helps further narrow (or widen) a selector\u2019s scope. In our previous example, what if we wanted to also give indicative styles to any anchor tag linking to an external site? With no way to know what the exact href value would be for every external link, we need to use an expression to match a common aspect of those links. In this case, we know that all external links need to start with \u201chttp\u201d, so we can use that as a hook:\n\n[href^=http] {  }\n\nThe selector here reads: target every element that has an href attribute that begins with \u201chttp\u201d (which will also include \u201chttps\u201d). The ^= means \u201cstarts with\u201d. There are a few other simple expressions that give us a lot of flexibility in targeting elements, and I have found that a deep understanding of these and other selector types to be very useful.\n\nThe class-attribute selector\n\nBy matching classes with the attribute selector, CSS can be pushed to accomplish some exciting new feats. What I call a class-attribute selector combines the advantages of classes with attribute selectors by targeting the class attribute, rather than a specific class. Instead of selecting .urgent, you could select [class*=urgent]. The latter may seem like a more verbose way of accomplishing the former, but each would actually match two subtly different groups of elements.\n\nEric Meyer first explored the possibility of using classes with attribute selectors over a decade ago. While his interest in this technique mostly explored the different facets of the syntax, I have found that using class-attribute selectors can have distinct advantages over either using an attribute selector or a straightforward class selector.\n\nFirst, let\u2019s explore some of the subtleties of why we would target class before other attributes:\n\n\n\tClasses are ubiquitous. They have been supported since the HTML 4 spec was released in 1999. Newer attributes, such as the custom data attribute, have only recently begun to be adopted by browsers.\n\tClasses have multiple ways of being targeted. You can use the class selector or attribute selector (.classname or [class=classname]), allowing more flexible specificity than resorting to an ID or !important.\n\tClasses are already widely used, so adding more classes will usually require less markup than adding more attributes.\n\tClasses were designed to abstractly group and specify elements, making them the most appropriate attribute for styling using object-oriented methods (as we will learn in a moment).\n\n\nAlso, as Meyer pointed out, we can use the class-attribute selector to be more strict about class declarations. Of these two elements:\n\n<h2 class=\"very urgent\">\n\n<h2 class=\"urgent\">\n\n\u2026only the second h2 would be selected by [class=urgent], while .urgent would select both. The use of = matches any element with the exact class value of \u201curgent\u201d. Eric explores these nuances further in his series on attribute selectors, but perhaps more dramatic is the added power that class-attribute selectors can bring to our CSS.\n\nMore object-oriented, more scalable and modular\n\nNicole Sullivan has been pushing abstracted, object-oriented thinking in CSS development for years now. She has shared stacks of knowledge on how behemoth sites have seen impressive gains in maintenance overhead and CSS file sizes by leaning heavier on classes derived from common patterns. Jonathan Snook also speaks, writes and is genuinely passionate about improving our markup by using more stratified and modular class name conventions. With SMACSS, he shows this to be highly useful across sites \u2013 both complex and simple \u2013 that exhibit repeated design patterns. Sullivan and Snook both push the use of class for styling over other attributes, and many front-end developers are fast advocating such thinking as best practice.\n\nWith class-attribute selectors, we can further abstract our CSS, pushing its scalability. In his chapter on modules, Snook gives the example of a .pod class that might represent a certain set of styles. A .pod style set might be used in varying contexts, leading to CSS that might normally look like this:\n\n.pod {  }\nform .pod {  }\naside .pod {  }\n\nAccording to Snook, we can make these styles more portable by targeting more verbose classes, rather than context:\n\n.pod {  }\n.pod-form {  }\n.pod-sidebar {  }\n\n\u2026resulting in the following HTML:\n\n<div class=\"pod\">\n<div class=\"pod pod-form\">\n<div class=\"pod pod-sidebar\">\n\nThis divorces the <div>\u2019s styles from its context, making it applicable to any situation in which it is needed. The markup is clean and portable, and the classes are imbued with meaning as to what module they belong to. \n\nUsing class-attribute selectors, we can simplify this further:\n\n[class*=pod] {  }\n.pod-form {  }\n.pod-sidebar {  }\n\nThe *= tells the browser to look for any element with a class attribute containing \u201cpod\u201d, so it matches \u201cpod\u201d, \u201cpod-form\u201d, \u201cpod-sidebar\u201d, etc. This allows only one class per element, resulting in simpler HTML:\n\n<div class=\"pod\">\n<div class=\"pod-form\">\n<div class=\"pod-sidebar\">\n\nWe could further abstract the concept of \u201cform\u201d and \u201csidebar\u201d adjustments if we knew that each of those alterations would always need the same treatment.\n\n/* Modules */\n[class*=pod] {  }\n[class*=btn] {  }\n\n/* Alterations */\n[class*=-form] {  }\n[class*=-sidebar] {  }\n\nIn this case, all elements with classes appended \u201c-form\u201d or \u201c-sidebar\u201d would be altered in the same manner, allowing the markup to stay simple:\n\n<form>\n  <h2 class=\"pod-form\">\n  <a class=\"btn-form\" href=\"#\">\n\n<aside>\n  <h2 class=\"pod-sidebar\">\n  <a class=\"btn-sidebar\" href=\"#\">\n\n50+ shades of specificity\n\nClasses are just powerful enough to override element selectors and default styling, but still leave room to be trumped by IDs and !important styles. This makes them more suitable for object-oriented patterns and helps avoid messy specificity issues that can not only be a pain for developers to maintain, but can also affect a site\u2019s performance. As Sullivan notes, \u201cIn almost every case, classes work well and have fewer unintended consequences than either IDs or element selectors\u201d. Proper use of specificity and cascade is crucial in building straightforward, efficient CSS.\n\nOne interesting aspect of attribute selectors is that they can be compounded for increasing levels of specificity. Attribute selectors are assigned a specificity level of ten, the same as class selectors, but both class and attribute selectors can be chained together, giving them more and more specificity with each link. Some examples:\n\n.box {  } \n/* Specificity of 10 */\n\n.box.promo {  } \n/* Specificity of 20 */\n\n[class*=box] {  } \n/* Specificity of 10 */\n\n[class*=box][class*=promo] {  } \n/* Specificity of 20 */\n\nYou can chain both types together, too:\n\n.box[class*=promo] {  } \n/* Specificity of 20 */\n\nI was amused to find, though, that you can chain the exact same class and attribute selectors for infinite levels of specificity\n\n.box {  } \n/* Specificity of 10 */\n\n.box.box {  } \n/* Specificity of 20 */\n\n.box.box.box {  } \n/* Specificity of 30 */\n\n[class*=box] {  }\n/* Specificity of 10 */\n\n[class*=box][class*=box] {  }\n/* Specificity of 20 */\n\n[class*=box][class*=box][class*=box] {  }\n/* Specificity of 30 */\n\n.box[class*=box].box[class*=box] {  } \n/* Specificity of 40 */\n\nTo override .box styles for promo, we wouldn\u2019t need to add an ID, change the order of .promo and .box in the CSS, or resort to an !important style. Granted, any issue that might need this fine level of specificity tweaking could probably be better solved with clever cascades, but having options never hurts.\n\nSmarter CSS\n\nOne of the most powerful aspects of the class-attribute selector is its ability to expand the simple logic found in CSS. When developing Gridset (an online tool for building grids and outputting them as CSS), I realized that with the right class name conventions, class-attribute selectors would allow the CSS to be smart enough to automatically adjust for column offsets without the need for extra classes. This imbued the CSS output with logic that other frameworks lacked, and makes a developer\u2019s job much easier. \n\nSay you need an element that spans column five (c5) to column six (c6) on your grid, and is preceded by an element spanning column one (c1) to column three (c3). The CSS can anticipate such a scenario:\n\n.c1-c3 + .c5-c6 {\n  margin-left: 25%; /* \u2026or the width of column four plus two gutter widths */\n}\n\n\u2026but to accommodate all of the margin offsets that could span that same gap, we would need to write a rather protracted list for just a six column grid:\n\n.c1-c3 + .c5-c6,\n.c1-c3 + .c5,\n.c2-c3 + .c5-c6,\n.c2-c3 + .c5,\n.c3 + .c5-c6,\n.c3 + .c5 {\n  margin-left: 25%; \n}\n\nNow imagine how the verbosity compounds when we repeat this type of declaration for every possible margin in a grid. The more columns added to the grid, the longer this selector list would get, too, making the CSS harder for the developer to maintain and slowing the load time. Using class-attribute selectors, though, this can be much simpler:\n\n[class*=c3] + [class*=c5] {\n  margin-left: 25%;\n}\n\nI\u2019ve detailed how we extract as much logic as possible from as little CSS as needed on the Gridset blog.\n\nMore flexible selectors\n\nIn a recent project, I was working with Drupal-generated classes to change styles for certain special pages on a site. Without being able to change the code base, I was left trying to find some specific aspect of the generated HTML to target. I noticed that every special page was given a prefixed class, unique to the page, resulting in CSS like this:\n\n.specialpage-about,\n.specialpage-contact,\n.specialpage-info,\n\u2026\n\n\u2026and the list kept growing with each new special page. Such bloat would lead to problems down the line, and add development overhead to editorial decisions, which was a situation we were trying to avoid. I was easily able to fix this, though, with a concise class-attribute selector:\n\n[class*=specialpage-]\n\nThe CSS was now flexible enough to accommodate both the editorial needs of the client, and the development restrictions of the CMS.\n\nSelector performance\n\nAs Snook tells us in his chapter on Selector Performance, selectors are read by the browser from right to left, matching every element that adheres to each rule (or part of the selector). The more specific we can make the right-most rules \u2013 and every other part of your selectors \u2013 the more performant your CSS will be. So this selector:\n\n.home-page .promo .main-header\n\n\u2026would be more performant than:\n\n.home-page div header\n\n\u2026because there are likely many more header and div elements on the page, but not so many elements with those specific classes.\n\nNow, the class-attribute selector could be more general than a class selector, but not by much. I ran numerous tests based on the work of Steve Souders (and a few others) to test a class-attribute selector against a normal class selector. Given that Javascript will freeze during style rendering, I created a script that will add, then remove, a stylesheet on a page 5000 times, and measure only the time that elapses during the rendering freeze. The script runs four tests, essentially: one where a class selector and class-attribute Selector match a single element, and one they match multiple elements on the page.\n\nAfter running the test over 100 times and averaging the results, I have not seen a significant difference in rendering times. (As of this writing, the class-attribute selector has been 0.398% slower on average.) View the results here.\n\nGiven the sheer amount of bytes potentially saved by reducing selector lists, though, I am confident class-attribute selectors could shorten load times on larger sites and, at the very least, save precious development time.\n\nConclusion\n\nWith its flexibility and broad remit, class has at times been derided as too lenient, allowing CMSes and lazy developers to fill its values with presentational hacks or verbose gibberish. There have even been calls for an early retirement. Class continues, though, to be one of our most crucial tools.\n\nFront-end developers are rightfully eager to expand production abilities through innovations such as Sass or LESS, but this should not preclude us from honing the tools we already know as well. Every technique demonstrated in this article was achievable over a decade ago and most of the same thinking could be applied to IDs, rels, or any other attribute (though the reasons listed above give class an edge). The recent advent of methods such as object-oriented CSS and SMACSS shows there is still much room left to expand what simple HTML and CSS can accomplish. Progress may not always be found in the innovation of our tools, but through sharpening our understanding of them.", "year": "2012", "author": "Nathan Ford", "author_slug": "nathanford", "published": "2012-12-15T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2012/a-harder-working-class/", "topic": "code"}
{"rowid": 91, "title": "Infinite Canvas: Moving Beyond the Page", "contents": "Remember Web 2.0? I do. In fact, that phrase neatly bifurcates my life on the internet. Pre-2.0, I was occupied by chatting on AOL and eventually by learning HTML so I could build sites on Geocities. Around 2002, however, I saw a WYSIWYG demo in Dreamweaver. The instructor was dragging boxes and images around a canvas. With a few clicks he was able to build a dynamic, single-page interface. Coming from the world of tables and inline HTML styles, I was stunned.\n\nAs I entered college the next year, the web was blossoming: broadband, Wi-Fi, mobile (proud PDA owner, right here), CSS, Ajax, Bloglines, Gmail and, soon, Google Maps. I was a technology fanatic and a hobbyist web developer. For me, the web had long been informational. It was now rapidly becoming something else, something more: sophisticated, presentational, actionable.\n\nIn 2003 we watched as the internet changed. The predominant theme of those early Web 2.0 years was the withering of Internet Explorer 6 and the triumph of web standards. Upon cresting that mountain, we looked around and collectively breathed the rarefied air of pristine HMTL and CSS, uncontaminated by toxic hacks and forks \u2013 only to immediately begin hurtling down the other side at what is, frankly, terrifying speed.\n\nTen years later, we are still riding that rocket. Our days (and nights) are spent cramming for exams on CSS3 and RWD and Sass and RESS. We are the proud, frazzled owners of tiny pocket computers that annihilate the best laptops we could have imagined, and the architects of websites that are no longer restricted to big screens nor even segregated by device. We dragoon our sites into working any time, anywhere. At this point, we can hardly ask the spec developers to slow down to allow us to catch our breath, nor should we. It is, without a doubt, a most wonderful time to be a web developer.\n\nBut despite the newfound luxury of rounded corners, gradients, embeddable fonts, low-level graphics APIs, and, glory be, shadows, the canyon between HTML and native appears to be as wide as ever. The improvements in HTML and CSS have, for the most part, been conveniences rather than fundamental shifts. What I\u2019d like to do now, if you\u2019ll allow me, is outline just a few of the remaining gaps that continue to separate web sites and applications from their native companions.\n\nWhat I\u2019d like for Christmas\n\nThere is one irritant which is the grandfather of them all, the one from which all others flow and have their being, and it is, simply, the page refresh. That\u2019s right, the foundational principle of the web is our single greatest foe. To paraphrase a patron saint of designers everywhere, if you see a page refresh, we blew it.\n\nThe page refresh brings with it, of course, many noble and lovely benefits: addressability, for one; and pagination, for another. (See also caching, resource loading, and probably half a dozen others.) Still, those concerns can be answered (and arguably answered more compellingly) by replacing the weary page with the young and hearty document. Flash may be dead, but it has many lessons yet to bequeath.\n\nPreparing a single document when the site loads allows us to engage the visitor in a smooth and engrossing experience. We have long known this, of course. Twitter was not the first to attempt, via JavaScript, to envelop the user in a single-page application, nor the first to abandon it. Our shared task is to move those technologies down the stack, to make them more primitive, so that the next Twitter can be built with the most basic combination of HTML and CSS rather than relying on complicated, slow, and unreliable scripted solutions.\n\nSo, let\u2019s take a look at what we can do, right now, that we might have a better idea of where our current tools fall short.\n\nA print magazine in HTML clothing\n\nLike many others, I suspect, one of my earliest experiences with publishing was laying out newsletters and newspapers on a computer for print. If you\u2019ve ever used InDesign or Quark or even Microsoft Publisher, you\u2019ll remember reflowing content from page to page. The advent of the internet signaled, in many ways, the abandonment of that model. Articles were no longer constrained by the physical limitations of paper. In shedding our chains, however, it is arguable that we\u2019ve lost something useful. We had a self-contained and complete package, a closed loop. It was a thing that could be handled and finished, and doing so provided a sense of accomplishment that our modern, infinitely scrolling, ever-fractal web of content has stolen.\n\nFor our purposes today, we will treat 24 ways as the online equivalent of that newspaper or magazine. A single year\u2019s worth of articles could easily be considered an issue. Right now, navigating between articles means clicking on the article you\u2019d like to view and being taken to that specific address via a page reload. If Drew wanted to, it wouldn\u2019t be difficult to update the page in place (via JavaScript) and change the address (again via JavaScript with the History API) to reflect the new content found at the new location. But what if Drew wanted to do that without  JavaScript? And what if he wanted the site to not merely load the content but actually whisk you along the page in a compelling and delightful way, \u00e0 la the Mag+ demo we all saw a few years ago when the iPad was first introduced? Uh, no.\n\nWe\u2019re all familiar with websites that have attempted to go beyond the page by weaving many chunks of content together into a large document and for good reason. There is tremendous appeal in opening and exploring the canvas beyond the edges of our screens.\n\nIn one rather straightforward example from last year, Mozilla contacted Full Stop to build a website promoting Aza Raskin\u2019s proposal for a set of Creative Commons-style privacy icons. Like a lot of the sites we build (including our own), the amount of information we were presenting was minimal. In these instances, we encourage our clients to consider including everything on a single page. The result was a horizontally driven site that was, if not whimsical, at least clever and attractive to the intended audience. An experience that is taken for granted when using device-native technology is utterly, maddeningly impossible to replicate on the web without jumping through JavaScript hoops.\n\nIn another, more complex example, we again had the pleasure of working with Aza earlier this year, this time on a redesign of the Massive Health website. Our assignment was to design and build a site that communicated Massive\u2019s commitment to modern personal health. The site had to be visually and interactively stunning while maintaining a usable and clear interface for the casual visitor. Our solution was to extend the infinite company logo into a ribbon that carried the visitor through the site narrative. It also meant we\u2019d be asking the browser to accommodate something it was never designed to handle: a non-linear design. (Be sure to play around. There\u2019s a lot going on under the hood. We were also this close to a ZUI, if WebKit didn\u2019t freak out when pages were scaled beyond 10\u00d7.) Despite the apparent and deliberate design simplicity, the techniques necessary to implement it are anything but. From updating the URL to moving the visitor from section to section, we\u2019re firmly in JavaScript territory. And that\u2019s a shame.\n\nWhat can we do?\n\nWe might not be able to specify these layouts in HTML and CSS just yet, but that doesn\u2019t mean we can\u2019t learn a few new tricks while we wait. Let\u2019s see how close we can come to recreating the privacy icons design, the Massive design, or the Mag+ design without resorting to JavaScript.\n\nA horizontally paginated site\n\nThe first thing we\u2019re going to need is the concept of a page within our HTML document. Using plain old HTML and CSS, we can stack a series of <div>s sideways (with a little assist from our new friend, the viewport-width unit, not that he was strictly necessary). All we need to know is how many pages we have. (And, boy, wouldn\u2019t it be nice to be able to know that without having to predetermine it or use JavaScript?)\n\n.window {\noverflow: hidden;\n  width: 100%;\n}\n.pages {\n  width: 200vw;\n}\n.page {\n  float: left;\n  overflow: hidden;\n  width: 100vw;\n}\n\nIf you look carefully, you\u2019ll see that the conceit we\u2019ll use in the rest of the demos is in place. Despite the document containing multiple pages, only one is visible at any given time. This allows us to keep the user focused on the task (or content) at hand.\n\nBy the way, you\u2019ll need to use a modern, WebKit-based browser for these demos. I recommend downloading the WebKit nightly builds, Chrome Canary, or being comfortable with setting flags in Chrome.\n\nA horizontally paginated site, with transitions\n\nAh, here\u2019s the rub. We have functional navigation, but precious few cues for the user. It\u2019s not much good shoving the visitor around various parts of the document if they don\u2019t get the pleasant whooshing experience of the journey. You might be thinking, what about that new CSS selector, target-something\u2026? Well, my friend, you\u2019re on the right track. Let\u2019s test it. We\u2019re going to need to use a bit of sleight of hand. While we\u2019d like to simply offset the containing element by the number of pages we\u2019re moving (like we did on Massive), CSS alone can\u2019t give us that information, and that means we\u2019re going to need to fake it by expanding and collapsing pages as you navigate. Here are the bits we\u2019re going to need:\n\n.page {\n  -webkit-transition: width 1s; // Naturally you're going to want to include all the relevant prefixes here\n  float: left;\n  left: 0;\n  overflow: hidden;\n  position: relative;\n  width: 100vw;\n}\n.page:not(:target) {\n  width: 0;\n}\n\nAh, but we\u2019re not fooling anyone with that trick. As soon as you move beyond a single page, the visitor\u2019s disbelief comes tumbling down when the linear page transitions are unaffected by the distance the pages are allegedly traveling. And you may have already noticed an even more fatal flaw: I secretly linked you to the first page rather than the unadorned URL. If you visit the same page with no URL fragment, you get a blank screen. Sure, we could force a redirect with some server-side trickery, but that feels like cheating. Perhaps if we had the CSS4 subject selector we could apply styles to the parent based on the child being targeted by the URL. We might also need a few more abilities, like determining the total number of pages and having relative sibling selectors (e.g. nth-sibling), but we\u2019d sure be a lot closer.\n\nA horizontally paginated site, with transitions \u2013 no cheating\n\nWell, what other cards can we play? How about the checkbox hack? Sure, it\u2019s a garish trick, but it might be the best we can do today. Check it out. \n\nlabel {\n  cursor: pointer;\n}\ninput {\n display: none;\n}\ninput:not(:checked) + .page {\n  max-height: 100vh;\n  width: 0;\n}\n\nFinally, we can see the first page thanks to the state we are able to set on the appropriate radio button. Of course, now we don\u2019t have URLs, so maybe this isn\u2019t a winning plan after all. While our HTML and CSS toolkit may feel primitive at the moment, we certainly don\u2019t want to sacrifice the addressability of the web. If there\u2019s one bedrock principle, that\u2019s it.\n\nA horizontally paginated site, with transitions \u2013 no cheating and a gorgeous homepage\n\nGorgeous may not be the right word, but our little magazine is finally shaping up. Thanks to the CSS regions spec, we\u2019ve got an exciting new power, the ability to begin an article in one place and bend it to our will. (Remember, your everyday browser isn\u2019t going to work for these demos. Try the WebKit nightly build to see what we\u2019re talking about.) As with the rest of the examples, we\u2019re clearly abusing these features. Off-canvas layouts (you can thank Luke Wroblewski for the name) are simply not considered to be normal patterns\u2026 yet.\n\nHere\u2019s a quick look at what\u2019s going on:\n\n.excerpt-container {\n  float: left;\n  padding: 2em;\n  position: relative;\n  width: 100%;\n}\n.excerpt {\n  height: 16em;\n}\n.excerpt_name_article-1,\n.page-1 .article-flow-region {\n  -webkit-flow-from: article-1;\n}\n.article-content_for_article-1 {\n  -webkit-flow-into: article-1;\n}\n\nThe regions pattern is comprised of at least three components: a beginning; an ending; and a source. Using CSS, we\u2019re able to define specific elements that should be available for the content to flow through. If magazine-style layouts are something you\u2019re interested in learning more about (and you should be), be sure to check out the great work Adobe has been doing.\n\nLooking forward, and backward\n\nAs designers, builders, and consumers of the web, we share a desire to see the usability and enjoyability of websites continue to rise. We are incredibly lucky to be working in a time when a three-month-old website can be laughably outdated. Our goal ought to be to improve upon both the weaknesses and the strengths of the web platform. We seek not only smoother transitions and larger canvases, but fine-grained addressability. Our URLs should point directly and unambiguously to specific content elements, be they pages, sections, paragraphs or words. Moreover, off-screen design patterns are essential to accommodating and empowering the multitude of devices we use to access the web. We should express the desire that interpage links take advantage of the CSS transitions which have been put to such good effect in every other aspect of our designs. Transitions aren\u2019t just nice to have, they\u2019re table stakes in the highly competitive world of native applications. \n\nThe tools and technologies we have right now allow us to create smart, beautiful, useful webpages. With a little help, we can begin removing the seams and sutures that bind the web to an earlier, less sophisticated generation.", "year": "2012", "author": "Nathan Peretic", "author_slug": "nathanperetic", "published": "2012-12-21T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2012/infinite-canvas-moving-beyond-the-page/", "topic": "code"}
{"rowid": 12, "title": "Untangling Web Typography", "contents": "When I was a carpenter, I noticed how homeowners often had this deer-in-the-headlights look when the contractor I worked for would ask them to make tons of decisions, seemingly all at once.\n\nSquare or subway tile? Glass or ceramic? Traditional or modern trim details? Flat face or picture frame cabinets? Real wood or laminate flooring? Every day the decisions piled up and were usually made in the context of that room, or that part of that room. Rarely did the homeowner have the benefit of taking that particular decision in full view of the larger context of the project. And architectural plans? Sure, they lay out the broad strokes, but there is still so much to decide.\n\nTypography is similar. Designers try to make sites that are easy to use and understand visually. They labour over the details of line height, font size, line length, and font weights. They consider the relative merits of different typographical scales for applications versus content-driven sites. Frequently, designers consider all of this in the context of one page, feature, or view of an application. They are asked to make a million tiny decisions.\n\nSometimes designers just bump up the font size until it looks right.\n\nI don\u2019t see anything wrong with that. Instincts are important. Designing in context is easier. It\u2019s OK to leave the big picture until later. Design a bunch of things, and then look for the patterns. You can\u2019t always know everything up front. How does the current feature relate to all the other features on the site? For a large site, just like for a substantial remodel, the number of decisions you would need to internalize to make that knowable would be prohibitively large.\n\nWhen typography goes awry\n\nI should be honest. I know very little about typography. I struggle to understand vertical rhythm and the math in Tim Ahrens\u2019s talks about the interaction between type design and rendering technology kind of melted my brain. I have an unusual perspective because I\u2019m not the one making the design decisions, but I am the one implementing them and often cleaning up when a project goes off the rails.\n\nI\u2019ve seen projects with thousands of font-size declarations and headings. One project even had over ten thousand margin declarations. So while I appreciate creative exploration, I\u2019m also eager to establish patterns in typography and make sure we aren\u2019t choosing not to choose. Or, choosing all the things.\n\nAnalyzing a site\u2019s typography\n\nMost of my projects start out with an evaluation of the client\u2019s existing CSS. I look for duplication in the CSS by using Grep, though functionality is landing soon in CSS Lint to do the same thing automatically. The goal is to find the underlying missing abstractions that, once in place, would allow developers to create new functionality without needing to write additional CSS. In addition to that, my team and I would comb through each site (generally, around ten pages is enough to get the big picture), and take screenshots of each of the components we found.\n\nIn this way, we could look for subtle visual differences that were unlikely to add value to the user. By correcting these differences, we could help make the design more consistent, and at the same time the code leaner and more performant. Typography is much like a homeowner who chooses to incorporate too many disparate design elements, pairing a mid-century modern sofa with flowered country cottage curtains. Often the typography of a site ends up collecting an endless array of new typefaces as the site\u2019s overall styles evolve. Designers come and go on a project, and eventually no one can remember how the 16px Verdana got into the codebase.\n\nAutomation\n\nWe used to do this work by hand. It was incredibly tedious. We\u2019d go through the site, taking screenshots and meticulously documenting the style information we found. We didn\u2019t have to do that many times before it became incredibly clear that the task needed to be automated. So we built a little tool called the Type-o-matic that could do it for us.\n\nTo try it on your site:\n\n\n\tDownload and install the Firebug extension to Firefox\n\tDownload and install the Type-o-matic extension to Firebug (I know, I fully intend to port it to Chrome)\n\tNow, visit the site you\u2019d like to test\n\tRight click and choose Inspect element with Firebug\n\tNow click on the Typography tab\n\tClick Persist\n\tClick Generate Report\n\tChoose which pages to analyze (we\u2019ve found that ten is a good number to get the big picture, but you can analyze as many as you\u2019d like\u200a\u2014\u200ait will even work on just one page!)\n\tNow navigate to other pages, and on each subsequent page, click Generate Report\n\tThe table of results can be a bit difficult to interact with, so you can always click Copy to clipboard, and copy the results (JSON).\n\n\n \n \nA screenshot of Type-o-matic in action\n\n\nWhat does this data mean?\n\nWhen you\u2019ve analyzed as many pages or different views as you\u2019d like, you\u2019ll start to see some interesting patterns emerge in the data. In the right-hand column, you\u2019ll see examples of how each kind of typography we found has been used in a real context on your site. It is organized by color and then by size so you can easily see how you are using typography.\n\nThe next thing you\u2019ll want to take a look at is in the first column, called \u201cCount\u201d. We\u2019ve counted how many times you\u2019ve used each combination of typographical styles. This can be incredibly helpful when deciding which styles were intentional, versus one-off color pick errors or experiments that never got removed from the code base. If you\u2019ve used one color blue 1,400 times, and another just 23, it\u2019s pretty obvious which is more in line with broader site-wide styles.\n\nConsistency before perfection\n\nIt can be really tempting to try to make everything perfect\u200a\u2014\u200ato try to make every decision final. When you use the data you can collect from this tool, I\u2019d recommend trying to get to consistent before you try to make things perfect. Stop using fifteen different shades of blue type first, and then if you want to change to a new blue, go for it! You\u2019ll be able to make design changes much more easily once you\u2019ve reduced the total number of typographical styles you rely on.\n\nLower the importance of the decisions you are making. Our sites, like ourselves, are always a work in progress. Or, as a carpenter I used to work with said, \u201cYou\u2019re not building a fucking piano.\u201d We\u2019re not building houses. We can choose one typeface today and a different one tomorrow. It is OK to experiment. Be brave.", "year": "2013", "author": "Nicole Sullivan", "author_slug": "nicolesullivan", "published": "2013-12-20T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2013/untangling-web-typography/", "topic": "design"}
{"rowid": 19, "title": "In Their Own Write: Web Books and their Authors", "contents": "The currency of written communication \u2014 words on the page, words on the screen \u2014 comprises many denominations. To further our ends in web design and development, we freely spend and receive several: tweets aphoristic and trenchant, banal and perfunctory; blog posts and articles that call us to action or reflection; anecdotes, asides, comments, essays, guides, how-tos, manuals, musings, notes, opinions, stories, thoughts, tips pro and not-so-pro. So many, many words.\n\nOur industry (so much more than this, but what on earth are we, collectively?), our community thrives on writing and sharing knowledge and experience. 24 ways is a case in point. Everyone can learn and contribute through reading and writing \u2014 it\u2019s what we\u2019ve always done.\n\nTo web authors and readers seeking greater returns, though, broader culture has vouchsafed an enduring and singular artefact: the book.\n\nLast month I asked a small sample of web book authors if they would be prepared to answer a few questions; most of them kindly agreed. In spirit, the survey was informal: I had neither hypothesis nor unground axe. I work closely with writers \u2014 and yes, I\u2019ve edited or copy-edited books by several of the authors I surveyed \u2014 and wanted to share their thoughts about what it was like to write a book (\u201c\u2026it was challenging to find a coherent narrative\u201d), why they did it (\u201cWho wouldn\u2019t want to?\u201d) and what they learned from the experience (\u201cThat I could!\u201d).\n\nReasons for writing a book\n\nIn web development the connection between authors and readers is unusually close and immediate. Working in our medium precipitates a unity that\u2019s rare elsewhere. Yet writing and publishing a book, even during the current books revolution, is something only a few of us attempt and it remains daunting and a little remote. What spurs an author to try it? For some, it\u2019s a deeply held resistance to prevailing trends:\n\nI felt that designers and developers needed to be shaken out of what seemed to me had been years of stagnation.\n\u2014Andrew Clarke\n\n\nOr even a desire to protect us from ourselves:\n\nI felt that without a book that clearly defined progressive enhancement in a very approachable and succinct fashion, the web was at risk. I was seeing Tim Berners-Lee\u2019s vision of universal availability slip away\u2026\n\u2014Aaron Gustafson\n\n\nSometimes, there\u2019s a knowledge gap to be filled by an author with the requisite excitement and need to communicate. Jon Hicks took his \u201cpet subject\u201d and was \u201centhused enough to want to spend all that time writing\u201d, particularly because:\n\n\n\t\u2026there was a gap in the market for it. No one had done it before, and it\u2019s still on its own out there, with no competition. It felt like I was able to contribute something.\n\n\nCennydd Bowles felt a professional itch at a particular point in his career, understanding that\n\n\n\t[a]s a designer becomes more senior, they start looking for ways to scale the effects of their work. For some, that leads into management. For others, into writing.\n\n\nOften, though, it\u2019s also simply a personal challenge and ambition to explore a subject at length and create something substantial. Anna Debenham describes a motivation shared by several authors:\n\nTo be able to point to something more tangible than an article and be able to say \u201cI did that.\u201d\n\n\nThat sense of a book\u2019s significance, its heft and gravity even, stems partly from the cultural esteem which honours books and their authors. Books have a long history as sources of wisdom, truth and power. Even with more books being published each year than ever before, writing one is still commonly considered a laudable achievement, including in our field.\n\nChallenges of writing a book\n\nReceived wisdom has it that writing online should be brief and chunky and approachable: get to the point; divide it all up; subheadings and lists are our friends; write like you\u2019re talking; no one has time to read. Much of such advice is true. Followed well, it lends our writing punch and pith, vigour and vim. The web is nimble, the web keeps up, and it suits what we write about developing for it. It\u2019s perfect for delivering our observations, queries and investigations into all the various aspects of the work, professional and personal.\n\nYet even for digital natives like web authors, books printed and electronic retain an attractive glister. \n\nIdeas can be developed more fully, their consequences explored to greater depth and extended with more varied examples, and the whole conveyed with more eloquence, more style. Why shouldn\u2019t authors delay their conclusions if the intervening text is apposite, rich with value and helps to flesh out the skeleton of an argument? Conclusions might or might not be reached, of course, but a writer is at greater liberty in a book to digress in tangential and interesting ways.\n\nWriting a book involves committing time, energy, thought and money. As Brian Suda found, it can be tough \u201cgetting the ideas out of my head into a cohesive blob of text.\u201d Some authors end up talking to themselves\u2026\n\nIt helps me to keep a real person in mind, someone who I\u2019m talking to as I write. Sometimes I have the same conversations over and over in my head.\n\u2014Andrew Clarke\n\n\n\u2026while others are thinking ahead, concerned with how their book will be received:\n\nWould anyone want to read it? Would they care? Would it be respected by my peers?\n\u2014Joe Leech\n\n\nChallenges that arose time and again included \u201cstarting\u201d and \u201cgetting words on the page\u201d as well as \u201cknowing when to stop\u201d or \u201cletting go\u201d. Personal organization problems and those caused by publishers were also widely mentioned. Time loomed large. Making time, finding time. Giving up \u201csleep and some sanity\u201d and realizing \u201cit will take you far, far, far longer than you naively assumed\u201d. Importantly, writing time is time away from gainful employment: Aaron Gustafson found the hardest thing about writing a book to be \u201cthe loss of income while I was writing.\u201d\n\nPerils and pleasures of editing\n\nEditing, be it structural, technical or copy editing, is founded on reciprocity. Without openness and a shared belief that the book is worthwhile, work can founder in acrimony and mistrust. Editors are a book\u2019s first and most critical (in every sense) readers. Effective and perceptive editing makes a book as good as it can be, finding the book within the draft like sculpture reveals the statue in the stone.\n\nA good editor calls you out on poor assumptions and challenges you to really clarify your thinking. Whilst it can be difficult during the process to have your thinking challenged, it\u2019s always been worth it \u2014 for me personally \u2014 in the long run. A good editor also reins you in when you\u2019ve perhaps wandered off track or taken a little too long to make a point.\n\u2014Christopher Murphy\n\n\nAndy Croll found editing \u201call positive\u201d and Aaron Gustafson loves \u201cworking with a strong editor [\u2026] I want someone to tell it to me straight.\u201d But it can be a rollercoaster, \u201cboth terrifying and the real moment of elation\u201d. Mixed emotions during the editing process are common:\n\nIt was very uncomfortable! I knew it was making the work stronger, but it was awkward having my inconsistencies and waffle picked apart.\n\u2014Jon Hicks\n\n\nIt can be distressing to have written work looked over by a professional, particularly for first-time book authors whose expertise lies elsewhere:\n\nI was a little nervous because I don\u2019t consider myself a skilled writer \u2014 I never dreamed of becoming an author. I\u2019m a designer, after all.\n\u2014Geri Coady\n\n\nCommunication is key, particularly when it comes to checking or changing the author\u2019s words.\n\nI like a good banter between me and the tech editor \u2014 if we can have a proper argument in Word comments, that\u2019s great.\n\u2014Rachel Andrew\n\n\nBut if handled poorly, small battles can break out. Rachel Andrew again:\n\n\n\tHowever, having had plenty of times where the technical editor has done nothing more than give a cursory glance, I started to leave little issues in for them to spot. If they picked them up I knew they were actually testing the code and I could be sure the work was being properly tech edited. If they didn\u2019t spot them, I\u2019d find someone myself to read through and check it!\n\n\nA major concern for writers is that their voices will be altered, filtered, mangled or otherwise obscured by the editing process. Good copy editing must remain unnoticed while enhancing the author\u2019s voice in print. Donna Spencer appreciated the way her editor \u201ctidied up my work and made it a million times better, but left it sounding exactly like me.\u201d Similarly, Andrew Travers \u201cwas incredibly impressed at how well my editor tightened up my own writing without it feeling like another\u2019s voice\u201d and Val Head sums up the consensus that:\n\n\n\tthe editor was able to help me express what I was trying to say in a better way [\u2026] I want to have editors for everything now.\n\n\nAt the keyboard, keep your friends close, but your editors closer.\n\nPublishing and publishers\n\nConditions ought to militate against the allure of writing a book about web design and development. More books are published each year than ever before, so readerships elude new authors and readers can struggle to find authors to trust in their fields of interest. New spaces for more expansive online writing about working on and with the web are opening up (sites like Contents Magazine and STET), and seminal online web development texts are emerging. Publishing online is simple, far-reaching and immediate.\n\nMuch more so than articles and blog posts, books take time to research, write and read; add the complexity of commissioning, editing, designing, proofreading, printing, marketing and distribution processes, and it can take many months, even years to publish. The ceaseless headlong momentum of the web can leave articles more than a few weeks old whimpering in its wake, but updating them at least is straightforward; printed books about web development can depreciate as rapidly as the technology and techniques they describe, while retaining the \u201cterrifying permanence that print bestows: your opinions will follow you forever\u201d.\n\nSo much moves on, and becomes out of date. Companies featured get bought by larger companies and die, techniques improve and solutions featured become terribly out of date. Unlike a website, which could be updated continuously, a book represents the thinking \u2018at that time\u2019.\n\u2014Jon Hicks\n\n\nPublishers work hard to mitigate these issues, promoting new books and new authors, bringing authors and readers together under a trusted banner. When a publisher packages up and releases a writer\u2019s words, it confers a seal of approval and \u201cbadge of quality\u201d, very important to new authors.\n\nPublishers have other benefits to offer, from expert knowledge:\n\nMy publisher was extraordinarily supportive (and patient). Her expertise in my chosen subject was both a pressure (I didn\u2019t want to let her down) and a reassurance (if she liked it, I knew it was going to be fine).\n\u2014Andrew Travers\n\n\n\u2026to systems and support mechanisms set up specifically to encourage writers and publish books:\n\nWorking as a team means you\u2019re bringing in everyone\u2019s expertise.\n\u2014Chui Chui Tan\n\n\nAs a writer, the best part about writing for a publisher was the writing infrastructure offered.\n\u2014Christopher Murphy\n\n\nThere can be drawbacks, however, and the occasional horror story:\n\nWe were just one small package on a huge conveyor belt. The publisher\u2019s process ruled all.\n\u2014Cennydd Bowles\n\n\nIt\u2019s only looking back I realise how poorly some publishers treat writers \u2014 especially when the work is so poorly remunerated.My worst experience was when a publisher decided, after I had completed the book, that they wanted to push a different take on the subject than the brief I had been given. Instead of talking to me, they rewrote chunks of my words, turning my advice into something that I would never have encouraged. Ultimately, I refused to let the book go out under my name alone, and I also didn\u2019t really promote the book as I would have had to point out the things I did not agree with that had been inserted!\n\u2014Rachel Andrew\n\n\nSelf-publishing is now a realistic option for web authors, and can offers \u201ccomplete control over the end product\u201d as well as the possibility of earning more than a \u201cpathetic author revenue percentage\u201d. There can be substantial barriers, of course, as self-publishing authors must face for themselves the risks and challenges conventional publishers usually bear. Ideally, creating a book is a collaboration between author and publisher. Geri Coady found that \u201cworking with my publisher felt more like working with a partner or co-worker, rather than working for a boss.\u201d\n\nWise words\n\nSo, after meeting the personal costs of writing and publishing a web book \u2014 fear, uncertainty, doubt, typing (so much typing) \u2014 and then smelling the roses of success, what\u2019s left for an author to say? Some words, perhaps, to people thinking of writing a book.\n\nDonna Spencer identifies a stumbling block common to many writers with an insight into the writing process:\n\n\n\tHaving talked to a lot of potential authors, I think most have the problem that they haven\u2019t actually figured out the \u2018answer\u2019 to their premise yet. They feel like they are stuck in the writing, but they are actually stuck in the thinking.\n\n\nFor some no-nonsense, straightforward advice to cut through any anxiety or inadequacy, Rachel Andrew encourages authors to \u201ctreat it like any other work. There is no mystery to writing, you just have to write. Schedule the time, sit down, write words.\u201d Tim Brown notes the importance of the editing process to refine a book and help authors reach their readers:\n\n\n\tHire good editors. Editors are amazing thinkers who can vastly improve the quality and clarity of a piece of writing.\n\n\nWe are too much beholden to the practical demands and challenges of technology, so Aaron Gustafson suggests a writer should \u201cfavor philosophies over techniques and your book will have a longer shelf life.\u201d\n\nMost intimations of renown and recognition are nipped in the bud by Joe Leech\u2019s warning: \u201cDon\u2019t expect fame and fortune.\u201d Although Cennydd Bowles\u2019 bitter experience can be discouraging:\n\n\n\tThe sacrifices required are immense. You probably won\u2019t make it.\n\n\n\u2026he would do things differently for a future book:\n\n\n\tI would approach the book with [\u2026] far more concern about conveying the damn joy of what I do for a living.\n\n\nThe pleasure of writing, not just having written is captured by James Chudley when he recalls:\n\n\n\tHow much I enjoy writing and also how much I enjoy the discipline or having a side project like this. It\u2019s a really good supplement to working life.\n\n\nAnd Jon Hicks has words that any author will find comforting:\n\n\n\tIt will be fine. Everything will be fine. Just get on with it!\n\n\n\n\nAs the web expands effortlessly and ceaselessly to make room for all our words, yet it can also discourage the accumulation of any particular theme in one space, dividing rich seams and scattering knowledge across the web\u2019s surface and into its deepest reaches. How many words become weightless and insubstantial, signals lost in the constant white noise of indistinguishable voices, unloved, unlinked? The web forgets constantly, despite the (somewhat empty) promise of digital preservation: articles and data are sacrificed to expediency, profit and apathy; online attention, acknowledgement and interest wax and wane in days, hours even.\n\nBooks can encourage deeper engagement in readers, and foster faith in an author, particularly if released under the imprint of a recognized publisher within the field. And books are changing. Although still not widely adopted, EPUB3 is the new standard in ebooks, bringing with it new possibilities for interaction and connection: readers with the text; readers with readers; and readers with authors. EPUB3 is built on HTML, CSS and JavaScript \u2014 sound familiar? In the past, we took what we could from the printed page to make the web; now books are rubbing up against what we\u2019ve made.\n\nSo: a book.\n\nEver thought you could write one? Should write one? Would?\n\n\n\nI\u2019d like to thank all the authors who wrote their books and answered my questions.\n\n\n\tRachel Andrew \u00b7 CSS3 Layout Modules, The CSS3 Anthology and more\n\tCennydd Bowles \u00b7 Undercover User Experience Design, with James Box\n\tTim Brown \u00b7 Combining Typefaces\n\tJames Chudley \u00b7 Usability of Web Photos\n\tAndrew Clarke \u00b7 Hardboiled Web Design\n\tGeri Coady \u00b7 Colour Accessibility\n\tAndy Croll \u00b7 HTML Email\n\tAnna Debenham \u00b7 Front-end Style Guides\n\tAaron Gustafson \u00b7 Adaptive Web Design\n\tVal Head \u00b7 CSS Animations\n\tJon Hicks \u00b7 The Icon Handbook\n\tJoe Leech \u00b7 Psychology for Designers\n\tChristopher Murphy \u00b7 The Craft of Words, with Niklas Persson\n\tDonna Spencer \u00b7 Information Architecture, Card Sorting and How to Write Great Copy for the Web\n\tBrian Suda \u00b7 Designing with Data\n\tChui Chui Tan \u00b7 International User Research\n\tAndrew Travers \u00b7 Interviewing for Research", "year": "2013", "author": "Owen Gregory", "author_slug": "owengregory", "published": "2013-12-15T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2013/web-books/", "topic": "content"}
{"rowid": 285, "title": "Composing the New Canon: Music, Harmony, Proportion", "contents": "Ohne Musik w\u00e4re das Leben ein Irrtum\n\u2014Friedrich NIETZSCHE, G\u00f6tzen-D\u00e4mmerung, Spr\u00fcche und Pfeile 33, 1889\n\n\nSomehow, music is hardcoded in human beings. It is something we understand and respond to without prior knowledge. Music exercises the emotions and our imaginative reflex, not just our hearing. It behaves so much like our emotions that music can seem to symbolize them, to bear them from one person to another. Not surprisingly, it conjures memories: the word music derives from Greek \u03bc\u03bf\u03c5\u03c3\u03b9\u03ba\u03ae (mousike), art of the Muses, whose mythological mother was Mnemosyne, memory. But it can also summon up the blood, console the bereaved, inspire fanaticism, bolster governments and dissenters alike, help us learn, and make web designers dance. And what would Christmas be without music?\n\nMusic moves us, often in ways we can\u2019t explain. By some kind of alchemy, music frees us from the elaborate nuisance and inadequacy of words. Across the world and throughout recorded history \u2013 and no doubt well before that \u2013 people have listened and made (and made out to) music.\n\n\n\t[I]t appears probable that the progenitors of man, either the males or females or both sexes, before acquiring the power of expressing their mutual love in articulate language, endeavoured to charm each other with musical notes and rhythm.\n\u2014Charles DARWIN, The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, 1871\n\n\nIt\u2019s so integral to humankind, we\u2019ve sent it into space as a totem for who we are. (Who knows? It might be important.) Music is essential, a universal compulsion; as Nietzsche wrote, without music life would be a mistake.\n\nMusic, design and web design\n\nThere are some obvious and notable similarities between music and visual design. Both can convey mood and evoke emotion but, even under close scrutiny, how they do that remains to a great extent mysterious. Each has formal qualities or parts that can be abstracted, analysed and discussed, often using the same terminology: composition, harmony, rhythm, repetition, form, theme; even colour, texture and tone.\n\nA possible reason for these shared aspects is that both visual design and music are means to connect with people in deep and lasting ways. Furthermore, I believe the connections to be made can complement direct emotional appeal. Certain aesthetic qualities in music work on an unconscious and, it could be argued, universal level. Using musical principles in our designs, then, can help provide the connectedness between content, device and user that we now seek as web designers.\n\nYet, when we talk about music and web design, the conversation is almost always about the music designers listen to while working, a theme finding its apotheosis in Designers.MX. Sometimes, articles in that dreary list format seek inspiration from music industry websites. There\u2019s even a service offering pre-templated web designs for bands, and at least one book surveyed the landscape back in 2006. Occasionally, discussions broaden somewhat into whether and how different kinds of music can inspire and influence the design work we produce.\n\nSuch enquiries, it seems to me, are beside the point. Do I really design differently when I listen to Bach rather than Bacharach? Will the barely restrained energy of Count Basie\u2019s The Kid from Red Bank mean I choose a lively colour palette, and rural, autumnal shades when inspired by Fleet Foxes? Mahler means a thirteen-column layout? Gillian Welch leads to distressed black and white photography? While reflecting the importance we place in music and how it seems to help us in our work, surveys on musical taste and lists of favourite artists fail to recognize that some of the fundamental aesthetic characteristics of music can be adapted and incorporated into modern web design.\n\nAntiphonal geometry\n\nOver recent years, web designers have embraced grid systems as powerful tools to help create good-looking and intuitive user experiences. With the advent of responsive design, these grids and their contents must adapt to the different screen sizes and properties of all kinds of user devices. Finding and using grid values that can scale well and retain or enhance their proportions and relationships while making the user experience meaningful in several different contexts is more important than ever.\n\nIn print, this challenge has always started with the dimensions and proportions of the page. Content can thereby be made to belong inside the page and be bound to it. And music has been used for centuries to further this aim. As Robert Bringhurst says in The Elements of Typographical Style:\n\n\n\tIndeed, one of the simplest of all systems of page proportions is based on the familiar intervals of the diatonic scale. Pages that embody these basic musical proportions have been in common use in Europe for more than a thousand years.\n\n\nVery well. But while he goes on to list (from the full chromatic scale, rather than just diatonic) the proportions and the musical intervals they\u2019re based on, Bringhurst fails to mention what they\u2019re ratios of or their potential effects. Shame. In his favour, however, he later touches on how proportions in print might be considered to work:\n\n\n\tThe page is a piece of paper. It is also a visible and tangible proportion, silently sounding the thoroughbass of the book. On it lies the textblock, which must answer to the page. The two together \u2013 page and textblock \u2013 produce an antiphonal geometry. That geometry alone can bond the reader to the book. Or conversely, it can put the reader to sleep, or put the reader\u2019s nerves on edge, or drive the reader away.\n\n\nSo what does Bringhurst mean by antiphonal geometry, a phrase that marries the musical to the spatial? By stating that the textblock \u201cmust answer to the page\u201d, the implication is that the relationship between the proportions of the page and the shape of the textblock printed on it embodies a spatial (geometrical) call-and-response (antiphony) that can be appealing or not.\n\nBoulton\u2019s new canon\n\nBut, as Mark Boulton has pointed out, on the web \u201cthere are no edges. There are no \u2018pages\u2019. We\u2019ve made them up.\u201d So, what is to be done? In January 2011 at the New Adventures in Web Design conference, Boulton presented his vision of a new canon of web design, a set of principles to guide us as we design the web. There are three overlapping tenets:\n\n\n\tdesign from the content out\n\tcreate connectedness between the different content elements\n\tbind the content to the web device\n\n\nRather than design from the edges in, we need to design layout systems from the content out. To this end, Boulton asserts that grid system design should begin with a constraint, and he suggests we use the size of a fixed content element, such as an advertising unit or image, as a starting point for online grid calculations. Khoi Vinh advocates the same approach in his book, Ordering Disorder: Grid Principles for Web Design.\n\nBoulton\u2019s second and third tenets, however, are more complex and overlap significantly with each other. Connecting the different parts of the content and binding the content to the device share many characteristics and solutions:\n\n\n\tadopting ems and percentages as units of size for layout elements\n\taltering text size, line length and line height for different viewport dimensions\n\tproviding higher resolution images for devices with greater pixel densities\n\tfluid layout grids, flexible images and responsive design\n\n\nAll can help relate the presentation of the content to its delivery in a certain context.\n\nBut how do we determine the relationship between one element of a layout and another? How can we avoid making arbitrary decisions about the relative sizes of parts of our designs? What can we use to connect the parts of our design to one another, and how can we bind the presentation of the content to the user\u2019s device?\n\nTim Brown\u2019s application of modular typographic scales hints at an answer. In the very useful tool he created for calculating such scales, Brown includes two musical ratios: the perfect fifth (2:3); and the perfect fourth (3:4). Why? Where do they come from? And what do they mean?\n\nHarmonies musical and visual\n\nFundamental to music are rhythm and harmony.\n\nAs any drummer will tell you, without rhythm there is no music. Even when there\u2019s no regular beat, any tune follows a rhythm, however irregular, simply because a change of note is a point of change in the music. Although rhythm, timing and pacing are all relevant to interaction design, right now it\u2019s harmony we\u2019re interested in.\n\nSometimes harmony is called the vertical aspect of music, and melody the horizontal. But this conceit overlooks the fact that harmony is both vertical and horizontal. A single melodic line, as it is played, implies various sets of harmonies on which it is grounded, whether or not those harmonies are played. So, harmony doesn\u2019t just sit vertically beneath the horizontal melody, but moves horizontally as well, through harmonic progression.\n\nTo stretch this arrangement pixel-thin, we could argue that in onscreen design melody is the content, and the layout and arrangement of the content is the harmony. We sometimes say a design is harmonious when the interplay of different elements of a design is pleasing or balanced or in proportion, and the content (the melody) is set off or conveyed well by or appropriate to the design.\n\nWe seem to know instinctively whether a layout is harmonious\u2026\n\nIn the design of The Great Discontent, the relationships between different elements combine to form a balanced whole.\n\n\u2026or not.\n\nThere\u2019s no harmony in the Department for Education\u2019s website because the different parts of the content don\u2019t feel related to one another.\n\nWhat is it that makes one design harmonious and another dissonant? It\u2019s not just whether things line up, though that\u2019s a start. I believe there are much deeper aesthetic forces at work, forces we can tap into in our onscreen designs. Now, I\u2019m not going start a difficult discussion about aesthetics. For our purposes, we just need to know that it\u2019s the branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, and the creation and perception of beauty. And among the key components in the perception of beauty are harmony and proportion. These have been part of traditional western aesthetics since Plato (about 2,500 years).\n\nOne of the ways we appreciate the beauty of music is through the harmonic intervals we hear. A musical interval is a combination of two notes and it describes the distance between the two pitches. For example, the distance between C and the G above it (if we take C as the tonic or root) is called a perfect fifth.\n\nLeft: C to G, a perfect fifth. Right: C and G, not a perfect fifth.\n\n \n\nAnd, to get superficially scientific for a moment, each musical interval can be expressed as a ratio of the wavelength frequencies of the notes; for our perfect fifth, with every two wavelengths of C, there are three of G. And what is a ratio, if not a proportion of one thing to another?\n\nSo, simple musical harmony (using what\u2019s known as just intonation1) affords us a set of proportions, expressed as ratios. Where better to apply these ideas of harmony and proportion from music in web design, than grid systems?\n\nA digression: whither \u03c6?\n\nQuite often in our discussions of pure design and aesthetics, we mention the golden ratio and regurgitate the same justifications for its use: roots in antiquity; embodied in classical and Renaissance architecture and art; occurrence in nature; the New Twitter, and so forth (oh, really?).\n\nYet the ratios of musical intervals from just intonation are equally venerable and much more widespread: described by Pythagorus; employed in Palladian architecture, and printing, books and art from the Renaissance onwards; in modern times, film and television dimensions; standard international paper sizes (ISO 216, the A and B series); and, again and again, screen dimensions \u2013 chances are that screen you\u2019re probably looking at right now has the proportions 2:3 (iPhone and iPod Touch), 3:4 (iPad and Kindle), 3:5 (many smartphones), 5:8 or 16:9 (many widescreen monitors), all ratios of musical intervals.\n\nBack to our theme\u2026\n\nMusical interval ratios\n\nLet\u2019s take a look at most of the ratios within a couple of octaves and crunch some numbers to generate some percentages and other values that we can use in our designs. First, the intervals and their ratios in just intonation and expressed as ratios of one:\n\n\n\t\t\n\t\t\tName \n\t\t\tInterval in C \n\t\t\tRatio \n\t\t\tRatio (1:x) \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t unison \n\t\t\t C\u2192C \n\t\t\t 1:1 \n\t\t\t 1:1 \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t minor second \n\t\t\t C\u2192D\u266d \n\t\t\t 15:16 \n\t\t\t 1:1.067 \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t major second \n\t\t\t C\u2192D \n\t\t\t 8:9 \n\t\t\t 1:1.125 \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t minor third \n\t\t\t C\u2192E\u266d \n\t\t\t 5:6 \n\t\t\t 1:1.2 \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t major third \n\t\t\t C\u2192E \n\t\t\t 4:5 \n\t\t\t 1:1.25 \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t perfect fourth \n\t\t\t C\u2192F \n\t\t\t 3:4 \n\t\t\t 1:1.333 \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t augmented fourth \nor diminished fifth \n\t\t\t C\u2192F\u266f/G\u266d \n\t\t\t 1:\u221a2 \n\t\t\t 1:1.414 \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t perfect fifth \n\t\t\t C\u2192G \n\t\t\t 2:3 \n\t\t\t 1:1.5 \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t minor sixth \n\t\t\t C\u2192A\u266d \n\t\t\t 5:8 \n\t\t\t 1:1.6 \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t major sixth \n\t\t\t C\u2192A \n\t\t\t 3:5 \n\t\t\t 1:1.667 \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t minor seventh \n\t\t\t C\u2192B\u266d \n\t\t\t 9:16 \n\t\t\t 1:1.778 \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t major seventh \n\t\t\t C\u2192B \n\t\t\t 8:15 \n\t\t\t 1:1.875 \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t octave \n\t\t\t C\u2192C\u2191 \n\t\t\t 1:2 \n\t\t\t 1:2 \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t major tenth \n\t\t\t C\u2192E\u2191 \n\t\t\t 2:5 \n\t\t\t 1:2.5 \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t major eleventh \n\t\t\t C\u2192F\u2191 \n\t\t\t 3:8 \n\t\t\t 1:2.667 \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t major twelfth \n\t\t\t C\u2192G\u2191 \n\t\t\t 1:3 \n\t\t\t 1:3 \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t double octave \n\t\t\t C\u2192C\u2191 \n\t\t\t 1:4 \n\t\t\t 1:4 \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\tName \n\t\t\tInterval in C \n\t\t\tRatio \n\t\t\tRatio (1:x) \n\t\t\n\n\nAnd now as percentages, of both the larger and smaller values in the ratios:\n\n\n\t\t\n\t\t\tName \n\t\t\tRatio \n\t\t\t% of larger value \n\t\t\t% of smaller value \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t unison \n\t\t\t 1:1 \n\t\t\t 100% \n\t\t\t 100% \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t minor second \n\t\t\t 15:16 \n\t\t\t 93.75% \n\t\t\t 106.667% \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t major second \n\t\t\t 8:9 \n\t\t\t 88.889% \n\t\t\t 112.5% \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t minor third \n\t\t\t 5:6 \n\t\t\t 83.333% \n\t\t\t 120% \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t major third \n\t\t\t 4:5 \n\t\t\t 80% \n\t\t\t 125% \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t perfect fourth \n\t\t\t 3:4 \n\t\t\t 75% \n\t\t\t 133.333% \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t augmented fourth \nor diminished fifth \n\t\t\t 1:\u221a2 \n\t\t\t 70.711% \n\t\t\t 141.421% \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t perfect fifth \n\t\t\t 2:3 \n\t\t\t 66.667% \n\t\t\t 150% \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t minor sixth \n\t\t\t 5:8 \n\t\t\t 62.5% \n\t\t\t 160% \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t major sixth \n\t\t\t 3:5 \n\t\t\t 60% \n\t\t\t 166.667% \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t minor seventh \n\t\t\t 9:16 \n\t\t\t 56.25% \n\t\t\t 177.778% \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t major seventh \n\t\t\t 8:15 \n\t\t\t 53.333% \n\t\t\t 187.5% \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t octave \n\t\t\t 1:2 \n\t\t\t 50% \n\t\t\t 200% \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t major tenth \n\t\t\t 2:5 \n\t\t\t 40% \n\t\t\t 250% \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t major eleventh \n\t\t\t 3:8 \n\t\t\t 37.5% \n\t\t\t 266.667% \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t major twelfth \n\t\t\t 1:3 \n\t\t\t 33.333% \n\t\t\t 300% \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t double octave \n\t\t\t 1:4 \n\t\t\t 25% \n\t\t\t 400% \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\tName \n\t\t\tRatio \n\t\t\t% of larger value \n\t\t\t% of smaller value \n\t\t\n\n\nAs you can see, the simple musical intervals are expressed as ratios of small whole numbers (integers). We can then normalize them as ratios of one, as well as derive percentage values, both in terms of the smaller value to the larger, and vice versa. These are the numbers we can incorporate into our designs. If you\u2019ve ever written something like body { font: 100%/1.5 \"Museo Sans\", Helvetica, sans-serif; } in your CSS, you\u2019re already using a musical ratio: the perfect fifth.\n\nModular scales allow us to generate a set of numbers based on a musical interval that can be used for all kinds of typographic and layout decisions to create harmony in a visual design for the web. As Tim Brown said at the 2010 Build conference:\n\n\n\tI think that from that most atomic unit \u2013 type \u2013 whole experiences can resonate, whole experiences can be harmonious. And whole experiences can have a purpose suited to our design intentions.\n\n\nOnce more, with feeling: connectedness\n\nAs well as modular scales, there are other methods of incorporating musical interval ratios into our work. Setting the ratio of font size to line height in CSS is one such example. We could also create a typographic hierarchy using the same principle and combining several ratios that we know harmonize well musically in a chord:\n\nbody { font-size: 75%; } /* =12px = base size or tonic */\n\nh1 { font-size: 32px; font-size: 2.667rem; }\n   /* =32px = 3:8 = major eleventh (C\u2192F\u2191) */\n\nh2 { font-size: 24px; font-size: 2rem; }\n   /* =24px = 1:2 = octave (C\u2192C\u2191) */\n\nh3 { font-size: 20px; font-size: 1.667rem; }\n   /* =20px = 3:5 = major sixth (C\u2192A) */\n\nfigcaption, small { font-size: 9px; font-size : 0.75rem }\n   /* =9px = 3:4 = perfect fourth (C\u2192F) */\n\nWhoa! Hold your reindeer, Santa! How can we know what interval combinations work well together to form chords? Well, I\u2019m a classically trained musician, so perhaps I have an advantage. To avoid a long, technically complex digression into musical harmony, here are a few basic combinations of intervals that are harmonious in one way or another:\n\n\n\tunison; major third; perfect fifth; octave\n\tunison; perfect fourth; major sixth; octave\n\tunison; minor third; minor sixth; octave\n\tunison; minor third; diminished fifth; major sixth; octave\n\n\nThis isn\u2019t to say that other combinations can\u2019t be used to interesting effect and particular purpose \u2013 they surely can \u2013 but I have to make sure there\u2019s something left for you to experiment with in the wee small hours over the holiday. Bear in mind, though, were I to play you two notes from the same scale to form a minor second, for example, you\u2019d probably say it was dissonant and maybe that quality of the 15:16 ratio would be translated to the design.\n\n \n\nIn the typographic hierarchy above, you\u2019ll notice I used an interval in the higher octave, which affords a broader range of ratios while retaining the harmony. Thus, a perfect fifth (2:3) becomes a major twelfth (1:3), or a major sixth (3:5) becomes a major thirteenth (3:10).\n\nThe harmonic ratios can obviously be used as proportions for layout as well, in several different ways:\n\n\n\timage width and height (for example, 450\u00d7800px = 9:16 = minor seventh)\n\tmain content to page width (67%:100% = 2:3 = perfect fifth)\n\tpage width to viewport width (80%:100% = 4:5 = major third)\n\n\nOne great benefit of using such ratios in web design work is that they can be applied in responsive web design. Proportional values, based on percentages or equivalent em units, will scale with changing viewports, so your layout and image proportions can be maintained or deliberately changed, as we\u2019re about to find out, across devices.\n\nSmall speakers, tall speakers: binding to the device\n\nThe musical interval ratios also provide an opportunity, not only to create connectedness between the parts of a layout, but to bind the content to a device \u2013 that elusive antiphonal geometry. Just as a textblock and page resonate together, so too can web content and the screen. Earlier, I mentioned that several common screen aspect ratios match musical interval ratios. It would seem, then, that we have a set of proportions that we can use in different ways to establish and retain a sense of harmony that can be based on and change with those contexts. Using musical interval ratios, we can bind the display of our content to the device it\u2019s displayed on.\n\nIf you haven\u2019t met already, let me introduce you to the device-aspect-ratio property of CSS media queries.\n\n@media only screen and (device-aspect-ratio: 3/4) { }\n@media only screen and (device-aspect-ratio: 480/640) { }\n@media only screen and (device-aspect-ratio: 600/800) { }\n@media only screen and (device-aspect-ratio: 768/1024) { }\n\nRegardless of the precise pixel values, each of these media queries would apply to devices whose display area has an aspect ratio of 3:4. It works by comparing the device-width with the device-height. (It\u2019s not to be confused with aspect-ratio, which is defined by the width and height of the browser within the device.) The values in the media query are always presented as width/height, with portrait being the default orientation for smartphones and tablets; that is, to match an iPhone screen, you\u2019d use device-aspect-ratio: 2/3, not 3/2, which won\u2019t work.\n\nHere\u2019s a table of the musical intervals with their corresponding screens.\n\n\n\t\t\n\t\t\tName \n\t\t\tdevice-aspect-ratio \n\t\t\tScreens \n\t\t\tCommon resolutions (pixels) \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t major third \n\t\t\t 5/4 \n\t\t\t TFT LCD computer screens \n\t\t\t 1,280\u00d71,024 \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t perfect fourth \n\t\t\t 3/4 or 4/3 \n\t\t\t iPad, Kindle and other tablets, PDAs \n\t\t\t 320\u00d7240, 768\u00d71,024 \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t perfect fifth \n\t\t\t 2/3 \n\t\t\t iPhone, iPod Touch \n\t\t\t 320\u00d7480, 640\u00d7960 \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t minor sixth \n\t\t\t 8/5 (16/10) \n\t\t\t Many widescreens \n\t\t\t 1,152\u00d7720, 1,440\u00d7900, 1,920\u00d71,200 \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t major sixth \n\t\t\t 3/5 \n\t\t\t Many smartphones \n\t\t\t 240\u00d7400, 480\u00d7800 \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t minor seventh \n\t\t\t 16/9 or 9/16 \n\t\t\t Many widescreens and some smartphones \n\t\t\t 720\u00d71,280, 1,366\u00d7768, 1,920\u00d71,080, 2,560\u00d71,440 \n\t\t\n\n\n[You might argue that I\u2019m playing fast and loose with the ratios. I suppose, mathematically speaking, 9:16 is not the same as 16:9: I\u2019m no expert. But let\u2019s not throw the baby out with the bath water, particularly at Christmas.]\n\nWith this in mind, we can begin to write media queries that will influence various typographic and layout values in line with the aspect ratios of specific screens and in combination with em-based min-width queries that work from smaller, mobile screens to larger, desktop screens.\n\nHere\u2019s a very simple demo page with only some text, an image with a caption and a little basic layout: no seasonal overindulgence here.\n\nDemo: Sample page using device-aspect-ratio media queries based on musical interval ratios\n\nOur initial styles for all devices are based on the perfect fifth, with the major third and octave rounding things out into a harmonious whole, whether or not media queries are supported. For example:\n\nhtml { font-size: 100%; line-height: 1.5; }\n   /* font-size:line-height = 16:24 = 2:3 = perfect fifth */\n\nh1 { font-size: 32px; font-size: 2rem; line-height: 1.25; }\n   /* font-size:line-height = 32:40 = 4:5 = major third\n      body:h1 = 16:32 = 1:2 = octave */\n\nWhile we should really consider methods of delivering images appropriate to the screen size, let\u2019s just stick to a single image for all devices. But why don\u2019t we change its aspect ratio from 4:3 to 3:2, to fit with our harmonic scheme? It\u2019s easy enough to do with overflow:hidden on the <figure> element to hide a part of the image, and a negative margin fudge:\n\nfigure img { margin: -8.5% 0 0 0; width: 100%; max-width: 100%; }\n\nOur first break point targets devices 320 pixels wide with an aspect ratio of 2:3, namely the iPhone and iPod Touch:\n\n/* 320px = 20\u00d716 */\n@media only screen and (min-width: 20em) and (device-aspect-ratio: 2/3) { }\n\nWe\u2019re actually already there, of course, as the intervals we\u2019ve chosen resonate with this aspect ratio \u2013 the content is already bound to the device.\n\nOur next media query, then, will make some changes to match a different ratio, the major sixth (3:5), which is same as that of many smartphones:\n\n/* 480px = 30\u00d716 */\n@media only screen and (min-width: 30em) and (device-aspect-ratio: 3/5) { }\n\nA different aspect ratio might require a change in harmony. For devices with these proportions, we\u2019ll now use the perfect fourth (3:4) and the major sixth (3:5) along with the octave we already have to create a new resonating harmony. For instance, a slightly wider screen means we can increase the  line-height to aid the legibility of longer lines:\n\nhtml { line-height: 1.667; }\n   /* font-size:line-height = 16:26.672 = 3:5 = major sixth */\n\nh1 { font-size: 32px; font-size: 2rem; line-height: 1.667; }\n   /* font-size:line-height = 32:53.333 = 3:5 = major sixth\n      body:h1 = 16:32 = 1:2 = octave */\n\nand we can remove the negative margin to display our 4:3 image in its entirety.\n\nEach screen displays content styled using relationships related to its own proportions. On the left, an iPhone 4 (2:3); on the right, a Samsung Nexus S (3:5). Your mileage may vary.\n\nAnother device, another media query. At 768 pixels, screens are wide enough to add columns. The ratios we\u2019ve used for the 3:5 screens include the perfect fourth (3:4) so we don\u2019t need to change any of the font measurements, but we can base the proportions of the columns on the major sixth interval:\n\narticle { float: left; width: 56%; }\n   /* width of main column 3:5 (60% of 100%, major sixth)\n      incorporating gutter width */\n\naside { float : right; width : 36%; }\n\nOn devices with a 3:4 aspect ratio, this works even better in landscape orientation.\n\nWhile not every screen over 768 pixels wide will have 3:4 proportions, the range of intervals informing the design ensure harmonious relationships between the different parts of the layout.\n\nFor wide screens proper (break point at 1,280 pixels) we can employ a new set of harmonious intervals. Many laptop and desktop screens have a 16:10 aspect ratio, which boils down to 8:5, equivalent to the minor sixth (5:8). Combined with a minor third (5:6) and the octave (1:2), this creates a new harmony appropriate to these devices. Let\u2019s increase the font size and change the image\u2019s aspect ratio to match:\n\nhtml { font-size: 120%; line-height: 1.6; }\n   /* font-size increased for wider screens from 16px to 19.2px\n      (5:6 = minor third)\n      font-size:line-height = 19.2:30.72 = 5:8 = minor sixth */\n\nfigure img { margin: -12.5% 0 0 ; }\t\n   /* using -ve margin combined with overflow:hidden\n      on the figure element\n      to crop the image from 4:3 to 8:5 = minor sixth */\n\nA wide screen with a 8:5 (16:10) aspect ratio and an image to match.\n\nWith more pixels at our disposal, we can also now use the musical interval ratios to determine the width of the layout, and change the column proportions as well:\n\nsection { margin: 0 auto; width: 83.333%; }\n   /* content width:screen width = 5:6 = minor third */\n\narticle { width: 60%; }\n   /* width of main column 5:8 (62.5% of 100%, minor sixth)\n      incorporating gutter width */\n\naside { width: 35%; }\n\nWith some carefully targeted media queries, we can begin to reach towards fulfilling the second and third tenets of Boulton\u2019s new canon for web design: connecting the parts of content through relationships embodied in the layout design; and binding the content to the devices people use to access it.\n\nCoda\n\nMusical interval ratios and screen aspect ratios reveal more than convenient correspondence. These proportions work on a deep aesthetic level. Much is claimed for the golden ratio \u03c6, but none of the screens pervading our lives use it. Perhaps that\u2019s an accident of technology, but can making screens to \u03c6\u2019s proportions be more difficult or expensive than 2:3 or 3:4 or 16:10? Here, then, is not just one but a set of proportions with a uniquely human focus, originating in nature, recognized in antiquity, fundamental still.\n\nWe find music to be an art steeped with meaning, yet, unlike literary and representational arts, purely instrumental music has no obvious semantic content. It boasts an ability to express emotions while remaining an abstract art in some sense, which makes it very like design. These days, we\u2019re rightly encouraged to design for emotion, to make our users\u2019 experience meaningful, seductive, delightful. Using musical ideas and principles in our designs can help achieve those ends.\n\nLet\u2019s not be na\u00efve, of course; designing web pages is even less like composing music than it\u2019s like designing for print. In visual design, the eye will always be sovereign to the ear; following these principles will only get us so far. We cannot truly claim that a carefully composed web page layout will have the same qualities and effect as any musical patterns that inform it. In music, a set of intervals is always harmonious in relation to other sets of intervals: music rarely stands still. What aspect ratios will future screens take? Already today there is great variation in devices and support for media queries (and within that, support for device-aspect-ratio). And what of non-western musical traditions? Or rhythm, form, tempo and dynamics? What I\u2019ve demonstrated above is only a suggestion, a tentative exploration of one possible way forward.\n\nBut as our discipline matures and we become more articulate about what we do, we must look longer and deeper into areas of human endeavour already rich with value. Music is a fertile ground to explore and has the potential to yield up new approaches for web design.\n\nFootnotes\n\n \n Just intonation is a system of tuning that uses small integers to describe the musical intervals, based initially on the perfect fifth, that most consonant of intervals. Simple instruments such as vibrating strings and natural horns, as well as unaccompanied voices, tend to fall into just intonation naturally.", "year": "2011", "author": "Owen Gregory", "author_slug": "owengregory", "published": "2011-12-09T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2011/composing-the-new-canon/", "topic": "design"}
{"rowid": 329, "title": "Broader Border Corners", "contents": "A note from the editors:  Since this article was written the CSS border-radius property has become widely supported in browsers. It should be preferred to this image technique.\n                \n                \n                      \n                A quick and easy recipe for turning those single-pixel borders that the kids love so much into  into something a little less right-angled.\n\nHere\u2019s the principle: We have a box with a one-pixel wide border around it. Inside that box is another box that has a little rounded-corner background image sitting snugly in one of its corners. The inner-box is then nudged out a bit so that it\u2019s actually sitting on top of the outer box. If it\u2019s all done properly, that little background image can mask the hard right angle of the default border of the outer-box, giving the impression that it actually has a rounded corner.\n\nTake An Image, Finely Chopped\n\n\n\nAdd A Sprinkle of Markup\n\n<div id=\"content\">\n    <p>Lorem ipsum etc. etc. etc.</p>\n</div>\n\nThrow In A Dollop of CSS\n\n#content { \n     border: 1px solid #c03;\n}\n\n#content p {\n     background: url(corner.gif) top left no-repeat;\n     position: relative;\n     left: -1px;\n     top: -1px;\n     padding: 1em;\n     margin: 0;\n}\n\nBubblin\u2019 Hot\n\n\n\tThe content div has a one-pixel wide red border around it.\n\tThe paragraph is given a single instance of the background image, created to look like a one-pixel wide arc.\n\tThe paragraph is shunted outside of the box \u2013 back one pixel and up one pixel \u2013 so that it is sitting over the div\u2019s border. The white area of the image covers up that part of the border\u2019s corner, and the arc meets up with the top and left border.\n\tBecause, in this example, we\u2019re applying a background image to a paragraph, its top margin needs to be zeroed so that it starts at the top of its container.\n\n\nEt voil\u00e0. Bon app\u00e9tit.\n\nExtra Toppings\n\n\n\tIf you want to apply a curve to each one of the corners and you run out of meaningful markup to hook the background images on to, throw some spans or divs in the mix (there\u2019s nothing wrong with this if that\u2019s the effect you truly want \u2013 they don\u2019t hurt anybody) or use some nifty DOM Scripting to put the scaffolding in for you.\n\tNote that if you\u2019ve got more than one of these relative corners, you will need to compensate for the starting position of each box which is nested in an already nudged parent.\n\tYou\u2019re not limited to one pixel wide, rounded corners \u2013 the same principles apply to thicker borders, or corners with different shapes.", "year": "2005", "author": "Patrick Griffiths", "author_slug": "patrickgriffiths", "published": "2005-12-14T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2005/broader-border-corners/", "topic": "design"}
{"rowid": 188, "title": "Don't Lose Your :focus", "contents": "For many web designers, accessibility conjures up images of blind users with screenreaders, and the difficulties in making sites accessible to this particular audience. Of course, accessibility covers a wide range of situations that go beyond the extreme example of screenreader users. And while it\u2019s true that making a complex site accessible can often be a daunting prospect, there are also many small things that don\u2019t take anything more than a bit of judicious planning, are very easy to test (without having to buy expensive assistive technology), and can make all the difference to certain user groups.\n\nIn this short article we\u2019ll focus on keyboard accessibility and how careless use of CSS can potentially make your sites completely unusable.\n\nKeyboard Access\n\nUsers who for whatever reason can\u2019t use a mouse will employ a keyboard (or keyboard-like custom interface) to navigate around web pages. By default, they will use TAB and SHIFT + TAB to move from one focusable element (links, form controls and area) of a page to the next.\n\nNote: in OS X, you\u2019ll first need to turn on full keyboard access under System Preferences > Keyboard and Mouse > Keyboard Shortcuts. Safari under Windows needs to have the option Press Tab to highlight each item on a webpage in Preferences > Advanced enabled. Opera is the odd one out, as it has a variety of keyboard navigation options \u2013 the most relevant here being spatial navigation via Shift+Down, Shift+Up, Shift+Left, and Shift+Right).\n\nBut I Don\u2019t Like Your Dotted Lines\u2026\n\nTo show users where they are within a page, browsers place an outline around the element that currently has focus. The \u201cproblem\u201d with these default outlines is that some browsers (Internet Explorer and Firefox) also display them when a user clicks on a focusable element with the mouse. Particularly on sites that make extensive use of image replacement on links with \u201coff left\u201d techniques this can create very unsightly outlines that stretch from the replaced element all the way to the left edge of the browser.\n\n Outline bleeding off to the left (image-replacement example from carsonified.com)\n\nThere is a trivial workaround to prevent outlines from \u201cspilling over\u201d by adding a simple overflow:hidden, which keeps the outline in check around the clickable portion of the image-replaced element itself.\n\n Outline tamed with overflow:hidden\n\nBut for many designers, even this is not enough. As a final solution, many actively suppress outlines altogether in their stylesheets. Controversially, even Eric Meyer\u2019s popular reset.css \u2013 an otherwise excellent set of styles that levels the playing field of varying browser defaults \u2013 suppresses outlines.\n\nhtml, body, div, span, applet, object, iframe ... {\n\t...\n\toutline: 0;\n\t...\n}\n/* remember to define focus styles! */\n:focus {\n\toutline: 0;\n}\n\nYes, in his explanation (and in the CSS itself) Eric does remind designers to define relevant styles for :focus\u2026 but judging by the number of sites that seem to ignore this (and often remove the related comment from the stylesheet altogether), the message doesn\u2019t seem to have sunk in.\n\nAnyway\u2026 hurrah! No more unsightly dotted lines on our lovely design. But what about keyboard users? Although technically they can still TAB from one element to the next, they now get no default cue as to where they are within the page (one notable exception here is Opera, where the outline is displayed regardless of stylesheets)\u2026 and if they\u2019re Safari users, they won\u2019t even get an indication of a link\u2019s target in the status bar, like they would if they hovered over it with the mouse.\n\nOnly Suppress outline For Mouse Users\n\nIs there a way to allow users navigating with the keyboard to retain the standard outline behaviour they\u2019ve come to expect from their browser, while also ensuring that it doesn\u2019t show display for mouse users?\n\n Testing some convoluted style combinations\n\nAfter playing with various approaches (see Better CSS outline suppression for more details), the most elegant solution also seemed to be the simplest: don\u2019t remove the outline on :focus, do it on :active instead \u2013 after all, :active is the dynamic pseudo-class that deals explicitly with the styles that should be applied when a focusable element is clicked or otherwise activated.\n\na:active { outline: none; }\n\nThe only minor issues with this method: if a user activates a link and then uses the browser\u2019s back button, the outline becomes visible. Oh, and old versions of Internet Explorer notoriously get confused by the exact meaning of :focus, :hover and :active, so this method fails in IE6 and below. Personally, I can live with both of these.\n\nNote: at the last minute before submitting this article, I discovered a fatal flaw in my test. It appears that outline still manages to appear in the time between activating a link and the link target loading (which in hindsight is logical \u2013 after activation, the link does indeed receive focus). As my test page only used in-page links, this issue never came up before. The slightly less elegant solution is to also suppress the outline on :hover.\n\na:hover, a:active { outline: none; }\n\nIn Conclusion\n\nOf course, many web designers may argue that they know what\u2019s best, even for their keyboard-using audience. Maybe they\u2019ve removed the default outline and are instead providing some carefully designed :focus styles. If they know for sure that these custom styles are indeed a reliable alternative for their users, more power to them\u2026 but, at the risk of sounding like Jakob \u201cblue underlined links\u201d Nielsen, I\u2019d still argue that sometimes the default browser behaviours are best left alone. Complemented, yes (and if you\u2019re already defining some fancy styles for :hover, by all means feel free to also make them display on :focus)\u2026 but not suppressed.", "year": "2009", "author": "Patrick Lauke", "author_slug": "patricklauke", "published": "2009-12-09T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2009/dont-lose-your-focus/", "topic": "code"}
{"rowid": 331, "title": "Splintered Striper", "contents": "Back in March 2004, David F. Miller demonstrated a little bit of DOM scripting magic in his A List Apart article Zebra Tables.\n\nHis script programmatically adds two alternating CSS background colours to table rows, making them more readable and visually pleasing, while saving the document author the tedious task of manually assigning the styling to large static data tables.\n\nAlthough David\u2019s original script performs its duty well, it is nonetheless very specific and limited in its application. It only:\n\n\n\tworks on a single table, identified by its id, with at least a single tbody section\n\tassigns a background colour\n\tallows two colours for odd and even rows\n\tacts on data cells, rather than rows, and then only if they have no class or background colour already defined\n\n\nTaking it further\n\nIn a recent project I found myself needing to apply a striped effect to a medium sized unordered list. Instead of simply modifying the Zebra Tables code for this particular case, I decided to completely recode the script to make it more generic.\n\nBeing more general purpose, the function in my splintered striper experiment is necessarily more complex. Where the original script only expected a single parameter (the id of the target table), the new function is called as follows:\n\nstriper('[parent element tag]','[parent element class or null]','[child element tag]','[comma separated list of classes]')\n\nThis new, fairly self-explanatory function:\n\n\n\ttargets any type of parent element (and, if specified, only those with a certain class)\n\tassigns two or more classes (rather than just two background colours) to the child elements inside the parent\n\tpreserves any existing classes already assigned to the child elements\n\n\nSee it in action\n\nView the demonstration page for three usage examples. For simplicity\u2019s sake, we\u2019re making the calls to the striper function from the body\u2019s onload attribute. In a real deployment situation, we would look at attaching a behaviour to the onload programmatically \u2014 just remember that, as we need to pass variables to the striper function, this would involve creating a wrapper function which would then be attached\u2026something like:\n\nfunction stripe() {\n    striper('tbody','splintered','tr','odd,even');\n}\n\nwindow.onload=stripe;\n\nA final thought\n\nJust because the function is called striper does not mean that it\u2019s limited to purely applying a striped look; as it\u2019s more of a general purpose \u201calternating class assignment\u201d script, you can achieve a whole variety of effects with it.", "year": "2005", "author": "Patrick Lauke", "author_slug": "patricklauke", "published": "2005-12-15T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2005/splintered-striper/", "topic": "code"}
{"rowid": 229, "title": "Sketching to Communicate", "contents": "As a web designer I\u2019ve always felt that I\u2019d somehow cheated the system, having been absent on the day God handed out the ability to draw. I didn\u2019t study fine art, I don\u2019t have a natural talent to effortlessly knock out a realistic bowl of fruit beside a water jug, and yet somehow I\u2019ve still managed to blag my way this far. I\u2019m sure many of you may feel the same.\n\nI had no intention of becoming an artist, but to have enough skill to convey an idea in a drawing would be useful. Instead, my inadequate instrument would doodle drunkenly across the page leaving a web of unintelligible paths instead of the refined illustration I\u2019d seen in my mind\u2019s eye. This \u2013 and the natural scrawl of my handwriting \u2013 is fine (if somewhat frustrating) when it\u2019s for my eyes only but, when sketching to communicate a concept to a client, such amateur art would be offered with a sense of embarrassment. So when I had the opportunity to take part in some sketching classes whilst at Clearleft I jumped at the chance.\n\nWhy sketch?\n\nIn UX workshops early on in a project\u2019s life, sketching is a useful and efficient way to convey and record ideas. It\u2019s disposable and inexpensive, but needn\u2019t look amateur. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but a well executed sketch of how you\u2019ll combine funny YouTube videos with elephants to make Lolephants.com could be worth millions in venture capital. Actually, that\u2019s not bad\u2026 ;-)\n\nAlthough (as you will see) the basics of sketching are easy to master, the kudos you will receive from clients for being a \u2018proper designer\u2019 makes it worthwhile!\n\nWhere to begin?\n\nStart by not buying yourself a sketch pad. If you were the type of child who ripped the first page out of a school exercise book and started again if you made even a tiny mistake (you\u2019re not alone!), Wreck This Journal may offer a helping hand. Practicing on plain A4 paper instead of any \u2018special\u2019 notepad will make the process a whole lot easier, no matter how deliciously edible those Moleskines look.\n\nDo buy yourself a black fine-liner pen and a set of grey Pro Markers for shading. These pens are unlike any you will have used before, and look like blended watercolours once the ink is dry. Although multiple strokes won\u2019t create unsightly blotches of heavy ink on the page, they will go right through your top sheet so always remember to keep a rough sheet in the second position as an ink blotter.\n\n photo by Tom Harrison\n\nDon\u2019t buy pencils to sketch with, as they lack the confidence afforded by the heavy black ink strokes of marker pens and fine-liners.\n\nIf you\u2019re going to be sketching with clients then invest in some black markers and larger sheets of paper. At the risk of sounding like a stationery brand whore, Sharpies are ideal, and these comedy-sized Post-Its do the job far better than cheaper, less sticky alternatives. Although they\u2019re thicker than most standard paper, be sure to double-layer them if you\u2019re writing on them on a wall, unless you fancy a weekend redecorating your client\u2019s swanky boardroom.\n\nThe best way to build confidence and improve your sketching technique is, obviously, to practise. Reading this article will be of no help unless you repeat the following examples several times each. Go grab a pen and some paper now, and notice how you improve within even a short period of time.\n\nSketching web UI\n\nMost elements of any website can be drawn as a combination of geometric shapes.\n\n photo by Nathanael Boehm\n\nCircles\n\nTo draw a circle, get in position and start by resting your hand on the page and making the circular motion a few times without putting pen to paper. As you lower your pen whilst continuing the motion, you should notice the resulting shape is more regular than it otherwise would have been.\n\nSquares and rectangles\n\nDraw one pair of parallel lines first, followed by the others to complete the shapes. Slightly overlap the ends of the lines to make corners feel more solid than if you were to leave gaps. If you\u2019re drawing a container, always draw the contents first, that way it won\u2019t be a squash to fit them in. If you\u2019re drawing a grid (of thumbnails, for instance), draw all parallel lines first as a series of long dashes to help keep line lengths and angles consistent.\n\n\n\nShadows\n\nTo lift elements from the page for emphasis, add a subtle shadow with a grey marker. For the most convincing look, assume the light source to be at the top left of the page \u2013 the shadow should simply be a thick grey line along the bottom and up the right edge of your shape. If the shape is irregular, the shadow should follow its outline. This is a good way to emphasise featured items, speech bubbles, form buttons, and so on.\n\n\n\nSketching ideas\n\nArrows\n\nUse arrows to show steps in a process or direction of movement. Giving shadows a 3-D feel, or adding a single colour, will help separate them from the rest of the sketch.\n\n\n\nFaces\n\nStart by drawing the circle. The direction of the nose (merely a point) indicates the direction of the person\u2019s gaze. The eyes and mouth show emotion: more open and curvy for happy thoughts; more closed and jagged for angry thoughts. Try out a few shapes and see what emotions they convey.\n\n\n\nPeople\n\nRemember, we\u2019re aiming for communication rather than realism here. A stick man would be fine. Give him a solid body, as shown in this example, and it becomes easier to pose him.\n\n\n\nI know you think hands are hard, but they\u2019re quite important to convey some ideas, and for our purposes we don\u2019t need to draw hands with any detail. An oval with a stick does the job of a pointing hand. Close-ups might need more fingers showing, but still don\u2019t require any degree of realism.\n\nSignage\n\nDon\u2019t be afraid to use words. We\u2019re sketching to communicate, so if the easiest way to show an office block is a building with a big \u2018office\u2019 sign on the roof, that\u2019s fine!\n\n\n\nLabels\n\nLikewise, feel free to label interactions. Use upper-case letters for legibility and slightly angle the horizontal bars upwards to create a more positive feel.\n\nClich\u00e9s\n\nClich\u00e9s are your friend! Someone\u2019s having an idea? Light bulb above the head. Computer\u2019s crashed? Cloud of smoke with \u201c$\u00a3%*!\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\nIt\u2019s good to practise regularly. Try applying these principles to still life, too. Look around you now and draw the cup on the table, or the books on the shelf. Think of it as a combination of shapes and aim for symbolism rather than realism, and it\u2019s not as hard as you\u2019d think.\n\nI hope this has given you the confidence to give it a shot, and the ability to at least not be mortified with the results!\n\nTip: If you\u2019re involving clients in design games like Leisa Reichelt\u2019s \u2018Design Consequences\u2019 it may be wise to tone down the quality of your drawings at that point so they don\u2019t feel intimidated. Remember, it\u2019s important for them to feel at ease with the idea of wireframing in front of you and their colleagues, no matter how bad their line work.\n\nFor more information see davegrayinfo.com \u2013 Dave Gray taught me everything I know :-)", "year": "2010", "author": "Paul Annett", "author_slug": "paulannett", "published": "2010-12-19T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2010/sketching-to-communicate/", "topic": "business"}
{"rowid": 158, "title": "10 Ways To Get Design Approval", "contents": "One of the most challenging parts of the web design process is getting design sign off. It can prove time consuming, demoralizing and if you are not careful can lead to a dissatisfied client. What is more you can end up with a design that you are ashamed to include in your portfolio.\n\nHow then can you ensure that the design you produce is the one that gets built? How can you get the client to sign off on your design? Below are 10 tips learnt from years of bitter experience.\n\n1. Define the role of the client and designer\n\nMany of the clients you work with will not have been involved in a web project before. Even if they have they may have worked in a very different way to what you would expect. Take the time at the beginning of the project to explain their role in the design of the site.\n\nThe best approach is to emphasis that their job is to focus on the needs of their users and business. They should concentrate on the broad issues, while you worry about the details of layout, typography and colour scheme.\n\nBy clarifying what you expect from the client, you help them to provide the right kind of input throughout the process.\n\n2. Understand the business\n\nBefore you open up Photoshop or put pen to paper, take the time to make sure you properly understand not only the brief but the organization behind the site. By understanding their business objectives, organizational structure and marketing strategy your design decisions will be better informed.\n\nYou cannot rely upon the brief to provide all of the information you need. It is important to dig deeper and get as good an understanding of their business as possible. This information will prove invaluable when justifying your design decisions.\n\n3. Understand the users\n\nWe all like to think of ourselves as user centric designers, but exactly how much effort do you put into knowing your users before beginning the design process?\n\nTake the time to really understand them the best you can. Try to meet with some real prospective users and get to know their needs. Failing that work with the client to produce user personas to help picture exactly what kind of people they are. \n\nUnderstanding your users not only improves the quality of your work, but also helps move the discussion away from the personal preferences of the client, to the people who\u2019s opinion really matters.\n\n4. Avoid multiple concepts\n\nMany clients like the idea of having the option to choose between multiple design concepts. However, although on the surface this might appear to be a good idea it can ultimately be counterproductive for design sign off.\n\nIn a world of limited budgets it is unwise to waste money on producing designs that are ultimately going to be thrown away. The resources would be better spent refining a single design through multiple iterations.\n\nWhat is more, multiple concepts often cause confusion rather than clarity. It is common for a client to request one element from one design and another from the second. As any designer knows this seldom works.\n\n5. Use mood boards\n\nClients are often better at expressing what they don\u2019t like than what they do. This is one of the reasons why they favour producing multiple design concepts. An alternative less costly approach is to create a series of mood boards. These boards contain a collection of colours, typography and imagery which represent different \u201cmoods\u201d or directions, which the design could take. \n\nMood boards are quick and easy to produce allowing you to try out various design approaches with the client without investing the time needed to produce complete design concepts. This means that by the time you develop a concept the client and designer have already established an understanding about the direction of the design.\n\n6. Say what you like\n\nIt is not uncommon for a client to ask for a design that looks similar to another site they like. The problem is that it can often be hard to establish exactly what it is about the site that attracts them. Also in many cases the sites they like are not something you are keen to emulate!\n\nA better approach that was suggested to me by Andy Budd is to show them sites that you think the design should emulate. Keep a collection of screen captures from well designed sites and pick out a few that are relevant to that particular client. Explain why you feel these designs might suit their project and ask for their feedback. If they don\u2019t like your choices then expose them to more of your collection and see what they pick out.\n\n7. Wireframe the homepage\n\nOften clients find it hard to distinguish between design and content and so sometimes reject a design on the basis that the content is not right. This is particularly true when signing off the homepage.\n\nYou may therefore find it useful to establish the homepage content before producing the design. That way once they see the design they will not be distracted by the content. One of the best ways to do this is by producing a basic wireframe consisting of a series of content boxes. Once this has been approved you will find the sign off of design much easier.\n\n8. Present your designs\n\nAlthough it is true that a good design should speak for itself it still needs presenting to the client. The client needs to understand why you have made the design decisions you have, otherwise they will judge the design purely on personal preference. \n\nTalk them through the design explaining how it meets the needs of their users and business objectives. Refer to the mood boards and preferred sites the client approved and explain how the design is a continuation of those. Never simply email the design through and hope the client interprets your work correctly!\n\n9. Provide written supporting material\n\nUnfortunately, no matter how well you justify the design to the client he is almost certain to want to show it to others. He may need his bosses approval or require internal buy in. At the very least he is going to want to get a second opinion from a friend or colleague.\n\nThe problem with this is that you are not going to be there to present to these people in the same way you did for the client. You cannot expect the client to present your ideas as well as you did. The reality is that you have lost control of how the design is perceived.\n\nOne way to minimize this problem is to provide written documentation supporting the design. This can be a summary of the presentation you gave to the client and allows him to distribute this along with the design. By putting a written explanation with the design you ensure that everybody who sees it gets the same message.\n\n10. Control the feedback\n\nMy final piece of advice for managing design sign off is to control the way you receive feedback. A clients natural inclination will be to give you his personal opinion on the design. This is reinforced because you ask them what they think of the design. Instead ask them what their users will think of the design. Encourage them to think from the users perspective.\n\nAlso encourage them to keep that overarching focus I talked about in my first tip. Their tendency will be to try to improve the design, however that should be your problem not theirs. The role of a client should be to defend the needs of their users and business not do the design. Encourage the client to make comments such as \u201cI am not sure that my female users will like the masculine colours\u201d rather than \u201ccan we make the whole design pink.\u201d It is down to them to identify the problems and for you as the designer to find the most appropriate solution.\n\nSo there you have it. My 10 tips to improve design sign off. Will this ensure design approval every time? Unfortunately not. However it should certainly help smooth the way.", "year": "2007", "author": "Paul Boag", "author_slug": "paulboag", "published": "2007-12-10T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2007/10-ways-to-get-design-approval/", "topic": "business"}
{"rowid": 176, "title": "What makes a website successful? It might not be what you expect!", "contents": "What makes some sites succeed and others fail? Put another way, when you are asked to redesign an existing website, what problems are you looking out for and where do you concentrate your efforts?\n\nI would argue that as web designers we spend too much time looking at the wrong kind of problem.\n\nI recently ran a free open door consultancy clinic to celebrate the launch of my new book (yes I know, two shameless plugs in one sentence). This involved various website owners volunteering their sites for review. Both myself and the audience then provided feedback.\n\nWhat quickly became apparent is that the feedback being given by the audience was biased towards design and development.\n\nAlthough their comments were excellent it focused almost exclusively on the quality of code, site aesthetics and usability. To address these issues in isolation is similar to treating symptoms and ignoring the underlying illness.\n\nCure the illness not the symptoms\n\nPoor design, bad usability and terribly written code are symptoms of bigger problems. Often when we endeavour to address these symptoms, we meet resistance from our clients and become frustrated. This is because our clients are still struggling with fundamental concepts we take for granted.\n\nBefore we can address issues of aesthetics, usability and code, we need to tackle business objectives, calls to action and user tasks. Without dealing with these fundamental principles our clients\u2019 website will fail.\n\nLet me address each in turn:\n\nUnderstand the business objectives\n\nDo you ask your clients why they have a website? It feels like an obvious question. However, it is surprising how many clients do not have an answer.\n\nWithout having a clear idea of the site\u02bcs business objectives, the client has no way to know whether it is succeeding. This means they have no justification for further investment and that leads to quibbling over every penny.\n\nHowever most importantly, without clearly defined business aims they have no standard against which to base their decisions. Everything becomes subjective and that will inevitably lead to problems.\n\nBefore we start discussing design, usability and development, we need to focus our clients on establishing concrete business objectives. This will provide a framework for decision making during the development phase.\n\nThis will not only help the client make decisions, it will also focus them on the business and away from micro managing the design.\n\nEstablish clear calls to action\n\nOnce business objectives have been set this opens up the possibility to establish clear calls to action.\n\nI am amazed at how few website owners can name their calls to action. However, I am even more staggered at how few web designers ask about them.\n\nCalls to action are not just limited to ecommerce sites. Whether you are asking people to sign up for a newsletter or complete a contact us form, every site should have a desired objective for users.\n\nWhat is more, each page of a site should have micro calls to action that always draw users on and never leave them at a dead end.\n\nWithout clearly defined calls to action you cannot successfully design a site, structure the user experience or measure its success. They bring focus to the site and encourage the client to concentrate their efforts on helping people reach those goals.\n\nOf course in order to know if a call to action is going to work, it is necessary to do some user testing.\n\nTest against the right tasks\n\nAs web designers we all like to boast about being \u02bbuser centric\u02bc whatever that means! However, in reality I think many of us are paying lip service to the subject.\n\nSure, we ask our clients about who their users are and maybe even do some usability testing. However, usability testing is no good if we are not asking the right questions.\n\nAgain we find ourselves working on a superficial level rather than tackling the deeper issues.\n\nClients find it relatively easy to tell you who their target audience is. Admittedly the list they come back with is often overly long and contains a lot of edge cases. However, where they begin to struggle is articulating what these users will want to achieve on the website. They know who they want to reach. However, they cannot always tell you why those people would be interested in the site.\n\nThese user tasks are another fundamental building block for any successful website. Although it is important for a website owner to understand what their objectives are and what they want users to do, it is even more important that they understand the users objectives as well.\n\nAgain, this provides context for the decisions they are making about design, usability and functionality. Without it the site will become self serving, largely ignoring the needs of users.\n\nUser tasks help to focus the client\u02bcs mind on the needs of their user, rather than what they can get out of them.\n\nSo am I claiming that design, usability and code do not matter? Well the shocking truth is that to some extent I am!\n\nThe shocking truth\n\nWhether we like it or not there is significant evidence that you can create a successful website with bad design, terrible code and without ever running a usability test session.\n\nYou only need to look at the design of Craigslist or the code of Amazon to see that this is true.\n\nHowever, I do not believe it is possible to build a successful website without business objectives, calls to action and a clear idea of user tasks.\n\nDo not misunderstand me. I do believe design, usability and code matters. I just believe that they only matter if the fundamentals are already in place. These things improve a solid foundation but are no use in their own right.\n\nAs web designers it is our responsibility to ensure fundamental questions are being asked, before we start exploring other issues. If we do not, our websites will look great, be well coded and have gone through endless usability tests, however it will not be truly successful.", "year": "2009", "author": "Paul Boag", "author_slug": "paulboag", "published": "2009-12-04T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2009/what-makes-a-website-successful/", "topic": "business"}
{"rowid": 219, "title": "Speed Up Your Site with Delayed Content", "contents": "Speed remains one of the most important factors influencing the success of any website, and the first rule of performance (according to Yahoo!) is reducing the number of HTTP requests. Over the last few years we\u2019ve seen techniques like sprites and combo CSS/JavaScript files used to reduce the number of HTTP requests. But there\u2019s one area where large numbers of HTTP requests are still a fact of life: the small avatars attached to the comments on articles like this one.\n\nAvatars\n\nMany sites like 24 ways use a fantastic service called Gravatar to provide user images. As a user, you can sign up to Gravatar, give them your e-mail address, and upload an image to represent you. Sites can then include your image by generating a one way hash of your e-mail address and using that to build an image URL. For example, the markup for the comments on this page looks something like this:\n\n<div>\n\t<h4><a href=\"http://allinthehead.com/\">\n\t\t<img src=\"http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=13734b0cb20708f79e730809c29c3c48&size=100\" class=\"gravatar\" alt=\"\" height=\"100\" width=\"100\" />\n    Drew McLellan\n\t</a></h4>\n\t<p>This is a great article!</p>\n</div>\n\nThe Gravatar URL contains two parts. 100 is the size in pixels of the image we want.  13734b0cb20708f79e730809c29c3c48 is an MD5 digest of Drew\u2019s e-mail address. Using MD5 means we can request an image for a user without sharing their e-mail address with anyone who views the source of the page.\n\nSo what\u2019s wrong with avatars?\n\nThe problem is that a popular article can easily get hundreds of comments, and every one of them means another image has to be individually requested from Gravatar\u2019s servers. Each request is small and the Gravatar servers are fast but, when you add them up, it can easily add seconds to the rendering time of a page. Worse, they can delay the loading of more important assets like the CSS required to render the main content of the page.\n\nThese images aren\u2019t critical to the page, and don\u2019t need to be loaded up front. Let\u2019s see if we can delay loading them until everything else is done. That way we can give the impression that our site has loaded quickly even if some requests are still happening in the background.\n\nDelaying image loading\n\nThe first problem we find is that there\u2019s no way to prevent Internet Explorer, Chrome or Safari from loading an image without removing it from the HTML itself. Tricks like removing the images on the fly with JavaScript don\u2019t work, as the browser has usually started requesting the images before we get a chance to stop it.\n\nRemoving the images from the HTML means that people without JavaScript enabled in their browser won\u2019t see avatars. As Drew mentioned at the start of the month, this can affect a large number of people, and we can\u2019t completely ignore them. But most sites already have a textual name attached to each comment and the avatars are just a visual enhancement. In most cases it\u2019s OK if some of our users don\u2019t see them, especially if it speeds up the experience for the other 98%.\n\nRemoving the images from the source of our page also means we\u2019ll need to put them back at some point, so we need to keep a record of which images need to be requested. All Gravatar images have the same URL format; the only thing that changes is the e-mail hash. Storing this is a great use of HTML5 data attributes.\n\nHTML5 data what?\n\nData attributes are a new feature in HTML5. The latest version of the spec says:\n\n\n\tA custom data attribute is an attribute in no namespace whose name starts with the string \u201cdata-\u201d, has at least one character after the hyphen, is XML-compatible, and contains no characters in the range U+0041 to U+005A (LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A to LATIN CAPITAL LETTER Z).\n[\u2026]\nCustom data attributes are intended to store custom data private to the page or application, for which there are no more appropriate attributes or elements. These attributes are not intended for use by software that is independent of the site that uses the attributes.\n\n\nIn other words, they\u2019re attributes of an HTML element that start with \u201cdata-\u201d which you can use to share data with scripts running on your site. They\u2019re great for adding small bits of metadata that don\u2019t fit into an existing markup pattern the way microformats do.\n\nLet\u2019s see this in action\n\nTake a look at the markup for comments again:\n\n<div>\n\t<h4><a href=\"http://allinthehead.com/\">\n\t\t<img src=\"http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=13734b0cb20708f79e730809c29c3c48&size=100\" class=\"gravatar\" alt=\"\" height=\"100\" width=\"100\" />\n    Drew McLellan\n\t</a></h4>\n\t<p>This is a great article!</p>\n</div>\n\nLet\u2019s replace the <img> element with a data-gravatar-hash attribute on the <a> element:\n\n<div>\n\t<h4><a href=\"http://allinthehead.com/\" data-gravatar-hash=\"13734b0cb20708f79e730809c29c3c48\">\n    Drew McLellan\n\t</a></h4>\n\t<p>This is a great article!</p>\n</div>\n\nOnce we\u2019ve done this, we\u2019ll need a small bit of JavaScript to find all these attributes, and replace them with images after the page has loaded. Here\u2019s an example using jQuery:\n\n$(window).load(function() {\n\t$('a[data-gravatar-hash]').prepend(function(index){\n\t\tvar hash = $(this).attr('data-gravatar-hash')\n\t\treturn '<img width=\"100\" height=\"100\" alt=\"\" src=\"http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?size=100&gravatar_id=' + hash + '\">'\n\t})\n})\n\nThis code waits until everything on the page is loaded, then uses jQuery.prepend to insert an image into every link containing a data-gravatar-hash attribute. It\u2019s short and relatively simple, but in tests it reduced the rendering time of a sample page from over three seconds to well under one.\n\nFinishing touches\n\nWe still need to consider the appearance of the page before the avatars have loaded. When our script adds extra content to the page it will cause a browser reflow, which is visually annoying. We can avoid this by using CSS to reserve some space for each image before it\u2019s inserted into the HTML:\n\n#comments div {\n\tpadding-left: 110px;\n\tmin-height: 100px;\n\tposition: relative;\n}\n#comments div h4 img {\n\tdisplay: block;\n\tposition: absolute;\n\ttop: 0;\n\tleft: 0;\n}\n\nIn a real world example, we\u2019ll also find that the HTML for a comment is more varied as many users don\u2019t provide a web page link. We can make small changes to our JavaScript and CSS to handle this case.\n\nPut this all together and you get this example.\n\nTaking this idea further\n\nThere\u2019s no reason to limit this technique to sites using Gravatar; we can use similar code to delay loading any images that don\u2019t need to be present immediately. For example, this year\u2019s redesigned Flickr photo page uses a \u201cdata-defer-src\u201d attribute to describe any image that doesn\u2019t need to be loaded straight away, including avatars and map tiles.\n\nYou also don\u2019t have to limit yourself to loading the extra resources once the page loads. You can get further bandwidth savings by waiting until the user takes an action before downloading extra assets. Amazon has taken this tactic to the extreme on its product pages \u2013 extra content is loaded as you scroll down the page.\n\nSo next time you\u2019re building a page, take a few minutes to think about which elements are peripheral and could be delayed to allow more important content to appear as quickly as possible.", "year": "2010", "author": "Paul Hammond", "author_slug": "paulhammond", "published": "2010-12-18T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2010/speed-up-your-site-with-delayed-content/", "topic": "ux"}
{"rowid": 36, "title": "Naming Things", "contents": "There are only two hard things in computer science: cache invalidation and naming things.\nPhil Karlton\n\n\nBeing a professional web developer means taking responsibility for the code you write and ensuring it is comprehensible to others. Having a documented code style is one means of achieving this, although the size and type of project you\u2019re working on will dictate the conventions used and how rigorously they are enforced.\n\nWorking in-house may mean working with multiple developers, perhaps in distributed teams, who are all committing changes \u2013 possibly to a significant codebase \u2013 at the same time. Left unchecked, this codebase can become unwieldy. Coding conventions ensure everyone can contribute, and help build a product that works as a coherent whole.\n\nEven on smaller projects, perhaps working within an agency or by yourself, at some point the resulting product will need to be handed over to a third party. It\u2019s sensible, therefore, to ensure that your code can be understood by those who\u2019ll eventually take ownership of it.\n\nPut simply, code is read more often than it is written or changed. A consistent and predictable naming scheme can make code easier for other developers to understand, improve and maintain, presumably leaving them free to worry about cache invalidation.\n\nLet\u2019s talk about semantics\n\nNames not only allow us to identify objects, but they can also help us describe the objects being identified.\n\nSemantics (the meaning or interpretation of words) is the cornerstone of standards-based web development. Using appropriate HTML elements allows us to create documents and applications that have implicit structural meaning. Thanks to HTML5, the vocabulary we can choose from has grown even larger.\n\nHTML elements provide one level of meaning: a widely accepted description of a document\u2019s underlying structure. It\u2019s only with the mutual agreement of browser vendors and developers that <p> indicates a paragraph.\n\nYet (with the exception of widely accepted microdata and microformat schemas) only HTML elements convey any meaning that can be parsed consistently by user agents. While using semantic values for class names is a noble endeavour, they provide no additional information to the visitor of a website; take them away and a document will have exactly the same semantic value.\n\nI didn\u2019t always think this was the case, but the real world has a habit of changing your opinion. Much of my thinking around semantics has been informed by the writing of my peers. In \u201cAbout HTML semantics and front-end architecture\u201d, Nicholas Gallagher wrote:\n\n\n\tThe important thing for class name semantics in non-trivial applications is that they be driven by pragmatism and best serve their primary purpose \u2013 providing meaningful, flexible, and reusable presentational/behavioural hooks for developers to use.\n\n\nThese thoughts are echoed by Harry Roberts in his CSS Guidelines:\n\n\n\tThe debate surrounding semantics has raged for years, but it is important that we adopt a more pragmatic, sensible approach to naming things in order to work more efficiently and effectively. Instead of focussing on \u2018semantics\u2019, look more closely at sensibility and longevity \u2013 choose names based on ease of maintenance, not for their perceived meaning.\n\n\nNaming methodologies\n\nFront-end development has undergone a revolution in recent years. As the projects we\u2019ve worked on have grown larger and more important, our development practices have matured. The pros and cons of object-orientated approaches to CSS can be endlessly debated, yet their introduction has highlighted the usefulness of having documented naming schemes.\n\nJonathan Snook\u2019s SMACSS (Scalable and Modular Architecture for CSS) collects style rules into five categories: base, layout, module, state and theme. This grouping makes it clear what each rule does, and is aided by a naming convention:\n\n\n\tBy separating rules into the five categories, naming convention is beneficial for immediately understanding which category a particular style belongs to and its role within the overall scope of the page. On large projects, it is more likely to have styles broken up across multiple files. In these cases, naming convention also makes it easier to find which file a style belongs to.\n\n\tI like to use a prefix to differentiate between layout, state and module rules. For layout, I use l- but layout- would work just as well. Using prefixes like grid- also provide enough clarity to separate layout styles from other styles. For state rules, I like is- as in is-hidden or is-collapsed. This helps describe things in a very readable way.\n\n\nSMACSS is more a set of suggestions than a rigid framework, so its ideas can be incorporated into your own practice. Nicholas Gallagher\u2019s SUIT CSS project is far more strict in its naming conventions:\n\n\n\tSUIT CSS relies on structured class names and meaningful hyphens (i.e., not using hyphens merely to separate words). This helps to work around the current limits of applying CSS to the DOM (i.e., the lack of style encapsulation), and to better communicate the relationships between classes.\n\n\nOver the last year, I\u2019ve favoured a BEM-inspired approach to CSS. BEM stands for block, element, modifier, which describes the three types of rule that contribute to the style of a single component. This means that, given the following markup:\n\n<ul class=\u201csleigh\u201d>\n    <li class=\u201csleigh__reindeer sleigh__reindeer\u2013\u2013famous\u201d>Rudolph</li>\n    <li class=\u201csleigh__reindeer\u201d>Dasher</li>\n    <li class=\u201csleigh__reindeer\u201d>Dancer</li>\n    <li class=\u201csleigh__reindeer\u201d>Prancer</li>\n    <li class=\u201csleigh__reindeer\u201d>Vixen</li>\n    <li class=\u201csleigh__reindeer\u201d>Comet</li>\n    <li class=\u201csleigh__reindeer\u201d>Cupid</li>\n    <li class=\u201csleigh__reindeer\u201d>Dunder</li>\n    <li class=\u201csleigh__reindeer\u201d>Blixem</li>\n</ul>\n\nI know that:\n\n\n\t.sleigh is a containing block or component.\n\t.sleigh__reindeer is used only as a descendent element of .sleigh.\n\t.sleigh__reindeer\u2013\u2013famous is used only as a modifier of .sleigh__reindeer.\n\n\nWith this naming scheme in place, I know which styles relate to a particular component, and which are shared. Beyond reducing specificity-related head-scratching, this approach has given me a framework within which I can consistently label items, and has sped up my workflow considerably.\n\nEach of these methodologies shows that any robust CSS naming convention will have clear rules around case (lowercase, camelCase, PascalCase) and the use of special (allowed) characters like hyphens and underscores.\n\nWhat makes for a good name?\n\nRegardless of higher-level conventions, there\u2019s no getting away from the fact that, at some point, we\u2019re still going to have to name things. Recognising that classes should be named with other developers in mind, what makes for a good name?\n\nUnderstandable\n\nThe most important aspect is for a name to be understandable. Words used in your project may come from a variety of sources: some may be widely understood, and others only be recognised by people working within a particular environment.\n\n\n\tCulture\nMost words you\u2019ll choose will have common currency outside the world of web development, although they may have a particular interpretation among developers (think menu, list, input). However, words may have a narrower cultural significance; for example, in Germany and other German-speaking countries, impressum is the term used for legally mandated statements of ownership.\n\tIndustry\nIndustries often use specific terms to describe common business practices and concepts. Publishing has a number of these (headline, standfirst, masthead, colophon\u2026) all have well understood meanings \u2013 and not all of them are relevant to online usage.\n\tOrganisation\nCompanies may have internal names (or nicknames) for their products and services. The Guardian is rife with such names: bisons (and buffalos), pixies (and super-pixies), bentos (and mini-bentos)\u2026 all of which mean something very different outside the organisation. Although such names can be useful inside smaller teams, in larger organisations they can become a barrier to entry, a sort of secret code used among employees who have been around long enough to know what they mean.\n\tProduct\nYour team will undoubtedly have created names for specific features or interface components used in your product. For example, at Clearleft we coined the term gravigation for a navigation bar that was pinned to the bottom of the viewport. Elements of a visual design language may have names, too. Transport for London\u2019s bar and circle logo is known internally as the roundel, while Nike\u2019s logo is called the swoosh. Branding agencies often christen colours within a brand palette, too, either to evoke aspects of the identity or to indicate intended usage.\n\n\nOnce you recognise the origin of the words you use, you\u2019ll be better able to judge their appropriateness. Using Latin words for class names may satisfy a need to use semantic-sounding terms but, unless you work in a company whose employees have a basic grasp of Latin, a degree of translation will be required. Military ranks might be a clever way of declaring sizes without implying actual values, but I\u2019d venture most people outside the armed forces don\u2019t know how they\u2019re ordered.\n\nObvious\n\nQuite often, the first name that comes into your head will be the best option. Names that obliquely reference the function of a class (e.g. receptacle instead of container, kevlar instead of no-bullets) only serve to add an additional layer of abstraction. Don\u2019t overthink it!\n\nOne way of knowing if the names you use are well understood is to look at what similar concepts are called in existing vocabularies. schema.org, Dublin Core and the BBC\u2019s ontologies are all useful sources for object names.\n\nFunctional\n\nWhile we\u2019ve learned to avoid using presentational classes, there remains a tension between naming things based on their content, and naming them for their intended presentation or behaviour (which may change at different breakpoints). Rather than think about a component\u2019s appearance or behaviour, instead look to its function, its purpose. To clarify, ask what a component\u2019s function is, and not how the component functions.\n\nFor example, the Guardian\u2019s internal content system uses the following names for different types of image placement: supporting, showcase and thumbnail, with inline being the default. These options make no promise of the resulting position on a webpage (or smartphone app, or television screen\u2026), but do suggest intended use, and therefore imply the likely presentation.\n\nConsistent\n\nBeing consistent in your approach to names will allow for easier naming of successive components, and extending the vocabulary when necessary. For example, a predictably named hierarchy might use names like primary and secondary. Should another level need to be added, tertiary is clearly be preferred over third.\n\nAppropriate\n\nYour project will feature a mix of style rules. Some will perform utility functions (clearing floats, removing bullets from a list, reseting margins), while others will perform specific functions used only once or twice in a project. Names should reflect this. For commonly used classes, be generic; for unique components be more specific.\n\nIt\u2019s also worth remembering that you can use multiple classes on an element, so combining both generic and specific can give you a powerful modular design system:\n\n\n\tGeneric: list\n\tSpecific: naughty-children\n\tCombined: naughty-children list\n\n\nIf following the BEM methodology, you might use the following classes:\n\n\n\tGeneric: list\n\tSpecific: list\u2013\u2013nice-children\n\tCombined: list list\u2013\u2013nice-children\n\n\nExtensible\n\nGood naming schemes can be extended. One way of achieving this is to use namespaces, which are basically a way of grouping related names under a higher-level term.\n\nMicroformats are a good example of a well-designed naming scheme, with many of its vocabularies taking property names from existing and related specifications (e.g. hCard is a 1:1 representation of vCard). Microformats 2 goes one step further by grouping properties under several namespaces:\n\n\n\th-* for root class names (e.g. h-card)\n\tp-* for simple (text) properties (e.g. p-name)\n\tu-* for URL properties (e.g. u-photo)\n\tdt-* for date/time properties (e.g. dt-bday)\n\te-* for embedded markup properties (e.g. e-note)\n\n\nThe inclusion of namespaces is a massive improvement over the earlier specification, but the downside is that microformats now occupy five separate namespaces. This might be problematic if you are using u-* for your utility classes. While nothing will break, your naming system won\u2019t be as robust, so plan accordingly.\n\n(Note: Microformats perform a very specific function, separate from any presentational concerns. It\u2019s therefore considered best practice to not use microformat classes as styling hooks, but instead use additional classes that relate to the function of the component and adhere to your own naming conventions.)\n\nShort\n\nNames should be as long as required, but no longer. When looking for words to describe a particular function, I try to look for single words where possible. Avoid abbreviations unless they are understood within the contexts described above. rrp is fine if labelling a recommended retail price in an online shop, but not very helpful if used to mean ragged-right paragraph, for example.\n\nFun!\n\nFinally, names can be an opportunity to have some fun! Names can give character to a project, be it by providing an outlet for in-jokes or adding little easter eggs for those inclined to look.\n\nThe copyright statement on Apple\u2019s website has long been named sosumi, a word that has a nice little history inside Apple. Until recently, the hamburger menu icon on the Guardian website was labelled honest-burger, after the developer\u2019s favourite burger restaurant.\n\nA few thoughts on preprocessors\n\nCSS preprocessors have solved a lot of problems, but they have an unfortunate downside: they require you to name yet more things! Whereas we needed to worry only about style rules, now we need names for variables, mixins, functions\u2026 oh my!\n\nA second article could be written about naming these, so for now I\u2019ll offer just a few thoughts. The first is to note that preprocessors make it easier to change things, as they allow for DRYer code. So while the names of variables are important (and the advice in this article still very much applies), you can afford to relax a little.\n\nLooking to name colour variables? If possible, find out if colours have been assigned names in a brand palette. If not, use obvious names (based on appearance or function, depending on your preference) and adapt as the palette grows. If it becomes difficult to name colours that are too similar, I\u2019d venture that the problem lies with the design rather than the naming scheme.\n\nThe same is true for responsive breakpoints. Preprocessors allow you to move awkward naming conventions out of the markup and into the CSS. Although terms like mobile, tablet and desktop are not desirable given the need to think about device-agnostic design, if these terms are widely understood within a product team and among stakeholders, using them will ensure everyone is using the same language (they can always be changed later).\n\nIt still feels like we\u2019re at the very beginning of understanding how preprocessors fit into a development workflow, if at all! I suspect over the next few years, best practices will emerge for all of these considerations. In the meantime, use your brain!\n\n\n\nEven with sensible rules and conventions in place, naming things can remain difficult, but hopefully I\u2019ve made this exercise a little less painful. Christmas is a time of giving, so to the developer reading your code in a year\u2019s time, why not make your gift one of clearer class names.", "year": "2014", "author": "Paul Lloyd", "author_slug": "paulrobertlloyd", "published": "2014-12-21T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2014/naming-things/", "topic": "code"}
{"rowid": 58, "title": "Beyond the Style Guide", "contents": "Much like baking a Christmas cake, designing for the web involves creating an experience in layers. Starting with a solid base that provides the core experience (the fruit cake), we can add further layers, each adding refinement (the marzipan) and delight (the icing).\nDon\u2019t worry, this isn\u2019t a misplaced cake recipe, but an evaluation of modular design and the role style guides can play in acknowledging these different concerns, be they presentational or programmatic.\nThe auteur\u2019s style guide\nAlthough trained as a graphic designer, it was only when I encountered the immediacy of the web that I felt truly empowered as a designer. Given a desire to control every aspect of the resulting experience, I slowly adopted the role of an auteur, exploring every part of the web stack: front-end to back-end, and everything in between. A few years ago, I dreaded using the command line. Today, the terminal is a permanent feature in my Dock.\nIn straddling the realms of graphic design and programming, it\u2019s the point at which they meet that I find most fascinating, with each dicipline valuing the creation of effective systems, be they for communication or code efficiency. Front-end style guides live at this intersection, demonstrating both the modularity of code and the application of visual design.\nPainting by numbers\nIn our rush to build modular systems, design frameworks have grown in popularity. While enabling quick assembly, these come at the cost of originality and creative expression \u2013 perhaps one reason why we\u2019re seeing the homogenisation of web design.\nIn editorial design, layouts should accentuate content and present it in an engaging manner. Yet on the web we see a practice that seeks templated predictability. In \u2018Design Machines\u2019 Travis Gertz argued that (emphasis added):\n\nDesign systems still feel like a novelty in screen-based design. We nerd out over grid systems and modular scales and obsess over style guides and pattern libraries. We\u2019re pretty good at using them to build repeatable components and site-wide standards, but that\u2019s sort of where it ends. [\u2026] But to stop there is to ignore the true purpose and potential of a design system.\n\nUnless we consider how interface patterns fully embrace the design systems they should be built upon, style guides may exacerbate this paint-by-numbers approach, encouraging conformance and suppressing creativity.\nAnatomy of a button\nLet\u2019s take a look at that most canonical of components, the button, and consider what we might wish to document and demonstrate in a style guide.\nThe different layers of our button component.\nContent\nThe most variable aspect of any component. Content guidelines will exert the most influence here, dictating things like tone of voice (whether we should we use stiff, formal language like \u2018Submit form\u2019, or adopt a more friendly tone, perhaps \u2018Send us your message\u2019) and appropriate language. For an internationalised interface, this may also impact word length and text direction or orientation.\nStructure\nHTML provides a limited vocabulary which we can use to structure content and add meaning. For interactive elements, the choice of element can also affect its behaviour, such as whether a button submits form data or links to another page:\n<button type=\"submit\">Button text</button>\n<a href=\"/index.html\">Button text</a>\nNote: One of the reasons I prefer to use <button> instead of <input type=\u201cbutton\u201d>, besides allowing the inclusion of content other than text, is that it has a markup structure similar to links, therefore keeping implementation differences to a minimum.\nWe should also think about each component within the broader scope of our particular product. For this we can employ a further vocabulary, which can be expressed by adding values to the class attribute. For a newspaper, we might use names like lede, standfirst and headline, while a social media application might see us reach for words like stream, action or avatar.\nPresentation\nThe appearance of a component can never be considered in isolation. Informed by its relationship to other elements, style guides may document different stylistic variations of a component, even if the underlying function remains unchanged: primary and secondary button styles, for example.\nBehaviour\nA component can exhibit various states: blank, loading, partial, error and ideal, and a style guide should reflect that. Our button component is relatively simple, yet even here we need to consider hover, focused, active and disabled states.\nTranscending layers\nThis overview reinforces Ethan\u2019s note from earlier in this series:\n\nI\u2019ve found that thinking about my design as existing in broad experience tiers \u2013 in layers \u2013 is one of the best ways of designing for the modern web.\n\nWhile it\u2019s tempting to describe a component as series of layers, certain aspects will transcend several of these. The accessibility of a component, for example, may influence the choice of language, the legibility of text, colour contrast and which affordances are provided in different states.\nVisual design language: documenting the missing piece\nEven given this small, self-contained component, we can see several concerns at play, and in reviewing our button it seems we have most things covered. However, a few questions remain unanswered. Why does it have a blue background? Why are the borders 2px thick, with a radius of 4px? Why are we using that font, at that size and with that weight?\nThese questions can be answered by our visual design language. More than a set of type choices and colour palettes, a design language can dicate common measures, ratios and the resulting grid(s) these influence. Ideally governed by a set of broader design principles, it can also inform an illustration style, the type of photography sourced or commissioned, and the behaviour of any animations.\nWhereas a style guide ensures conformity, having it underpinned by an effective design language will allow for flexibility; only by knowing the rules can you know how to break them!\nType pairings in the US Web Design Standards guide.\nFor a style guide to thoroughly articulate a visual design system, the spectrum of choices it allows for should be acknowledged. A fantastic example of this can be found in the US Web Design Standards. By virtue of being a set of standards designed to apply to a number of different sites, this guide offers a range of type pairings (that take into account performance considerations) and provides primary, secondary and tertiary palette relationships, with shades and tones thereof:\nColour palettes in the US Web Design Standards guide.\nA visual language in code form\nProperly documenting our design language in a style guide is a good start, yet even better if it can be expressed in code. This is where CSS preprocessors become a powerful ally.\nIn Sass, methods like mixins and maps can help us represent relationships between values. Variables (and CSS variables) extend the vocabulary provided natively by CSS, meaning we can describe patterns in terms of our own visual language. These tools effectively become an interface to our design system. Furthermore, they help maintain a separation of concerns, with visual presentation remaining where it should be: in our style sheets.\nTake this simple example, an article summary on a website counting down the best Christmas movies:\nThe design for our simple component example.\nOur markup is as follows, using appropriate semantic HTML elements and incorporating the vocabulary from our collection of design patterns (expressed using the BEM methodology):\n<article class=\"summary\">\n    <h1 class=\"summary__title\">\n        <a href=\"scrooged.html\">\n            <span class=\"summary__position\">12</span>\n            Scrooged (1988)\n        </a>\n    </h1>\n\n    <div class=\"summary__body\">\n        <p>It\u2019s unlikely that Bill Murray could ever have got through his career without playing a version of Scrooge\u2026</p>\n    </div>\n\n    <footer class=\"summary__meta\">\n        <strong>Director:</strong> Richard Donner<br/>\n        <strong>Stars:</strong> Bill Murray, Buddy Hackett, Karen Allen\n    </footer>\n</article>\nWe can then describe the presentation of this HTML by using Sass maps to define our palettes, mixins to include predefined font metrics, and variables to recall common measurements:\n.summary {\n    margin-bottom: ($baseline * 4)\n}\n\n.summary__title {\n    @include font-family(display-serif);\n    @include font-size(title);\n    color: palette(neutral, dark);\n    margin-bottom: ($baseline * 4);\n    border-top: $rule-height solid palette(primary, purple);\n    padding-top: ($baseline * 2);\n}\n\n.summary__position {\n    @include font-family(display-sans, 300);\n    color: palette(neutral, mid);\n}\n\n.summary__body {\n    @include font-family(text-serif);\n    @include font-size(body);\n    margin-bottom: ($baseline * 2);\n}\n\n.summary__meta {\n    @include font-family(text-sans);\n    @include font-size(caption);\n}\nOf course, this is a simplistic example for the purposes of demonstration. However, such thinking was employed at a much larger scale at the Guardian. Using a set of Sass components, complex patterns could be described using a language familar to everyone on the product team, be they a designer, developer or product owner:\nThe design of a component on the Guardian website, described in terms of its Sass-powered design system.\nUnlocking possibility\nAlongside tools like preprocessors, newer CSS layout modules like flexbox and grid layout mean the friction we\u2019ve long been accustomed to when creating layouts on the web is no longer present, and the full separation of presentation from markup is now possible. Now is the perfect time for graphic designers to advocate design systems that these developments empower, and ensure they\u2019re fully represented in both documentation and code. That way, together, we can build systems that allow for greater visual expression. After all, there\u2019s more than one way to bake a Christmas cake.", "year": "2015", "author": "Paul Lloyd", "author_slug": "paulrobertlloyd", "published": "2015-12-16T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2015/beyond-the-style-guide/", "topic": "design"}
{"rowid": 79, "title": "Responsive Images: What We Thought We Needed", "contents": "If you were to read a web designer\u2019s Christmas wish list, it would likely include a solution for displaying images responsively. For those concerned about users downloading unnecessary image data, or serving images that look blurry on high resolution displays, finding a solution has become a frustrating quest.\n\nHaving experimented with complex and sometimes devilish hacks, consensus is forming around defining new standards that could solve this problem. Two approaches have emerged.\n\nThe <picture> element markup pattern was proposed by Mat Marquis and is now being developed by the Responsive Images Community Group. By providing a means of declaring multiple sources, authors could use media queries to control which version of an image is displayed and under what conditions:\n\n<picture width=\"500\" height=\"500\">\n  <source media=\"(min-width: 45em)\" src=\"large.jpg\">\n  <source media=\"(min-width: 18em)\" src=\"med.jpg\">\n  <source src=\"small.jpg\">\n  <img src=\"small.jpg\" alt=\"\">\n  <p>Accessible text</p>\n</picture>\n\nA second proposal put forward by Apple, the srcset attribute, uses a more concise syntax intended for use with the <img> element, although it could be compatible with the <picture> element too. This would allow authors to provide a set of images, but with the decision on which to use left to the browser:\n\n<img src=\"fallback.jpg\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"small.jpg 640w 1x, small-hd.jpg 640w 2x, med.jpg 1x, med-hd.jpg 2x \">\n\nEnter Scrooge\n\n\n\tMen\u2019s courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead.\nEbenezer Scrooge\n\n\nGiven the complexity of this issue, there\u2019s a heated debate about which is the best option. Yet code belies a certain truth. That both feature verbose and opaque syntax, I\u2019m not sure either should find its way into the browser \u2013 especially as alternative approaches have yet to be fully explored.\n\nSo, as if to dampen the festive cheer, here are five reasons why I believe both proposals are largely redundant.\n\n1. We need better formats, not more markup\n\nAs we move away from designs defined with fixed pixel values, bitmap images look increasingly unsuitable. While simple images and iconography can use scalable vector formats like SVG, for detailed photographic imagery, raster formats like GIF, PNG and JPEG remain the only suitable option.\n\nThere is scope within current formats to account for varying bandwidth but this requires cooperation from browser vendors. Newer formats like JPEG2000 and WebP generate higher quality images with smaller file sizes, but aren\u2019t widely supported.\n\nWhile it\u2019s tempting to try to solve this issue by inventing new markup, the crux of it remains at the file level.\n\nDaan Jobsis\u2019s experimentation with image compression strengthens this argument. He discovered that by increasing the dimensions of a JPEG image while simultaneously reducing its quality, a smaller files could be produced, with the resulting image looking just as good on both standard and high-resolution displays.\n\nThis may be a hack in lieu of a more permanent solution, but it\u2019s applied in the right place. Easy to accomplish with existing tools and without compatibility issues, it has few downsides. Further experimentation in this area should be encouraged, with standardisation efforts more helpful if focused on developing new image formats or, preferably, extending existing ones.\n\n2. Art direction doesn\u2019t belong in markup\n\nA desired benefit of the <picture> markup pattern is to allow for greater art direction. For example, rather than scaling down images on smaller displays to the point that their content is hard to discern, we could present closer crops instead:\n\n\n\nThis can be achieved with CSS of course, although with a download penalty for those parts of an image not shown. This point may be negligible, however, since in the context of adaptable layouts, these hidden areas may end up being revealed anyway.\n\nArt direction concerns design, not content. If we wish to maintain a separation of concerns, including presentation within our markup seems misguided.\n\n3. The size of a display has little relation to the size of an image\n\nBy using media queries, the <picture> element allows authors to choose which characteristics of the screen or viewport to query for different images to be displayed.\n\nIn developing sites at Clearleft, we have noticed that the viewport is essentially arbitrary, with the size of an image\u2019s containing element more important. For example, look at how this grid of images may adapt at different viewport widths:\n\n\n\nAs we build more modular systems, components need to be adaptable in and of themselves. There is a case to be made for developing more contextual methods of querying, rather than those based on attributes of the display.\n\n4. We haven\u2019t lived with the problem long enough\n\nA key strength of the web is that the underlying platform can be continually iterated. This can also be problematic if snap judgements are made about what constitutes an improvement.\n\nThe early history of the web is littered with such examples, be it the perceived need for blinking text or inline typographic styling. To build a platform for the future, additions to it should be carefully considered. And if we want more consistent support across browsers, burdening vendors with an ever increasing list of features seems counterproductive.\n\nOnly once the need for a new feature is sufficiently proven, should we look to standardise it. Before we could declare hover effects, rounded corners and typographic styling in CSS, we used JavaScript as a polyfill. Sure, doing so was painful, but use cases were fully explored, and the CSS specification better reflected the needs of authors.\n\n5. Images and the web aesthetic\n\nThe srcset proposal has emerged from a company that markets its phones as being able to browse the real \u2013 yet squashed down, tapped and zoomable \u2013 web. Perhaps Apple should make its own website responsive before suggesting how the rest of us should do so.\n\nConverserly, while the <picture> proposal has the backing of a few respected developers and designers, it was born out of the work Mat Marquis and Filament Group did for the Boston Globe. As the first large-scale responsive design, this was a landmark project that ignited the responsive web design movement and proved its worth. But it was the first.\n\nIts design shares a vernacular to that of contemporary newspaper websites, with a columnar, image-laden and densely packed layout. Compared to more recent examples \u2013 Quartz, The Next Web and the New York Times Skimmer \u2013 it feels out of step with the future direction of news sites. In seeking out a truer aesthetic for the web in which software interfaces have greater influence, we might discover that the need for responsive images isn\u2019t as great as originally thought.\n\n\n\nBuilding for the future\n\nWith responsive design, we\u2019ve accepted the idea that a fully fluid layout, rather than a set of fixed layouts, is best suited to the web\u2019s unpredictable nature. Current responsive image proposals are antithetical to this approach.\n\nWe need solutions that lack complexity, are device-agnostic and work within existing workflows. Any proposal that requires different versions of the same image to be created, is likely to have to acquiesce under the pressure of reality.\n\nWhile it\u2019s easy to get distracted about the size and quality of an image, and how we might choose to serve it, often the simplest solution is not to include it at all. After years of gluttonous design practice, in which fast connections and expansive display sizes were an accepted norm, we have got use to filling pages with needless images and countless items of page furniture.\n\nTo design more adaptable experiences, the presence of every element needs to be questioned, for its existence requires additional data to be downloaded or futher complexity within a design system. Conditional loading techniques mean that the inclusion of images is no longer a binary choice, but can instead appear in a progressively enhanced manner.\n\nSo here is my proposal. Instead of spending the next year worrying about responsive images, let\u2019s embrace the constraints of the medium, and seek out new solutions that can work within them.", "year": "2012", "author": "Paul Lloyd", "author_slug": "paulrobertlloyd", "published": "2012-12-11T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2012/responsive-images-what-we-thought-we-needed/", "topic": "code"}
{"rowid": 252, "title": "Turn Jekyll up to Eleventy", "contents": "Sometimes it pays not to over complicate things. While many of the sites we use on a daily basis require relational databases to manage their content and dynamic pages to respond to user input, for smaller, simpler sites, serving pre-rendered static HTML is usually a much cheaper \u2014 and more secure \u2014 option. \nThe JAMstack (JavaScript, reusable APIs, and prebuilt Markup) is a popular marketing term for this way of building websites, but in some ways it\u2019s a return to how things were in the early days of the web, before developers started tinkering with CGI scripts or Personal HomePage. Indeed, my website has always served pre-rendered HTML; first with the aid of Movable Type and more recently using Jekyll, which Anna wrote about in 2013.\nBy combining three approachable languages \u2014 Markdown for content, YAML for data and Liquid for templating \u2014 the ergonomics of Jekyll found broad appeal, influencing the design of the many static site generators that followed. But Jekyll is not without its faults. Aside from notoriously slow build times, it\u2019s also built using Ruby. While this is an elegant programming language, it is yet another ecosystem to understand and manage, and often alongside one we already use: JavaScript. For all my time using Jekyll, I would think to myself \u201cthis, but in Node\u201d. Thankfully, one of Santa\u2019s elves (Zach Leatherman) granted my Atwoodian wish and placed such a static site generator under my tree.\nIntroducing Eleventy\nEleventy is a more flexible alternative Jekyll. Besides being written in Node, it\u2019s less strict about how to organise files and, in addition to Liquid, supports other templating languages like EJS, Pug, Handlebars and Nunjucks. Best of all, its build times are significantly faster (with future optimisations promising further gains).\nAs content is saved using the familiar combination of YAML front matter and Markdown, transitioning from Jekyll to Eleventy may seem like a reasonable idea. Yet as I\u2019ve discovered, there are a few gotchas. If you\u2019ve been considering making the switch, here are a few tips and tricks to help you on your way1.\nNote: Throughout this article, I\u2019ll be converting Matt Cone\u2019s Markdown Guide site as an example. If you want to follow along, start by cloning the git repository, and then change into the project directory:\ngit clone https://github.com/mattcone/markdown-guide.git\ncd markdown-guide\nBefore you start\nIf you\u2019ve used tools like Grunt, Gulp or Webpack, you\u2019ll be familiar with Node.js but, if you\u2019ve been exclusively using Jekyll to compile your assets as well as generate your HTML, now\u2019s the time to install Node.js and set up your project to work with its package manager, NPM:\n\nInstall Node.js:\n\nMac: If you haven\u2019t already, I recommend installing Homebrew, a package manager for the Mac. Then in the Terminal type brew install node.\nWindows: Download the Windows installer from the Node.js website and follow the instructions.\n\nInitiate NPM: Ensure you are in the directory of your project and then type npm init. This command will ask you a few questions before creating a file called package.json. Like RubyGems\u2019s Gemfile, this file contains a list of your project\u2019s third-party dependencies.\n\nIf you\u2019re managing your site with Git, make sure to add node_modules to your .gitignore file too. Unlike RubyGems, NPM stores its dependencies alongside your project files. This folder can get quite large, and as it contains binaries compiled to work with the host computer, it shouldn\u2019t be version controlled. Eleventy will also honour the contents of this file, meaning anything you want Git to ignore, Eleventy will ignore too.\nInstalling Eleventy\nWith Node.js installed and your project setup to work with NPM, we can now install Eleventy as a dependency:\nnpm install --save-dev @11ty/eleventy\nIf you open package.json you should see the following:\n\u2026\n\"devDependencies\": {\n  \"@11ty/eleventy\": \"^0.6.0\"\n}\n\u2026\nWe can now run Eleventy from the command line using NPM\u2019s npx command. For example, to covert the README.md file to HTML, we can run the following:\nnpx eleventy --input=README.md --formats=md\nThis command will generate a rendered HTML file at _site/README/index.html. Like Jekyll, Eleventy shares the same default name for its output directory (_site), a pattern we will see repeatedly during the transition.\nConfiguration\nWhereas Jekyll uses the declarative YAML syntax for its configuration file, Eleventy uses JavaScript. This allows its options to be scripted, enabling some powerful possibilities as we\u2019ll see later on.\nWe\u2019ll start by creating our configuration file (.eleventy.js), copying the relevant settings in _config.yml over to their equivalent options:\nmodule.exports = function(eleventyConfig) {\n  return {\n    dir: {\n      input: \"./\",      // Equivalent to Jekyll's source property\n      output: \"./_site\" // Equivalent to Jekyll's destination property\n    }\n  };\n};\nA few other things to bear in mind:\n\n\nWhereas Jekyll allows you to list folders and files to ignore under its exclude property, Eleventy looks for these values inside a file called .eleventyignore (in addition to .gitignore).\n\nBy default, Eleventy uses markdown-it to parse Markdown. If your content uses advanced syntax features (such as abbreviations, definition lists and footnotes), you\u2019ll need to pass Eleventy an instance of this (or another) Markdown library configured with the relevant options and plugins.\n\nLayouts\nOne area Eleventy currently lacks flexibility is the location of layouts, which must reside within the _includes directory (see this issue on GitHub).\nWanting to keep our layouts together, we\u2019ll move them from _layouts to _includes/layouts, and then update references to incorporate the layouts sub-folder. We could update the layout: frontmatter property in each of our content files, but another option is to create aliases in Eleventy\u2019s config:\nmodule.exports = function(eleventyConfig) {\n  // Aliases are in relation to the _includes folder\n  eleventyConfig.addLayoutAlias('about', 'layouts/about.html');\n  eleventyConfig.addLayoutAlias('book', 'layouts/book.html');\n  eleventyConfig.addLayoutAlias('default', 'layouts/default.html');\n\n  return {\n    dir: {\n      input: \"./\",\n      output: \"./_site\"\n    }\n  };\n}\nDetermining which template language to use\nEleventy will transform Markdown (.md) files using Liquid by default, but we\u2019ll need to tell Eleventy how to process other files that are using Liquid templates. There are a few ways to achieve this, but the easiest is to use file extensions. In our case, we have some files in our api folder that we want to process with Liquid and output as JSON. By appending the .liquid file extension (i.e. basic-syntax.json becomes basic-syntax.json.liquid), Eleventy will know what to do.\nVariables\nOn the surface, Jekyll and Eleventy appear broadly similar, but as each models its content and data a little differently, some template variables will need updating.\nSite variables\nAlongside build settings, Jekyll let\u2019s you store common values in its configuration file which can be accessed in our templates via the site.* namespace. For example, in our Markdown Guide, we have the following values:\ntitle: \"Markdown Guide\"\nurl: https://www.markdownguide.org\nbaseurl: \"\"\nrepo: http://github.com/mattcone/markdown-guide\ncomments: false\nauthor:\n  name: \"Matt Cone\"\nog_locale: \"en_US\"\nEleventy\u2019s configuration uses JavaScript which is not suited to storing values like this. However, like Jekyll, we can use data files to store common values. If we add our site-wide values to a JSON file inside a folder called _data and name this file site.json, we can keep the site.* namespace and leave our variables unchanged.\n{\n  \"title\": \"Markdown Guide\",\n  \"url\": \"https://www.markdownguide.org\",\n  \"baseurl\": \"\",\n  \"repo\": \"http://github.com/mattcone/markdown-guide\",\n  \"comments\": false,\n  \"author\": {\n    \"name\": \"Matt Cone\"\n  },\n  \"og_locale\": \"en_US\"\n}\nPage variables\nThe table below shows a mapping of common page variables. As a rule, frontmatter properties are accessed directly, whereas derived metadata values (things like URLs, dates etc.) get prefixed with the page.* namespace:\n\n\n\nJekyll\nEleventy\n\n\n\n\npage.url\npage.url\n\n\npage.date\npage.date\n\n\npage.path\npage.inputPath\n\n\npage.id\npage.outputPath\n\n\npage.name\npage.fileSlug\n\n\npage.content\ncontent\n\n\npage.title\ntitle\n\n\npage.foobar\nfoobar\n\n\n\nWhen iterating through pages, frontmatter values are available via the data object while content is available via templateContent:\n\n\n\nJekyll\nEleventy\n\n\n\n\nitem.url\nitem.url\n\n\nitem.date\nitem.date\n\n\nitem.path\nitem.inputPath\n\n\nitem.name\nitem.fileSlug\n\n\nitem.id\nitem.outputPath\n\n\nitem.content\nitem.templateContent\n\n\nitem.title\nitem.data.title\n\n\nitem.foobar\nitem.data.foobar\n\n\n\nIdeally the discrepancy between page and item variables will change in a future version (see this GitHub issue), making it easier to understand the way Eleventy structures its data.\nPagination variables\nWhereas Jekyll\u2019s pagination feature is limited to paginating posts on one page, Eleventy allows you to paginate any collection of documents or data. Given this disparity, the changes to pagination are more significant, but this table shows a mapping of equivalent variables:\n\n\n\nJekyll\nEleventy\n\n\n\n\npaginator.page\npagination.pageNumber\n\n\npaginator.per_page\npagination.size\n\n\npaginator.posts\npagination.items\n\n\npaginator.previous_page_path\npagination.previousPageHref\n\n\npaginator.next_page_path\npagination.nextPageHref\n\n\n\nFilters\nAlthough Jekyll uses Liquid, it provides a set of filters that are not part of the core Liquid library. There are quite a few \u2014 more than can be covered by this article \u2014 but you can replicate them by using Eleventy\u2019s addFilter configuration option. Let\u2019s convert two used by our Markdown Guide: jsonify and where.\nThe jsonify filter outputs an object or string as valid JSON. As JavaScript provides a native JSON method, we can use this in our replacement filter. addFilter takes two arguments; the first is the name of the filter and the second is the function to which we will pass the content we want to transform:\n// {{ variable | jsonify }}\neleventyConfig.addFilter('jsonify', function (variable) {\n  return JSON.stringify(variable);\n});\nJekyll\u2019s where filter is a little more complicated in that it takes two additional arguments: the key to look for, and the value it should match:\n{{ site.members | where: \"graduation_year\",\"2014\" }}\nTo account for this, instead of passing one value to the second argument of addFilter, we can instead pass three: the array we want to examine, the key we want to look for and the value it should match:\n// {{ array | where: key,value }}\neleventyConfig.addFilter('where', function (array, key, value) {\n  return array.filter(item => {\n    const keys = key.split('.');\n    const reducedKey = keys.reduce((object, key) => {\n      return object[key];\n    }, item);\n\n    return (reducedKey === value ? item : false);\n  });\n});\nThere\u2019s quite a bit going on within this filter, but I\u2019ll try to explain. Essentially we\u2019re examining each item in our array, reducing key (passed as a string using dot notation) so that it can be parsed correctly (as an object reference) before comparing its value to value. If it matches, item remains in the returned array, else it\u2019s removed. Phew!\nIncludes\nAs with filters, Jekyll provides a set of tags that aren\u2019t strictly part of Liquid either. This includes one of the most useful, the include tag. LiquidJS, the library Eleventy uses, does provide an  include tag, but one using the slightly different syntax defined by Shopify. If you\u2019re not passing variables to your includes, everything should work without modification. Otherwise, note that whereas with Jekyll you would do this:\n<!-- page.html -->\n{% include include.html value=\"key\" %}\n\n<!-- include.html -->\n{{ include.value }}\nin Eleventy, you would do this:\n<!-- page.html -->\n{% include \"include.html\", value: \"key\" %}\n\n<!-- include.html -->\n{{ value }}\nA downside of Shopify\u2019s syntax is that variable assignments are no longer scoped to the include and can therefore leak; keep this in mind when converting your templates as you may need to make further adjustments.\nTweaking Liquid\nYou may have noticed in the above example that LiquidJS expects the names of included files to be quoted (else it treats them as variables). We could update our templates to add quotes around file names (the recommended approach), but we could also disable this behaviour by setting LiquidJS\u2019s dynamicPartials option to false. Additionally, Eleventy doesn\u2019t support the include_relative tag, meaning you can\u2019t include files relative to the current document. However, LiquidJS does let us define multiple paths to look for included files via its root option. \nThankfully, Eleventy allows us to pass options to LiquidJS:\neleventyConfig.setLiquidOptions({\n  dynamicPartials: false,\n  root: [\n    '_includes',\n    '.'\n  ]\n});\nCollections\nJekyll\u2019s collections feature lets authors create arbitrary collections of documents beyond pages and posts. Eleventy provides a similar feature, but in a far more powerful way.\nCollections in Jekyll\nIn Jekyll, creating collections requires you to add the name of your collections to _config.yml and create corresponding folders in your project. Our Markdown Guide has two collections:\ncollections:\n  - basic-syntax\n  - extended-syntax\nThese correspond to the folders _basic-syntax and _extended-syntax whose content we can iterate over like so:\n{% for syntax in site.extended-syntax %}\n  {{ syntax.title }}\n{% endfor %}\nCollections in Eleventy\nThere are two ways you can set up collections in 11ty. The first, and most straightforward, is to use the tag property in content files:\n---\ntitle: Strikethrough\nsyntax-id: strikethrough\nsyntax-summary: \"~~The world is flat.~~\"\ntag: extended-syntax\n---\nWe can then iterate over tagged content like this:\n{% for syntax in collections.extended-syntax %}\n  {{ syntax.data.title }}\n{% endfor %}\nEleventy also allows us to configure collections programmatically. For example, instead of using tags, we can search for files using a glob pattern (a way of specifying a set of filenames to search for using wildcard characters):\neleventyConfig.addCollection('basic-syntax', collection => {\n  return collection.getFilteredByGlob('_basic-syntax/*.md');\n});\n\neleventyConfig.addCollection('extended-syntax', collection => {\n  return collection.getFilteredByGlob('_extended-syntax/*.md');\n});\nWe can extend this further. For example, say we wanted to sort a collection by the display_order property in our document\u2019s frontmatter. We could take the results of collection.getFilteredByGlob and then use JavaScript\u2019s sort method to sort the result:\neleventyConfig.addCollection('example', collection => {\n  return collection.getFilteredByGlob('_examples/*.md').sort((a, b) => {\n    return a.data.display_order - b.data.display_order;\n  });\n});\nHopefully, this gives you just a hint of what\u2019s possible using this approach.\nUsing directory data to manage defaults\nBy default, Eleventy will maintain the structure of your content files when generating your site. In our case, that means /_basic-syntax/lists.md is generated as /_basic-syntax/lists/index.html. Like Jekyll, we can change where files are saved using the permalink property. For example, if we want the URL for this page to be /basic-syntax/lists.html we can add the following:\n---\ntitle: Lists\nsyntax-id: lists\napi: \"no\"\npermalink: /basic-syntax/lists.html\n---\nAgain, this is probably not something we want to manage on a file-by-file basis but again, Eleventy has features that can help: directory data and permalink variables.\nFor example, to achieve the above for all content stored in the _basic-syntax folder, we can create a JSON file that shares the name of that folder and sits inside it, i.e. _basic-syntax/_basic-syntax.json and set our default values. For permalinks, we can use Liquid templating to construct our desired path:\n{\n  \"layout\": \"syntax\",\n  \"tag\": \"basic-syntax\",\n  \"permalink\": \"basic-syntax/{{ title | slug }}.html\"\n}\nHowever, Markdown Guide doesn\u2019t publish syntax examples at individual permanent URLs, it merely uses content files to store data. So let\u2019s change things around a little. No longer tied to Jekyll\u2019s rules about where collection folders should be saved and how they should be labelled, we\u2019ll move them into a folder called _content:\nmarkdown-guide\n\u2514\u2500\u2500 _content\n    \u251c\u2500\u2500 basic-syntax\n    \u251c\u2500\u2500 extended-syntax\n    \u251c\u2500\u2500 getting-started\n    \u2514\u2500\u2500 _content.json\nWe will also add a directory data file (_content.json) inside this folder. As directory data is applied recursively, setting permalink to false will mean all content in this folder and its children will no longer be published:\n{\n  \"permalink\": false\n}\nStatic files\nEleventy only transforms files whose template language it\u2019s familiar with. But often we may have static assets that don\u2019t need converting, but do need copying to the destination directory. For this, we can use pass-through file copy. In our configuration file, we tell Eleventy what folders/files to copy with the addPassthroughCopy option. Then in the return statement, we enable this feature by setting passthroughFileCopy to true:\nmodule.exports = function(eleventyConfig) {\n  \u2026\n\n  // Copy the `assets` directory to the compiled site folder\n  eleventyConfig.addPassthroughCopy('assets');\n\n  return {\n    dir: {\n      input: \"./\",\n      output: \"./_site\"\n    },\n    passthroughFileCopy: true\n  };\n}\nFinal considerations\nAssets\nUnlike Jekyll, Eleventy provides no support for asset compilation or bundling scripts \u2014 we have plenty of choices in that department already. If you\u2019ve been using Jekyll to compile Sass files into CSS, or CoffeeScript into Javascript, you will need to research alternative options, options which are beyond the scope of this article, sadly.\nPublishing to GitHub Pages\nOne of the benefits of Jekyll is its deep integration with GitHub Pages. To publish an Eleventy generated site \u2014 or any site not built with Jekyll \u2014 to GitHub Pages can be quite involved, but typically involves copying the generated site to the gh-pages branch or including that branch as a submodule. Alternatively, you could use a continuous integration service like Travis or CircleCI and push the generated site to your web server. It\u2019s enough to make your head spin! Perhaps for this reason, a number of specialised static site hosts have emerged such as Netlify and Google Firebase. But remember; you can publish a static site almost anywhere!\n\nGoing one louder\nIf you\u2019ve been considering making the switch, I hope this brief overview has been helpful. But it also serves as a reminder why it can be prudent to avoid jumping aboard bandwagons. \nWhile it\u2019s fun to try new software and emerging technologies, doing so can require a lot of work and compromise. For all of Eleventy\u2019s appeal, it\u2019s only a year old so has little in the way of an ecosystem of plugins or themes. It also only has one maintainer. Jekyll on the other hand is a mature project with a large community of maintainers and contributors supporting it.\nI moved my site to Eleventy because the slowness and inflexibility of Jekyll was preventing me from doing the things I wanted to do. But I also had time to invest in the transition. After reading this guide, and considering the specific requirements of your project, you may decide to stick with Jekyll, especially if the output will essentially stay the same. And that\u2019s perfectly fine! \nBut these go to 11.\n\n\n\n\nInformation provided is correct as of Eleventy v0.6.0 and Jekyll v3.8.5\u00a0\u21a9", "year": "2018", "author": "Paul Lloyd", "author_slug": "paulrobertlloyd", "published": "2018-12-11T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2018/turn-jekyll-up-to-eleventy/", "topic": "content"}
{"rowid": 266, "title": "Collaborative Development for a Responsively Designed Web", "contents": "In responsive web design we\u2019ve found a technique that allows us to design for the web as a medium in its own right: one that presents a fluid, adaptable and ever changing canvas.\n\nUntil this point, we gave little thought to the environment in which users will experience our work, caring more about the aggregate than the individual. The applications we use encourage rigid layouts, whilst linear processes focus on clients signing off paintings of websites that have little regard for behaviour and interactions. The handover of pristine, pixel-perfect creations to developers isn\u2019t dissimilar to farting before exiting a crowded lift, leaving front-end developers scratching their heads as they fill in the inevitable gaps. If you haven\u2019t already, I recommend reading Drew\u2019s checklist of things to consider before handing over a design.\n\nSomehow, this broken methodology has survived for the last fifteen years or so. Even the advent of web standards has had little impact. Now, as we face an onslaught of different devices, the true universality of the web can no longer be ignored.\n\nResponsive web design is just the thin end of the wedge. Largely concerned with layout, its underlying philosophy could ignite a trend towards interfaces that adapt to any number of different variables: input methods, bandwidth availability, user preference \u2013 you name it!\n\nWith such adaptability, a collaborative and iterative process is required. Ethan Marcotte, who worked with the team behind the responsive redesign of the Boston Globe website, talked about such an approach in his book:\n\n\n\tThe responsive projects I\u2019ve worked on have had a lot of success combining design and development into one hybrid phase, bringing the two teams into one highly collaborative group.\n\n\nWhilst their process still involved the creation of desktop-centric mock-ups, these were presented to the entire team early on, where questions about how pages might adapt and behave at different sizes were asked. Mock-ups were quickly converted into HTML prototypes, meaning further decisions could be based on usage rather than guesswork (and endless hours spent in Photoshop).\n\nRegardless of the exact process, it\u2019s clear that the relationship between our two disciplines is more crucial than ever. Yet, historically, it seems a wedge has been driven between us \u2013 perhaps a result of segregation and waterfall-style processes \u2013 resulting in animosity.\n\nSo how can we improve this relationship? Ultimately, we\u2019ll need to adapt, but even within existing workflows we can start to overlap. Simply adjusting our attitude can effect change, and bring design and development teams closer together.\n\n\n\tGood design is constant contact.\n\n\tMark Otto\n\n\nThe way we work needs to be more open and inclusive. For example, ensuring members of the development team attend initial kick-off meetings and design workshops will not only ensure technical concerns are raised, but mean that those implementing our designs better understand the problems we\u2019re trying to solve.\n\nIt can also be useful at this stage to explain how you work and the sort of deliverables you expect to produce. This will give developers a chance to make recommendations on how these can be optimized for their own needs.\n\nYou may even find opportunities to share the load. On a recent project I worked on, our development partners offered to produce the interactive prototypes needed for user testing. This allowed us to concentrate on refining the experience, whilst they were able to get a head start on building the product.\n\nWhile developers should be involved at the beginning of projects, it\u2019s also important that designers are able to review and contribute to a product as it\u2019s being built. Any handover should be done in person, and ideally you\u2019ll have a day set aside to do so. Having additional budget available for follow-up design reviews is also recommended. Learning how to use version control tools like Subversion or Git will allow you to work within the same environment as developers, and allow you to contribute code or graphic assets directly to a project if needed.\n\nDon\u2019t underestimate the benefits of designer and developer sitting next to each other. Subtle nuances can be explored far more easily than if they were conducted over email or phone. As Ethan writes, \u201c\u2018Design\u2019 is the means, not merely the end; the path we walk over the course of a project, the choices we make\u201d.\n\nIt\u2019s from collaboration like this that I\u2019ve become fond of producing visual style guides. These demonstrate typographic treatments for common markup and patterns (blockquotes, lists, pagination, basic form controls and so on). Thinking in terms of components rather than individual pages not only fits in better with how a developer will implement a site, but can also ensure your design works as a coherent whole.\n\nDespite the amount of research and design produced, when it comes to the crunch, there will always be a need for compromise. As the old saying goes, \u2018fast, cheap and good \u2013 pick two.\u2019 It\u2019s important that you know which pieces are crucial to a design and which areas can allow for movement. Pick your battles wisely. Having an agreed set of design principles can be useful when making such decisions, as they help everyone focus on the goals of the project.\n\n\n\tThe best compromises are reached when both sides understand the issues of the other.\n\n\tRichard Rutter\n\n\nUltimately, better collaboration comes through a shared understanding of the different competencies required to build a website. Instead of viewing ourselves in terms of discrete roles, we should instead look to emphasize our range of abilities, and work with others whose skills are complementary.\n\nPerhaps somebody who actively seeks to broaden their knowledge is the mark of a professional. Seek these people out.\n\nThe best developers I\u2019ve worked with have a respect for design, probably having attempted to do some themselves! Having wrangled with a few MySQL databases myself, I certainly believe the obverse is true. While knowing HTML won\u2019t necessarily make you a better designer, it will help you understand the issues being faced by a front-end developer and, more importantly, allow you to offer solutions or alternative approaches.\n\nSo take a moment to think about how you work with developers and how you could improve your relationship with them. What are you doing to ease the path towards our collaborative future?", "year": "2011", "author": "Paul Lloyd", "author_slug": "paulrobertlloyd", "published": "2011-12-05T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2011/collaborative-development-for-a-responsively-designed-web/", "topic": "business"}
{"rowid": 121, "title": "Hide And Seek in The Head", "contents": "If you want your JavaScript-enhanced pages to remain accessible and understandable to scripted and noscript users alike, you have to think before you code. Which functionalities are required (ie. should work without JavaScript)? Which ones are merely nice-to-have (ie. can be scripted)? You should only start creating the site when you\u2019ve taken these decisions.\n\nSpecial HTML elements\n\nOnce you have a clear idea of what will work with and without JavaScript, you\u2019ll likely find that you need a few HTML elements for the noscript version only.\n\nTake this example: A form has a nifty bit of Ajax that automatically and silently sends a request once the user enters something in a form field. However, in order to preserve accessibility, the user should also be able to submit the form normally. So the form should have a submit button in noscript browsers, but not when the browser supports sufficient JavaScript.\n\nSince the button is meant for noscript browsers, it must be hard-coded in the HTML:\n\n<input type=\"submit\" value=\"Submit form\" id=\"noScriptButton\" />\n\nWhen JavaScript is supported, it should be removed:\n\nvar checkJS = [check JavaScript support];\nwindow.onload = function () {\n\tif (!checkJS) return;\n\tdocument.getElementById('noScriptButton').style.display = 'none';\n}\n\nProblem: the load event\n\nAlthough this will likely work fine in your testing environment, it\u2019s not completely correct. What if a user with a modern, JavaScript-capable browser visits your page, but has to wait for a huge graphic to load? The load event fires only after all assets, including images, have been loaded. So this user will first see a submit button, but then all of a sudden it\u2019s removed. That\u2019s potentially confusing.\n\nFortunately there\u2019s a simple solution: play a bit of hide and seek in the <head>:\n\nvar checkJS = [check JavaScript support];\nif (checkJS) {\n\tdocument.write('<style>#noScriptButton{display: none}</style>');\n}\n\nFirst, check if the browser supports enough JavaScript. If it does, document.write an extra <style> element that hides the button.\n\nThe difference with the previous technique is that the document.write command is outside any function, and is therefore executed while the JavaScript is being parsed. Thus, the #noScriptButton{display: none} rule is written into the document before the actual HTML is received.\n\nThat\u2019s exactly what we want. If the rule is already present at the moment the HTML for the submit button is received and parsed, the button is hidden immediately. Even if the user (and the load event) have to wait for a huge image, the button is already hidden, and both scripted and noscript users see the interface they need, without any potentially confusing flashes of useless content.\n\nIn general, if you want to hide content that\u2019s not relevant to scripted users, give the hide command in CSS, and make sure it\u2019s given before the HTML element is loaded and parsed.\n\nAlternative\n\nSome people won\u2019t like to use document.write. They could also add an empty <link /> element to the <head> and give it an href attribute once the browser\u2019s JavaScript capabilities have been evaluated. The <link /> element is made to refer to a style sheet that contains the crucial #noScriptButton{display: none}, and everything works fine.\n\nImportant note: The script needs access to the <link />, and the only way to ensure that access is to include the empty <link /> element before your <script> tag.", "year": "2006", "author": "Peter-Paul Koch", "author_slug": "ppk", "published": "2006-12-06T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2006/hide-and-seek-in-the-head/", "topic": "code"}
{"rowid": 199, "title": "Knowing the Future - Tips for a Happy Launch Day", "contents": "You\u2019ve chosen your frameworks and libraries. You\u2019ve learned how to write code which satisfies the buzzword and performance gods. Now you need to serve it to a global audience, and make things easy to preview, to test, to sign-off, and to evolve.\nBut infrastructure design is difficult and boring for most of us. We just want to get our work out into the wild.\nIf only we had tools which would let us go, \u201cOh yeah! It all deploys perfectly every time\u201d and shout, \u201cYou need another release? BAM! What\u2019s next?\u201d\nA truth that can be hard to admit is that very often, the production environment and its associated deployment processes are poorly defined until late into a project. This can be a problem.\nIt makes my palms sweaty just thinking about it.\nIf like me, you have spent time building things for clients, you\u2019ll probably have found yourself working with a variety of technical partners and customers who bring different constraints and opportunities to your projects. Knowing and proving the environments and the deployment processes is often very difficult, but can be a factor which profoundly impacts our ability to deliver what we promised. To say nothing of our ability to sleep at night or leave our fingernails un-chewed.\nLet\u2019s look at this a little, and see if we can\u2019t set you up for a good night\u2019s sleep, with dry palms and tidy fingernails.\nA familiar problem\nYou\u2019ve been here too, right? The project development was tough, but you\u2019re pleased with what you are running in your local development environments. Now you need to get the client to see and approve your build, and hopefully indicate with a cheery thumbs up that it can \u201cgo live\u201d.\n\nChances are that we have a staging environment where the client can see the build. But be honest, is this exactly the same as the production environment? It should be, but often it\u2019s not. Often the staging environment is nothing more than a visible server with none of the optimisations, security, load balancing, caching, and other vital bits of machinery that we\u2019ll need (and need to test) in \u201cprod\u201d.\nOften the production environment is still being \u201cset up\u201d and you\u2019ll have to wait and see.\nIn development, \u201cwait and see\u201d is the enemy.\nInstead of waiting to see, we need to make the provisioning of, and deployment to our different environments one of the very first jobs of our project. I\u2019ve often needed to be the unpopular voice in the room who makes a big fuss when this is delayed. I\u2019ve described it as being a \u201ccritical blocker\u201d during project meetings and suggested that everything should halt until it is fixed. \nIt is that important.\nClients don\u2019t often like hearing a wary, disruptive voice saying \u201cwhoa there Nelly!\u201d, because the development should be able to continue while the production environment gets sorted out, right? \nSure. But if it is not seen as a blocker, it is seen as something that can just happen later. And if it happens later, all the ugly surprises and unknowns surface later too. And later is when we\u2019ll need to be thinking about other things. Not the plumbing. Trust me, it pays to face up to the issue right away rather than press on optimistically. The client will thank you later.\nAttitudes and expectations\nWe should, I think, exhibit these four attitudes towards production deployment:\n\nMake it scripted\nMake it automated\nMake it real\nMake it first\n\nMake it scripted\nLet\u2019s face it, we are going to need to deploy more than once over the course of the project. We are not going to get things perfect on our first shot. Nor should we expect to. And if we are going to repeat something, we want to be able to do it identically and predictably every time without needing to rely on our memories.\nDevelopers are great at scripting things which they would otherwise need to repeat. It makes us faster and it also helps us keep track of the steps we need to take.\nI\u2019m not crazy enough to try suggest the best technology to script your builds or deployments (holy wars lie down that path). A lot will depend on your languages and your tastes. Some will like Fabric, others will prefer Gulp, you might prefer Make or NPM. It doesn\u2019t really matter as long as you can script the process of building, packaging and deploying your project.\nWait. Won\u2019t we need to know everything about the build from the start in order to do this? Aren\u2019t our dependencies likely to change over time?\nYes. That would be ideal. But it\u2019s ok. Like our code, our deployment script will evolve over the life of a project. So evolve it. Start by scripting what is needed to support the first iteration of the project, and then maintain that script. It will become a valuable \u201csource of truth\u201d, providing a form of documentation of what your project needs for a successful deployment. Another bonus.\nMake it automated\nIf we have a scripted deployment which we can run by executing a single command, then we are in great shape to automate that process by triggering the build and deployment via suitable events.\nAgain, I prefer not to offer one single suggestion of when this should occur. That will depend on your approach to the project, how your development team is organised, and how your QA team operate. You can tune this to suit.\nFor one project I worked on, we chose to trigger the build and deployment to our production environment every time we used Git to tag the master branch of our version control repository. There were a few moving parts, and we needed to do some upfront work to get everything working, but that upfront effort was repaid many fold as we deployed time and time again, and exposed some issues with our environment long before we got to \u201claunch day\u201d.\nWith a scripted and automated process, we can make deployments \u201ccheap\u201d. This is our goal. When there are minimal cognitive or time overheads associated with deploying, we\u2019re likely to do it all the more often and become more confident that it will behave as expected.\nMake it real\nAlright, we have written scripts to build and deploy our projects. Anyone tagging our repo will trigger things to happen as if by magic, but where are we pushing things to?  We need to target a real environment if this is to have any value.\nA useful pattern is to have all activity on our develop branch trigger deployments to our staging server. Meanwhile tagging master will deploy a version to the production environment. How we organise this will depend on our git branching approach. (I\u2019ve seen as many ways of approaching Git Flow as I have seen ways of approaching \u201cAgile\u201d).\nIt\u2019s vital though, that we ensure that we are deploying to, and testing against, our real infrastructure. We want to see real results. That\u2019s the best way to learn real lessons.\nMake it first\nBuilding our site to run in an environment not yet fully defined or available to test is like climbing without ropes \u2013 it\u2019s possible, but we put ourselves at risk. And the higher we climb the greater the risk. So it is important to do this as early as we possibly can.\nDon\u2019t have a certificate for our HTTPS yet? Fine, but let\u2019s still deploy to this evolving production environment and introduce HTTPS as soon as we can.\nBefore we know it we\u2019ll be proving that this is set up correctly and we\u2019ll not be surprised by mixed security alerts or other nasties further down the line.\n\nMailchimp perfectly capture the anxiety of sending emails to gazillions of people for a campaign. But we\u2019re lucky. Launching a site doesn\u2019t need to be like performing a mailshot. We can do things to banish that sweaty hand.\nDoing preparation work upfront means that by the time we need to launch the site into the wild, we have exercised the deployment mechanics, and tested the production environment so rigorously that this task will be boring.\n(It won\u2019t be boring. Launching should always be exciting because the world will finally get to see our beautiful, painstaking work. But nor should it be terrifying. Especially as a result of not knowing for certain if our processes and environments are going to work or burst into flames on the big day.)\nWhat tools exist?\nWell this all sounds lovely. But how should we tackle this? Where are the tools for us to use? As it happens, there are many service and tools that we can use to work this way.\nHosting\nAll of the big players like Amazon, Azure and Google offer tools which can help us here. Google for example, can host multiple deployed versions of your project in parallel and you can manage them via their App Engine console. Each build receives its own URL which you can use to access any deployed version of your site.\nHaving immutable deployments which stick around in perpetuity (or until you bin them) is a key feature which unlocks the ability to confidently direct your traffic to any version of your site. With that comes the capacity to test any version or feature in its real environment, and then promote a version, or rollback to a previous version whenever you want.\nA liberating power to have.\nContinuous integration\nIn order to create all of those different versions, we\u2019ll need somewhere to run our build and deployment scripts. Jenkins has been a popular Continuous Integration (CI) option for some time, and can be configured to perform all sorts of tasks, giving you extensive control over your deployment pipeline.\nYou need to host Jenkins yourself, but it provides some simple ways to do that.\nThe landscape for CI is getting richer and richer. With many hosted services like Circle CI providing this kind of automation up in the cloud.\nOne stop shop\nNetlify combines both hosting and continuous integration services. It monitors your git repositories and automatically runs your build in a container on its servers when it finds changes. Each branch and pull request in your git repository will result in an immutable version of your site with its own URL.\nNetlify is unlike Google Cloud, AWS or Azure in that it cannot host a dynamic server-side application for you. Instead it specialises in hosting static, or so called JAMstack sites.\nPersonally, I find that its simplicity makes it an approachable option, and a good place to learn and adopt some of these valuable habits.\nFull disclosure: I\u2019m a Netlify employee. But before I was, I was an avid customer, and it was through using Netlify that I first encountered some of these principles in practice.\nConclusion. It\u2019s all about the approach\nNo matter what tools or services you use (and there are many which can support these practices), the most important thing is to adopt an approach which lets you prove your environments as quickly as possible.\nFront-loading this effort will cast light onto the issues that you\u2019ll need to address early and often, leaving no infrastructure surprises to spoil things for you on launch day.\nAutomating the process will mean that when you do find things that you need to fix or to improve later (and you will), issuing another release will be trivial. It is a lovely feeling when you have confidence that releasing v1.0.0 will be no more stressful v0.0.1. In fact it should actually be less stressful, as you\u2019ll have been down this road many times by then. Fixing the potholes and smoothing the way as you went.\nFrom here, it should be a smooth ride.", "year": "2017", "author": "Phil Hawksworth", "author_slug": "philhawksworth", "published": "2017-12-21T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2017/knowing-the-future/", "topic": "process"}
{"rowid": 47, "title": "Developing Robust Deployment Procedures", "contents": "Once you have developed your site, how do you make it live on your web hosting? For many years the answer was to log on to your server and upload the files via FTP. Over time most hosts and FTP clients began to support SFTP, ensuring your files were transmitted over a secure connection. The process of deploying a site however remained the same.\n\nThere are issues with deploying a site in this way. You are essentially transferring files one by one to the server without any real management of that transfer. If the transfer fails for some reason, you may end up with a site that is only half updated. It can then be really difficult to work out what hasn\u2019t been replaced or added, especially where you are updating an existing site. If you are updating some third-party software your update may include files that should be removed, but that may not be obvious to you and you risk leaving outdated files littering your file system. Updating using (S)FTP is a fragile process that leaves you open to problems caused by both connectivity and human error. Is there a better way to do this?\n\nYou\u2019ll be glad to know that there is. A modern professional deployment workflow should have you moving away from fragile manual file transfers to deployments linked to code committed into source control.\n\nThe benefits of good practice\n\nYou may never have experienced any major issues while uploading files over FTP, and good FTP clients can help. However, there are other benefits to moving to modern deployment practices.\n\nNo surprises when you launch\n\nIf you are deploying in the way I suggest in this article you should have no surprises when you launch because the code you committed from your local environment should be the same code you deploy \u2013 and to staging if you have a staging server. A missing vital file won\u2019t cause things to start throwing errors on updating the live site.\n\nBeing able to work collaboratively\n\nSource control and good deployment practice makes working with your clients and other developers easy. Deploying first to a staging server means you can show your client updates and then push them live. If you subcontract some part of the work, you can give your subcontractor the ability to deploy to staging, leaving you with the final push to launch, once you know you are happy with the work.\n\nHaving a proper backup of site files with access to them from anywhere\n\nThe process I will outline requires the use of hosted, external source control. This gives you a backup of your latest commit and the ability to clone those files and start working on them from any machine, wherever you are.\n\nBeing able to jump back into a site quickly when the client wants a few changes\n\nWhen doing client work it is common for some work to be handed over, then several months might go by without you needing to update the site. If you don\u2019t have a good process in place, just getting back to work on it may take several hours for what could be only a few hours of work in itself. A solid method for getting your local copy up to date and deploying your changes live can cut that set-up time down to a few minutes.\n\nThe tool chain\n\nIn the rest of this article I assume that your current practice is to deploy your files over (S)FTP, using an FTP client. You would like to move to a more robust method of deployment, but without blowing apart your workflow and spending all Christmas trying to put it back together again. Therefore I\u2019m selecting the most straightforward tools to get you from A to B.\n\nSource control\n\nPerhaps you already use some kind of source control for your sites. Today that is likely to be Git but you might also use Subversion or Mercurial. If you are not using any source control at all then I would suggest you choose Git, and that is what I will be working with in this article.\n\nWhen you work with Git, you always have a local repository. This is where your changes are committed. You also have the option to push those changes to a remote repository; for example, GitHub. You may well have come across GitHub as somewhere you can go to download open source code. However, you can also set up private repositories for sites whose code you don\u2019t want to make publicly accessible.\n\nA hosted Git repository gives you somewhere to push your commits to and deploy from, so it\u2019s a crucial part of our tool chain.\n\nA deployment service\n\nOnce you have your files pushed to a remote repository, you then need a way to deploy them to your staging environment and live server. This is the job of a deployment service.\n\nThis service will connect securely to your hosting, and either automatically (or on the click of a button) transfer files from your Git commit to the hosting server. If files need removing, the service should also do this too, so you can be absolutely sure that your various environments are the same.\n\nTools to choose from\n\nWhat follows are not exhaustive lists, but any of these should allow you to deploy your sites without FTP.\n\nHosted Git repositories\n\n\n\tGitHub\n\tBeanstalk\n\tBitbucket\n\n\nStandalone deployment tools\n\n\n\tDeploy\n\tdploy.io\n\tFTPloy\n\n\nI\u2019ve listed Beanstalk as a hosted Git repository, though it also includes a bundled deployment tool. Dploy.io is a standalone version of that tool just for deployment. In this tutorial I have chosen two separate services to show how everything fits together, and because you may already be using source control. If you are setting up all of this for the first time then using Beanstalk saves having two accounts \u2013 and I can personally recommend them.\n\nPutting it all together\n\nThe steps we are going to work through are:\n\n\n\tGetting your local site into a local Git repository\n\tPushing the files to a hosted repository\n\tConnecting a deployment tool to your web hosting\n\tSetting up a deployment\n\n\nGet your local site into a local Git repository\n\nDownload and install Git for your operating system.\n\nOpen up a Terminal window and tell Git your name using the following command (use the name you will set up on your hosted repository).\n\n> git config --global user.name \"YOUR NAME\"\n\n\nUse the next command to give Git your email address. This should be the address that you will use to sign up for your remote repository.\n\n> git config --global user.email \"YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS\"\n\n\nStaying in the command line, change to the directory where you keep your site files. If your files are in /Users/rachel/Sites/mynicewebite you would type:\n\n> cd /Users/rachel/Sites/mynicewebsite\n\n\nThe next command tells Git that we want to create a new Git repository here.\n\n> git init\n\n\nWe then add our files:\n\n> git add .\n\n\nThen commit the files:\n\n> git commit -m \u201cAdding initial files\u201d\n\n\nThe bit in quotes after -m is a message describing what you are doing with this commit. It\u2019s important to add something useful here to remind yourself later why you made the changes included in the commit.\n\nYour local files are now in a Git repository! However, everything should be just the same as before in terms of working on the files or viewing them in a local web server. The only difference is that you can add and commit changes to this local repository.\n\nWant to know more about Git? There are some excellent resources in a range of formats here.\n\nSetting up a hosted Git repository\n\nI\u2019m going to use Atlassian Bitbucket for my first example as they offer a free hosted and private repository.\n\nCreate an account on Bitbucket. Then create a new empty repository and give it a name that will identify the repository easily.\n\nClick Getting Started and under Command Line select \u201cI have an existing project\u201d. This will give you a set of instructions to run on the command line. The first instruction is just to change into your working directory as we did before. We then add a remote repository, and run two commands to push everything up to Bitbucket.\n\ncd /path/to/my/repo\ngit remote add origin https://myuser@bitbucket.org/myname/24ways-tutorial.git\ngit push -u origin --all \ngit push -u origin --tags \n\n\nWhen you run the push command you will be asked for the password that you set for Bitbucket. Having entered that, you should be able to view the files of your site on Bitbucket by selecting the navigation option Source in the sidebar.\n\nYou will also be able to see commits. When we initially committed our files locally we added the message \u201cAdding initial files\u201d. If you select Commits from the sidebar you\u2019ll see we have one commit, with the message we set locally. You can imagine how useful this becomes when you can look back and see why you made certain changes to a project that perhaps you haven\u2019t worked on for six months.\n\nBefore working on your site locally you should run:\n\n> git pull\n\n\nin your working directory to make sure you have all of the most up-to-date files. This is especially important if someone else might work on them, or you just use multiple machines.\n\nYou then make your changes and add any changed or modified files, for example:\n\n> git add index.php\n\n\nCommit the change locally:\n\n> git commit -m \u201cupdated the homepage\u201d\n\n\nThen push it to Bitbucket:\n\n> git push origin master\n\n\nIf you want to work on your files on a different computer you clone them using the following command:\n\n> git clone https://myuser@bitbucket.org/myname/24ways-tutorial.git\n\n\nYou then have a copy of your files that is already a Git repository with the Bitbucket repository set up as a remote, so you are all ready to start work.\n\nConnecting a deployment tool to your repository and web hosting\n\nThe next step is deploying files. I have chosen to use a deployment tool called Deploy as it has support for Bitbucket. It does have a monthly charge \u2013 but offers a free account for open source projects.\n\nSign up for your account then log in and create your first project. Select Create an empty project. Under Configure Repository Details choose Bitbucket and enter your username and password.\n\nIf Deploy can connect, it will show you your list of projects. Select the one you want.\n\nThe next screen is Add New Server and here you need to configure the server that you want to deploy to. You might set up more than one server per project. In an ideal world you would deploy to a staging server for your client preview changes and then deploy once everything is signed off. For now I\u2019ll assume you just want to set up your live site.\n\nGive the server a name; I usually use Production for the live web server. Then choose the protocol to connect with. Unless your host really does not support SFTP (which is pretty rare) I would choose that instead of FTP.\n\nYou now add the same details your host gave you to log in with your SFTP client, including the username and password. The Path on server should be where your files are on the server. When you log in with an SFTP client and you get put in the directory above public_html then you should just be able to add public_html here.\n\nOnce your server is configured you can deploy. Click Deploy now and choose the server you just set up. Then choose the last commit (which will probably be selected for you) and click Preview deployment. You will then get a preview of which files will change if you run the deployment: the files that will be added and any that will be removed. At the very top of that screen you should see the commit message you entered right back when you initially committed your files locally.\n\nIf all looks good, run the deployment.\n\nYou have taken the first steps to a more consistent and robust way of deploying your websites. It might seem like quite a few steps at first, but you will very soon come to realise how much easier deploying a live site is through this process.\n\nYour new procedure step by step\n\n\n\tEdit your files locally as before, testing them through a web server on your own computer.\n\tCommit your changes to your local Git repository.\n\tPush changes to the remote repository.\n\tLog into the deployment service.\n\tHit the Deploy now button.\n\tPreview the changes.\n\tRun the deployment and then check your live site.\n\n\nTaking it further\n\nI have tried to keep things simple in this article because so often, once you start to improve processes, it is easy to get bogged down in all the possible complexities. If you move from deploying with an FTP client to working in the way I have outlined above, you\u2019ve taken a great step forward in creating more robust processes. You can continue to improve your procedures from this point.\n\nStaging servers for client preview\n\nWhen we added our server we could have added an additional server to use as a staging server for clients to preview their site on. This is a great use of a cheap VPS server, for example. You can set each client up with a subdomain \u2013 clientname.yourcompany.com \u2013 and this becomes the place where they can view changes before you deploy them.\n\nIn that case you might deploy to the staging server, let the client check it out and then go back and deploy the same commit to the live server.\n\nUsing Git branches\n\nAs you become more familiar with using Git, and especially if you start working with other people, you might need to start developing using branches. You can then have a staging branch that deploys to staging and a production branch that is always a snapshot of what has been pushed to production. This guide from Beanstalk explains how this works.\n\nAutomatic deployment to staging\n\nI wouldn\u2019t suggest doing automatic deployment to the live site. It\u2019s worth having someone on hand hitting the button and checking that everything worked nicely. If you have configured a staging server, however, you can set it up to deploy the changes each time a commit is pushed to it.\n\nIf you use Bitbucket and Deploy you would create a deployment hook on Bitbucket to post to a URL on Deploy when a push happens to deploy the code. This can save you a few steps when you are just testing out changes. Even if you have made lots of changes to the staging deployment, the commit that you push live will include them all, so you can do that manually once you are happy with how things look in staging.\n\nFurther Reading\n\n\n\tThe tutorials from Git Client Tower, already mentioned in this article, are a great place to start if you are new to Git.\n\tA presentation from Liam Dempsey showing how to use the GitHub App to connect to Bitbucket\n\tTry Git from Code School\n\tThe Git Workbook a self study guide to Git from Lorna Mitchell\n\n\nGet set up for the new year\n\nI love to start the New Year with a clean slate and improved processes. If you are still wrangling files with FTP then this is one thing you could tick off your list to save you time and energy in 2015. Post to the comments if you have suggestions of tools or ideas for ways to enhance this type of set-up for those who have already taken the first steps.", "year": "2014", "author": "Rachel Andrew", "author_slug": "rachelandrew", "published": "2014-12-04T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2014/developing-robust-deployment-procedures/", "topic": "process"}
{"rowid": 68, "title": "Grid, Flexbox, Box Alignment: Our New System for Layout", "contents": "Three years ago for 24 ways 2012, I wrote an article about a new CSS layout method I was excited about. A specification had emerged, developed by people from the Internet Explorer team, bringing us a proper grid system for the web. In 2015, that Internet Explorer implementation is still the only public implementation of CSS grid layout. However, in 2016 we should be seeing it in a new improved form ready for our use in browsers.\nGrid layout has developed hidden behind a flag in Blink, and in nightly builds of WebKit and, latterly, Firefox. By being developed in this way, breaking changes could be safely made to the specification as no one was relying on the experimental implementations in production work.\nAnother new layout method has emerged over the past few years in a more public and perhaps more painful way. Shipped prefixed in browsers, The flexible box layout module (flexbox) was far too tempting for developers not to use on production sites. Therefore, as changes were made to the specification, we found ourselves with three different flexboxes, and browser implementations that did not match one another in completeness or in the version of specified features they supported. \nOwing to the different ways these modules have come into being, when I present on grid layout it is often the very first time someone has heard of the specification. A question I keep being asked is whether CSS grid layout and flexbox are competing layout systems, as though it might be possible to back the loser in a CSS layout competition. The reality, however, is that these two methods will sit together as one system for doing layout on the web, each method playing to certain strengths and serving particular layout tasks. \nIf there is to be a loser in the battle of the layouts, my hope is that it will be the layout frameworks that tie our design to our markup. They have been a necessary placeholder while we waited for a true web layout system, but I believe that in a few years time we\u2019ll be easily able to date a website to circa 2015 by seeing <div class=\"row\"> or <div class=\"col-md-3\"> in the markup.\nIn this article, I\u2019m going to take a look at the common features of our new layout systems, along with a couple of examples which serve to highlight the differences between them.\nTo see the grid layout examples you will need to enable grid in your browser. The easiest thing to do is to enable the experimental web platform features flag in Chrome. Details of current browser support can be found here. \nRelationship\nItems only become flex or grid items if they are a direct child of the element that has display:flex, display:grid or display:inline-grid applied. Those direct children then understand themselves in the context of the complete layout. This makes many things possible. It\u2019s the lack of relationship between elements that makes our existing layout methods difficult to use. If we float two columns, left and right, we have no way to tell the shorter column to extend to the height of the taller one. We have expended a lot of effort trying to figure out the best way to make full-height columns work, using techniques that were never really designed for page layout.\nAt a very simple level, the relationship between elements means that we can easily achieve full-height columns. In flexbox:\nSee the Pen Flexbox equal height columns by rachelandrew (@rachelandrew) on CodePen.\n\nAnd in grid layout (requires a CSS grid-supporting browser):\nSee the Pen Grid equal height columns by rachelandrew (@rachelandrew) on CodePen.\n\nAlignment\nFull-height columns rely on our flex and grid items understanding themselves as part of an overall layout. They also draw on a third new specification: the box alignment module. If vertical centring is a gift you\u2019d like to have under your tree this Christmas, then this is the box you\u2019ll want to unwrap first.\nThe box alignment module takes the alignment and space distribution properties from flexbox and applies them to other layout methods. That includes grid layout, but also other layout methods. Once implemented in browsers, this specification will give us true vertical centring of all the things.\nOur examples above achieved full-height columns because the default value of align-items is stretch. The value ensured our columns stretched to the height of the tallest. If we want to use our new vertical centring abilities on all items, we would set align-items:center on the container. To align one flex or grid item, apply the align-self property.\nThe examples below demonstrate these alignment properties in both grid layout and flexbox. The portrait image of Widget the cat is aligned with the default stretch. The other three images are aligned using different values of align-self.\nTake a look at an example in flexbox:\nSee the Pen Flexbox alignment by rachelandrew (@rachelandrew) on CodePen.\n\nAnd also in grid layout (requires a CSS grid-supporting browser):\nSee the Pen Grid alignment by rachelandrew (@rachelandrew) on CodePen.\n\nThe alignment properties used with CSS grid layout.\nFluid grids\nA cornerstone of responsive design is the concept of fluid grids.\n\n\u201c[\u2026]every aspect of the grid\u2014and the elements laid upon it\u2014can be expressed as a proportion relative to its container.\u201d\n\u2014Ethan Marcotte, \u201cFluid Grids\u201d\n\nThe method outlined by Marcotte is to divide the target width by the context, then use that value as a percentage value for the width property on our element.\nh1 {\n  margin-left: 14.575%; /*\u00a0144px / 988px = 0.14575\u00a0*/\n  width: 70.85%; /*\u00a0700px / 988px = 0.7085\u00a0*/\n}\nIn more recent years, we\u2019ve been able to use calc() to simplify this (at least, for those of us able to drop support for Internet Explorer 8). However, flexbox and grid layout make fluid grids simple.\nThe most basic of flexbox demos shows this fluidity in action. The justify-content property \u2013 another property defined in the box alignment module \u2013 can be used to create an equal amount of space between or around items. As the available width increases, more space is assigned in proportion.\nIn this demo, the list items are flex items due to display:flex being added to the ul. I have given them a maximum width of 250 pixels. Any remaining space is distributed equally between the items as the justify-content property has a value of space-between.\nSee the Pen Flexbox: justify-content by rachelandrew (@rachelandrew) on CodePen.\n\nFor true fluid grid-like behaviour, your new flexible friends are flex-grow and flex-shrink. These properties give us the ability to assign space in proportion.\nThe flexbox flex property is a shorthand for:\n\nflex-grow\nflex-shrink\nflex-basis\n\nThe flex-basis property sets the default width for an item. If flex-grow is set to 0, then the item will not grow larger than the flex-basis value; if flex-shrink is 0, the item will not shrink smaller than the flex-basis value.\n\nflex: 1 1 200px: a flexible box that can grow and shrink from a 200px basis.\nflex: 0 0 200px: a box that will be 200px and cannot grow or shrink.\nflex: 1 0 200px: a box that can grow bigger than 200px, but not shrink smaller.\n\nIn this example, I have a set of boxes that can all grow and shrink equally from a 100 pixel basis.\nSee the Pen Flexbox: flex-grow by rachelandrew (@rachelandrew) on CodePen.\n\nWhat I would like to happen is for the first element, containing a portrait image, to take up less width than the landscape images, thus keeping it more in proportion. I can do this by changing the flex-grow value. By giving all the items a value of 1, they all gain an equal amount of the available space after the 100 pixel basis has been worked out.\nIf I give them all a value of 3 and the first box a value of 1, the other boxes will be assigned three parts of the available space while box 1 is assigned only one part. You can see what happens in this demo:\nSee the Pen Flexbox: flex-grow by rachelandrew (@rachelandrew) on CodePen.\n\nOnce you understand flex-grow, you should easily be able to grasp how the new fraction unit (fr, defined in the CSS grid layout specification) works. Like flex-grow, this unit allows us to assign available space in proportion. In this case, we assign the space when defining our track sizes.\nIn this demo (which requires a CSS grid-supporting browser), I create a four-column grid using the fraction unit to define my track sizes. The first track is 1fr in width, and the others 2fr.\ngrid-template-columns: 1fr 2fr 2fr 2fr;\nSee the Pen Grid fraction units by rachelandrew (@rachelandrew) on CodePen.\n\nThe four-track grid.\nSeparation of concerns\nMy younger self petitioned my peers to stop using tables for layout and to move to CSS. One of the rallying cries of that movement was the concept of separating our source and content from how they were displayed. It was something of a failed promise given the tools we had available: the display leaked into the markup with the need for redundant elements to cope with browser bugs, or visual techniques that just could not be achieved without supporting markup.\nBrowsers have improved, but even now we can find ourselves compromising the ideal document structure so we can get the layout we want at various breakpoints. In some ways, the situation has returned to tables-for-layout days. Many of the current grid frameworks rely on describing our layout directly in the markup. We add divs for rows, and classes to describe the number of desired columns. We nest these constructions of divs inside one another.\nHere is a snippet from the Bootstrap grid examples \u2013 two columns with two nested columns:\n<div class=\"row\">\n  <div class=\"col-md-8\">\n    .col-md-8\n    <div class=\"row\">\n      <div class=\"col-md-6\">\n        .col-md-6\n      </div>\n      <div class=\"col-md-6\">\n        .col-md-6\n      </div>\n    </div>\n  </div>\n  <div class=\"col-md-4\">\n    .col-md-4\n  </div>\n</div>\nNot a million miles away from something I might have written in 1999.\n<table>\n  <tr>\n    <td class=\"col-md-8\">\n      .col-md-8\n      <table>\n        <tr>\n          <td class=\"col-md-6\">\n            .col-md-6\n          </td>\n          <td class=\"col-md-6\">\n            .col-md-6\n          </td>\n        </tr>\n      </table>\n    </td>\n    <td class=\"col-md-4\">\n      .col-md-4\n    </td>\n  </tr>\n</table>\nGrid and flexbox layouts do not need to be described in markup. The layout description happens entirely in the CSS, meaning that elements can be moved around from within the presentation layer.\nFlexbox gives us the ability to reverse the flow of elements, but also to set the order of elements with the order property. This is demonstrated here, where Widget the cat is in position 1 in the source, but I have used the order property to display him after the things that are currently unimpressive to him.\nSee the Pen Flexbox: order by rachelandrew (@rachelandrew) on CodePen.\n\nGrid layout takes this a step further. Where flexbox lets us set the order of items in a single dimension, grid layout gives us the ability to position things in two dimensions: both rows and columns. Defined in the CSS, this positioning can be changed at any breakpoint without needing additional markup. Compare the source order with the display order in this example (requires a CSS grid-supporting browser):\nSee the Pen Grid positioning in two dimensions by rachelandrew (@rachelandrew) on CodePen.\n\nLaying out our items in two dimensions using grid layout.\nAs these demos show, a straightforward way to decide if you should use grid layout or flexbox is whether you want to position items in one dimension or two. If two, you want grid layout.\nA note on accessibility and reordering\nThe issues arising from this powerful ability to change the way items are ordered visually from how they appear in the source have been the subject of much discussion. The current flexbox editor\u2019s draft states\n\n\u201cAuthors must use order only for visual, not logical, reordering of content. Style sheets that use order to perform logical reordering are non-conforming.\u201d\n\u2014CSS Flexible Box Layout Module Level 1, Editor\u2019s Draft (3 December 2015)\n\nThis is to ensure that non-visual user agents (a screen reader, for example) can rely on the document source order as being correct. Take care when reordering that you do so from the basis of a sound document that makes sense in terms of source order. Avoid using visual order to convey meaning.\nAutomatic content placement with rules\nHaving control over the order of items, or placing items on a predefined grid, is nice. However, we can often do that already with one method or another and we have frameworks and tools to help us. Tools such as Susy mean we can even get away from stuffing our markup full of grid classes. However, our new layout methods give us some interesting new possibilities.\nSomething that is useful to be able to do when dealing with content coming out of a CMS or being pulled from some other source, is to define a bunch of rules and then say, \u201cDisplay this content, using these rules.\u201d\nAs an example of this, I will leave you with a Christmas poem displayed in a document alongside Widget the cat and some of the decorations that are bringing him no Christmas cheer whatsoever.\nThe poem is displayed first in the source as a set of paragraphs. I\u2019ve added a class identifying each of the four paragraphs but they are displayed in the source as one text. Below that are all my images, some landscape and some portrait; I\u2019ve added a class of landscape to the landscape ones.\nThe mobile-first grid is a single column and I use line-based placement to explicitly position my poem paragraphs. The grid layout auto-placement rules then take over and place the images into the empty cells left in the grid.\nAt wider screen widths, I declare a four-track grid, and position my poem around the grid, keeping it in a readable order.\nI also add rules to my landscape class, stating that these items should span two tracks. Once again the grid layout auto-placement rules position the rest of my images without my needing to position them. You will see that grid layout takes items out of source order to fill gaps in the grid. It does this because I have set the property grid-auto-flow to dense. The default is sparse meaning that grid will not attempt this backfilling behaviour.\nTake a look and play around with the full demo (requires a CSS grid layout-supporting browser):\nSee the Pen Grid auto-flow with rules by rachelandrew (@rachelandrew) on CodePen.\n\nThe final automatic placement example.\nMy wish for 2016\nI really hope that in 2016, we will see CSS grid layout finally emerge from behind browser flags, so that we can start to use these features in production \u2014 that we can start to move away from using the wrong tools for the job.\nHowever, I also hope that we\u2019ll see developers fully embracing these tools as the new system that they are. I want to see people exploring the possibilities they give us, rather than trying to get them to behave like the grid systems of 2015. As you discover these new modules, treat them as the new paradigm that they are, get creative with them. And, as you find the edges of possibility with them, take that feedback to the CSS Working Group. Help improve the layout systems that will shape the look of the future web.\nSome further reading\n\nI maintain a site of grid layout examples and resources at Grid by Example.\nThe three CSS specifications I\u2019ve discussed can be found as editor\u2019s drafts: CSS grid, flexbox, box alignment.\nI wrote about the last three years of my interest in CSS grid layout, which gives something of a history of the specification.\nMore examples of box alignment and grid layout.\nMy presentation at Fronteers earlier this year, in which I explain more about these concepts.", "year": "2015", "author": "Rachel Andrew", "author_slug": "rachelandrew", "published": "2015-12-15T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2015/grid-flexbox-box-alignment-our-new-system-for-layout/", "topic": "code"}
{"rowid": 95, "title": "Giving Content Priority with CSS3 Grid Layout", "contents": "Browser support for many of the modules that are part of CSS3 have enabled us to use CSS for many of the things we used to have to use images for. The rise of mobile browsers and the concept of responsive web design has given us a whole new way of looking at design for the web. However, when it comes to layout, we haven\u2019t moved very far at all. We have talked for years about separating our content and source order from the presentation of that content, yet most of us have had to make decisions on source order in order to get a certain visual layout. \n\nOwing to some interesting specifications making their way through the W3C process at the moment, though, there is hope of change on the horizon. In this article I\u2019m going to look at one CSS module, the CSS3 grid layout module, that enables us to define a grid and place elements on to it. This article comprises a practical demonstration of the basics of grid layout, and also a discussion of one way in which we can start thinking of content in a more adaptive way.\n\nBefore we get started, it is important to note that, at the time of writing, these examples work only in Internet Explorer 10. CSS3 grid layout is a module created by Microsoft, and implemented using the -ms prefix in IE10. My examples will all use the -ms prefix, and not include other prefixes simply because this is such an early stage specification, and by the time there are implementations in other browsers there may be inconsistencies. The implementation I describe today may well change, but is also there for your feedback.\n\nIf you don\u2019t have access to IE10, then one way to view and test these examples is by signing up for an account with Browserstack \u2013 the free trial would give you time to have a look. I have also included screenshots of all relevant stages in creating the examples.\n\nWhat is CSS3 grid layout?\n\nCSS3 grid layout aims to let developers divide up a design into a grid and place content on to that grid. Rather than trying to fabricate a grid from floats, you can declare an actual grid on a container element and then use that to position the elements inside. Most importantly, the source order of those elements does not matter. \n\nDeclaring a grid\n\nWe declare a grid using a new value for the display property: display: grid. As we are using the IE10 implementation here, we need to prefix that value: display: -ms-grid;.\n\nOnce we have declared our grid, we set up the columns and rows using the grid-columns and grid-rows properties.\n\n.wrapper {\n    display: -ms-grid;\n    -ms-grid-columns: 200px 20px auto 20px 200px;\n    -ms-grid-rows: auto 1fr;\n}\n\nIn the above example, I have declared a grid on the .wrapper element. I have used the grid-columns property to create a grid with a 200 pixel-wide column, a 20 pixel gutter, a flexible width auto column that will stretch to fill the available space, another 20 pixel-wide gutter and a final 200 pixel sidebar: a flexible width layout with two fixed width sidebars. Using the grid-rows property I have created two rows: the first is set to auto so it will stretch to fill whatever I put into it; the second row is set to 1fr, a new value used in grids that means one fraction unit. In this case, one fraction unit of the available space, effectively whatever space is left.\n\nPositioning items on the grid\n\nNow I have a simple grid, I can pop items on to it. If I have a <div> with a class of .main that I want to place into the second row, and the flexible column set to auto I would use the following CSS:\n\n.content {\n    -ms-grid-column: 3;\n    -ms-grid-row: 2;\n    -ms-grid-row-span: 1;\n}\n\nIf you are old-school, you may already have realised that we are essentially creating an HTML table-like layout structure using CSS. I found the concept of a table the most helpful way to think about the grid layout module when trying to work out how to place elements.\n\nCreating grid systems\n\nAs soon as I started to play with CSS3 grid layout, I wanted to see if I could use it to replicate a flexible grid system like this fluid 16-column 960 grid system.\n\nI started out by defining a grid on my wrapper element, using fractions to make this grid fluid.\n\n.wrapper {\t \n    width: 90%;\n    margin: 0 auto 0 auto;\n    display: -ms-grid;\n    -ms-grid-columns: 1fr (4.25fr 1fr)[16];\n    -ms-grid-rows: (auto 20px)[24];\n}\n\nLike the 960 grid system I was using as an example, my grid starts with a gutter, followed by the first actual column, plus another gutter repeated sixteen times. What this means is that if I want to span two columns, as far as the grid layout module is concerned that is actually three columns: two wide columns, plus one gutter. So this needs to be accounted for when positioning items.\n\nI created a CSS class for each positioning option: column position; rows position; and column span. For example:\n\n.grid1 {-ms-grid-column: 2;} /* applying this class positions an item in the first column (the gutter is column 1) */\n.grid2 {-ms-grid-column: 4;} /* 2nd column - gutter|column 1|gutter */\n.grid3 {-ms-grid-column: 6;} /* 3rd column - gutter|column 1|gutter|column2|gutter */\n\n.row1 {-ms-grid-row:1;}\n.row2 {-ms-grid-row:3;}\n.row3 {-ms-grid-row:5;}\n\n.colspan1 {-ms-grid-column-span:1;}\n.colspan2 {-ms-grid-column-span:3;}\n.colspan3 {-ms-grid-column-span:5;}\n\nI could then add multiple classes to each element to set the position on on the grid.\n\n\n\nThis then gives me a replica of the fluid grid using CSS3 grid layout. To see this working fire up IE10 and view Example 1.\n\nThis works, but\u2026\n\nThis worked, but isn\u2019t ideal. I considered not showing this stage of my experiment \u2013 however, I think it clearly shows how the grid layout module works and is a useful starting point. That said, it\u2019s not an approach I would take in production. First, we have to add classes to our markup that tie an element to a position on the grid. This might not be too much of a problem if we are always going to maintain the sixteen-column grid, though, as I will show you that the real power of the grid layout module appears once you start to redefine the grid, using different grids based on media queries. If you drop to a six-column layout for small screens, positioning items into column 16 makes no sense any more.\n\nCalculating grid position using LESS\n\nAs we\u2019ve seen, if you want to use a grid with main columns and gutters, you have to take into account the spacing between columns as well as the actual columns. This means we have to do some calculating every time we place an item on the grid. In my example above I got around this by creating a CSS class for each position, allowing me to think in sixteen rather than thirty-two columns. But by using a CSS preprocessor, I can avoid using all the classes yet still think in main columns.\n\nI\u2019m using LESS for my example. My simple grid framework consists of one simple mixin.\n\n.position(@column,@row,@colspan,@rowspan) {\n    -ms-grid-column: @column*2;\n    -ms-grid-row: @row*2-1;\n    -ms-grid-column-span: @colspan*2-1;\n    -ms-grid-row-span: @rowspan*2-1;\n}\n\nMy mixin takes four parameters: column; row; colspan; and rowspan. So if I wanted to place an item on column four, row three, spanning two columns and one row, I would write the following CSS:\n\n.box {\n    .position(4,3,2,1);\n}\n\nThe mixin would return:\n\n.box {\n    -ms-grid-column: 8;\n    -ms-grid-row: 5;\n    -ms-grid-column-span: 3;\n    -ms-grid-row-span: 1;\n}\n\nThis saves me some typing and some maths. I could also add other prefixed values into my mixin as other browsers started to add support.\n\nWe can see this in action creating a new grid. Instead of adding multiple classes to each element, I can add one class; that class uses the mixin to create the position. I have also played around with row spans using my mixin and you can see we end up with a quite complicated arrangement of boxes. Have a look at example two in IE10. I\u2019ve used the JavaScript LESS parser so that you can view the actual LESS that I use. Note that I have needed to escape the -ms prefixed properties with ~\"\" to get LESS to accept them.\n\n\n\nThis is looking better. I don\u2019t have direct positioning information on each element in the markup, just a class name \u2013 I\u2019ve used grid(x), but it could be something far more semantic. We can now take the example a step further and redefine the grid based on screen width.\n\nMedia queries and the grid\n\nThis example uses exactly the same markup as the previous example. However, we are now using media queries to detect screen width and redefine the grid using a different number of columns depending on that width.\n\nI start out with a six-column grid, defining that on .wrapper, then setting where the different items sit on this grid:\n\n.wrapper {\t \n    width: 90%;\n    margin: 0 auto 0 auto;\n    display: ~\"-ms-grid\"; /* escaped for the LESS parser */\n    -ms-grid-columns: ~\"1fr (4.25fr 1fr)[6]\"; /* escaped for the LESS parser */\n    -ms-grid-rows: ~\"(auto 20px)[40]\"; /* escaped for the LESS parser */\n}\n.grid1 { .position(1,1,1,1); } \n.grid2 { .position(2,1,1,1); } \n/* ... see example for all declarations ... */\n\n\n\nUsing media queries, I redefine the grid to nine columns when we hit a minimum width of 700 pixels.\n\n@media only screen and (min-width: 700px) {\n.wrapper {\n    -ms-grid-columns: ~\"1fr (4.25fr 1fr)[9]\";\n    -ms-grid-rows: ~\"(auto 20px)[50]\";\n}\n.grid1 { .position(1,1,1,1); } \n.grid2 { .position(2,1,1,1); } \n/* ... */\n}\n\n\n\nFinally, we redefine the grid for 960 pixels, back to the sixteen-column grid we started out with.\n\n@media only screen and (min-width:  940px) {\n.wrapper {\t \n    -ms-grid-columns:~\" 1fr (4.25fr 1fr)[16]\";\n    -ms-grid-rows:~\" (auto 20px)[24]\";\n}\n.grid1 { .position(1,1,1,1); } \n.grid2 { .position(2,1,1,1); } \n/* ... */\n}\n\nIf you view example three in Internet Explorer 10 you can see how the items reflow to fit the window size. You can also see, looking at the final set of blocks, that source order doesn\u2019t matter. You can pick up a block from anywhere and place it in any position on the grid.\n\nLaying out a simple website\n\nSo far, like a toddler on Christmas Day, we\u2019ve been playing with boxes rather than thinking about what might be in them. So let\u2019s take a quick look at a more realistic layout, in order to see why the CSS3 grid layout module can be really useful. At this time of year, I am very excited to get out of storage my collection of odd nativity sets, prompting my family to suggest I might want to open a museum. Should I ever do so, I\u2019ll need a website, and here is an example layout.\n\n\n\nAs I am using CSS3 grid layout, I can order my source in a logical manner. In this example my document is as follows, though these elements could be in any order I please:\n\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n  <div class=\"welcome\">\n  ...\n  </div>\n  <article class=\"main\">\n  ...\n  </article>\n  <div class=\"info\">\n  ...\n  </div>\n  <div class=\"ads\">\n  ...\n  </div>\n</div>\n\nFor wide viewports I can use grid layout to create a sidebar, with the important information about opening times on the top righ,t with the ads displayed below it. This creates the layout shown in the screenshot above.\n\n@media only screen and (min-width:  940px) {\n  .wrapper {\t \n    -ms-grid-columns:~\" 1fr (4.25fr 1fr)[16]\";\n    -ms-grid-rows:~\" (auto 20px)[24]\";\n  }\n  .welcome {\n    .position(1,1,12,1);\n    padding: 0 5% 0 0;\n  }\n  .info {\n    .position(13,1,4,1);\n    border: 0;\n    padding:0;\n   }\n  .main {\n    .position(1,2,12,1);\n    padding: 0 5% 0 0;\n  }  \n  .ads {\n    .position(13,2,4,1);\n    display: block;\n    margin-left: 0;\n  }\n}\n\nIn a floated layout, a sidebar like this often ends up being placed under the main content at smaller screen widths. For my situation this is less than ideal. I want the important information about opening times to end up above the main article, and to push the ads below it. With grid layout I can easily achieve this at the smallest width .info ends up in row two and .ads in row five with the article between.\n\n.wrapper {\t \n  display: ~\"-ms-grid\";\n  -ms-grid-columns: ~\"1fr (4.25fr 1fr)[4]\";\n  -ms-grid-rows: ~\"(auto 20px)[40]\";\n}\n.welcome {\n    .position(1,1,4,1);\n}\n.info {\n    .position(1,2,4,1);\n    border: 4px solid #fff;\n    padding: 10px;\n}\n.content {\n    .position(1,3,4,5);\n}\n.main {\n    .position(1,3,4,1);\n}\n.ads {\n    .position(1,4,4,1);\n}\n\n\n\nFinally, as an extra tweak I add in a breakpoint at 600 pixels and nest a second grid on the ads area, arranging those three images into a row when they sit below the article at a screen width wider than the very narrow mobile width but still too narrow to support a sidebar. \n\n@media only screen and (min-width:  600px) {\n  .ads {\n    display: ~\"-ms-grid\";\n    -ms-grid-columns: ~\"20px 1fr 20px 1fr 20px 1fr\";\n    -ms-grid-rows: ~\"1fr\";\n    margin-left: -20px;\n  }\n  .ad:nth-child(1) {\n    .position(1,1,1,1);\n  }\n  .ad:nth-child(2) {\n    .position(2,1,1,1);\n  }\n  .ad:nth-child(3) {\n    .position(3,1,1,1);\n  }\n}\n\nView example four in Internet Explorer 10.\n\n\n\nThis is a very simple example to show how we can use CSS grid layout without needing to add a lot of classes to our document. It also demonstrates how we can mainpulate the content depending on the context in which the user is viewing it.\n\nLayout, source order and the idea of content priority\n\nCSS3 grid layout isn\u2019t the only module that starts to move us away from the issue of visual layout being linked to source order. However, with good support in Internet Explorer 10, it is a nice way to start looking at how this might work. If you look at the grid layout module as something to be used in conjunction with the flexible box layout module and the very interesting CSS regions and exclusions specifications, we have, tantalizingly on the horizon, a powerful set of tools for layout.\n\nI am particularly keen on the potential separation of source order from layout as it dovetails rather neatly into something I spend a lot of time thinking about. As a CMS developer, working on larger scale projects as well as our CMS product Perch, I am interested in how we better enable content editors to create content for the web. In particular, I search for better ways to help them create adaptive content; content that will work in a variety of contexts rather than being tied to one representation of that content.\n\nIf the concept of adaptive content is new to you, then Karen McGrane\u2019s presentation Adapting Ourselves to Adaptive Content is the place to start. Karen talks about needing to think of content as chunks, that might be used in many different places, displayed differently depending on context.\n\nI absolutely agree with Karen\u2019s approach to content. We have always attempted to move content editors away from thinking about creating a page and previewing it on the desktop. However at some point content does need to be published as a page, or a collection of content if you prefer, and bits of that content have priority. Particularly in a small screen context, content gets linearized, we can only show so much at a time, and we need to make sure important content rises to the top. In the case of my example, I wanted to ensure that the address information was clearly visible without scrolling around too much. Dropping it with the entire sidebar to the bottom of the page would not have been so helpful, though neither would moving the whole sidebar to the top of the screen so a visitor had to scroll past advertising to get to the article.\n\nIf our layout is linked to our source order, then enabling the content editor to make decisions about priority is really hard. Only a system that can do some regeneration of the source order on the server-side \u2013 perhaps by way of multiple templates \u2013 can allow those kinds of decisions to be made. For larger systems this might be a possibility; for smaller ones, or when using an off-the-shelf CMS, it is less likely to be. Fortunately, any system that allows some form of custom field type can be used to pop a class on to an element, and with CSS grid layout that is all that is needed to be able to target that element and drop it into the right place when the content is viewed, be that on a desktop or a mobile device.\n\nThis approach can move us away from forcing editors to think visually. At the moment, I might have to explain to an editor that if a certain piece of content needs to come first when viewed on a mobile device, it needs to be placed in the sidebar area, tying it to a particular layout and design. I have to do this because we have to enforce fairly strict rules around source order to make the mechanics of the responsive design work. If I can instead advise an editor to flag important content as high priority in the CMS, then I can make decisions elsewhere as to how that is displayed, and we can maintain the visual hierarchy across all the different ways content might be rendered.\n\nWhy frustrate ourselves with specifications we can\u2019t yet use in production?\n\nThe CSS3 grid layout specification is listed under the Exploring section of the list of current work of the CSS Working Group. While discussing a module at this stage might seem a bit pointless if we can\u2019t use it in production work, there is a very real reason for doing so. If those of us who will ultimately be developing sites with these tools find out about them early enough, then we can start to give our feedback to the people responsible for the specification. There is information on the same page about how to get involved with the disussions.\n\nSo, if you have a bit of time this holiday season, why not have a play with the CSS3 grid layout module? I have outlined here some of my thoughts on how grid layout and other modules that separate layout from source order can be used in the work that I do. Likewise, wherever in the stack you work, playing with and thinking about new specifications means you can think about how you would use them to enhance your work. Spot a problem? Think that a change to the specification would improve things for a specific use case? Then you have something you could post to www-style to add to the discussion around this module.\n\nAll the examples are on CodePen so feel free to play around and fork them.", "year": "2012", "author": "Rachel Andrew", "author_slug": "rachelandrew", "published": "2012-12-18T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2012/css3-grid-layout/", "topic": "code"}
{"rowid": 130, "title": "Faster Development with CSS Constants", "contents": "Anyone even slightly familiar with a programming language will have come across the concept of constants \u2013 a fixed value that can be used through your code. For example, in a PHP script I might have a constant which is the email address that all emails generated by my application get sent to. \n\n$adminEmail = 'info@example.com';\n\nI could then use $adminEmail in my script whenever I wanted an email to go to that address. The benefit of this is that when the client decides they want the email to go to a different address, I only need change it in one place \u2013 the place where I initially set the constant. I could also quite easily make this value user defined and enable the administrator to update the email address.\n\nUnfortunately CSS doesn\u2019t support constants. It would be really useful to be able to define certain values initially and then use them throughout a CSS file, so in this article I\u2019m going to take a look at some of the methods we do have available and provide pointers to more in depth commentary on each. If you have a different method, or tip to share please add it to the comments.\n\nSo what options do we have?\n\nOne way to get round the lack of constants is to create some definitions at the top of your CSS file in comments, to define \u2018constants\u2019. A common use for this is to create a \u2018color glossary\u2019. This means that you have a quick reference to the colors used in the site to avoid using alternates by mistake and, if you need to change the colors, you have a quick list to go down and do a search and replace. \n\nIn the below example, if I decide I want to change the mid grey to #999999, all I need to do is search and replace #666666 with #999999 \u2013 assuming I\u2019ve remember to always use that value for things which are mid grey.\n\n/*\nDark grey (text): #333333\nDark Blue (headings, links) #000066\nMid Blue (header) #333399\nLight blue (top navigation) #CCCCFF\nMid grey: #666666\n*/\n\nThis is a fairly low-tech method, but if used throughout the development of the CSS files can make changes far simpler and help to ensure consistency in your color scheme.\n\nI\u2019ve seen this method used by many designers however Garrett Dimon documents the method, with more ideas in the comments.\n\nGoing server-side\n\nTo truly achieve constants you will need to use something other than CSS to process the file before it is sent to the browser. You can use any scripting language \u2013 PHP, ASP, ColdFusion etc. to parse a CSS file in which you have entered constants. So that in a constants section of the CSS file you would have:\n\n$darkgrey = '#333333';\n$darkblue = '#000066';\n\nThe rest of the CSS file is as normal except that when you come to use the constant value you would use the constant name instead of adding the color:\n\np {\n\tcolor: $darkgrey;\n}\n\nYour server-side script could then parse the CSS file, replace the constant names with the constant values and serve a valid CSS file to the browser. Christian Heilmann has done just this for PHP however this could be adapted for any language you might have available on your server.\n\nShaun Inman came up with another way \n of doing this that removes the need to link to a PHP script and also enables the adding of constants using the syntax of at-rules . This method is again using PHP and will require you to edit an .htaccess file. \n\nA further method is to generate static CSS files either using a script locally \u2013 if the constants are just to enable speed of development \u2013 or as part of the web application itself. Storing a template stylesheet with constant names in place of the values you will want to update means that your script can simply open the template, replace the variables and save the result as a new stylesheet file.\n\nWhile CSS constants are a real help to developers, they can also be used to add new functionality to your applications. As with the email address example that I used at the beginning of this article, using a combination of CSS and server-side scripting you could enable a site administrator to select the colours for a new theme to be used on a page of a content managed site. By using constants you need only give them the option to change certain parts of the CSS and not upload a whole different CSS file, which could lead to some interesting results!\n\nAs we are unlikely to find real CSS constants under the tree this Christmas the above methods are some possibilities for better management of your stylesheets. However if you have better methods, CSS Constant horror stories or any other suggestions, add your comments below.", "year": "2006", "author": "Rachel Andrew", "author_slug": "rachelandrew", "published": "2006-12-02T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2006/faster-development-with-css-constants/", "topic": "process"}
{"rowid": 192, "title": "Cleaner Code with CSS3 Selectors", "contents": "The parts of CSS3 that seem to grab the most column inches on blogs and in articles are the shiny bits. Rounded corners, text shadow and new ways to achieve CSS layouts are all exciting and bring with them all kinds of possibilities for web design. However what really gets me, as a developer, excited is a bit more mundane.  \n\nIn this article I\u2019m going to take a look at some of the ways our front and back-end code will be simplified by CSS3, by looking at the ways we achieve certain visual effects now in comparison to how we will achieve them in a glorious, CSS3-supported future. I\u2019m also going to demonstrate how we can use these selectors now with a little help from JavaScript \u2013 which can work out very useful if you find yourself in a situation where you can\u2019t change markup that is being output by some server-side code.\n\nThe wonder of nth-child\n\nSo why does nth-child get me so excited? Here is a really common situation, the designer would like the tables in the application to look like this:\n\n\n\nSetting every other table row to a different colour is a common way to enhance readability of long rows. The tried and tested way to implement this is by adding a class to every other row. If you are writing the markup for your table by hand this is a bit of a nuisance, and if you stick a row in the middle you have to change the rows the class is applied to. If your markup is generated by your content management system then you need to get the server-side code to add that class \u2013 if you have access to that code.\n\n<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN\"\n\t  \"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd\">\n<html xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml\">\n<head>\n<title>Striping every other row - using classes</title>\n<style type=\"text/css\">\n\tbody {\n\t\tpadding: 40px;\n\t\tmargin: 0;\n\t\tfont: 0.9em Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\n\t}\n\ttable {\n\t\tborder-collapse: collapse;\n\t\tborder: 1px solid #124412;\n\t\twidth: 600px;\n\t}\n\tth {\n\t\tborder: 1px solid #124412;\n\t\tbackground-color: #334f33;\n\t\tcolor: #fff;\n\t\tpadding: 0.4em;\n\t\ttext-align: left;\n\t}\n\ttd {\n\t\tpadding: 0.4em;\n\t}\n\ttr.odd td {\n\t\tbackground-color: #86B486;\n\t}\n</style>\n</head>\n<body>\n\t<table>\n\t\t<tr>\n\t\t\t<th>Name</th>\n\t\t\t<th>Cards sent</th>\n\t\t\t<th>Cards received</th>\n\t\t\t<th>Cards written but not sent</th>\n\t\t</tr>\n\t\t<tr>\n\t\t\t<td>Ann</td>\n\t\t\t<td>40</td>\n\t\t\t<td>28</td>\n\t\t\t<td>4</td>\n\t\t</tr>\n\t\t<tr class=\"odd\">\n\t\t\t<td>Joe</td>\n\t\t\t<td>2</td>\n\t\t\t<td>27</td>\n\t\t\t<td>29</td>\n\t\t</tr>\n\t\t<tr>\n\t\t\t<td>Paul</td>\n\t\t\t<td>5</td>\n\t\t\t<td>35</td>\n\t\t\t<td>2</td>\n\t\t</tr>\n\t\t<tr class=\"odd\">\n\t\t\t<td>Louise</td>\n\t\t\t<td>65</td>\n\t\t\t<td>65</td>\n\t\t\t<td>0</td>\n\t\t</tr>\n\t</table>\n</body>\n</html>\n\nView Example 1\n\nThis situation is something I deal with on almost every project, and apart from being an extra thing to do, it just isn\u2019t ideal having the server-side code squirt classes into the markup for purely presentational reasons. This is where the nth-child pseudo-class selector comes in. The server-side code creates a valid HTML table for the data, and the CSS then selects the odd rows with the following selector:\n\ntr:nth-child(odd) td {\n\tbackground-color: #86B486;\n}\n\nView Example 2\n\nThe odd and even keywords are very handy in this situation \u2013 however you can also use a multiplier here. 2n would be equivalent to the keyword \u2018odd\u2019 3n would select every third row and so on.\n\nBrowser support\n\nSadly, nth-child has pretty poor browser support. It is not supported in Internet Explorer 8 and has somewhat buggy support in some other browsers. Firefox 3.5 does have support. In some situations however, you might want to consider using JavaScript to add this support to browsers that don\u2019t have it. This can be very useful if you are dealing with a Content Management System where you have no ability to change the server-side code to add classes into the markup.\n\nI\u2019m going to use jQuery in these examples as it is very simple to use the same CSS selector used in the CSS to target elements with jQuery \u2013 however you could use any library or write your own function to do the same job. In the CSS I have added the original class selector to the nth-child selector:\n\ntr:nth-child(odd) td, tr.odd td {\n\tbackground-color: #86B486;\n}\n\nThen I am adding some jQuery to add a class to the markup once the document has loaded \u2013 using the very same nth-child selector that works for browsers that support it. \n\n<script src=\"http://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.js\"></script> \n <script>\n  $(document).ready(function(){\n\t$(\"tr:nth-child(odd)\").addClass(\"odd\");\n  });\n </script>\n\nView Example 3\n\nWe could just add a background colour to the element using jQuery, however I prefer not to mix that information into the JavaScript as if we change the colour on our table rows I would need to remember to change it both in the CSS and in the JavaScript.\n\nDoing something different with the last element\n\nSo here\u2019s another thing that we often deal with. You have a list of items all floated left with a right hand margin on each element constrained within a fixed width layout. If each element has the right margin applied the margin on the final element will cause the set to become too wide forcing that last item down to the next row as shown in the below example where I have used a grey border to indicate the fixed width.\n\n\n\nCurrently we have two ways to deal with this. We can put a negative right margin on the list, the same width as the space between the elements. This means that the extra margin on the final element fills that space and the item doesn\u2019t drop down. \n\n<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN\"\n\t  \"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd\">\n<html xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml\">\n<head>\n<title>The last item is different</title>\n<style type=\"text/css\">\n\tbody {\n\t\tpadding: 40px;\n\t\tmargin: 0;\n\t\tfont: 0.9em Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\n\t}\n\tdiv#wrapper {\n\t\twidth: 740px;\n\t\tfloat: left;\n\t\tborder: 5px solid #ccc;\n\t}\n\tul.gallery {\n\t\tmargin: 0 -10px 0 0;\n\t\tpadding: 0;\n\t\tlist-style: none;\n\t}\n\tul.gallery li {\n\t\tfloat: left;\n\t\twidth: 240px;\n\t\tmargin: 0 10px 10px 0;\n\t}\n</style>\n</head>\n<body>\n\t<div id=\"wrapper\">\n\t\t<ul class=\"gallery\">\n\t\t\t<li><img src=\"xmas1.jpg\" alt=\"baubles\" /></li>\n\t\t\t<li><img src=\"xmas2.jpg\" alt=\"star\" /></li>\n\t\t\t<li><img src=\"xmas3.jpg\" alt=\"wreath\" /></li>\n\t\t</ul>\n\t</div>\n</body>\n</html>\n\nView Example 4\n\nThe other solution will be to put a class on the final element and in the CSS remove the margin for this class. \n\nul.gallery li.last {\n\tmargin-right: 0;\n}\n\nThis second solution may not be easy if the content is generated from server-side code that you don\u2019t have access to change.\n\nIt could all be so different. In CSS3 we have marvellously common-sense selectors such as last-child, meaning that we can simply add rules for the last list item. \n\nul.gallery li:last-child {\n\tmargin-right: 0;\n}\n\nView Example 5\n\nThis removed the margin on the li which is the last-child of the ul with a class of gallery. No messing about sticking classes on the last item, or pushing the width of the item out wit a negative margin.\n\nIf this list of items repeated ad infinitum then you could also use nth-child for this task. Creating a rule that makes every 3rd element margin-less.\n\nul.gallery li:nth-child(3n) {\n\tmargin-right: 0;\n}\n\nView Example 6\n\n\n\nA similar example is where the designer has added borders to the bottom of each element \u2013 but the last item does not have a border or is in some other way different. Again, only a class added to the last element will save you here if you cannot rely on using the last-child selector.\n\nBrowser support for last-child\n\nThe situation for last-child is similar to that of nth-child, in that there is no support in Internet Explorer 8. However, once again it is very simple to replicate the functionality using jQuery. Adding our .last class to the last list item.\n\n$(\"ul.gallery li:last-child\").addClass(\"last\");\n\nWe could also use the nth-child selector to add the .last class to every third list item.\n\n$(\"ul.gallery li:nth-child(3n)\").addClass(\"last\");\n\nView Example 7\n\nFun with forms\n\nStyling forms can be a bit of a trial, made difficult by the fact that any CSS applied to the input element will effect text fields, submit buttons, checkboxes and radio buttons. As developers we are left adding classes to our form fields to differentiate them. In most builds all of my text fields have a simple class of text whereas I wouldn\u2019t dream of adding a class of para to every paragraph element in a document.\n\n<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN\"\n      \"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd\">\n<html xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml\">\n<head>\n<title>Syling form fields</title>\n<style type=\"text/css\">\n\tbody {\n\t\tpadding: 40px;\n\t\tmargin: 0;\n\t\tfont: 0.9em Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;\n\t}\n\tform div {\n\t\tclear: left;\n\t\tpadding: 0 0 0.8em 0;\n\t}\n\tform label {\n\t\tfloat: left;\n\t\twidth: 120px;\n\t}\n\tform .text, form textarea {\n\t\tborder:1px solid #333;\n\t\tpadding: 0.2em;\n\t\twidth: 400px;\n\t}\n\tform .button {\n\t\tborder: 1px solid #333;\n\t\tbackground-color: #eee;\n\t\tcolor: #000;\n\t\tpadding: 0.1em;\n\t} \n\t</style>\n</head>\n<body>\n\t<h1>Send your Christmas list to Santa</h1>\n\t<form method=\"post\" action=\"\" id=\"christmas-list\">\n\t\t<div><label for=\"fName\">Name</label>\n\t\t<input type=\"text\" name=\"fName\" id=\"fName\" class=\"text\" /></div>\n\t\t<div><label for=\"fEmail\">Email address</label>\n\t\t<input type=\"text\" name=\"fEmail\" id=\"fEmail\" class=\"text\" /></div>\n\t\t<div><label for=\"fList\">Your list</label>\n\t\t<textarea name=\"fList\" id=\"fList\" rows=\"10\" cols=\"30\"></textarea></div>\n\t\t<div><input type=\"submit\" name=\"btnSubmit\" id=\"btnSubmit\" value=\"Submit\" class=\"button\" ></div>\n\t</form>\n</body>\n</html>\n\nView Example 8\n\nAttribute selectors provide a way of targeting elements by looking at the attributes of those elements. Unlike the other examples in this article which are CSS3 selectors, the attribute selector is actually a CSS2.1 selector \u2013 it just doesn\u2019t get much use because of lack of support in Internet Explorer 6. Using attribute selectors we can write rules for text inputs and form buttons without needing to add any classes to the markup. For example after removing the text and button classes from my text and submit button input elements I can use the following rules to target them:\n\nform input[type=\"text\"] {\n    border: 1px solid #333;\n    padding: 0.2em;\n    width: 400px;\n}\nform input[type=\"submit\"]{\n    border: 1px solid #333;\n    background-color: #eee;\n    color: #000;\n    padding: 0.1em;\n} \n\nView Example 9\n\nAnother problem that I encounter with forms is where I am using CSS to position my labels and form elements by floating the labels. This works fine as long as I want all of my labels to be floated, however sometimes we get a set of radio buttons or a checkbox, and I don\u2019t want the label field to be floated. As you can see in the below example the label for the checkbox is squashed up into the space used for the other labels, yet it makes more sense for the checkbox to display after the text.\n\n\n\nI could use a class on this label element however CSS3 lets me to target the label attribute directly by looking at the value of the for attribute.\n\nlabel[for=\"fOptIn\"] {\n    float: none;\n    width: auto;\n}\n\n\n\nBeing able to precisely target attributes in this way is incredibly useful, and once IE6 is no longer an issue this will really help to clean up our markup and save us from having to create all kinds of special cases when generating this markup on the server-side.\n\nBrowser support\n\nThe news for attribute selectors is actually pretty good with Internet Explorer 7+, Firefox 2+ and all other modern browsers all having support. As I have already mentioned this is a CSS2.1 selector and so we really should expect to be able to use it as we head into 2010! Internet Explorer 7 has slightly buggy support and will fail on the label example shown above however I discovered a workaround in the Sitepoint CSS reference comments. Adding the selector label[htmlFor=\"fOptIn\"] to the correct selector will create a match for IE7.\n\nIE6 does not support these selector but, once again, you can use jQuery to plug the holes in IE6 support. The following jQuery will add the text and button classes to your fields and also add a checks class to the label for the checkbox, which you can use to remove the float and width for this element.\n\n$('form input[type=\"submit\"]').addClass(\"button\");\n$('form input[type=\"text\"]').addClass(\"text\");\n$('label[for=\"fOptIn\"]').addClass(\"checks\");\n\nView Example 10\n\nThe selectors I\u2019ve used in this article are easy to overlook as we do have ways to achieve these things currently. As developers \u2013 especially when we have frameworks and existing code that cope with these situations \u2013 it is easy to carry on as we always have done. \n\nI think that the time has come to start to clean up our front and backend code and replace our reliance on classes with these more advanced selectors. With the help of a little JavaScript almost all users will still get the full effect and, where we are dealing with purely visual effects, there is definitely a case to be made for not worrying about the very small percentage of people with old browsers and no JavaScript. They will still receive a readable website, it may just be missing some of the finesse offered to the modern browsing experience.", "year": "2009", "author": "Rachel Andrew", "author_slug": "rachelandrew", "published": "2009-12-20T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2009/cleaner-code-with-css3-selectors/", "topic": "code"}
{"rowid": 214, "title": "Christmas Gifts for Your Future Self: Testing the Web Platform", "contents": "In the last year I became a CSS specification editor, on a mission to revitalise CSS Multi-column layout. This has involved learning about many things, one of which has been the Web Platform Tests project. In this article, I\u2019m going to share what I\u2019ve learned about testing the web platform. I\u2019m also going to explain why I think you might want to get involved too.\nWhy test?\nAt one time or another it is likely that you have been frustrated by an issue where you wrote some valid CSS, and one browser did one thing with it and another something else entirely. Experiences like this make many web developers feel that browser vendors don\u2019t work together, or they are actively doing things in a different way to one another to the detriment of those of us who use the platform. You\u2019ll be glad to know that isn\u2019t the case, and that the people who work on browsers want things to be consistent just as much as we do. It turns out however that interoperability, which is the official term for \u201cworks in all browsers\u201d, is hard.\nThanks to web-platform-tests, a test from another browser vendor just found genuine bug in our code before we shipped \ud83d\ude3b\u2014 Brian Birtles (@brianskold) February 10, 2017\n\nIn order for W3C Specifications to move on to become W3C Recommendations we need to have interoperable implementations.\n\n6.2.4 Implementation Experience\nImplementation experience is required to show that a specification is sufficiently clear, complete, and relevant to market needs, to ensure that independent interoperable implementations of each feature of the specification will be realized. While no exhaustive list of requirements is provided here, when assessing that there is adequate implementation experience the Director will consider (though not be limited to):\nis each feature of the current specification implemented, and how is this demonstrated?\nare there independent interoperable implementations of the current specification?\nare there implementations created by people other than the authors of the specification?\nare implementations publicly deployed?\nis there implementation experience at all levels of the specification\u2019s ecosystem (authoring, consuming, publishing\u2026)?\nare there reports of difficulties or problems with implementation?\nhttps://www.w3.org/2017/Process-20170301/#transition-reqs\n\nWe all want interoperability, achieving interoperability is part of the standards process. The next question is, how do we make sure that we get it?\nUnimplemented vs uninteroperable implementations\nBefore looking at how we can try to improve interoperability, I\u2019d like to look at the reasons we don\u2019t always meet that aim. There are a couple of reasons why browser X is not doing the same thing as browser Y.\nThe first reason is that browser X has not implemented that feature yet. Relatively small teams of people work on browser engines, and their resources are spread as thinly as those of any company. Behind those browsers are business or organisational goals which may not match our desire for a shiny feature to be made available. There are ways in which we as the web community can help gently encourage implementations - by requesting the feature, by using it so it shows up in usage reports, or writing about it to show interest. However, there will always be some degree of lag based on priorities.\nA browser not supporting a feature at all, is reasonably easy to deal with these days. We can test for support with Feature Queries, and create sensible fallbacks. What is harder to deal with is when a feature is implemented in different ways by different browsers. In that situation you use the feature, perhaps referring to the specification to ensure that you are writing your CSS correctly. It looks exactly as you expect in one browser and it\u2019s all broken when you test in another.\nA frequent cause of this kind of issue is that the specification is not well defined in a particular area or that the specification has changed since one or other browser implemented it. CSS specifications are not developed in a darkened room, then presented to browser vendors to implement as a completed document. It would be nice if it worked like that, however the web platform is a gnarly thing. Before we can be sure that a specification is correct, it needs implementing in order that we can get the interoperable implementations I described earlier. A circular process has to happen. Specifications have to be written, browsers have to implement and find the problems, and then the specification has to be revised.\nMany people reading this will be familiar with how flexbox changed three times in browsers, leaving us with a mess of incompatibilities and the need to use at least two versions of the spec. This story was an example of this circular process, in this case the specification was flagged as experimental using vendor prefixes. We had become used to using vendor prefixes in production and early adopters of flexbox were bitten by this. Today, specifications are developed behind experimental flags as we saw with CSS Grid Layout. Yet there has to come a time when implementations ship, and remove those flags, and it may be that knowingly or unknowingly some interop issues slip through.\nYou will know these interop issues as \u201cbrowser bugs\u201d, perhaps you have even reported one (thank you!) and none of us want them, so how do we make the platform as robust as possible?\nHow do we ensure we have interoperability?\nIf you were working on a large web application, with several people committing code, it would be very easy for one person to make a change that inadvertently broke some part of the application. They might not realise the fact that their change would cause a problem, due to not having a complete understanding of the entire codebase. To prevent this from happening, it is accepted good practice to write tests as well as code. The tests can then be run before the application is deployed.\nUnless you start out from the beginning writing tests, and are very good at writing a test for every bit of code, it is likely that some issues do slip through from time to time. When this happens, a good approach is to not only fix the issue but also to write a test that would stop it ever happening again. That way the test suite improves over time and hopefully fewer issues happen.\nThe web platform is essentially a giant, sprawling application, with a huge range of people working on it in different ways. There is therefore plenty of opportunity for issues to creep in, so it seems like having some way of writing tests and automating those tests on browsers would be a good thing. That, is what the Web Platform Tests project has set out to achieve.\nWeb Platform Tests\nWeb Platform Tests is the test suite for the web platform. It is set of tests for all parts of the web platform, which can be run in any browser and the results reported. This article mostly discusses CSS tests, because I work on CSS. You will find that there are tests covering the full platform, and you can look into whichever area you have the most interest and experience in.\nIf we want to create a test suite for a CSS specification then we need to ensure that every feature of the specification has a related test. If a change is made to the spec, and a test committed that reflects that change, then it should be straightforward to run that test against each browser and see if it passes.\nCurrently, at the CSS Working Group, specifications that are at Candidate Recommendation Status should commit at test with every normative change to the spec. To explain the terminology, a normative change is one that changes some of the normative text of a specification - text that contains instructions as to how a browser should render a certain thing. A Candidate Recommendation is the status at which the Working Group officially request implementations of the spec, therefore it is reasonable to assume that any change may cause an interoperability issue. It is usually the case that representatives from all browsers will have discussed the change, so anyone who needs to change code will be aware. In this case the test allows them to check that their change passes and matches everyone else. Tests would also highlight the situation where a change to the spec caused an issue in a browser that otherwise wouldn\u2019t be aware if it. Just as a test suite for your web application should alert a person committing code, that their change will cause a problem elsewhere.\nDiscovering the tests\nI\u2019ve found that the more I have understood the effort that goes into interoperability, and the reasons why creating an interoperable web is so hard, running into browser issues has become less frustrating. I have somewhere to go, even if all I can do is log the bug.\nIf you are even slightly interested in the subject, go have a poke around wpt.fyi. You can explore the various parts of the web platform and see how many tests have been committed. All the the CSS tests are under the directory /css where you will find each specification. Find a specification you are interested in, and look at the tests. Each test has a link to run it in your own browser to see if it passes. This can be useful in itself, if you are battling with an issue and have reduced it down to something specific, you can go and look to see if there is a test covering that and whether it appears to pass or fail in the browser you are battling with. If it turns out that the test fails, it\u2019s probably not you!\nA test on the wpt.fyi dashboard\nNote: In some tests you will come across mention of a font called Ahem. This is a font designed for testing which contains consistent glyphs. You can read about how to use the font and download it here.\nContributing to Web Platform Tests\nYou can also become involved with Web Platform Tests. People often ask me how they can become involved in CSS, and I can think of no better way than by writing tests. You need to really understand a feature to accurately come up with a method of testing if it works or not in the different engines. This is not glamorous work, it is however a very useful thing to be involved with.\nIn addition to helping yourself, and developing the sort of deep knowledge of the platform that enables contribution, you will really help the progress of specifications. There are only a very few people writing specs. If those people also have to write and review all of the tests it slows down their work. If you want a better, more interoperable web, and to massively improve your ability to have nerdy conversations about highly specific things, testing is the place to start.\nA local testing setup\nYour first stop should be to visit the home of Web Platform Tests. There is some documentation here, which does tend to assume you know about the tests and what you are looking for - having read this article you know as much as I do. To be able to work on tests you will want to:\n\nClone the WPT repo, this is where all the tests are stored\nInstall some tools so you can run up a local copy of the tests\n\nThe instructions on the Readme in the repo should get you up and running, you can then load your own version of the test suite in a browser at http://web-platform-test:8000, or whichever port you set up.\nRunning tests locally\nFinding things to test\nIt\u2019s currently not straightforward to locate low-hanging fruit in order to start committing tests. There are some issues flagged up as a good first issue in the GitHub repo, if any of those match your interest and knowledge. Otherwise, a good place to start is where you know of existing interoperability issues. If you are aware of a browser bug, have a look and see if there is a test that addresses it. If not, then a test highlights the interoperability issue, and if it is an issue that you are running into means that you have a nice way to see if it has been fixed!\nTalk to people\nThere is an IRC channel at irc://irc.w3.org:6667/testing, where you will find people who are writing tests as well as people who are working on the test suite framework itself. They have always been very friendly, and are likely to welcome people with a real interest in creating tests.\nGathering information\nFirst you need to read the spec. To be able to create a test you need to know and to understand what the specification says should be happening. As I mentioned, writing tests will improve your knowledge dramatically! In general I find that web developers assume their favourite browser has got it right, this isn\u2019t about right or wrong however, or good browsers versus bad ones. The browser with the incorrect implementation may have had a perfect, as per the spec implementation, until something changed. Do some investigation and work out what the spec says, and which \u2013 if any \u2013 browser is doing it correctly.\nAnother good place to look when trying to create a test for an interop issue, is to look at the browser issue trackers. It is quite likely that someone has already logged the issue, and detailed what it is, and even which browsers are as per the spec. This is useful information, as you then have a clue as to which browsers should pass your test. Remember to check version numbers - an issue may well be fixed in a pre-release version of Chrome for example, but not in the public release.\n\nEdge Issue Tracker\nMozilla Issue Tracker\nWebKit Issue Tracker\nChromium Issue Tracker\n\nWriting the test\nIf you\u2019ve ever created a Reduced Test Case to isolate a browser issue, you already have some idea of what we are trying to do with a test. We want to test one thing, in isolation, and to be able to confirm \u201cyes this works as per the spec\u201d or \u201cno, this does not\u201d.\nThe main two types of test are:\n\ntestharness.js tests\nreftests\n\nThe testharness.js tests use JavaScript to test an assertion, this framework is designed as a way to test Web APIs and as this quickly gets fairly complicated - and I\u2019m a complete beginner myself at writing these - I\u2019ll refer you to the excellent tutorial Using testharness.js.\nMany CSS tests will be reftests. A reftest involves getting two pages to lay out in the same way, so that they are visually the same. For example, you can find a reftest for Grid Layout at:https://w3c-test.org/css/css-grid/alignment/grid-gutters-001.html or at http://web-platform.test:8000/css/css-grid/alignment/grid-gutters-001.html if you have run up your own copy of WPT.\n<!DOCTYPE html>\n<meta charset=\"utf-8\">\n<title>CSS Grid Layout Test: Support for gap shorthand property of row-gap and column-gap</title>\n<link rel=\"help\" href=\"https://www.w3.org/TR/css-grid-1/#gutters\">\n<link rel=\"help\" href=\"https://www.w3.org/TR/css-align-3/#gap-shorthand\">\n<link rel=\"match\" href=\"../reference/grid-equal-gutters-ref.html\">\n<link rel=\"author\" title=\"Rachel Andrew\" href=\"mailto:me@rachelandrew.co.uk\">\n<style>\n    #grid {\n        display: grid;\n        width:200px;\n        gap: 20px;\n        grid-template-columns: 90px 90px;\n        grid-template-rows: 90px 90px;\n        background-color: green;\n    }\n\n    #grid > div {\n        background-color: silver;\n    }\n</style>\n\n<p>The test passes if it has the same visual effect as reference.</p>\n<div id=\"grid\">\n    <div></div>\n    <div></div>\n    <div></div>\n    <div></div>\n</div>\nI am testing the new gap property (renamed grid-gap). The reference file can be found by looking for the line:\n<link rel=\"match\" href=\"../reference/grid-equal-gutters-ref.html\">\nIn that file, I am using absolute positioning to mock up the way the file would look if gap is implemented correctly.\n<!DOCTYPE html>\n<meta charset=\"utf-8\">\n<title>CSS Grid Layout Reference: a square with a green cross</title>\n<link rel=\"author\" title=\"Rachel Andrew\" href=\"mailto:me@rachelandrew.co.uk\" />\n<style>\n    #grid {\n        width:200px;\n        height: 200px;\n        background-color: green;\n        position: relative;\n    }\n\n    #grid > div {\n        background-color: silver;\n        width: 90px;\n        height: 90px;\n        position: absolute;\n    }\n\n    #grid :nth-child(1) {\n        top: 0;\n        left: 0;\n    }\n\n    #grid :nth-child(2) {\n        top: 0;\n        left: 110px;\n    }\n\n    #grid :nth-child(3) {\n        top: 110px;\n        left: 0;\n    }\n\n    #grid :nth-child(4) {\n        top: 110px;\n        left: 110px;\n    }\n</style>\n\n<div id=\"grid\">\n    <div></div>\n    <div></div>\n    <div></div>\n    <div></div>\n</div>\nThe tests are compared in an automated way by taking screenshots of the test and reference.\nThese are relatively simple tests to write, you will find the work is not in writing the test however. The work is really in doing the research, and making sure you understand what is supposed to happen so you can write the test. Which is why, if you really want to get your hands dirty in the web platform, this is a good place to start.\nCommitting a test\nOnce you have written a test you can run the lint tool to make sure that everything is tidy. This tool is run automatically after you submit your pull request, and reviewers won\u2019t accept a test with lint errors, so do this locally first to catch anything obvious.\nTests are added as a pull request, once you have your test ready to go you can create a pull request to add it to the repository. Your test will be tested and it will then wait for a review.\nYou may well then find yourself in a bit of a waiting game, as the test needs to be reviewed. How long that takes will depend on how active work is on that spec. People who are in the OWNERS file for that spec should be notified. You can always ask in IRC to see if someone is available who can look at and potentially merge your test.\nUsually the reviewer will have some comments as to how the test can be improved, in the same as the owner of an open source project you submit a PR to might ask you to change some things. Work with them to make your test as good as it can be, the things you learn on the first test you submit will make future ones easier. You can then bask in the glow of knowing you have done something towards the aim of a more interoperable web for all of us.\nChristmas gifts for your future self\nI have been a web developer for over 20 years. I have no idea what the web platform will look like in 20 more years, but for as long as I\u2019m working on it I\u2019ll keep on trying to make it better. Making the web more interoperable makes it a better place to be a web developer, storing up some Christmas gifts for my future self, while learning new things as I do so.\nResources\nI rounded up everything I could find on WPT while researching this article. As well as some other links that might be helpful for you. These links are below. Happy testing!\n\nWeb Platform Tests\nUsing testharness.js\nIRC Channel irc://irc.w3.org:6667/testing\nEdge Issue Tracker\nMozilla Issue Tracker\nWebKit Issue Tracker\nChromium Issue Tracker\nReducing an Issue - guide to created a reduced test case\nEffectively Using Web Platform Tests: Slides and Video\nAn excellent walkthrough from Lyza Gardner on her working on tests for the HTML specification - Moving Targets: a case study on testing web standards.\nImproving interop with web-platform-tests: Slides and Video", "year": "2017", "author": "Rachel Andrew", "author_slug": "rachelandrew", "published": "2017-12-10T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2017/testing-the-web-platform/", "topic": "code"}
{"rowid": 243, "title": "Researching a Property in the CSS Specifications", "contents": "I frequently joke that I\u2019m \u201creading the specs so you don\u2019t have to\u201d, as I unpack some detail of a CSS spec in a post on my blog, some documentation for MDN, or an article on Smashing Magazine. However waiting for someone like me to write an article about something is a pretty slow way to get the information you need. Sometimes people like me get things wrong, or specifications change after we write a tutorial. \nWhat if you could just look it up yourself? That\u2019s what you get when you learn to read the CSS specifications, and in this article my aim is to give you the basic details you need to grab quick information about any CSS property detailed in the CSS specs.\nWhere are the CSS Specifications?\nThe easiest way to see all of the CSS specs is to take a look at the Current Work page in the CSS section of the W3C Website. Here you can see all of the specifications listed, the level they are at and their status. There is also a link to the specification from this page. I explained CSS Levels in my article Why there is no CSS 4.\nWho are the specifications for?\nCSS specifications are for everyone who uses CSS. You might be a browser engineer - referred to as an implementor - needing to know how to implement a feature, or a web developer - referred to as an author - wanting to know how to use the feature. The fact that both parties are looking at the same document hopefully means that what the browser displays is what the web developer expected.\nWhich version of a spec should I look at?\nThere are a couple of places you might want to look. Each published spec will have the latest published version, which will have TR in the URL and can be accessed without a date (which is always the newest version) or at a date, which will be the date of that publication. If I\u2019m referring to a particular Working Draft in an article I\u2019ll typically link to the dated version. That way if the information changes it is possible for someone to see where I got the information from at the time of writing.\nIf you want the very latest additions and changes to the spec, then the Editor\u2019s Draft is the place to look. This is the version of the spec that the editors are committing changes to. If I make a change to the Multicol spec and push it to GitHub, within a few minutes that will be live in the Editor\u2019s Draft. So it is possible there are errors, bits of text that we are still working out and so on. The Editor\u2019s Draft however is definitely the place to look if you are wanting to raise an issue on a spec, as it may be that the issue you are about to raise is already fixed.\nIf you are especially keen on seeing updates to specifications keep an eye on https://drafts.csswg.org/ as this is a list of drafts, along with the date they were last updated.\nHow to approach a spec\nThe first thing to understand is that most CSS Specifications start with the most straightforward information, and get progressively further into the weeds. For an author the initial examples and explanations are likely to be of interest, and then the property definitions and examples. Therefore, if you are looking at a vast spec, know that you probably won\u2019t need to read all the way to the bottom, or read every section in detail.\nThe second thing that is useful to know about modern CSS specifications is how modularized they are. It really never is a case of finding everything you need in a single document. If we tried to do that, there would be a lot of repetition and likely inconsistency between specs. There are some key specifications that many other specifications draw on, such as:\n\nValues and Units\nIntrinsic and Extrinsic Sizing\nBox Alignment\n\nWhen something is defined in another specification the spec you are reading will link to it, so it is worth opening that other spec in a new tab in order that you can refer back to it as you explore.\nResearching your property\nAs an example we will take a look at the property grid-auto-rows, this property defines row tracks in the implicit grid when using CSS Grid Layout. The first thing you will need to do is find out which specification defines this property.\nYou might already know which spec the property is part of, and therefore you could go directly to the spec and search using your browser or look in the navigation for the spec to find it. Alternatively, you could take a look at the CSS Property Index, which is an automatically generated list of CSS Properties.\nClicking on a property will take you to the TR version of the spec, the latest published draft, and the definition of that property in it. This definition begins with a panel detailing the syntax of this property. For grid-auto-rows, you can see that it is listed along with grid-auto-columns as these two properties are essentially identical. They take the same values and work in the same way, one for rows and the other for columns.\nValue\nFor value we can see that the property accepts a value <track-size>. The next thing to do is to find out what that actually means, clicking  will take you to where it is defined in the Grid spec.\nThe <track-size> value is defined as accepting various values:\n\n<track-breadth>\nminmax( <inflexible-breadth> , <track-breadth> )\nfit-content( <length-percentage>\n\nWe need to head down the rabbit hole to find out what each of these mean. From here we essentially go down line by line until we have unpacked the value of track-size.\n<track-breadth> is defined just below <track-size> as:\n\n<length-percentage>\n<flex>\nmin-content\nmax-content\nauto\n\nSo these are all things that would be valid to use as a value for grid-auto-rows.\nThe first value of <length-percentage> is something you will see in many specifications as a value. It means that you can use a length unit - for example px or em - or a percentage. Some properties only accept a <length> in which case you know that you cannot use a percentage as the value. This means that you could have grid-auto-rows with any of the following values.\ngrid-auto-rows: 100px;\ngrid-auto-rows: 1em;\ngrid-auto-rows: 30%;\nWhen using percentages, it is important to know what it is a percentage of. As a percentage has to resolve from something. There is text in the spec which explains how column and row percentages work.\n\n\u201c<percentage> values are relative to the inline size of the grid container in column grid tracks, and the block size of the grid container in row grid tracks.\u201d\n\nThis means that in a horizontal writing mode such as when using English, a percentage when used as a track-size in grid-auto-columns would be a percentage of the width of the grid, and a percentage in grid-auto-rows a percentage of the height of the grid.\nThe second value of <flex> is also defined here, as \u201cA non-negative dimension with the unit fr specifying the track\u2019s flex factor.\u201d This is the fr unit, and the spec links to a fuller definition of fr as this unit is only used in Grid Layout so it is therefore defined in the grid spec. We now know that a valid value would be:\ngrid-auto-rows: 1fr;\nThere is some useful information about the fr unit in this part of the spec. It is noted that the fr unit has an automatic minimum. This means that 1fr is really minmax(auto, 1fr). This is why having a number of tracks all at 1fr does not mean that all are equal sized, as a larger item in any of the tracks would have a large auto size and therefore would be larger after spare space had been distributed.\nWe then have min-content and max-content. These keywords can be used for track sizing and the specification defines what they mean in the context of sizing a track, representing the min and max-sizing contributions of the grid tracks. You will see that there are various terms linked in the definition, so if you do not know what these mean you can follow them to find out.\nFor example the spec links max-content contribution to the CSS Intrinsic and Extrinsic Sizing specification. This is one of those specs which is drawn on by many other specifications. If we follow that link we can read the definition there and follow further links to understand what each term means. The more that you read specifications the more these terms will become familiar to you. Just like learning a foreign language, at first you feel like you have to look up every little thing. After a while you remember the vocabulary.\nWe can now add min-content and max-content to our available values.\ngrid-auto-rows: min-content;\ngrid-auto-rows: max-content;\nThe final item in our list is auto. If you are familiar with using Grid Layout, then you are probably aware that an auto sized track for will grow to fit the content used. There is an interesting note here in the spec detailing that auto sized rows will stretch to fill the grid container if there is extra space and align-content or justify-content have a value of stretch. As stretch is the default value, that means these tracks stretch by default. Tracks using other types of length will not behave like this.\ngrid-auto-rows: auto;\nSo, this was the list for <track-breadth>, the next possible value is minmax( <inflexible-breadth> , <track-breadth> ). So this is telling us that we can use minmax() as a value, the final (max) value will be <track-breadth> and we have already unpacked all of the allowable values there. The first value (min) is detailed as an <inflexible-breadth>. If we look at the values for this, we discover that they are the same as <track-breadth>, minus the <flex> value:\n\n<length-percentage>\nmin-content\nmax-content\nauto\n\nWe already know what all of these do, so we can add possible minmax() values to our list of values for <track-size>.\ngrid-auto-rows: minmax(100px, 200px);\ngrid-auto-rows: minmax(20%, 1fr);\ngrid-auto-rows: minmax(1em, auto);\ngrid-auto-rows: minmax(min-content, max-content);\nFinally we can use fit-content( <length-percentage>. We can see that fit-content takes a value of <length-percentage> which we already know to be either a length unit, or a percentage. The spec details how fit-content is worked out, and it essentially allows a track which acts as if you had used the max-content keyword, however the track stops growing when it hits the length passed to it.\ngrid-auto-rows: fit-content(200px);\ngrid-auto-rows: fit-content(20%);\nThose are all of our possible values, and to round things off, check again at the initial <track-size> value, you can see it has a little + sign next to it, click that and you will be taken to the CSS Values and Units module to find that, \u201cA plus (+) indicates that the preceding type, word, or group occurs one or more times.\u201d This means that we can pass a single track size to grid-auto-rows or multiple track sizes as a space separated list. Below the box is an explanation of what happens if you pass in more than one track size:\n\n\u201cIf multiple track sizes are given, the pattern is repeated as necessary to find the size of the implicit tracks. The first implicit grid track after the explicit grid receives the first specified size, and so on forwards; and the last implicit grid track before the explicit grid receives the last specified size, and so on backwards.\u201d\n\nTherefore with the following CSS, if five implicit rows were needed they would be as follows:\n\n100px\n1fr\nauto\n100px\n1fr\n\n.grid {\n    display: grid;\n    grid-auto-rows: 100px 1fr auto;\n}\nInitial\nWe can now move to the next line in the box, and you\u2019ll be glad to know that it isn\u2019t going to require as much unpacking! This simply defines the initial value for grid-auto-rows. If you do not specify anything, created rows will be auto sized. All CSS properties have an initial value that they will use if they are invoked as part of the usage of the specification they are in, but you do not set a value for them. In the case of grid-auto-rows it is used whenever rows are created in the implicit grid, so it needs to have a value to be used even if you do not set one.\nApplies to\nThis line tells us what this property is used for. Some properties are used in multiple places. For example if you look at the definition for justify-content in the Box Alignment specification you can see it is used in multicol containers, flex containers, and grid containers. In our case the property only applies for grid containers.\nInherited\nThis tells us if the property can be inherited from a parent element if it is not set. In the case of grid-auto-rows it is not inherited. A property such as color is inherited, so you do not need to set it on each element.\nPercentages\nAre percentages allowed for this property, and if so how are they calculated. In this case we are referred to the definition for grid-template-columns and grid-template-rows where we discover that the percentage is from the corresponding dimension of the content area.\nMedia\nThis defines the media group that the property belongs to. In this case visual.\nComputed Value\nThis details how the value is resolved. The grid-auto-rows property again refers to track sizing as defined for grid-template-columns and grid-template-rows, which tells us the computed value is as specified with lengths made absolute.\nCanonical Order\nIf you have a property\u2013generally a shorthand property\u2013which takes multiple values in a set order, then those values need to be serialized in the order detailed in the grammar for that property. In general you don\u2019t need to worry about this value in the table.\nAnimation Type\nThis details whether the property can be animated, and if so what type of animation. This is useful if you are trying to animate something and not getting the result that you expect. Note that just because something is listed in the spec as animatable does not mean that browsers will have implemented animation for that property yet!\nThat\u2019s (mostly) it!\nSometimes the property will have additional examples - there is one underneath the table for grid-auto-rows. These are worth looking at as they will highlight usage of the property that the spec editor has felt could use an example. There may also be some additional text explaining anythign specific to this property.\nIn selecting grid-auto-rows I chose a fairly complex property in terms of the work we needed to do to unpack the value. Many properties are far simpler than this. However ultimately, even when you come across a complex value, it really is just a case of stepping through the definitions until you come to the bottom of the rabbit hole.\nBeing able to work out what is valid for each property is incredibly useful. It means you don\u2019t waste time trying to use a value that doesn\u2019t work for that property. You also may find that there are values you weren\u2019t aware of, that solve problems for you.\nFurther reading\nSpecifications are not designed to be user manuals, and while they often contain examples, these are pretty terse as they need to be clear to demonstrate their particular point. The manual for the Web Platform is MDN Web Docs. Pairing reading a specification with the examples and information on an MDN property page such as the one for grid-auto-rows is a really great way to ensure that you have all the information and practical usage examples you might need.\nYou may also find useful:\n\nValue Definition Syntax on MDN.\nThe MDN Glossary defines many common terms.\nUnderstanding the CSS Property Value Syntax goes into more detail in terms of reading the syntax.\nHow to read W3C Specs - from 2001 but still relevant.\n\nI hope this article has gone some way to demystify CSS specifications for you. Even if the specifications are not your preferred first stop to learn about new CSS, being able to go directly to the source and avoid having your understanding filtered by someone else, can be very useful indeed.", "year": "2018", "author": "Rachel Andrew", "author_slug": "rachelandrew", "published": "2018-12-14T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2018/researching-a-property-in-the-css-specifications/", "topic": "code"}
{"rowid": 306, "title": "What next for CSS Grid Layout?", "contents": "In 2012 I wrote an article for 24 ways detailing a new CSS Specification that had caught my eye, at the time with an implementation only in Internet Explorer. What I didn\u2019t realise at the time was that CSS Grid Layout was to become a theme on which I would base the next four years of research, experimentation, writing and speaking. \nAs I write this article in December 2016, we are looking forward to CSS Grid Layout being shipped in Chrome and Firefox. What will ship early next year in those browsers is expanded and improved from the early implementation I explored in 2012. Over the last four years the spec has been developed as part of the CSS Working Group process, and has had input from browser engineers, specification writers and web developers. Use cases have been discussed, and features added.\nThe CSS Grid Layout specification is now a Candidate Recommendation. This status means the spec is to all intents and purposes, finished. The discussions now happening are on fine implementation details, and not new feature ideas. It makes sense to draw a line under a specification in order that browser vendors can ship complete, interoperable implementations. That approach is good for all of us, it makes development far easier if we know that a browser supports all of the features of a specification, rather than working out which bits are supported. However it doesn\u2019t mean that works stops here, and that new use cases and features can\u2019t be proposed for future levels of Grid Layout. Therefore, in this article I\u2019m going to take a look at some of the things I think grid layout could do in the future. I would love for these thoughts to prompt you to think about how Grid - or any CSS specification - could better suit the use cases you have.\nSubgrid - the missing feature of Level 1\nThe implementation of CSS Grid Layout in Chrome, Firefox and Webkit is comparable and very feature complete. There is however one standout feature that has not been implemented in any browser as yet - subgrid. Once you set the value of the display property to grid, any direct children of that element become grid items. This is similar to the way that flexbox behaves, set display: flex and all direct children become flex items. The behaviour does not apply to children of those items. You can nest grids, just as you can nest flex containers, but the child grids have no relationship to the parent.\n\nNesting Grids by Rachel Andrew (@rachelandrew) on CodePen.\nThe subgrid behaviour would enable the grid defined on the parent to be used by the children. I feel this would be most useful when working with a multiple column flexible grid - for example a typical 12 column grid. I could define a grid on a wrapper, then position UI elements on that grid - from the major structural elements of my page down through the child elements to a form where I wanted the field to line up with items above.\nThe specification contained an initial description of subgrid, with a value of subgrid for grid-template-columns and grid-template-rows, you can read about this in the August 2015 Working Draft. This version of the specification would have meant you could declare a subgrid in one dimension only, and create a different set of tracks in the other.\nIn an attempt to get some implementation of subgrid, a revised specification was proposed earlier this year. This gives a single subgrid value of the display property. As we now cannot specify a subgrid on rows OR columns this limits us to have a subgrid that works in two dimensions. At this point neither version has been implemented by anyone, and subgrids are marked as \u201cat risk\u201d in the Level 1 Candidate Recommendation. With regard to \u2018at-risk\u2019 this is explained as follows:\n\n\u201c\u2018At-risk\u2019 is a W3C Process term-of-art, and does not necessarily imply that the feature is in danger of being dropped or delayed. It means that the WG believes the feature may have difficulty being interoperably implemented in a timely manner, and marking it as such allows the WG to drop the feature if necessary when transitioning to the Proposed Rec stage, without having to publish a new Candidate Rec without the feature first.\u201d \n\nIf we lose subgrid from Level 1, as it looks likely that we will, this does give us a chance to further discuss and iterate on that feature. My current thoughts are that I\u2019m not completely happy about subgrids being tied to both dimensions and feel that a return to the earlier version, or something like it, would be preferable. \nFurther reading about subgrid\n\nMy post from 2015 detailing why I feel subgrid is important\nMy post based on the revised specification\nEric Meyer\u2019s thoughts on subgrid\nWrite-up of a discussion from Igalia who work on the Blink and Webkit browser implementations\n\nStyling cells, tracks and areas\nHaving defined a grid with CSS Grid Layout you can place child elements into that grid, however what you can\u2019t do is style the grid tracks or cells. Grid doesn\u2019t even go as far as multiple column layout, which has the column-rule properties.\nIn order to set a background colour on a grid cell at the moment you would have to add an empty HTML element or insert some generated content as in the below example. I\u2019m using a 1 pixel grid gap to fake lines between grid cells, and empty div elements, and some generated content to colour those cells.\n\nFaked backgrounds and borders by Rachel Andrew (@rachelandrew) on CodePen.\nI think it would be a nice addition to Grid Layout to be able to directly add backgrounds and borders to cells, tracks and areas. There is an Issue raised in the CSS WG Drafts repository for Decorative Grid Cell pseudo-elements, if you want to add thoughts to that.\nMore control over auto placement\nIf you haven\u2019t explicitly placed the direct children of your grid element they will be laid out according to the grid auto placement rules. You can see in this example how we have created a grid and the items are placing themselves into cells on that grid.\n\nItems auto-place on a defined grid by Rachel Andrew (@rachelandrew) on CodePen.\nThe auto-placement algorithm is very cool. We can position some items, leaving others to auto-place; we can set items to span more than one track; we can use the grid-auto-flow property with a value of dense to backfill gaps in our grid.\n\nWebsafe colors meet CSS Grid (auto-placement demo) by Rachel Andrew (@rachelandrew) on CodePen.\nI think however this could be taken further. In this issue posted to my CSS Grid AMA on GitHub, the question is raised as to whether it would be possible to ask grid to place items on the next available line of a certain name. This would allow you to skip tracks in the grid when using auto-placement, an issue that has also been raised by Emil Bj\u00f6rklund in this post to the www-style list prior to spec discussion moving to Github. I think there are probably similar issues, if you can think of one add a comment here.\nCreating non-rectangular grid areas\nA grid area is a collection of grid cells, defined by setting the start and end lines for columns and rows or by creating the area in the value of the grid-template-areas property as shown below. Those areas however must be rectangular - you can\u2019t create an L-shaped or otherwise non-regular shape.\n\nGrid Areas by Rachel Andrew (@rachelandrew) on CodePen.\n\nPerhaps in the future we could define an L-shape or other non-rectangular area into which content could flow, as in the below currently invalid code where a quote is embedded into an L-shaped content area.\n.wrapper {\n  display: grid;\n  grid-template-areas:\n      \"sidebar header  header\"\n      \"sidebar content quote\"\n      \"sidebar content content\";\n}\nFlowing content through grid cells or areas\nSome uses cases I have seen perhaps are not best solved by grid layout at all, but would involve grid working alongside other CSS specifications. As I detail in this post, there are a class of problems that I believe could be solved with the CSS Regions specification, or a revised version of that spec.\nBeing able to create a grid layout, then flow content through the areas could be very useful. Jen Simmons presented to the CSS Working Group at the Lisbon meeting a suggestion as to how this might work.\nIn a post from earlier this year I looked at a collection of ideas from specifications that include Grid, Regions and Exclusions. These working notes from my own explorations might prompt ideas of your own.\nSolving the keyboard/layout disconnect\nOne issue that grid, and flexbox to a lesser extent, raises is that it is very easy to end up with a layout that is disconnected from the underlying markup. This raises problems for people navigating using the keyboard as when tabbing around the document you find yourself jumping to unexpected places. The problem is explained by L\u00e9onie Watson with reference to flexbox in Flexbox and the keyboard navigation disconnect.\nThe grid layout specification currently warns against creating such a disconnect, however I think it will take careful work by web developers in order to prevent this. It\u2019s also not always as straightforward as it seems. In some cases you want the logical order to follow the source, and others it would make more sense to follow the visual. People are thinking about this issue, as you can read in this mailing list discussion.\nBringing your ideas to the future of Grid Layout\nWhen I\u2019m not getting excited about new CSS features, my day job involves working on a software product - the CMS that is serving this very website, Perch. When we launched Perch there were many use cases that we had never thought of, despite having a good idea of what might be needed in a CMS and thinking through lots of use cases. The additional use cases brought to our attention by our customers and potential customers informed the development of the product from launch. The same will be true for Grid Layout.\nAs a \u201cproduct\u201d grid has been well thought through by many people. Yet however hard we try there will be use cases we just didn\u2019t think of. You may well have one in mind right now. That\u2019s ok, because as with any CSS specification, once Level One of grid  is complete, work can begin on Level Two. The feature set of Level Two will be informed by the use cases that emerge as people get to grips with what we have now.\nThis is where you get to contribute to the future of layout on the web. When you hit up against the things you cannot do, don\u2019t just mutter about how the CSS Working Group don\u2019t listen to regular developers and code around the problem. Instead, take a few minutes and write up your use case. Post it to your blog, to Medium, create a CodePen and go to the CSS Working Group GitHub specs repository and post an issue there. Write some pseudo-code, draw a picture, just make sure that the use case is described in enough detail that someone can see what problem you want grid to solve. It may be that - as with any software development - your use case can\u2019t be solved in exactly the way you suggest. However once we have a use case, collected with other use cases, methods of addressing that class of problems can be investigated. \nI opened this article by explaining I\u2019d written about grid layout four years ago, and how we\u2019re only now at a point where we will have Grid Layout available in the majority of browsers. Specification development, and implementation into browsers takes time. This is actually a good thing, as it\u2019s impossible to take back CSS once it is out there and being used by production websites. We want CSS in the wild to be well thought through and that takes time. So don\u2019t feel that because you don\u2019t see your use case added to a spec immediately it has been ignored. Do your future self a favour and write down your frustrations or thoughts, and we can all make sure that the web platform serves the use cases we\u2019re dealing with now and in the future.", "year": "2016", "author": "Rachel Andrew", "author_slug": "rachelandrew", "published": "2016-12-12T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2016/what-next-for-css-grid-layout/", "topic": "code"}
{"rowid": 332, "title": "CSS Layout Starting Points", "contents": "I build a lot of CSS layouts, some incredibly simple, others that cause sleepless nights and remind me of the torturous puzzle books that were given to me at Christmas by aunties concerned for my education. However, most of the time these layouts fit quite comfortably into one of a very few standard formats. For example:\n\n\n\tLiquid, multiple column with no footer\n\tLiquid, multiple column with footer\n\tFixed width, centred\n\n\nRather than starting out with blank CSS and (X)HTML documents every time you need to build a layout, you can fairly quickly create a bunch of layout starting points, that will give you a solid basis for creating the rest of the design and mean that you don\u2019t have to remember how a three column layout with a footer is best achieved every time you come across one! \n\nThese starting points can be really basic, in fact that\u2019s exactly what you want as the final design, the fonts, the colours and so on will be different every time. It\u2019s just the main sections we want to be able to quickly get into place. For example, here is a basic starting point CSS and XHTML document for a fixed width, centred layout with a footer.\n\n <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN\"\n     \"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd\">\n<html xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml\">\n<head>\n     <title>Fixed Width and Centred starting point document</title>\n     <link rel=\"stylesheet\" type=\"text/css\" href=\"fixed-width-centred.css\" />\n     <meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text/html; charset=utf-8\" />\n</head>\n<body>\n<div id=\"wrapper\">\n     <div id=\"side\">\n          <div class=\"inner\">\n               <p>Sidebar content here</p>\n          </div>\n     </div>\n     <div id=\"content\">\n          <div class=\"inner\">\n               <p>Your main content goes here.</p>\n          </div>\n     </div>\n     <div id=\"footer\">\n          <div class=\"inner\">\n               <p>Ho Ho Ho!</p>\n          </div>\n     </div>\n</div>\n</body>\n</html>\n\n body {\n     text-align: center;\n     min-width: 740px;\n     padding: 0;\n     margin: 0;\n }\n\n #wrapper {\n     text-align: left;\n     width: 740px;\n     margin-left: auto;\n     margin-right: auto;\n     padding: 0;\n }\n\n #content {\n     margin: 0 200px 0 0;\n }\n\n #content .inner {\n     padding-top: 1px;\n     margin: 0 10px 10px 10px;\n }\n\n #side {\n     float: right;\n     width: 180px;\n     margin: 0;\n }\n\n #side .inner {\n     padding-top: 1px;\n     margin: 0 10px 10px 10px;\n }\n\n #footer {\n     margin-top: 10px;\n     clear: both;\n }\n\n #footer .inner {\n     margin: 10px;\n }\n\n9 times out of 10, after figuring out exactly what main elements I have in a layout, I can quickly grab the \u2018one I prepared earlier\u2019, mark-up the relevant sections within the ready-made divs, and from that point on, I only need to worry about the contents of those different areas. The actual layout is tried and tested, one that I know works well in different browsers and that is unlikely to throw me any nasty surprises later on. In addition, considering how the layout is going to work first prevents the problem of developing a layout, then realising you need to put a footer on it, and needing to redevelop the layout as the method you have chosen won\u2019t work well with a footer.\n\nWhile enjoying your mince pies and mulled wine during the \u2018quiet time\u2019 between Christmas and New Year, why not create some starting point layouts of your own? The css-discuss Wiki, CSS layouts section is a great place to find examples that you can try out and find your favourite method of creating the various layout types.", "year": "2005", "author": "Rachel Andrew", "author_slug": "rachelandrew", "published": "2005-12-04T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2005/css-layout-starting-points/", "topic": "code"}
{"rowid": 33, "title": "Five Ways to Animate Responsibly", "contents": "It\u2019s been two years since I wrote about \u201cFlashless Animation\u201d on this very site. Since then, animation has steadily begun popping up on websites, from sleek app-like user interfaces to interactive magazine-like spreads. It\u2019s an exciting time for web animation wonks, interaction developers, UXers, UI designers and a host of other acronyms! \n\nBut in our rush to experiment with animation it seems that we\u2019re having fewer conversations about whether or not we should use it, and more discussions about what we can do with it. We spend more time fretting over how to animate all the things at 60fps than we do devising ways to avoid incapacitating users with vestibular disorders.\n\nI love web animation. I live it. And I make adorably silly things with it that have no place on a self-respecting production website. I know it can be abused. We\u2019ve all made fun of Flash-turbation. But how quickly we forget the lessons we learned from that period of web design. Parallax scrolling effects may be the skip intro of this generation. Surely we have learned better in the sobering up period between Flash and the web animation API.\n\nSo here are five bits of advice we can use to pull back from the edge of animation abuse. With these thoughts in mind, we can make 2015 the year web animation came into its own. \n\nAnimate deliberately\n\nSadly, animation is considered decorative by the bulk of the web development community. UI designers and interaction developers know better, of course. But when I\u2019m teaching a workshop on animation for interaction, I know that my students face an uphill battle against decision makers who consider it nice to have, and tack it on at the end of a project, if at all. \n\nThis stigma is hard to shake. But it starts with us using animation deliberately or not at all. Poorly considered, tacked-on animation will often cause more harm than good. Users may complain that it\u2019s too slow or too fast, or that they have no idea what just happened.\n\nWhen I was at Chrome Dev Summit this year, I had the privilege to speak with Roma Sha, the UX lead behind Polymer\u2019s material design (with the wonderful animation documentation). I asked her what advice she\u2019d give to people using animation and transitions in their own designs. She responded simply: animate deliberately. If you cannot afford to slow down to think about animation and make well-informed and well-articulated decisions on behalf of the user, it is better that you not attempt it at all. Animation takes energy to perform, and a bad animation is worse than none at all. \n\nIt takes more than twelve principles\n\nWe always try to draw correlations between disparate things that spark our interest. Recently it feels like more and more people are putting the The Illusion of Life on their reading shelf next to Understanding Comics. These books give us so many useful insights from other industries. However, we should never mistake a website for a comic book or an animated feature film. Some of these concepts, while they help us see our work in a new light, can be more or less relevant to producing said work. \n\n\nThe illusion of life from cento lodigiani on Vimeo.\n\nI am specifically thinking of the twelve principles of animation put forth by Disney studio veterans in that great tome The Illusion of Life. These principles are very useful for making engaging, lifelike animation, like a ball bouncing or a squirrel scampering, or the physics behind how a lightbox should feel transitioning off a page. But they provide no direction at all for when or how something should be animated as part of a greater interactive experience, like how long a drop-down should take to fully extend or if a group of manipulable objects should be animated sequentially or as a whole.\n\nThe twelve principles are a great place to start, but we have so much more to learn. I\u2019ve documented at least six more functions of interactive animation that apply to web and app design. When thinking about animation, we should consider why and how, not just what, the physics. Beautiful physics mean nothing if the animation is superfluous or confusing.\n\nUseful and necessary, then beautiful\n\nThere is a Shaker saying: \u201cDon\u2019t make something unless it is both necessary and useful; but if it is both necessary and useful, don\u2019t hesitate to make it beautiful.\u201d When it comes to animation and the web, currently there is very little documentation about what makes it useful or necessary. We tend to focus more on the beautiful, the delightful, the aesthetic. And while aesthetics are important, they take a back seat to the user\u2019s overall experience. \n\n\n\nThe first time I saw the load screen for Pokemon Yellow on my Game Boy, I was enthralled.  By the sixth time, I was mashing the start button as soon as Game Freak\u2019s logo hit the screen. What\u2019s delightful and meaningful to us while working on a project is not always so for our users. And even when a purely delightful animation is favorably received, as with Pokemon Yellow\u2019s adorable opening screen, too many repetitions of the cutest but ultimately useless animation, and users start to resent it as a hindrance.\n\n \n\nIf an animation doesn\u2019t help the user in some way, by showing them where they are or how two elements on a page relate to each other, then it\u2019s using up battery juice and processing cycles solely for the purpose of delight. Hardly the best use of resources.\n\nRather than animating solely for the sake of delight, we should first be able to articulate two things the animation does for the user. As an example, take this menu icon from Finethought.com (found via Use Your Interface). The menu icon does two things when clicked: \n\n\n\tIt gives the user feedback by animating, letting the user know its been clicked.\n\tIt demonstrates its changed relationship to the page\u2019s content by morphing into a close button.\n\n\n\n\nAssuming we have two good reasons to animate something, there is no reason our third cannot be to delight the user. \n\nGo four times faster\n\nThere is a rule of thumb in the world of traditional animation which is applicable to web animation: however long you think your animation should last, take that time and halve it. Then halve it again! When we work on an animation for hours, our sense of time dilates. What seems fast to us is actually unbearably slow for most users. In fact, the most recent criticism from users of animated interfaces on websites seems to be, \u201cIt\u2019s so slow!\u201d A good animation is unobtrusive, and that often means running fast.\n\nWhen getting your animations ready for prime time, reduce those durations to 25% of their original speed: a four-second fade out should be over in one. \n\nInstall a kill switch\n\nNo matter how thoughtful and necessary an animation, there will be people who become physically sick from seeing it. For these people, we must add a way to turn off animations on the website. \n\nFortunately, web designers are already thinking of ways to empower users to make their own decisions about how they experience the web. As an example, this site for the animated film Little from the Fish Shop allows users to turn off most of the parallax effects. While it doesn\u2019t remove the animation entirely, this website does reduce the most nauseating of the animations. \t\n\n\n\n\n\nAnimation is a powerful tool in our web design arsenal. But we must take care: if we abuse animation it might get a bad reputation; if we underestimate it, it won\u2019t be prioritized. But if we wield it thoughtfully, use it where it is both necessary and useful, and empower users to turn it off, animation is a tool that will help us build things that are easier to use and more delightful for years to come.\n\nLet\u2019s make 2015 the year web animation went to work for users.", "year": "2014", "author": "Rachel Nabors", "author_slug": "rachelnabors", "published": "2014-12-14T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2014/five-ways-to-animate-responsibly/", "topic": "ux"}
{"rowid": 86, "title": "Flashless Animation", "contents": "Animation in a Flashless world\n\nWhen I splashed down in web design four years ago, the first thing I wanted to do was animate a cartoon in the browser. I\u2019d been drawing comics for years, and I\u2019ve wanted to see them come to life for nearly as long. Flash animation was still riding high, but I didn\u2019t want to learn Flash. I wanted to learn JavaScript!\n\nSadly, animating with JavaScript was limiting and resource-intensive. My initial foray into an infinitely looping background did more to burn a hole in my CPU than amaze my friends (although it still looks pretty cool). And there was still no simple way to incorporate audio. The browser technology just wasn\u2019t there.\n\nThings are different now. CSS3 transitions and animations can do most of the heavy lifting and HTML5 audio can serve up the music and audio clips. You can do a lot without leaning on JavaScript at all, and when you lean on JavaScript, you can do so much more!\n\nIn this project, I\u2019m going to show you how to animate a simple walk cycle with looping audio. I hope this will inspire you to do something really cool and impress your friends. I\u2019d love to see what you come up with, so please send your creations my way at rachelnabors.com!\n\nNote: Because every browser wants to use its own prefixes with CSS3 animations, and I have neither the time nor the space to write all of them out, I will use the W3C standard syntaxes; that is, going prefix-less. You can implement them out of the box with something like Prefixfree, or you can add prefixes on your own. If you take the latter route, I recommend using Sass and Compass so you can focus on your animations, not copying and pasting.\n\nThe walk cycle\n\nWalk cycles are the \u201cHello world\u201d of animation. One of the first projects of animation students is to spend hours drawing dozens of frames to complete a simple loopable animation of a character walking.\n\nMost animators don\u2019t have to draw every frame themselves, though. They draw a few key frames and send those on to production animators to work on the between frames (or tween frames). This is meticulous, grueling work requiring an eye for detail and natural movement. This is also why so much production animation gets shipped overseas where labor is cheaper.\n\nLuckily, we don\u2019t have to worry about our frame count because we can set our own frames-per-second rate on the fly in CSS3. Since we\u2019re trying to impress friends, not animation directors, the inconsistency shouldn\u2019t be a problem. (Unless your friend is an animation director.)\n\nThis is a simple walk cycle I made of my comic character Tuna for my CSS animation talk at CSS Dev Conference this year:\n\n\n\nThe magic lies here:\n\nanimation: walk-cycle 1s steps(12) infinite;\n\nBreaking those properties down:\n\nanimation: <name> <duration> <timing-function> <iteration-count>;\n\nwalk-cycle is a simple @keyframes block that moves the background sprite on .tuna around:\n\n@keyframes walk-cycle {  \n    0% {background-position: 0 0; }\n    100% {background-position: 0 -2391px;}\n}\n\nThe background sprite has exactly twelve images of Tuna that complete a full walk cycle. We\u2019re setting it to cycle through the entire sprite every second, infinitely. So why isn\u2019t the background image scrolling down the .tuna container? It\u2019s all down to the timing function steps(). Using steps() let us tell the CSS to make jumps instead of the smooth transitions you\u2019d get from something like linear. Chris Mills at dev.opera wrote in his excellent intro to CSS3 animation :\n\n\n\tInstead of giving a smooth animation throughout, [steps()] causes the animation to jump between a set number of steps placed equally along the duration. For example, steps(10) would make the animation jump along in ten equal steps. There\u2019s also an optional second parameter that takes a value of start or end. steps(10, start) would specify that the change in property value should happen at the start of each step, while steps(10, end) means the change would come at the end.\n\n\n(Seriously, go read his full article. I\u2019m not going to touch on half the stuff he does because I cannot improve on the basics any more than he already has.)\n\nThe background\n\nA cat walking in a void is hardly an impressive animation and certainly your buddy one cube over could do it if he chopped up some of those cat GIFs he keeps using in group chat. So let\u2019s add a parallax background! Yes, yes, all web designers signed a peace treaty to not abuse parallax anymore, but this is its true calling\u2014treaty be damned.\n\n\n\nAnd to think we used to need JavaScript to do this! It\u2019s still pretty CPU intensive but much less complicated. We start by splitting up the page into different layers, .foreground, .midground, and .background. We put .tuna in the .midground.\n\n.background has multiple background images, all set to repeat horizontally:\n\nbackground-image:\n    url(background_mountain5.png),\n    url(background_mountain4.png),\n    url(background_mountain3.png),\n    url(background_mountain2.png),\n    url(background_mountain1.png);\nbackground-repeat: repeat-x;\n\nWith parallax, things in the foreground move faster than those in the background. Next time you\u2019re driving, notice how the things closer to you move out of your field of vision faster than something in the distance, like a mountain or a large building. We can imitate that here by making the background images on top (in the foreground, closer to us) wider than those on the bottom of the stack (in the distance).\n\nThe different lengths let us use one animation to move all the background images at different rates in the same interval of time:   \n\nanimation: parallax_bg linear 40s infinite;\n\nThe shorter images have less distance to cover in the same amount of time as the longer images, so they move slower.\n\n\n\nLet\u2019s have a look at the background\u2019s animation:\n\n@keyframes parallax_bg {  \n  0% {\n    background-position: -2400px 100%, -2000px 100%, -1800px 100%, -1600px 100%, -1200px 100%;\n  }\n  100% {\n    background-position: 0 100%, 0 100%, 0 100%, 0 100%, 0 100%;\n  }\n}\n\nAt 0%, all the background images are positioned at the negative value of their own widths. Then they start moving toward background-position: 0 100%. If we wanted to move them in the reverse direction, we\u2019d remove the negative values at 0% (so they would start at 2400px 100%, 2000px 100%, etc.). Try changing the values in the codepen above or changing background-repeat to none to see how the images play together.\n\n.foreground and .midground operate on the same principles, only they use single background images.\n\nThe music\n\nAfter finishing the first draft of my original walk cycle, I made a GIF with it and posted it on YTMND with some music from the movie Paprika, specifically the track \u201cThe Girl in Byakkoya.\u201d After showing it to some colleagues in my community, it became clear that this was a winning combination sure to drive away dresscode blues. So let\u2019s use HTML5 to get a clip of that music looping in there!\n\nWarning, there is sound. Please adjust your volume or apply headphones as needed.\n\n\n\nWe\u2019re using HTML5 audio\u2019s loop and autoplay abilities to automatically play and loop a sound file on page load:\n\n<audio loop autoplay>\n  <source src=\"http://music.com/clip.mp3\" />\n</audio>\n\nUnfortunately, you may notice there is a small pause between loops. HTML5 audio, thou art half-baked still. Let\u2019s hope one day the Web Audio API will be able to help us out, but until things improve, we\u2019ll have to hack our way around these shortcomings.\n\nTurns out there\u2019s a handy little script called seamlessLoop.js which we can use to patch this. Mind you, if we were really getting crazy with the Cheese Whiz, we\u2019d want to get out big guns like sound.js. But that\u2019d be overkill for a mere loop (and explaining the Web Audio API might bore, rather than impress your friends)!\n\nInstalling seamlessLoop.js will get rid of the pause, and now our walk cycle is complete.\n\n(I\u2019ve done some very rough sniffing to see if the browser can play MP3 files. If not, we fall back to using .ogg formatted clips (Opera and Firefox users, you\u2019re welcome).)\n\nReally impress your friends by adding a run cycle\n\nSo we have music, we have a walk cycle, we have parallax. It will be a snap to bring them all together and have a simple, endless animation. But let\u2019s go one step further and knock the socks off our viewers by adding a run cycle.\n\nThe run cycle\n\nTacking a run cycle on to our walk cycle will require a third animation sequence: a transitional animation of Tuna switching from walking to running. I have added all these to the sprite:\n\n\n\nLet\u2019s work on getting that transition down. We\u2019re going to use multiple animations on the same .tuna div, but we\u2019re going to kick them off at different intervals using animation-delay\u2014no JavaScript required! Isn\u2019t that magical?\n\n\n\nIt requires a wee bit of math (not much, it doesn\u2019t hurt) to line them up. We want to:\n\n\n\tLoop the walk animation twice\n\tPlay the transitional cycle once (it has a finite beginning and end perfectly drawn to pick up between the last frame of the walk cycle and the first frame of the run cycle\u2014no looping this baby)\n\tRUN FOREVER.\n\n\nUsing the pattern animation: <name> <duration> <timing-function> <delay> <iteration-count>, here\u2019s what that looks like:\n\nanimation:\n    walk-cycle 1s steps(12) 2,\n    walk-to-run .75s steps(12) 2s 1,\n    run-cycle .75s steps(13) 2.75s infinite;\n\nI played with the times to get make the movement more realistic. You may notice that the running animation looks smoother than the walking animation. That\u2019s because it has 13 keyframes running over .75 second instead of 12 running in one second. Remember, professional animation studios use super-high frame counts. This little animation isn\u2019t even up to PBS\u2019s standards!\n\nThe music: extended play with HTML5 audio sprites\n\nMy favorite part in the The Girl in Byakkoya is when the calm opening builds and transitions into a bouncy motif. I want to start with Tuna walking during the opening, and then loop the running and bounciness together for infinity.\n\n\n\tThe intro lasts for 24 seconds, so we set our 1 second walk cycle to run for 24 repetitions: \nwalk-cycle 1s steps(12) 24\n\tWe delay walk-to-run by 24 seconds so it runs for .75 seconds before\u2026\n\tWe play run-cycle at 24.75 seconds and loop it infinitely\n\n\nFor the music, we need to think of it as two parts: the intro and the bouncy loop. We can do this quite nicely with audio sprites: using one HTML5 audio element and using JavaScript to change the play head location, like skipping tracks with a CD player. Although this technique will result in a small gap in music shifts, I think it\u2019s worth using here to give you some ideas.\n\n// Get the audio element\nvar byakkoya = document.querySelector('audio');\n// create function to play and loop audio\nfunction song(a){\n    //start playing at 0\n    a.currentTime = 0;\n    a.play();\n    //when we hit 64 seconds...\n    setTimeout(function(){\n        // skip back to 24.5 seconds and keep playing...\n        a.currentTime = 24.55;\n        // then loop back when we hit 64 again, or every 59.5 seconds.\n        setInterval(function(){\n            a.currentTime = 24.55;\n        },39450);\n    },64000);\n}\n\nThe load screen\n\nI\u2019ve put it off as long as I can, but now that the music and the CSS are both running on their own separate clocks, it\u2019s imperative that both images and music be fully downloaded and ready to run when we kick this thing off. So we need a load screen (also, it\u2019s nice to give people a heads-up that you\u2019re about to blast them with music, no matter how wonderful that music may be).\n\nSince the two timers are so closely linked, we\u2019d best not run the animations until we run the music:\n\n* { animation-play-state: paused; }\n\nanimation-play-state can be set to paused or running, and it\u2019s the most useful thing you will learn today.\n\nFirst we use an event listener to see when the browser thinks we can play through from the beginning to end of the music without pause for buffering:\n\nbyakkoya.addEventListener(\"canplaythrough\", function () { });\n\n(More on HTML5 audio\u2019s media events at HTML5doctor.com)\n\nInside our event listener, I use a bit of jQuery to add class of .playable to the body when we\u2019re ready to enable the play button:\n\n$(\"body\").addClass(\"playable\");\n    $(\"#play-me\").html(\"Play me.\").click(function(){\n      song(byakkoya);\n      $(\"body\").addClass(\"playing\");\n    });\n\nThat .playing class is special because it turns on the animations at the same time we start playing the song:\n\n.playing * { animation-play-state: running; }\n\nThe background\n\nWe\u2019re almost done here! When we add the background, it needs to speed up at the same time that Tuna starts running. The music picks up speed around 24.75 seconds in, and so we\u2019re going to use animation-delay on those backgrounds, too.\n\nThis will require some math. If you try to simply shorten the animation\u2019s duration at the 24.75s mark, the backgrounds will, mid-scroll, jump back to their initial background positions to start the new animation! Argh! So let\u2019s make a new @keyframe and calculate where the background position would be just before we speed up the animation.\n\nHere\u2019s the formula:\n\nnew 0% value = delay \u00f7 old duration \u00d7 length of image\n\nnew 100% value = new 0% value + length of image\n\nHere\u2019s the formula put to work on a smaller scale:\n\n\n\nVoil\u00e0! The finished animation!\n\n\n\nI\u2019ve always wanted to bring my illustrations to life. Then I woke up one morning and realized that I had all the tools to do so in my browser and in my head. Now I have fallen in love with Flashless animation.\n\nI\u2019m sure there will be detractors who say HTML wasn\u2019t meant for this and it\u2019s a gross abuse of the DOM! But I say that these explorations help us expand what we expect from devices and software and challenge us in good ways as artists and programmers. The browser might not be the most appropriate place for animation, but is certainly a fun place to start.\n\nThere is so much you can do with the spec implemented today, and so much of the territory is still unexplored. I have not yet begun to show you everything. In eight months I expect this demo will represent the norm, not the bleeding edge. I look forward to seeing the wonderful things you create.\n\n(Also, someone, please, do something about that gappy HTML5 audio looping. It\u2019s a crying shame!)", "year": "2012", "author": "Rachel Nabors", "author_slug": "rachelnabors", "published": "2012-12-06T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2012/flashless-animation/", "topic": "code"}
{"rowid": 50, "title": "Make a Comic", "contents": "For something slightly different over Christmas, why not step away from your computer and make a comic? \nDefinitely not the author working on a comic in the studio, with the desk displaying some of the things you need to make a comic on paper.\nWhy make a comic?\nFirst of all, it\u2019s truly fun and it\u2019s not that difficult. If you\u2019re a designer, you can use skills you already have, so why not take some time to indulge your aesthetic whims and make something for yourself, rather than for a client or your company. And you can use a computer \u2013 or not.\nIf you\u2019re an interaction designer, it\u2019s likely you\u2019ve already made a storyboard or flow, or designed some characters for personas. This is a wee jump away from that, to the realm of storytelling and navigating human emotions through characters who may or may not be human. Similar medium and skills, different content. \nIt\u2019s not a client deliverable but something that stands by itself, and you\u2019ve nobody\u2019s criteria to meet except those that exist in your imagination! \nThanks to your brain and the alchemy of comics, you can put nearly anything in a sequence and your brain will find a way to make sense of it. Scott McCloud wrote about the non sequitur in comics: \n\n\u201cThere is a kind of alchemy at work in the space between panels which can help us find meaning or resonance in even the most jarring of combinations.\u201d \n\nHere\u2019s an example of a non sequitur from Scott McCloud\u2019s Understanding Comics \u2013 the images bear no relation to one another, but since they\u2019re in a sequence our brains do their best to understand it: \n\nOnce you know this it takes the pressure off somewhat. It\u2019s a fun thing to keep in mind and experiment with in your comics! \nMaterials needed\n\nA4 copy/printing paper \nHB pencil for light drawing\nDip pen and waterproof Indian ink \nBristol board (or any good quality card with a smooth, durable surface) \n\nStep 1: Get ideas\nYou\u2019d be surprised where you can take a small grain of an idea and develop it into an interesting comic. Think about a funny conversation you had, or any irrational fears, habits, dreams or anything else. Just start writing and drawing. Having ideas is hard, I know, but you will get some ideas when you start working. \nOne way to keep track of ideas is to keep a sketch diary, capturing funny conversations and other events you could use in comics later. \nYou might want to just sketch out the whole comic very roughly if that helps. I tend to sketch the story first, but it usually changes drastically during step 2.\nStep 2: Edit your story using thumbnails\nHow thumbnailing works.\nWhy use thumbnails? You can move them around or get rid of them! \nDrawings are harder and much slower to edit than words, so you need to draw something very quick and very rough. You don\u2019t have to care about drawing quality at this point. \nYou might already have a drafted comic from the previous step; now you can split each panel up into a thumbnail like the image above. \nGet an A4 sheet of printing paper and tear it up into squares. A thumbnail equals a comic panel. Start drawing one panel per thumbnail. This way you can move scenes and parts of the story around as you work on the pacing. It\u2019s an extremely useful tip if you want to expand a moment in time or draw out a dialogue, or if you want to just completely cut scenes. \nStep 3: Plan a layout\nSo you\u2019ve got the story more or less down: you now need to know how they\u2019ll look on the page. Sketch a layout and arrange the thumbnails into the layout.\nThe simplest way to do this is to divide an A4 page into equal panels \u2014 say, nine. But if you want, you can be more creative than that. The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil by Stephen Collins is an excellent example of the scope for using page layout creatively. You can really push the form: play with layout, scale, story and what you think of as a comic.\nStep 4: Draw the comic\nI recommend drawing on A4 Bristol board paper since it has a smooth surface, can tolerate a lot of rubbing out and holds ink well. You can get it from any art shop. \nUsing your thumbnails for reference, draw the comic lightly using an HB pencil. Don\u2019t make the line so heavy that it can\u2019t be erased (since you\u2019ll ink over the lines later).\nStep 5: Ink the comic\nImage before colour was added.\nYou\u2019ve drawn your story. Well done!\nNow for the fun part. I recommend using a dip pen and some waterproof ink. Why waterproof? If you want, you can add an ink wash later, or even paint it. \nIf you don\u2019t have a dip pen, you could also use any quality pen. Carefully go over your pencilled lines with the pen, working from top left to right and down, to avoid smudging it. It\u2019s unfortunately easy to smudge the ink from the dip pen, so I recommend practising first. \nYou\u2019ve made a comic! \nStep 6: Adding colour\nComics traditionally had a limited colour palette before computers (here\u2019s an in-depth explanation if you\u2019re curious). You can actually do a huge amount with a restricted colour palette. Ellice Weaver\u2019s comics show how very nicely how you can paint your work using a restricted palette. So for the next step, resist the temptation to add ALL THE COLOURS and consider using a limited palette. \nOnce the ink is completely dry, erase the pencilled lines and you\u2019ll be left with a beautiful inked black and white drawing. \nYou could use a computer for this part. You could also photocopy it and paint straight on the copy. If you\u2019re feeling really brave, you could paint straight on the original. But I\u2019d suggest not doing this if it\u2019s your first try at painting! \nWhat follows is an extremely basic guide for painting using Photoshop, but there are hundreds of brilliant articles out there and different techniques for digital painting. \nHow to paint your comic using Photoshop\n\nScan the drawing and open it in Photoshop. You can adjust the levels (Image \u2192 Adjustments \u2192 Levels) to make the lines darker and crisper, and the paper invisible. At this stage, you can erase any smudges or mistakes. With a Wacom tablet, you could even completely redraw parts! Computers are just amazing. Keep the line art as its own layer. \nAdd a new layer on top of the lines, and set the layer state from normal to multiply. This means you can paint your comic without obscuring your lines. Rename the layer something else, so you can keep track.\nStart blocking in colour. And once you\u2019re happy with that, experiment with adding tone and texture.\n\nChristmas comic challenge!\nWhy not challenge yourself to make a short comic over Christmas? If you make one, share it in the comments. Or show me on Twitter \u2014 I\u2019d love to see it.\n\nCredit: Many of these techniques were learned on the Royal Drawing School\u2019s brilliant \u2018Drawing the Graphic Novel\u2019 course.", "year": "2015", "author": "Rebecca Cottrell", "author_slug": "rebeccacottrell", "published": "2015-12-20T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2015/make-a-comic/", "topic": "design"}
{"rowid": 78, "title": "Fluent Design through Early Prototyping", "contents": "There\u2019s a small problem with wireframes. They\u2019re not good for showing the kind of interactions we now take for granted \u2013 transitions and animations on the web, in Android, iOS, and other platforms. There\u2019s a belief that early prototyping requires a large amount of time and effort, and isn\u2019t worth an early investment. But it\u2019s not true!\n\nIt\u2019s still normal to spend a significant proportion of time working in wireframes. Given that wireframes are high-level and don\u2019t show much detail, it\u2019s tempting to give up control and responsibility for things like transitions and other things sidelined as visual considerations. These things aren\u2019t expressed well, and perhaps not expressed at all, in wireframes, yet they critically influence the quality of a product. Rapid prototyping early helps to bring sidelined but significant design considerations into focus.\n\nSpeaking fluent design\n\nFluency in a language means being able to speak it confidently and accurately. The Latin root means flow.\n\nBy design fluency, I mean using a set of skills in order to express or communicate an idea. Prototyping is a kind of fluency. It takes designers beyond the domain of grey and white boxes to consider all the elements that make up really good product design.\n\nDesigners shouldn\u2019t be afraid of speaking fluent design. They should think thoroughly about product decisions beyond their immediate role \u2014 not for the sake of becoming some kind of power-hungry design demigod, but because it will lead to better, more carefully considered product design.\n\nWireframes are incomplete sentences\n\nWireframes, once they\u2019ve served their purpose, are a kind of self-imposed restriction.\n\nMostly made out of grey and white boxes, they deliberately express the minimum. Important details \u2014 visuals, nuanced transitions, sounds \u2014 are missing. Their appearance bears little resemblance to the final thing. Responsibility for things that traditionally didn\u2019t matter (or exist) is relinquished. Animations and transitions in particular are increasingly relevant to the mobile designer\u2019s methods. And rather than being fanciful and superfluous visual additions to a product, they help to clarify designs and provide information about context.\n\nWireframes are useful in the early stages. As a designer trying to persuade stakeholders, clients, or peers, sometimes it will be in your interests to only tell half the story. They\u2019re ideal for gauging whether a design is taking the right direction, and they\u2019re the right medium for deciding core things, such as the overall structure and information architecture.\n\nBut spending a long time in wireframes means delaying details to a later stage in the project, or to the end, when the priority is shifted to getting designs out of the door. This leaves little time to test, finesse and perfect things which initially seemed to be less important. I think designers should move away from using wireframes as primary documentation once the design has reached a certain level of maturity.\n\nA prototype is multiple complete sentences\n\nParagraphs, even.\n\nUnlike a wireframe, a prototype is a persuasive storyteller. It can reveal the depth and range of design decisions, not just the layout, but also motion: animations and transitions. If it\u2019s a super-high-fidelity prototype, it\u2019s a perfect vessel for showing the visual design as well. It\u2019s all of these things that contribute to the impression that a product is good\u2026 and useful, and engaging, and something you\u2019d like to use.\n\nA prototype is impressive. A good prototype can help to convince stakeholders and persuade clients. With a compelling demo, people can more easily imagine that this thing could actually exist. \u201cHey\u201d, they\u2019re thinking. \u201cThis might actually be pretty good!\u201d\n\nHow to make a prototype in no time and with no effort\n\nNow, it does take time and effort to make a prototype. However, good news! It used to require a lot more effort. There are tools that make prototyping much quicker and easier.\n\nIf you\u2019re making a mobile prototype (this seems quite likely), you will want to test and show this on the actual device. This sounds like it could be a pain, but there are a few ways to do this that are quite easy.\n\nKeynote, Apple\u2019s presentation software, is an unlikely candidate for a prototyping tool, but surprisingly great and easy for creating prototypes with transitions that can be shown on different devices.\n\nKeynote enables you to do a few useful, excellent things. You can make each screen in your design a slide, which can be linked together to allow you to click through the prototype. You can add customisable transitions between screens. If you want to show a panel that can slide open or closed on your iPad mockup, for example, transitions can also be added to individual elements on the screen. The design can be shown on tablet and mobile devices, and interacted with like it\u2019s a real app. Another cool feature is that you can export the prototype as a video, which works as another effective format for demoing a design.\n\nOverall, Keynote offers a very quick, lightweight way to prototype a design. Once you\u2019ve learned the basics, it shouldn\u2019t take longer than a few hours \u2013 at most \u2013 to put together a respectable clickable prototype with transitions.\n\nDownload the interactive MOV example\n\nHolly icon by Megan Sheehan from The Noun Project\n\nThis is a Quicktime movie exported from Keynote. This version is animated for demonstration purposes, but download the interactive original and you can click the screen to move through the prototype. It demonstrates the basic interactivity of an iPhone app. This anonymised example was used on a project at Fjord to create a master example of an app\u2019s transitions.\n\nPrototyping drawbacks, and perceived drawbacks\n\nIf prototyping is so great, then why do we leave it to the end, or not bother with it at all? There are multiple misconceptions about prototyping: they\u2019re too difficult to make; they take too much time; or they\u2019re inaccurate (and dangerous) documentation.\n\nA prototype is a preliminary model. There should always be a disclaimer that it\u2019s not the real thing to avoid setting up false expectations.\n\nA prototype doesn\u2019t have to be the main deliverable. It can be a key one that\u2019s supported by visual and interaction specifications. And a prototype is a lightweight means of managing and reflecting changes and requirements in a project.\n\nAn actual drawback of prototyping is that to make one too early could mean being gung-ho with what you thought a client or stakeholder wanted, and delivering something inappropriate. To avoid this, communicate, iterate, and keep things simple until you\u2019re confident that the client or other stakeholders are happy with your chosen direction.\n\nThe key throughout any design project is iteration. Designers build iterative models, starting simple and becoming increasingly sophisticated. It\u2019s a process of iterative craft and evolution. There\u2019s no perfect methodology, no magic recipe to follow.\n\nWhat to do next\n\nMake a prototype! It\u2019s the perfect way to impress your friends.\n\nIt can help to advance a brilliant idea with a fraction of the effort of complete development. Sketches and wireframes are perfect early on in a project, but once they\u2019ve served their purpose, prototypes enable the design to advance, and push thinking towards clarifying other important details including transitions.\n\nFor Keynote tutorials, Keynotopia is a great resource. Axure is standard and popular prototyping software many UX designers will already be familiar with; it\u2019s possible to create transitions in Axure. POP is an iPhone app that allows you to design apps on paper, take photos with your phone, and turn them into interactive prototypes. Ratchet is an elegant iPhone prototyping tool aimed at web developers.\n\nThere are perhaps hundreds of different prototyping tools and methods. My final advice is not to get bogged down in (or limited by) any particular tool, but to remember you\u2019re making quick and iterative models. Experiment and play!\n\nPrototyping will push you and your designs to a scary place without limitations. No more grey and white boxes, just possibilities!", "year": "2012", "author": "Rebecca Cottrell", "author_slug": "rebeccacottrell", "published": "2012-12-10T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2012/fluent-design-through-early-prototyping/", "topic": "ux"}
{"rowid": 172, "title": "The Construction of Instruction", "contents": "If the world were made to my specifications, all your clients would be happy to pay for a web writer to craft every sentence into something as elegant as it was functional, and the client would have planned the content so that you had it just when you asked, but we both know that won\u2019t happen every time. Sometimes you just know they are going to write the About page, two company blog pages and a Facebook fan page before resigning their position as chief content writer and you are going to end up filling in all the details that will otherwise just be Lorem Ipsum.\n\nWelcome to the big world of microcopy:\n\n\n\tA man walks into a bar. The bartender nods a greeting and watches as the man scans the bottles behind the bar. \n\u201cEr, you have a lot of gin here. Is there one you would recommend?\u201d \n\u201cYes sir.\u201d\nLong pause. \n\u201c\u2026 Never mind, I\u2019ll have the one in the green bottle.\u201d \n\u201cCertainly, sir. But you can\u2019t buy it from this part of the bar. You need to go through the double doors there.\u201d \n\u201cBut they look like they lead into the kitchen.\u201d \n\u201cReally, sir? Well, no, that\u2019s where we allow customers to purchase gin.\u201d \nThe man walks through the doors. On the other side he is greeted by the same bartender. \n\u201cY-you!\u201d he stammers but the reticent bartender is now all but silent. \nUnnerved, the man points to a green bottle, \u201cEr, I\u2019d like to buy a shot of that please. With ice and tonic water.\u201d \nThe bartender mixes the drink and puts it on the bar just out of the reach of the man and looks up. \n\u201cUm, do you take cards?\u201d the man asks, ready to present his credit card. \nThe bartender goes to take the card to put it through the machine. \n\u201cWait! How much was it \u2013 with sales tax and everything? Do you take a gratuity?\u201d \nThe bartender simply shrugs. \nThe man eyes him for a moment and decides to try his luck at the bar next door.\n\n\nIn the Choose Your Own Adventure version of this story there are plenty of ways to stop the man giving up. You could let him buy the gin right where he was; you could make the price more obvious; you could signpost the place to buy gin. The mistakes made by the bar and bartender are painfully obvious. And yet, there are websites losing users everyday due to the same lack of clear instruction.\n\nA smidgen of well written copy goes a long way to reassure the nervous prospect. Just imagine if our man walked into the bar and the bartender explained that although the bar was here, sales were conducted in the next room because people were not then able to overhear the man\u2019s card details. Instead, he is left to fend for himself. Online, we kick customers through the anonymous double doors with a merry \u2018Paypal will handle your transaction!\u2019.\n\nRecently I worked on a site where the default error message, to account for anything happening that the developers hadn\u2019t accounted for, was \u2018SOMETHING HAS GONE WRONG!\u2019. It might have been technically accurate but this is not how to inspire confidence in your customers that they can make a successful purchase through you. As everyone knows they can shop just fine, thank you very much, it is your site they will blame. Card declined? It\u2019s the site. Didn\u2019t know my email address has changed? It\u2019s the site. Can\u2019t log in? It\u2019s the site.\n\nYes, yes. I know. None of these things are related to your site, or you the developer, but drop outs will be high and you\u2019ll get imploring emails from your client asking you to wade knee deep into the site analytics to find a solution by testing 41 shades of blue because if it worked for Google\u2026? Before you try a visual fix involving the Dulux paint chart breeding with a Pantone swatch, take an objective look at the information you are giving customers. How much are you assuming they know? How much are you relying on age-old labels and prompts without clarification?\n\nHere\u2019s a fun example for non-North Americans: ask your Granny to write out her billing address. If she looks at you blankly, tell her it is the address where the bank sends her statements. Imagine how many fewer instances of the wrong address there would be if we routinely added that information when people purchased from the UK? Instead, we rely on a language convention that hasn\u2019t much common usage without explanation because, well, because we always have since the banks told us how we could take payments online.\n\nSo. Your client is busying themselves with writing the ultimate Facebook fan page about themselves and here you are left with creating a cohesive signup process or basket or purchase instructions. Here are five simple rules for bending puny humans to your will creating instructive instructions and constructive error messages that ultimately mean less hassle for you.\n\nPlan what you want to say and plan it out as early as possible \n\nThis goes for all content. Walk a virtual mile in the shoes of your users. What specific help can you offer customers to actively encourage continuation and ensure a minimal amount of dropouts? Make space for that information. One of the most common web content mistakes is jamming too much into a space that has been defined by physical boundaries rather than planned out. If you manage it, the best you can hope for is that no-one notices it was a last-minute job. Mostly it reads like a bad game of Tetris with content sticking out all over the place.\n\nUse your words\n\nMicrocopy often says a lot in a few words but without those words you could leave room for doubt. When doubt creeps in a customer wants reassurance just like Alice:\n\n\n\tThis time (Alice) found a little bottle\u2026 with the words \u2018DRINK ME\u2019 beautifully printed on it in large letters. It was all very well to say \u2018Drink me,\u2019 but the wise little Alice was not going to do that in a hurry. \u2018No, I\u2019ll look first,\u2019 she said, \u2018and see whether it\u2019s marked \u201cpoison\u201d or not\u2019\n\n\nAlice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll.\n\nValue clarity over brevity. Or a little more prosaically, \u201cIf in doubt, spell it out.\u201d Thanks, Jeremy!\n\nBe prepared to help\n\n\n\t\u2018Login failed: email/password combination is incorrect.\u2019\n\n\nOh.\n\n\n\t\u2018Login failed: email/password combination is incorrect. \nAre you typing in all capitals? Caps Lock may be on. \nHave you changed your email address recently and not updated your account with us? Try your old email address first. \nCan\u2019t remember your password? We can help you reset it.\u2019 \n\n\nAh!\n\nBe direct and be informative\n\nThere is rarely a site that doesn\u2019t suffer from some degree of jargon. Squash it early by setting a few guidelines about what language and tone of voice you will use to converse with your users. Be consistent. Equally, try to be as specific as possible when giving error messages or instructions and allay fears upfront.\n\nCard payments are handled by paypal but you do not need a paypal account to pay.\n\nWe will not display your email address but we might need it to contact you.\n\nSign up for our free trial (no credit card required).\n\nCombine copy and visual cues, learn from others and test new combinations\n\nWhile visual design and copy can work independently, they work best together. New phrases and designs are being tested all the time so take a peek at abtests.com for more ideas, then test some new ideas and add your own results. Have a look at the microcopy pool on Flickr for some wonderful examples of little words and pictures working together. And yes, you absolutely should join the group and post more examples.\n\n\n\tA man walks into a bar. The bartender greets him in a friendly manner and asks him what he would like to drink. \n\u201cGin and Tonic, please.\u201d \n\u201cYes sir, we have our house gin on offer but we also have a particularly good import here too.\u201d\n\u201cThe import, please.\u201d \n\u201cHow would you like it? With a slice of lemon? Over ice?\u201d \n\u201cBoth\u201d \n\u201cThat\u2019s \u00a33.80. We accept cash, cards or you could open a tab.\u201d \n\u201cCard please.\u201d \n\u201cCertainly sir. Move just over here so that you can\u2019t be observed. Now, please enter your pin number.\u201d \n\u201cThank you.\u201d \n\u201cAnd here is your drink. Do let me know if there is a problem with it. I shall just be here at the bar. Enjoy.\u201d\n\n\nCheers!", "year": "2009", "author": "Relly Annett-Baker", "author_slug": "rellyannettbaker", "published": "2009-12-08T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2009/the-construction-of-instruction/", "topic": "content"}
{"rowid": 227, "title": "A Contentmas Epiphany", "contents": "The twelve days of Christmas fall between 25 December, Christmas Day, and 6 January, the Epiphany of the Kings. Traditionally, these have been holidays and a lot of us still take a good proportion of these days off. Equally, a lot of us have a got a personal site kicking around somewhere that we sigh over and think, \u201cOne day I\u2019ll sort you out!\u201d Why not take this downtime to give it a big ol\u2019 refresh? I know, good idea, huh?\n\nHEY WAIT! WOAH! NO-ONE\u2019S TOUCHING PHOTOSHOP OR DOING ANY CSS FANCYWORK UNTIL I\u2019M DONE WITH YOU!\n\nBe honest, did you immediately think of a sketch or mockup you have tucked away? Or some clever little piece of code you want to fiddle with? Now ask yourself, why would you start designing the container if you haven\u2019t worked out what you need to put inside?\n\nAnyway, forget the content strategy lecture; I haven\u2019t given you your gifts yet.\nI present The Twelve Days of Contentmas!\n\nThis is a simple little plan to make sure that your personal site, blog or portfolio is not just looking good at the end of these twelve days, but is also a really useful repository of really useful content.\n\nWARNING KLAXON: There are twelve parts, one for each day of Christmas, so this is a lengthy article. I\u2019m not expecting anyone to absorb this in one go. Add to Instapaper. There is no TL;DR for this because it\u2019s a multipart process, m\u2019kay? Even so, this plan of mine cuts corners on a proper applied strategy for content. You might find some aspects take longer than the arbitrary day I\u2019ve assigned. And if you apply this to your company-wide intranet, I won\u2019t be held responsible for the mess.\n\nThat said, I encourage you to play along and sample some of the practical aspects of organising existing content and planning new content because it is, honestly, an inspiring and liberating process. For one thing, you get to review all the stuff you have put out for the world to look at and see what you could do next. This always leaves me full of ideas on how to plug the gaps I\u2019ve found, so I hope you are similarly motivated come day twelve.\n\nLet\u2019s get to it then, shall we?\n\nOn the first day of Contentmas, Relly gave to me:\n\n1. A (partial) content inventory\n\nI\u2019m afraid being a site owner isn\u2019t without its chores. With great power comes great responsibility and all that. There are the domain renewing, hosting helpline calls and, of course, keeping on top of all the content that you have published.\n\nIf you just frowned a little and thought, \u201cWell, there\u2019s articles and images and\u2026 stuff\u201d, then I\u2019d like to introduce you to the idea of a content inventory. \n\nA content inventory is a list of all your content, in a simple spreadsheet, that allows you to see at a glance what is currently on your site: articles; about me page; contact form, and so on.\n\nYou add the full URL so that you can click directly to any page listed. You add a brief description of what it is and what tags it has. In fact, I\u2019ll show you. I\u2019ve made a Google Docs template for you. Sorry, it isn\u2019t wrapped.\n\nDoes it seem like a mammoth task? Don\u2019t feel you have to do this all in one day. But do do it. For one thing, looking back at all the stuff you\u2019ve pushed out into the world gives you a warm fuzzy feeling which keeps the heating bill down.\n\nGrab a glass of mulled cider and try going month-by-month through your blog archives, or project-by-project through your portfolio. Do a little bit each day for the next twelve days and you\u2019ll have done something awesome. The best bit is that this exploration of your current content helps you with the next day\u2019s task.\n\nBonus gift: for more on content auditing and inventory, check out Jeff Veen\u2019s article on just this topic, which is also suitable for bigger business sites too.\n\nOn the second day of Contentmas, Relly gave to me:\n\n2. Website loves\n\nRemember when you were a kid, you\u2019d write to Santa with a wish list that would make your parents squirm, because your biggest hope for your stocking would be either impossible or impossibly expensive. Do you ever get the same thing now as a grown-up where you think, \u201cWouldn\u2019t it be great if I could make a video blog every week\u201d, or \u201cI could podcast once a month about this\u201d, and then you push it to the back of your mind, assuming that you won\u2019t have time or you wouldn\u2019t know what to talk about anyway?\n\nTrue fact: content doesn\u2019t just have to be produced when we are so incensed that we absolutely must blog about a topic. Neither does it have to be a drain to a demanding schedule. You can plan for it. In fact, you\u2019re about to.\n\nSo, today, get a pen and a notebook. Move away from your computer. My gift to you is to grab a quiet ten minutes between turkey sandwiches and relatives visiting and give your site some of the attention it deserves for 2011.\n\nWhat would you do with your site if you could? I don\u2019t mean what would you do purely visually \u2013 although by all means note those things down too \u2013 but to your site as a whole. Here are some jumping off points:\n\n\n\tWould you like to individually illustrate and design some of your articles?\n\tWhat about a monthly exploration of your favourite topic through video or audio?\n\tWho would you like to collaborate with?\n\tWhat do you want your site to be like for a user?\n\tWhat tone of voice would you like to use?\n\tHow could you use imagery and typography to support your content?\n\tWhat would you like to create content about in the new year?\n\n\nIt\u2019s okay if you can\u2019t do these things yet. It\u2019s okay to scrub out anything where you think, \u201cNah, never gonna happen.\u201d But do give some thought to what you might want to do next. The best inspiration for this comes from what you\u2019ve already done, so keep on with that inventory.\n\nBonus gift: a Think Vitamin article on podcasting using Skype, so you can rope in a few friends to join in, too.\n\nOn the third day of Contentmas, Relly gave to me:\n\n3. Red pens\n\nShock news, just in: the web is not print!\n\nOne of the hardest things as a writer is to reach the point where you say, \u201cYeah, okay, that\u2019s it. I\u2019m done\u201d and send off your beloved manuscript or article to print. I\u2019m convinced that if deadlines didn\u2019t exist, nothing would get finished. Why? Well, at the point you hand it over to the publishing presses, you can make no more changes. At best, you can print an erratum or produce an updated second edition at a later date. And writers love to \u2013 no, they live to \u2013 tweak their creations, so handing them over is quite a struggle. Just one more comma and\u2026\n\nOnline, we have no such constraints. We can edit, correct, test, tweak, twiddle until we\u2019re blooming sick of it. Our red pens never run out of ink. It is time for you to run a more critical eye over your content, especially the stuff already published. Relish in the opportunity to change stuff on the fly. I am not so concerned by blog articles and such (although feel free to apply this concept to those, too), but mainly by your more concrete content: about pages; contact pages; home page navigation; portfolio pages; 404 pages.\n\nNow, don\u2019t go running amok with the cut function yet. First, put all these evergreen pages into your inventory. In the notes section, write a quick analysis of how useful this copy is. Example questions:\n\n\n\tIs your contact page up-to-date?\n\tDoes your about page link to the right places?\n\tIs your portfolio current?\n\tDoes your 404 page give people a way to find what they were looking for?\n\n\nWe\u2019ll come back to this in a few days once we have a clearer idea of how to improve our content.\n\nBonus gift: the audio and slides of a talk I gave on microcopy and 404 pages at @media WebDirections last year.\n\nOn the fourth day of Contentmas, Relly gave to me:\n\n4. Stalling nerds\n\nActually, I guess more accurately this is something I get given a lot. Designers and developers particularly can find a million ways to extract themselves from the content of a site but, as the site owner,  and this being your personal playground and all, you mustn\u2019t. You actually can\u2019t, sorry. \n\nBut I do understand that at this point, \u2018sorting out your site\u2019 suddenly seems a lot less exciting, especially if you are a visually-minded person and words and lists aren\u2019t really your thing. So far, there has been a lot of not-very-exciting exercises in planning, and there\u2019s probably a nice pile of DVDs and video games that you got from Santa worth investigating. \n\nStay strong my friend. By now, you have probably hit upon an idea of some sort you are itching to start on, so for every half-hour you spend doing inventory, gift yourself another thirty minutes to play with that idea.\n\nBonus gift: the Pomodoro Technique. Take one kitchen timer and a to-do list and see how far you can go.\n\nOn the fifth day of Contentmas, Relly gave to me:\n\n5. Golden rules\n\nHere are some guidelines for writing online:\n\n\n\tMake headlines for tutorials and similar content useful and descriptive; use a subheading for any terrible pun you want to work in.\n\n\n\n\tCreate a broad opening paragraph that addresses what your article is about. Part of the creative skill in writing is to do this in a way that both informs the reader and captures their attention. If you struggle with this, consider a boxout giving a summary of the article.\n\n\n\n\tUse headings to break up chunks of text and allow people to scan. Most people will have a scoot about an article before starting at the beginning to give it a proper read. These headings should be equal parts informative and enticing. Try them out as questions that might be posed by the reader too.\n\n\n\n\tFinish articles by asking your reader to take an affirmative action: subscribe to your RSS feed; leave a comment (if comments are your thing \u2013 more on that later); follow you on Twitter; link you to somewhere they have used your tutorial or code. The web is about getting excited, making things and sharing with others, so give your readers the chance to do that.\n\n\n\n\tFor portfolio sites, this call to action is extra important as you want to pick up new business. Encourage people to e-mail you or call you \u2013 don\u2019t just rely on a number in the footer or an e-mail link at the top. Think up some consistent calls-to-action you can use and test them out.\n\n\nSo, my gift to you today is a simplified page table for planning out your content to make it as useful as possible.\n\nFeel free to write a new article or tutorial, or work on that great idea from yesterday and try out these guidelines for yourself. \n\nIt\u2019s a simple framework \u2013 good headline; broad opening; headings to break up volume; strong call to action \u2013 but it will help you recognise if what you\u2019ve written is in good shape to face the world. It doesn\u2019t tell you anything about how to create it \u2013 that\u2019s your endeavour \u2013 but it does give you a start. No more staring at a blank page.\n\nBonus gift: okay, you have to buy yourself this one, but it is the gift that keeps on giving: Ginny Reddish\u2019s Letting Go of the Words \u2013 the hands down best guide to web writing there is, with a ton of illustrative examples.\n\nOn the sixth day of Contentmas, Relly gave to me:\n\n6. Foundation-a-laying\n\nYesterday, we played with a page table for articles. Today, we are going to set the foundations for your new, spangly, spruced up, relaunched site (for when you\u2019re ready, of course). We\u2019ve checked out what we\u2019ve got, we\u2019ve thought about what we\u2019d like, we have a wish list for the future. Now is the time for a small reality check. \n\nBe realistic with yourself. Can you really give your site some attention every day? Record a short snippet of audio once a week? A photo diary post once a month? Look back at the wish list you made.\n\n\n\tWhat can you do?\n\tWhat can you aim for?\n\tWhat just isn\u2019t possible right now?\n\n\nAs much as we\u2019d all love to be producing a slick video podcast and screencast three times a week, it\u2019s better to set realistic expectations and work your way up.\n\nWhere does your site sit in your online world?\n\n\n\tDo you want it to be the hub of all your social interactions, a lifestream, a considered place of publication or a free for all?\n\tDo you want to have comments (do you have the personal resource to monitor comments?) or would you prefer conversation to happen via Twitter, Facebook or not at all?\n\tDoes this apply to all pages, posts and content types or just some?\n\tGet these things straight in your head and it\u2019s easier to know what sort of environment you want to create and what content you\u2019ll need to sustain it.\n\n\nGet your notebook again and think about specific topics you\u2019d like to cover, or aspects of a project you want to go into more, and how you can go ahead and do just that. A good motivator is to think what you\u2019ll get out of doing it, even if that is \u201cAnd I\u2019ll finally show the poxy $whatever_community that my $chosen_format is better than their $other_format.\u201d\n\nWhat topics have you really wanted to get off your chest? Look through your inventory again. What gaps are there in your content just begging to be filled?\n\nToday, you\u2019re going to give everyone the gift of your opinion. Find one of those things where someone on the internet is wrong and create a short but snappy piece to set them straight. Doesn\u2019t that feel good? Soon you\u2019ll be able to do this in a timely manner every time someone is wrong on the internet!\n\nBonus gift: we\u2019re halfway through, so I think something fun is in order. How about a man sledding naked down a hill in Brighton on a tea tray? Sometimes, even with a whole ton of content planning, it\u2019s the spontaneous stuff that is still the most fun to share.\n\nOn the seventh day of Contentmas, Relly gave to me:\n\n7. Styles-a-guiding\n\nNot colour style guides or brand style guides or code style guides. Content style guides. You could go completely to town and write yourself a full document defining every aspect of your site\u2019s voice and personality, plus declaring your view on contracted phrases and the Oxford comma, but this does seem a tad excessive. Unless you\u2019re writing an entire site as a fictional character, you probably know your own voice and vocabulary better than anyone. It\u2019s in your head, after all.\n\nInstead, equip yourself with a good global style guide (I like the Chicago Manual of Style because I can access it fully online, but the Associated Press (AP) Stylebook has a nifty iPhone app and, if I\u2019m entirely honest, I\u2019ve found a copy of Eats, Shoots and Leaves has set me right on all but the most technical aspects of punctuation). Next, pick a good dictionary and bookmark thesaurus.com. Then have a go at Kristina Halvorson\u2019s \u2018Voice and Tone\u2019 exercise from her book Content Strategy for the Web, to nail down what you\u2019d like your future content to be like:\n\nTo introduce the voice and tone qualities you\u2019re [looking to create], a good approach is to offer contrasting values. For example:\n\n\n\tProfessional, not academic.\n\tConfident, not arrogant.\n\tClever, not cutesy.\n\tSavvy, not hipster.\n\tExpert, not preachy.\n\n\n\nTake a look around some of your favourite sites and examine the writing and stylistic handling of content. What do you like? What do you want to emulate? What matches your values list?\n\nToday\u2019s gift to you is an idea. Create a \u2018swipe file\u2019 through Evernote or Delicious and save all the stuff you come across that, regardless of topic, makes you think, \u201cThat\u2019s really cool.\u201d This isn\u2019t the same as an Instapaper list you\u2019d like to read. This is stuff you have read or have seen that is worth looking at in closer detail.\n\n\n\tWhy is it so good?\n\tWhat is the language and style like?\n\tWhat impact does the typography have?\n\tHow does the imagery work to enhance the message?\n\n\nThis isn\u2019t about creating a personal brand or any such piffle. It\u2019s about learning to recognise how good content works and how to create something awesome yourself. Obviously, your ideas are brilliant, so take the time to understand how best to spring them on the unsuspecting public for easier world domination.\n\nBonus gift: a nifty style guide is a must when you do have to share content creation duties with others. Here is Leeds University\u2019s publicly available PDF version for you to take a gander at. I especially like the Rationale sections for chopping off dissenters at the knees. \n\nOn the eighth day of Contentmas, Relly gave to me:\n\n8. Times-a-making\n\nYou have an actual, real plan for what you\u2019d like to do with your site and how it is going to sound (and probably some ideas on how it\u2019s going to look, too). I hope you are full of enthusiasm and Getting Excited To Make Things. Just before we get going and do exactly that, we are going to make sure we have made time for this creative outpouring.\n\nHave you tried to blog once a week before and found yourself losing traction after a month or two? Are there a couple of podcasts lurking neglected in your archives? Whereas half of the act of running is showing up for training, half of creating is making time rather than waiting for it to become urgent. It\u2019s okay to write something and set a date to come back to it (which isn\u2019t the same as leaving it to decompose in your drafts folder).\n\nPutting a date in your calendar to do something for your site means that you have a forewarning to think of a topic to write about, and space in your schedule to actually do it. Crucially, you\u2019ve actually made some time for this content lark.\n\nTo do this, you need to think about how long it takes to get something out of the door/shipped/published/whatever you want to call it. It might take you just thirty minutes to record a podcast, but also a further hour to research the topic beforehand and another hour to edit and upload the clips. Suddenly, doing a thirty minute podcast every day seems a bit unlikely. But, on the flipside, it is easy to see how you could schedule that in three chunks weekly. \n\nPut it in your calendar. Do it, publish it, book yourself in for the next week. Keep turning up.\n\nToday my gift to you is the gift of time. Set up your own small content calendar, using your favourite calendar system, and schedule time to play with new ways of creating content, time to get it finished and time to get it on your site. Don\u2019t let good stuff go to your drafts folder to die of neglect.\n\nBonus gift: lots of writers swear by the concept of \u2018daily pages\u2019. That is, churning out whatever is in your head to see if there is anything worth building upon, or just to lose the grocery list getting in the way. 750words.com is a site built around this concept. Go have a play.\n\nOn the ninth day of Contentmas, Relly gave to me:\n\n9. Copy enhancing\n\nAn incredibly radical idea for day number nine. We are going to look at that list of permanent pages you made back on day three and rewrite the words first, before even looking at a colour palette or picking a font! Crazy as it sounds, doing it this way round could influence your design. It could shape the imagery you use. It could affect your choice of typography. IMAGINE THE POSSIBILITIES!\n\nLook at the page table from day five. Print out one for each of your homepage, about page, contact page, portfolio, archive, 404 page or whatever else you have. Use these as a place to brainstorm your ideas and what you\u2019d like each page to do for your site. Doodle in the margin, choose words you think sound fun to say, daydream about pictures you\u2019d like to use and colours you think would work, but absolutely, completely and utterly fill in those page tables to understand how much (or how little) content you\u2019re playing with and what you need to do to get to \u2018launch\u2019.\n\nThen, use them for guidance as you start to write. Don\u2019t skimp. Don\u2019t think that a fancy icon of an envelope encourages people to e-mail you. Use your words.\n\nPeople get antsy at this bit. Writing can be hard work and it\u2019s easy for me to say, \u201cGo on and write it then!\u201d I know this. I mean, you should see the faces I pull when I have to do anything related to coding. The closest equivalent would be when scientists have to stick their hands in big gloves attached to a glass box to do dangerous experiments.\n\nHere\u2019s today\u2019s gift, a little something about writing that I hope brings you comfort: \n\n\n\tTo write something fantastic you almost always have to write a rubbish draft first.\n\n\nNow, you might get lucky and write a \u2018good enough\u2019 draft first time and that\u2019s fab \u2013 you\u2019ve cut some time getting to \u2018fantastic\u2019. If, however, you\u2019ve always looked at your first attempt to write more than the bare minimum and sighed in despair, and resigned yourself to adding just a title, date and a screenshot, be cheered because you have taken the first step to being able to communicate with clarity, wit and panache.\n\nKeep going. Look at writing you admire and emulate it. Think about how you will lovingly design those words when they are done. Know that you can go back and change them. Check back with your page table to keep you on track. Do that first draft.\n\nBonus gift: becoming a better writer helps you to explain design concepts to clients.\n\nOn the tenth day of Contentmas, Relly gave to me:\n\n10. Ideas for keeping\n\nHurrah! You have something down on paper, ready to start evolving your site around it. Here\u2019s where the words and visuals and interaction start to come together. Because you have a plan, you can think ahead and do things you wouldn\u2019t be able to pull together otherwise.\n\n\n\tHow about finding a fresh-faced stellar illustrator on Dribbble to create you something perfect to pep up your contact page or visualize your witty statement on statements of work. A List Apart has been doing it for years and it hasn\u2019t worked out too badly for them, has it?\n\n\n\n\tWhat about spending this month creating a series of introductory tutorials on a topic, complete with screencasts and audio and give them a special home on your site?\n\n\n\n\tHow about putting in some hours creating a glorious about me page, with a biography, nice picture, and where you spend your time online?\n\n\n\n\tYou could even do the web equivalent of getting up in the attic and sorting out your site\u2019s search to make it easier to find things in your archives. Maybe even do some manual recommendations for relevant content and add them as calls to action.\n\n\n\n\tHow about writing a few awesome case studies with individual screenshots of your favourite work, and creating a portfolio that plays to your strengths? Don\u2019t just rely on the pretty pictures; use your words. Otherwise no-one understands why things are the way they are on that screenshot and BAM! you\u2019ll be judged on someone else\u2019s tastes. (Elliot has a head start on you for this, so get to it!)\n\n\n\n\tDo you have a serious archive of content? What\u2019s it like being a first-time visitor to your site? Could you write them a guide to introduce yourself and some of the most popular stuff on your site? Ali Edwards is a massively popular crafter and every day she gets new visitors who have found her multiple papercraft projects on Flickr, Vimeo and elsewhere, so she created a welcome guide just for them.\n\n\n\n\tWhat about your microcopy? Can you improve on your blogging platform\u2019s defaults for search, comment submission and labels? I\u2019ll bet you can.\n\n\n\n\tMaybe you could plan a collaboration with other like-minded souls. A week of posts about the more advanced wonders of HTML5 video. A month-long baton-passing exercise in extolling the virtues of IE (shut up, it could happen!). Just spare me any more online advent calendars.\n\n\n\n\tWatch David McCandless\u2019s TED talk on his jawdropping infographic work and make something as awesome as the Billion Dollar O Gram. I dare you.\n\n\nBonus gift: Grab a copy of Brian Suda\u2019s Designing with Data, in print or PDF if Santa didn\u2019t put one in your stocking, and make that awesome something with some expert guidance.\n\nOn the eleventh day of Contentmas, Relly gave to me:\n\n11. Pixels pushing\n\nOh, go on then. Make a gorgeous bespoke velvet-lined container for all that lovely content. It\u2019s proper informed design now, not just decoration. Mr. Zeldman says so.\n\nBonus gift: I made you a movie! If books were designed like websites.\n\nOn the twelfth day of Contentmas, Relly gave to me:\n\n12. Delighters delighting\n\nThe Epiphany is upon us; your site is now well on its way to being a beautiful, sustainable hub of content and you have a date in your calendar to help you keep that resolution of blogging more. What now?\n\n\n\tKeep on top of your inventory. One day it will save your butt, I promise.\n\tKeep making a little bit of time regularly to create something new: an article; an opinion piece; a small curation of related links; a photo diary; a new case study. That\u2019s easier than an annual content bootcamp for sure.\n\tAnd today\u2019s gift: look for ways to play with that content and make something a bit special. Stretch yourself a little. It\u2019ll be worth it.\n\n\nBonus gift: Paul Annett\u2019s presentation on Ooh, that\u2019s clever: Delighters in design from SxSW 09.\n\nAll my favourite designers and developers have their own unique styles and touches. It\u2019s what sets them apart. My very, very favourites have an eloquence and expression that they bring to their sites and to their projects. I absolutely love to explore a well-crafted, well-written site \u2013 don\u2019t we all? I know the time it takes. I appreciate the time it takes. But the end results are delicious. Do please share your spangly, refreshed sites with me in the comments.\n\nCatch me on Twitter, I\u2019m @RellyAB, and I\u2019ve been your host for these Twelve Days of Contentmas.", "year": "2010", "author": "Relly Annett-Baker", "author_slug": "rellyannettbaker", "published": "2010-12-21T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2010/a-contentmas-epiphany/", "topic": "content"}
{"rowid": 287, "title": "Extracting the Content", "contents": "As we throw away our canvas in approaches and yearn for a content-out process, there remains a pain point: the Content. It is spoken of in the hushed tones usually reserved for Lord Voldemort. The-thing-that-someone-else-is-responsible-for-that-must-not-be-named.\n\nDesigners and developers have been burned before by not knowing what the Content is, how long it is, what style it is and when the hell it\u2019s actually going to be delivered, in internet eons past. Warily, they ask clients for it. But clients don\u2019t know what to make, or what is good, because no one taught them this in business school. Designers struggle to describe what they need and when, so the conversation gets put off until it\u2019s almost too late, and then everyone is relieved that they can take the cop-out of putting up a blog and maybe some product descriptions from the brochure.\n\nThe Content in content out.\n\nI\u2019m guessing, as a smart, sophisticated, and, may I say, nicely-scented reader of the honourable and venerable tradition of 24 ways, that you sense something better is out there. Bunches of boxes to fill in just don\u2019t cut it any more in a responsive web design world. The first question is, how are you going to design something to ensure users have the easiest access to the best Content, if you haven\u2019t defined at the beginning what that Content is? Of course, it\u2019s more than possible that your clients have done lots of user research before approaching you to start this project, and have a plethora of finely tuned Content for you to design with.\n\nHave you finished laughing yet? Alright then. Let\u2019s just assume that, for whatever reason of gross oversight, this hasn\u2019t happened. What next?\n\nBringing up Content for the first time with a client is like discussing contraception when you\u2019re in a new relationship. It might be awkward and either party would probably rather be doing something else, but it needs to be broached before any action happens (that, and it\u2019s disastrous to assume the other party has the matter in hand). If we can\u2019t talk about it, how can we expect people to be doing it right and not making stupid mistakes? That being the case, how do we talk about Content? Let\u2019s start by finding a way to talk about it without blushing and scuffing our shoes. And there\u2019s a reason I\u2019ve been treating Content as a Proper Noun. \n\nThe first step, and I mean really-first-step-way-back-at-the-beginning-of-the-project-while-you-are-still-scoping-out-what-the-hell-you-might-do-for-each-other-and-it\u2019s-still-all-a-bit-awkward-like-a-first-date, is for you to explain to the client how important it is that you, together, work out what is important to your users as part of the user experience design, so that your users get the best user experience. The trouble is that, in most cases, this would lead to blank stares, possibly followed by a light cough and a query about using Comic Sans because it seems friendly.\n\nLet\u2019s start by ensuring your clients understand the task ahead. You see, all the time we talk about the Content we do our clients a big disservice. Content is poorly defined. It looms over a project completion point like an unscalable (in the sense of a dozen stacked Kilimanjaros), seething, massive, singular entity. The Content.\n\nDefining the problem. \n\nWe should really be thinking of the Content as \u2018contents\u2019; as many parts that come together to form a mighty experience, like hit 90s kids\u2019 TV show Mighty Morphin Power Rangers*.\n\n*For those of you who might have missed the Power Rangers, they were five teenagers with attitude, each given crazy mad individual skillz and a coloured lycra suit from an alien overlord. In return, they had to fight a new monster of the week using their abilities and weaponry in sync (even if the audio was not) and then, finally, in thrilling combination as a Humongous Mechanoid Machine of Awesome. They literally joined their individual selves, accessories and vehicles into a big robot. It was a toy manufacturer\u2019s wet dream.\n\nSo, why do I say Content is like the Power Rangers? Because Content is not just a humongous mecha. It is a combination of well-crafted pieces of contents that come together to form a well-crafted humongous mecha. Of Content.\n\nThe Red Power Ranger was always the leader. You can imagine your text contents, found on about pages, product descriptions, blog articles, and so on, as being your Red Power Ranger.\n\nMaybe your pictures are your Yellow Power Ranger; video is Blue (not used as much as the others, but really impressive when given a good storyline); maybe Pink is your infographics (it\u2019s wrong to find it sexier than the other equally important Rangers, but you kind of do anyway). And so on. \n\nThese bits of content \u2013 Red Text Ranger, Yellow Picture Ranger and others \u2013 often join together on a page, like they are teaming up to fight the bad guy in an action scene, and when they all come together (your standard workaday huge mecha) in a launched site, that\u2019s when Content becomes an entity.\n\nWhile you might have a vision for the whole site, Content rarely works that way. Of course, you keep your eye on the bigger prize, the completion of your mega robot, but to get there you need to assemble your working parts, the cogs and springs of contents that will mesh together to finally create your Humongous Mecha of Content. You create parts and join them to form a whole. (It\u2019s rarely seamless; often we need to adjust as we go, but we can create our Mecha\u2019s blueprint by making sure we have all the requisite parts.)\n\nThe point here is the order these parts were created. No alien overlord plans a Humongous Mechanoid and then thinks, \u201cGee, how can I split this into smaller fighting units powered by teenagers in snazzy shiny suits?\u201d No toy manufacturer goes into production of a mega robot, made up of model mecha vehicles with detachable arsenal, without thinking how they will easily fit back together to form the \u2018Buy all five now to create the mega robot\u2019 set. No good contents are created as a singular entity and chunked up to be slotted in to place any which way, into the body of a site.\n\nThink contents, not the Content. Think of contents as smaller units, or as a plural. The Content is what you have at the end. The contents are what you are creating and they are easy to break down. You are no longer scaling the unscalable. You can draw the map and plot the path, page by page, section by section.\n\nThe page table is your friend\n\nTo do this, I use a page table. A page table is a simple table template you can create in the word processor of your choice, that you use to tell you everything about the contents of a page \u2013 everything except the contents itself. \n\nHere\u2019s a page table I created for an employee\u2019s guide to redundancy in the alpha.gov.uk website:\n\n \n\nGuide to redundancy for employees\n\n\n\tPage objective: Provide specific information for employees who are facing redundancy about the process, their options and next steps.\n\tSource content: directgov page on Redundancy.\n\tScope: In scope\n\n\n\n\t\t\n\t\t\tPage title \n\t\t\t An employee\u2019s guide to redundancy \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\tPriority content \n\t\t\t Message: You have rights as an employee facing redundancy\nMethod: A guide written in plain English, with links to appropriate additional content.\nA video guide (out of scope).\nCovers the stages of redundancy and rights for those in trade unions and not in trade unions. Glossary of unfamiliar terms.\nCall to action: Read full guide, act to explore redundancy actions, benefits or new employment.\nAssets: link to redundancy calculator. \n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\tSecondary \n\t\t\t Related items, or popular additional links. \nAdditional tools, such as search and suggestions.\n\n\n\n\tlocation set v not set states\n\tmicrocopy encouraging location set where location may make a difference to the content \u2013 ie, Scotland/Northern Ireland.\n\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\tTertiary \n\t\t\t Footer and standard links. \n\t\t\n\n\n\n\tContent creation: Content exists but was created within the constraints of the previous CMS. Review, correct and edit where necessary.\n\tMaintenance: should be flagged for review upon advice from Department of Work and Pensions, and annually.\n\tTechnology/Publishing/Policy implications: Should be reviewed once the glossary styles have been decided. No video guide in scope at this time, so languages should be simple and screen reader friendly.\n\tReliance on third parties: None, all content and source exists in house.\n\tOutstanding questions: None.\n\n\n \n\nDownload a copy of this page table\n\nThis particular page table template owes a lot to Brain Traffic\u2019s version found in Kristina Halvorson\u2019s book Content Strategy for the Web. With smaller clients than, say, the government, I might use something a bit more casual. With clients who like timescales and deadlines, I might turn it into a covering sheet, with signatures and agreements from two departments who have to work together to get the piece done on time.\n\nI use page tables, and the process of working through them, to reassure clients that I understand the task they face and that I can help them break it down section by section, page stack to page, down to product descriptions and interaction copy. About 80% of my clients break into relieved smiles. Most clients want to work with you to produce something good, they just don\u2019t understand how, and they want you to show them the mountain path on the map. With page tables, clients can understand that with baby steps they can break down their content requirements and commission content they need in time for the designers to work with it (as opposed to around it).  If I was Santa, these clients would be on my nice list for sure.\n\nMy own special brand of Voldemort-content-evilness comes in how I wield my page tables for the other 20%. Page tables are not always thrilling, I\u2019ll admit. Sometimes they get ignored in favour of other things, yet they are crucial to the continual growth and maintenance of a truly content-led site. For these naughty list clients who, even when given the gift of the page table, continually say \u201cOoh, yes. Content. Right\u201d, I have a special gift. I have a stack of recycled paper under my desk and a cheap black and white laser printer. And I print a blank page table for every conceivable page I can find on the planned redesign. If I\u2019m feeling extra nice, I hole punch them and put them in a fat binder. \n\nThere is nothing like saying, \u201cThis is all the contents you need to have in hand for launch\u201d, and the satisfying thud the binder makes as it hits the table top, to galvanize even the naughtiest clients to start working with you to create the content you need to really create in a content-out way.", "year": "2011", "author": "Relly Annett-Baker", "author_slug": "rellyannettbaker", "published": "2011-12-15T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2011/extracting-the-content/", "topic": "content"}
{"rowid": 55, "title": "How Tabs Should Work", "contents": "Tabs in browsers (not browser tabs) are one of the oldest custom UI elements in a browser that I can think of. They\u2019ve been done to death. But, sadly, most of the time I come across them, the tabs have been badly, or rather partially, implemented.\nSo this post is my definition of how a tabbing system should work, and one approach of implementing that.\nBut\u2026 tabs are easy, right?\nI\u2019ve been writing code for tabbing systems in JavaScript for coming up on a decade, and at one point I was pretty proud of how small I could make the JavaScript for the tabbing system:\nvar tabs = $('.tab').click(function () {\n  tabs.hide().filter(this.hash).show();\n}).map(function () {\n  return $(this.hash)[0];\n});\n\n$('.tab:first').click();\nSimple, right? Nearly fits in a tweet (ignoring the whole jQuery library\u2026). Still, it\u2019s riddled with problems that make it a far from perfect solution.\nRequirements: what makes the perfect tab?\n\nAll content is navigable and available without JavaScript (crawler-compatible and low JS-compatible).\nARIA roles.\nThe tabs are anchor links that:\n\nare clickable\nhave block layout\nhave their href pointing to the id of the panel element\nuse the correct cursor (i.e. cursor: pointer).\n\nSince tabs are clickable, the user can open in a new tab/window and the page correctly loads with the correct tab open.\nRight-clicking (and Shift-clicking) doesn\u2019t cause the tab to be selected.\nNative browser Back/Forward button correctly changes the state of the selected tab (think about it working exactly as if there were no JavaScript in place).\n\nThe first three points are all to do with the semantics of the markup and how the markup has been styled. I think it\u2019s easy to do a good job by thinking of tabs as links, and not as some part of an application. Links are navigable, and they should work the same way other links on the page work.\nThe last three points are JavaScript problems. Let\u2019s investigate that.\nThe shitmus test\nLike a litmus test, here\u2019s a couple of quick ways you can tell if a tabbing system is poorly implemented:\n\nChange tab, then use the Back button (or keyboard shortcut) and it breaks\nThe tab isn\u2019t a link, so you can\u2019t open it in a new tab\n\nThese two basic things are, to me, the bare minimum that a tabbing system should have.\nWhy is this important?\nThe people who push their so-called native apps on users can\u2019t have more reasons why the web sucks. If something as basic as a tab doesn\u2019t work, obviously there\u2019s more ammo to push a closed native app or platform on your users.\nIf you\u2019re going to be a web developer, one of your responsibilities is to maintain established interactivity paradigms. This doesn\u2019t mean don\u2019t innovate. But it does mean: stop fucking up my scrolling experience with your poorly executed scroll effects. </rant> :breath:\nURI fragment, absolute URL or query string?\nA URI fragment (AKA the # hash bit) would be using mysite.com/config#content to show the content panel. A fully addressable URL would be mysite.com/config/content. Using a query string (by way of filtering the page): mysite.com/config?tab=content.\nThis decision really depends on the context of your tabbing system. For something like GitHub\u2019s tabs to view a pull request, it makes sense that the full URL changes.\nFor our problem though, I want to solve the issue when the page doesn\u2019t do a full URL update; that is, your regular run-of-the-mill tabbing system.\nI used to be from the school of using the hash to show the correct tab, but I\u2019ve recently been exploring whether the query string can be used. The biggest reason is that multiple hashes don\u2019t work, and comma-separated hash fragments don\u2019t make any sense to control multiple tabs (since it doesn\u2019t actually link to anything).\nFor this article, I\u2019ll keep focused on using a single tabbing system and a hash on the URL to control the tabs.\nMarkup\nI\u2019m going to assume subcontent, so my markup would look like this (yes, this is a cat demo\u2026):\n<ul class=\"tabs\">\n  <li><a class=\"tab\" href=\"#dizzy\">Dizzy</a></li>\n  <li><a class=\"tab\" href=\"#ninja\">Ninja</a></li>\n  <li><a class=\"tab\" href=\"#missy\">Missy</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n<div id=\"dizzy\">\n  <!-- panel content -->\n</div>\n<div id=\"ninja\">\n  <!-- panel content -->\n</div>\n<div id=\"missy\">\n  <!-- panel content -->\n</div>\nIt\u2019s important to note that in the markup the link used for an individual tab references its panel content using the hash, pointing to the id on the panel. This will allow our content to connect up without JavaScript and give us a bunch of features for free, which we\u2019ll see once we\u2019re on to writing the code.\nURL-driven tabbing systems\nInstead of making the code responsive to the user\u2019s input, we\u2019re going to exclusively use the browser URL and the hashchange event on the window to drive this tabbing system. This way we get Back button support for free.\nWith that in mind, let\u2019s start building up our code. I\u2019ll assume we have the jQuery library, but I\u2019ve also provided the full code working without a library (vanilla, if you will), but it depends on relatively new (polyfillable) tech like classList and dataset (which generally have IE10 and all other browser support).\nNote that I\u2019ll start with the simplest solution, and I\u2019ll refactor the code as I go along, like in places where I keep calling jQuery selectors.\nfunction show(id) {\n  // remove the selected class from the tabs,\n  // and add it back to the one the user selected\n  $('.tab').removeClass('selected').filter(function () {\n    return (this.hash === id);\n  }).addClass('selected');\n\n  // now hide all the panels, then filter to\n  // the one we're interested in, and show it\n  $('.panel').hide().filter(id).show();\n}\n\n$(window).on('hashchange', function () {\n  show(location.hash);\n});\n\n// initialise by showing the first panel\nshow('#dizzy');\nThis works pretty well for such little code. Notice that we don\u2019t have any click handlers for the user and the Back button works right out of the box.\nHowever, there\u2019s a number of problems we need to fix:\n\nThe initialised tab is hard-coded to the first panel, rather than what\u2019s on the URL.\nIf there\u2019s no hash on the URL, all the panels are hidden (and thus broken).\nIf you scroll to the bottom of the example, you\u2019ll find a \u201ctop\u201d link; clicking that will break our tabbing system.\nI\u2019ve purposely made the page long, so that when you click on a tab, you\u2019ll see the page scrolls to the top of the tab. Not a huge deal, but a bit annoying.\n\nFrom our criteria at the start of this post, we\u2019ve already solved items 4 and 5. Not a terrible start. Let\u2019s solve items 1 through 3 next.\nUsing the URL to initialise correctly and protect from breakage\nInstead of arbitrarily picking the first panel from our collection, the code should read the current location.hash and use that if it\u2019s available.\nThe problem is: what if the hash on the URL isn\u2019t actually for a tab?\nThe solution here is that we need to cache a list of known panel IDs. In fact, well-written DOM scripting won\u2019t continuously search the DOM for nodes. That is, when the show function kept calling $('.tab').each(...) it was wasteful. The result of $('.tab') should be cached.\nSo now the code will collect all the tabs, then find the related panels from those tabs, and we\u2019ll use that list to double the values we give the show function (during initialisation, for instance).\n// collect all the tabs\nvar tabs = $('.tab');\n\n// get an array of the panel ids (from the anchor hash)\nvar targets = tabs.map(function () {\n  return this.hash;\n}).get();\n\n// use those ids to get a jQuery collection of panels\nvar panels = $(targets.join(','));\n\nfunction show(id) {\n  // if no value was given, let's take the first panel\n  if (!id) {\n    id = targets[0];\n  }\n  // remove the selected class from the tabs,\n  // and add it back to the one the user selected\n  tabs.removeClass('selected').filter(function () {\n    return (this.hash === id);\n  }).addClass('selected');\n\n  // now hide all the panels, then filter to\n  // the one we're interested in, and show it\n  panels.hide().filter(id).show();\n}\n\n$(window).on('hashchange', function () {\n  var hash = location.hash;\n  if (targets.indexOf(hash) !== -1) {\n    show(hash);\n  }\n});\n\n// initialise\nshow(targets.indexOf(location.hash) !== -1 ? location.hash : '');\nThe core of working out which tab to initialise with is solved in that last line: is there a location.hash? Is it in our list of valid targets (panels)? If so, select that tab.\nThe second breakage we saw in the original demo was that clicking the \u201ctop\u201d link would break our tabs. This was due to the hashchange event firing and the code didn\u2019t validate the hash that was passed. Now this happens, the panels don\u2019t break.\nSo far we\u2019ve got a tabbing system that:\n\nWorks without JavaScript.\nSupports right-click and Shift-click (and doesn\u2019t select in these cases).\nLoads the correct panel if you start with a hash.\nSupports native browser navigation.\nSupports the keyboard.\n\nThe only annoying problem we have now is that the page jumps when a tab is selected. That\u2019s due to the browser following the default behaviour of an internal link on the page. To solve this, things are going to get a little hairy, but it\u2019s all for a good cause.\nRemoving the jump to tab\nYou\u2019d be forgiven for thinking you just need to hook a click handler and return false. It\u2019s what I started with. Only that\u2019s not the solution. If we add the click handler, it breaks all the right-click and Shift-click support.\nThere may be another way to solve this, but what follows is the way I found \u2013 and it works. It\u2019s just a bit\u2026 hairy, as I said.\nWe\u2019re going to strip the id attribute off the target panel when the user tries to navigate to it, and then put it back on once the show code starts to run. This change will mean the browser has nowhere to navigate to for that moment, and won\u2019t jump the page.\nThe change involves the following:\n\nAdd a click handle that removes the id from the target panel, and cache this in a target variable that we\u2019ll use later in hashchange (see point 4).\nIn the same click handler, set the location.hash to the current link\u2019s hash. This is important because it forces a hashchange event regardless of whether the URL actually changed, which prevents the tabs breaking (try it yourself by removing this line).\nFor each panel, put a backup copy of the id attribute in a data property (I\u2019ve called it old-id).\nWhen the hashchange event fires, if we have a target value, let\u2019s put the id back on the panel.\n\nThese changes result in this final code:\n/*global $*/\n\n// a temp value to cache *what* we're about to show\nvar target = null;\n\n// collect all the tabs\nvar tabs = $('.tab').on('click', function () {\n  target = $(this.hash).removeAttr('id');\n\n  // if the URL isn't going to change, then hashchange\n  // event doesn't fire, so we trigger the update manually\n  if (location.hash === this.hash) {\n    // but this has to happen after the DOM update has\n    // completed, so we wrap it in a setTimeout 0\n    setTimeout(update, 0);\n  }\n});\n\n// get an array of the panel ids (from the anchor hash)\nvar targets = tabs.map(function () {\n  return this.hash;\n}).get();\n\n// use those ids to get a jQuery collection of panels\nvar panels = $(targets.join(',')).each(function () {\n  // keep a copy of what the original el.id was\n  $(this).data('old-id', this.id);\n});\n\nfunction update() {\n  if (target) {\n    target.attr('id', target.data('old-id'));\n    target = null;\n  }\n\n  var hash = window.location.hash;\n  if (targets.indexOf(hash) !== -1) {\n    show(hash);\n  }\n}\n\nfunction show(id) {\n  // if no value was given, let's take the first panel\n  if (!id) {\n    id = targets[0];\n  }\n  // remove the selected class from the tabs,\n  // and add it back to the one the user selected\n  tabs.removeClass('selected').filter(function () {\n    return (this.hash === id);\n  }).addClass('selected');\n\n  // now hide all the panels, then filter to\n  // the one we're interested in, and show it\n  panels.hide().filter(id).show();\n}\n\n$(window).on('hashchange', update);\n\n// initialise\nif (targets.indexOf(window.location.hash) !== -1) {\n  update();\n} else {\n  show();\n}\nThis version now meets all the criteria I mentioned in my original list, except for the ARIA roles and accessibility. Getting this support is actually very cheap to add.\nARIA roles\nThis article on ARIA tabs made it very easy to get the tabbing system working as I wanted.\nThe tasks were simple:\n\nAdd aria-role set to tab for the tabs, and tabpanel for the panels.\nSet aria-controls on the tabs to point to their related panel (by id).\nI use JavaScript to add tabindex=0 to all the tab elements.\nWhen I add the selected class to the tab, I also set aria-selected to true and, inversely, when I remove the selected class I set aria-selected to false.\nWhen I hide the panels I add aria-hidden=true, and when I show the specific panel I set aria-hidden=false.\n\nAnd that\u2019s it. Very small changes to get full sign-off that the tabbing system is bulletproof and accessible.\nCheck out the final version (and the non-jQuery version as promised).\nIn conclusion\nThere\u2019s a lot of tab implementations out there, but there\u2019s an equal amount that break the browsing paradigm and the simple linkability of content. Clearly there\u2019s a special hell for those tab systems that don\u2019t even use links, but I think it\u2019s clear that even in something that\u2019s relatively simple, it\u2019s the small details that make or break the user experience.\nObviously there are corners I\u2019ve not explored, like when there\u2019s more than one set of tabs on a page, and equally whether you should deliver the initial markup with the correct tab selected. I think the answer lies in using query strings in combination with hashes on the URL, but maybe that\u2019s for another year!", "year": "2015", "author": "Remy Sharp", "author_slug": "remysharp", "published": "2015-12-22T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2015/how-tabs-should-work/", "topic": "code"}
{"rowid": 182, "title": "Breaking Out The Edges of The Browser", "contents": "HTML5 contains more than just the new entities for a more meaningful document, it also contains an arsenal of JavaScript APIs.  So many in fact, that some APIs have outgrown the HTML5 spec\u2019s backyard and have been sent away to grow up all on their own and been given the prestigious honour of being specs in their own right.\n\nSo when I refer to (bendy finger quote) \u201cHTML5\u201d, I mean the HTML5 specification and a handful of other specifications that help us authors build web applications.\n\nExamples of those specs I would include in the umbrella term would be: geolocation, web storage, web databases, web sockets and web workers, to name a few.\n\nFor all you guys and gals, on this special 2009 series of 24 ways, I\u2019m just going to focus on data storage and offline applications: boldly taking your browser where no browser has gone before!\n\nWeb Storage\n\nThe Web Storage API is basically cookies on steroids, a unhealthy dosage of steroids.  Cookies are always a pain to work with.  First of all you have the problem of setting, changing and deleting them.  Typically solved by Googling and blindly relying on PPK\u2019s solution.  If that wasn\u2019t enough, there\u2019s the 4Kb limit that some of you have hit when you really don\u2019t want to.\n\nThe Web Storage API gets around all of the hoops you have to jump through with cookies.  Storage supports around 5Mb of data per domain (the spec\u2019s recommendation, but it\u2019s open to the browsers to implement anything they like) and splits in to two types of storage objects:\n\n\n\tsessionStorage \u2013 available to all pages on that domain while the window remains open\n\tlocalStorage \u2013 available on the domain until manually removed\n\n\nSupport\n\nIgnoring beta browsers for our support list, below is a list of the major browsers and their support for the Web Storage API:\n\n\n\tLatest: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari (desktop & mobile/iPhone)\n\tPartial: Google Chrome (only supports localStorage)\n\tNot supported: Opera (as of 10.10)\n\n\nUsage\n\nBoth sessionStorage and localStorage support the same interface for accessing their contents, so for these examples I\u2019ll use localStorage.\n\nThe storage interface includes the following methods:\n\n\n\tsetItem(key, value)\n\tgetItem(key)\n\tkey(index)\n\tremoveItem(key)\n\tclear()\n\n\nIn the simple example below, we\u2019ll use setItem and getItem to store and retrieve data:\n\nlocalStorage.setItem('name', 'Remy');\nalert( localStorage.getItem('name') );\n\nUsing alert boxes can be a pretty lame way of debugging.  Conveniently Safari (and Chrome) include database tab in their debugging tools (cmd+alt+i), so you can get a visual handle on the state of your data:\n\n Viewing localStorage\n\nAs far as I know only Safari has this view on stored data natively in the browser.  There may be a Firefox plugin (but I\u2019ve not found it yet!) and IE\u2026 well that\u2019s just IE.\n\nEven though we\u2019ve used setItem and getItem, there\u2019s also a few other ways you can set and access the data.\n\nIn the example below, we\u2019re accessing the stored value directly using an expando and equally, you can also set values this way:\n\nlocalStorage.name = \"Remy\";\nalert( localStorage.name ); // shows \"Remy\"\n\nThe Web Storage API also has a key method, which is zero based, and returns the key in which data has been stored. This should also be in the same order that you set the keys, for example:\n\nalert( localStorage.getItem(localStorage.key(0)) ); \n// shows \"Remy\"\n\nI mention the key() method because it\u2019s not an unlikely name for a stored value.  This can cause serious problems though.\n\nWhen selecting the names for your keys, you need to be sure you don\u2019t take one of the method names that are already on the storage object, like key, clear, etc. As there are no warnings when you try to overwrite the methods, it means when you come to access the key() method, the call breaks as key is a string value and not a function.\n\nYou can try this yourself by creating a new stored value using localStorage.key = \"foo\" and you\u2019ll see that the Safari debugger breaks because it relies on the key() method to enumerate each of the stored values.\n\nUsage Notes\n\nCurrently all browsers only support storing strings. This also means if you store a numeric, it will get converted to a string:\n\nlocalStorage.setItem('count', 31);\nalert(typeof localStorage.getItem('count')); \n// shows \"string\"\n\nThis also means you can\u2019t store more complicated objects natively with the storage objects.  To get around this, you can use Douglas Crockford\u2019s JSON parser (though Firefox 3.5 has JSON parsing support baked in to the browser \u2013 yay!) json2.js to convert the object to a stringified JSON object:\n\nvar person = {\n\tname: 'Remy',\n\theight: 'short',\n\tlocation: 'Brighton, UK'\n};\nlocalStorage.setItem('person', JSON.stringify(person));\nalert( JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem('person')).name ); \n// shows \"Remy\"\n\nAlternatives\n\nThere are a few solutions out there that provide storage solutions that detect the Web Storage API, and if it\u2019s not available, fall back to different technologies (for instance, using a flash object to store data).  One comprehensive version of this is Dojo\u2019s storage library.  I\u2019m personally more of a fan of libraries that plug missing functionality under the same namespace, just as Crockford\u2019s JSON parser does (above).\n\nFor those interested it what that might look like, I\u2019ve mocked together a simple implementation of sessionStorage.  Note that it\u2019s incomplete (because it\u2019s missing the key method), and it could be refactored to not using the JSON stringify (but you would need to ensure that the values were properly and safely encoded):\n\n// requires json2.js for all browsers other than Firefox 3.5\nif (!window.sessionStorage && JSON) {\n\twindow.sessionStorage = (function () {\n\t\t// window.top.name ensures top level, and supports around 2Mb\n\t\tvar data = window.top.name ? JSON.parse(window.top.name) : {};\n\t\treturn {    \n\t\t\tsetItem: function (key, value) {\n\t\t\t\tdata[key] = value+\"\"; // force to string\n\t\t\t\twindow.top.name = JSON.stringify(data);\n\t\t\t},\n\t\t\tremoveItem: function (key) {\n\t\t\t\tdelete data[key];\n\t\t\t\twindow.top.name = JSON.stringify(data);        \n\t\t\t},\n\t\t\tgetItem: function (key) {\n\t\t\t\treturn data[key] || null;\n\t\t\t},\n\t\t\tclear: function () {\n\t\t\t\tdata = {};\n\t\t\t\twindow.top.name = '';\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t};\n\t})();\n}\n\nNow that we\u2019ve cracked the cookie jar with our oversized Web Storage API, let\u2019s have a look at how we take our applications offline entirely.\n\nOffline Applications\n\nOffline applications is (still) part of the HTML5 specification.  It allows developers to build a web app and have it still function without an internet connection.  The app is access via the same URL as it would be if the user were online, but the contents (or what the developer specifies) is served up to the browser from a local cache. From there it\u2019s just an everyday stroll through open web technologies, i.e. you still have access to the Web Storage API and anything else you can do without a web connection.\n\nFor this section, I\u2019ll refer you to a prototype demo I wrote recently of a contrived Rubik\u2019s cube (contrived because it doesn\u2019t work and it only works in Safari because I\u2019m using 3D transforms).\n\n Offline Rubik\u2019s cube\n\nSupport\n\nSupport for offline applications is still fairly limited, but the possibilities of offline applications is pretty exciting, particularly as we\u2019re seeing mobile support and support in applications such as Fluid (and I would expect other render engine wrapping apps).\n\nSupport currently, is as follows:\n\n\n\tLatest: Safari (desktop & mobile/iPhone)\n\tSort of: Firefox\u2021\n\tNot supported: Internet Explorer, Opera, Google Chrome\n\n\n\u2021 Firefox 3.5 was released to include offline support, but in fact has bugs where it doesn\u2019t work properly (certainly on the Mac), Minefield (Firefox beta) has resolved the bug.\n\nUsage\n\nThe status of the application\u2019s cache can be tested from the window.applicationCache object.  However, we\u2019ll first look at how to enable your app for offline access.\n\nYou need to create a manifest file, which will tell the browser what to cache, and then we point our web page to that cache:\n\n<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html manifest=\"remy.manifest\">\n<!-- continues ... -->\n\nFor the manifest to be properly read by the browser, your server needs to serve the .manifest files as text/manifest by adding the following to your mime.types:\n\ntext/cache-manifest  manifest\n\nNext we need to populate our manifest file so the browser can read it:\n\nCACHE MANIFEST\n/demo/rubiks/index.html\n/demo/rubiks/style.css\n/demo/rubiks/jquery.min.js\n/demo/rubiks/rubiks.js\n# version 15\n\nThe first line of the manifest must read CACHE MANIFEST.  Then subsequent lines tell the browser what to cache.\n\nThe HTML5 spec recommends that you include the calling web page (in my case index.html), but it\u2019s not required.  If I didn\u2019t include index.html, the browser would cache it as part of the offline resources.\n\nThese resources are implicitly under the CACHE namespace (which you can specify any number of times if you want to).\n\nIn addition, there are two further namespaces: NETWORK and FALLBACK.\n\nNETWORK is a whitelist namespace that tells the browser not to cache this resource and always try to request it through the network.\n\nFALLBACK tells the browser that whilst in offline mode, if the resource isn\u2019t available, it should return the fallback resource.\n\nFinally, in my example I\u2019ve included a comment with a version number.  This is because once you include a manifest, the only way you can tell the browser to reload the resources is if the manifest contents changes. So I\u2019ve included a version number in the manifest which I can change forcing the browser to reload all of the assets.\n\nHow it works\n\nIf you\u2019re building an app that makes use of the offline cache, I would strongly recommend that you add the manifest last. The browser implementations are very new, so can sometimes get a bit tricky to debug since once the resources are cached, they really stick in the browser.\n\nThese are the steps that happen during a request for an app with a manifest:\n\n\n\tBrowser: sends request for your app.html\n\tServer: serves all associated resources with app.html \u2013 as normal\n\tBrowser: notices that app.html has a manifest, it re-request the assets in the manifest\n\tServer: serves the requested manifest assets (again)\n\tBrowser: window.applicationCache has a status of UPDATEREADY\n\tBrowser: reloads\n\tBrowser: only request manifest file (which doesn\u2019t show on the net requests panel)\n\tServer: responds with 304 Not Modified on the manifest file\n\tBrowser: serves all the cached resources locally\n\n\nWhat might also add confusion to this process, is that the way the browsers work (currently) is if there is a cache already in place, it will use this first over updated resources.  So if your manifest has changed, the browser will have already loaded the offline cache, so the user will only see the updated on the next reload.  \n\nThis may seem a bit convoluted, but you can also trigger some of this manually through the applicationCache methods which can ease some of this pain.\n\nIf you bind to the online event you can manually try to update the offline cache. If the cache has then updated, swap the updated resources in to the cache and the next time the app loads it will be up to date.  You could also prompt your user to reload the app (which is just a refresh) if there\u2019s an update available.\n\nFor example (though this is just pseudo code):\n\naddEvent(applicationCache, 'updateready', function () {\n\tapplicationCache.swapCache();\n\ttellUserToRefresh();\n});\naddEvent(window, 'online', function () {\n\tapplicationCache.update();\n});\n\nBreaking out of the Browser\n\nSo that\u2019s two different technologies that you can use to break out of the traditional browser/web page model and get your apps working in a more application-ny way.\n\nThere\u2019s loads more in the HTML5 and non-HTML5 APIs to play with, so take your Christmas break to check them out!", "year": "2009", "author": "Remy Sharp", "author_slug": "remysharp", "published": "2009-12-02T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2009/breaking-out-the-edges-of-the-browser/", "topic": "code"}
{"rowid": 286, "title": "Defending the Perimeter Against Web Widgets", "contents": "On July 14, 1789, citizens of Paris stormed the Bastille, igniting a revolution that toppled the French monarchy. On July 14 of this year, there was a less dramatic (though more tweeted) takedown: The Deck network, which delivers advertising to some of the most popular web design and culture destinations, was down for about thirty minutes. During this period, most partner sites running ads from The Deck could not be viewed as result.\n\nA few partners were unaffected (aside from not having an ad to display). Fortunately, Dribbble, was one of them. In this article, I\u2019ll discuss outages like this and how to defend against them. But first, a few qualifiers: The Deck has been rock solid \u2013 this is the only downtime we\u2019ve witnessed since joining in June. More importantly, the issues in play are applicable to any web widget you might add to your site to display third-party content.\n\nDown and out\n\nYour defense is only as good as its weakest link. Web pages are filled with links, some of which threaten the ability of your page to load quickly and correctly. If you want your site to work when external resources fail, you need to identify the weak links on your site. In this article, we\u2019ll talk about web widgets as a point of failure and defensive JavaScript techniques for handling them.\n\nWidgets 101\n\nImagine a widget that prints out a Pun of the Day on your site. A simple technique for both widget provider and consumer is for the provider to expose a URL:\n\nhttp://widgetjonesdiary.com/punoftheday.js\n\nwhich returns a JavaScript file like this:\n\ndocument.write(\"<h2>The Pun of the Day</h2><p>Where do frogs go for beers after work? Hoppy hour!</p>\");\n\nThe call to document.write() injects the string passed into the document where it is called. So to display the widget on your page, simply add an external script tag where you want it to appear:\n\n<div class=\"punoftheday\">\n  <script src=\"http://widgetjonesdiary.com/punoftheday.js\"></script>\n  <!-- Content appears here as output of script above -->\n</div>\n\nThis approach is incredibly easy for both provider and consumer. But there are implications\u2026\n\ndocument.write()\u2026 or wrong?\n\nAs in the example above, scripts may perform a document.write() to inject HTML. Page rendering halts while a script is processed so any output can be inlined into the document. Therefore, page rendering speed depends on how fast the script returns the data. If an external JavaScript widget hangs, so does the page content that follows. It was this scenario that briefly stalled partner sites of The Deck last summer.\n\nThe elegant solution\n\nTo make our web widget more robust, calls to document.write() should be avoided. This can be achieved with a technique called JSONP (AKA JSON with padding). In our example, instead of writing inline with document.write(), a JSONP script passes content to a callback function:\n\npublishPun(\"<h2>Pun of the Day</h2><p>Where do frogs go for beers after work? Hoppy hour!</p>\");\n\nThen, it\u2019s up to the widget consumer to implement a callback function responsible for displaying the content. Here\u2019s a simple example where our callback uses jQuery to write the content into a target <div>:\n\n<!-- Where widget content should appear -->\n<div class=\"punoftheday\"></div>\n\n\u2026\n\n\n<br />\nfunction publishPun(content) {\n  $(&#8216;.punoftheday&#8217;).html(content); // Writes content display location<br />\n}<br />\n\n\n\n\nView Example 1\n\nEven if the widget content appears at the top of the page, our script can be included at the bottom so it\u2019s non-blocking: a slow response leaves page rendering unaffected. It simply invokes the callback which, in turn, writes the widget content to its display destination.\n\nThe hack\n\nBut what to do if your provider doesn\u2019t support JSONP? This was our case with The Deck. Returning to our example, I\u2019m reminded of computer scientist David Wheeler\u2019s statement, \u201cAll problems in computer science can be solved by another level of indirection\u2026 Except for the problem of too many layers of indirection.\u201d\n\nIn our case, the indirection is to move the widget content into position after writing it to the page. This allows us to place the widget <script> tag at the bottom of the page so rendering won\u2019t be blocked, but still display the widget in the target. The strategy:\n\n\n\tLoad widget content into a hidden <div> at the bottom of the page.\n\tMove the loaded content from the hidden <div> to its display location.\n\n\nand the code:\n\n<!-- Where widget content should appear -->\n<div class=\"punoftheday\"></div>\n\n\u2026\n\n\n\n  \n  \n\n\n\n<br />\n$(&#8216;.punoftheday&#8217;).append($(&#8216;.loading-dock&#8217;).children(&#8216;:gt(0)&#8217;));<br />\n\nView Example 2\n\nAfter the external punoftheday.js script has processed, the rendered HTML will look as follows:\n\n<div class=\"loading-dock hidden\">\n  <script src=\"http://widgetjonesdiary.com/punoftheday.js\"></script>\n  <h2>Pun of the Day</h2>\n  <p>Where do frogs go for beers after work? Hoppy hour!</p>\n</div>\n\nThe \u2018loading-dock\u2019 <div> now includes the widget content, albeit hidden from view (if we\u2019ve styled the \u2018hidden\u2019 class with display: none). There\u2019s just one more step: move the content to its display destination. This line of jQuery (from above) does the trick:\n\n$('.punoftheday').append($('.loading-dock').children(':gt(0)'));\n\nThis selects all child elements in the \u2018loading-doc\u2019 <div> except the first \u2013 the widget <script> tag which generated it \u2013 and moves it to the display destination. Worth noting is the :gt(0) jQuery selector extension, which allows us to exclude the first (in a 0-based array) child element \u2013 the widget <script> tag \u2013 from selection.\n\nSince all of this happens at the bottom of the page, just before the </body> tag, no rendering has to wait on the external widget script. The only thing that fails if our widget hangs is\u2026 the widget itself. Our weakest link has been strengthened and so has our site. DE-FENSE!", "year": "2011", "author": "Rich Thornett", "author_slug": "richthornett", "published": "2011-12-06T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2011/defending-the-perimeter-against-web-widgets/", "topic": "process"}
{"rowid": 53, "title": "Get Expressive with Your Typography", "contents": "In 1955 Beatrice Warde, an American communicator on typography, published a series of essays entitled The Crystal Goblet in which she wrote, \u201cPeople who love ideas must have a love of words. They will take a vivid interest in the clothes that words wear.\u201d And with that proposition Warde introduced the idea that just as we judge someone based on the clothes they are wearing, so we make judgements about text based on the typefaces in which it is set.\nBeatrice Warde. \u00a91970 Monotype Imaging Inc.\nChoosing the same typeface as everyone else, especially if you\u2019re trying to make a statement, is like turning up to a party in the same dress; to a meeting in the same suit, shirt and tie; or to a craft ale dispensary in the same plaid shirt and turned-up skinny jeans.\nBut there\u2019s more to your choice of typeface than simply making an impression. In 2012 Jon Tan wrote on 24 ways about a scientific study called \u201cThe Aesthetics of Reading\u201d which concluded that \u201cgood quality typography is responsible for greater engagement during reading and thus induces a good mood.\u201d\nFurthermore, at this year\u2019s Ampersand conference Sarah Hyndman, an expert in multisensory typography, discussed how typefaces can communicate with our subconscious. Sarah showed that different fonts could have an effect on how food tasted. A rounded font placed near a bowl of jellybeans would make them taste sweeter, and a jagged angular font would make them taste more sour. \nThe quality of your typography can therefore affect the mood of your reader, and your font choice directly affect the senses. This means you can manipulate the way people feel. You can change their emotional state through type alone. Now that\u2019s a real superpower!\nThe effects of your body text design choices are measurable but subtle. If you really want to have an impact you need to think big. Literally. Display text and headings are your attention grabbers. They are your chance to interrupt, introduce and seduce.\nDisplay text and headings set the scene and draw people in. Text set large creates an image that visitors see before they read, and that\u2019s your chance to choose a typeface that immediately expresses what the text, and indeed the entire website, stands for. What expectations of the text do you want to set up? Youthful enthusiasm? Businesslike? Cutting-edge? Hipster? Sensible and secure? Fun and informal? Authoritarian?\nTypography conveys much more than just information. It imparts feeling, emotion and sentiment, and arouses preconceived ideas of trust, tone and content. Think about taking advantage of this by introducing impactful, expressive typography to your designs on the web. You can alter the way your reader feels, so what emotion do you want to provoke?\nMaybe you want them to feel inspired like this stop smoking campaign:\nhelsenorge.no\nPerhaps they should be moved and intrigued, as with Makeshift magazine:\nmkshft.org\nOr calmly reassured:\nwww.cleopatra-marina.gr\nFonts also tap into the complex library of associations that we\u2019ve been accumulating in our brains all of our lives. You build up these associations every time you see a font from the context that you see it in. All of us associate certain letterforms with topics, times and places.\nRetiro is obviously Spanish:\nRetiro by Typofonderie\nBodoni and Eurostile used in this menu couldn\u2019t be much more Italian:\nBodoni and Eurostile, both designed in Italy\nTo me, Clarendon gives a sense of the 1960s and 1970s. I\u2019m not sure if that\u2019s what Costa was going for, but that\u2019s what it means to me:\nCosta coffee flier\nAnd Knockout and Gotham really couldn\u2019t be much more American:\nKnockout and Gotham by Hoefler & Co\nWhen it comes to choosing your display typeface, the type designer Christian Schwartz says there are two kinds. First are the workhorse typefaces that will do whatever you want them to do. Helvetica, Proxima Nova and Futura are good examples. These fonts can be shaped in many different ways, but this also means they are found everywhere and take great skill and practice to work with in a unique and striking manner.\nThe second kind of typeface is one that does most of the work for you. Like finely tailored clothing, it\u2019s the detail in the design that adds interest.\nSetting headings in Bree rather than Helvetica makes a big difference to the tone of the article\nSuch typefaces carry much more inherent character, but are also less malleable and harder to adapt to different contexts. Good examples are Marr Sans, FS Clerkenwell, Strangelove and Bree.\nPush the boat out\nRemember, all type can have an effect on the reader. Take advantage of that and allow your type to have its own vernacular and impact. Be expressive with your type. Don\u2019t be too reverential, dogmatic \u2013 or ordinary. Be brave and push a few boundaries.\nAdapted from Web Typography a book in progress by Richard Rutter.", "year": "2015", "author": "Richard Rutter", "author_slug": "richardrutter", "published": "2015-12-04T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2015/get-expressive-with-your-typography/", "topic": "design"}
{"rowid": 120, "title": "Easier Page States for Wireframes", "contents": "When designing wireframes for web sites and web apps, it is often overlooked that the same \u2018page\u2019 can look wildly different depending on its context. A logged-in page will look different from a logged-out page; an administrator\u2019s view may have different buttons than a regular user\u2019s view; a power user\u2019s profile will be more extensive than a new user\u2019s.\n\nThese different page states need designing at some point, especially if the wireframes are to form a useful communication medium between designer and developer. Documenting the different permutations can be a time consuming exercise involving either multiple pages in one\u2019s preferred box-and-arrow software, or a fully fledged drawing containing all the possible combinations annotated accordingly.\n\nEnter interactive wireframes and Polypage\n\nInteractive wireframes built in HTML are a great design and communication tool. They provide a clickable prototype, running in the browser as would the final site. As such they give a great feel for how the site will be to use. Once you add in the possibilities of JavaScript and a library such as jQuery, they become even more flexible and powerful.\n\nPolypage is a jQuery plugin which makes it really easy to design multiple page states in HTML wireframes. There\u2019s no JavaScript knowledge required (other than cutting and pasting in a few lines). The page views are created by simply writing all the alternatives into your HTML page and adding special class names to apply state and conditional view logic to the various options. \n\nWhen the page is loaded Polypage automatically detects the page states defined by the class names and creates a control bar enabling the user to toggle page states with the click of a mouse or the clack of a keyboard.\n\n\n\nUsing cookies by way of the jQuery cookie plugin, Polypage retains the view state throughout your prototype. This means you could navigate through your wireframes as if you were logged out; as if you were logged in as an administrator; with notes on or off; or with any other view or state you might require. The possibilities are entirely up to you.\n\nHow does it work?\n\nFirstly you need to link to jQuery, the jQuery cookie plugin and to Polypage. Something like this:\n\n<script src=\"javascripts/jquery-1.2.6.min.js\" type=\"text/javascript\"></script>\n<script src=\"javascripts/cookie.jquery.js\" type=\"text/javascript\"></script>\n<script src=\"javascripts/polypage.jquery.js\" type=\"text/javascript\"></script>\n\nThen you need to initialise Polypage on page load using something along these lines:\n\n<script type=\"text/javascript\">\n\t$(document).ready(function() {\n\t\t$.polypage.init();\n\t});\n</script>\n\nNext you need to define the areas of your wireframe which are particular to a given state or view. Do this by applying classes beginning with pp_. Polypage will ignore all other classes in the document.\n\nThe pp_ prefix should be followed by a state name. This can be any text string you like, bearing in mind it will appear in the control bar. Typical page states might include \u2018logged_in\u2019, \u2018administrator\u2019 or \u2018group_owner\u2019. A complete class name would therefore look something like pp_logged_in.\n\nExamples\n\nIf a user is logged in, you might want to specify an option for him or her to sign out. Using Polypage, this could be put in the wireframe as follows:\n\n<a href=\"logout\" class=\"pp_logged_in\"> Sign out </a>\n\nPolypage will identify the pp_logged_in class on the link and hide it (as the \u2018Sign out\u2019 link should only be shown when the page is in the \u2018logged in\u2019 view). Polypage will then automatically write a \u2018logged in\u2019 toggle to the control bar, enabling you to show or hide the \u2018Sign out\u2019 link by toggling the \u2018logged in\u2019 view. The same will apply to all content marked with a pp_logged_in class.\n\nStates can also be negated by adding a not keyword to the class name. For example you might want to provide a log in link for users who are not signed in. Using Polypage, you would insert the not keyword after the pp prefix as follows:\n\n<a href=\"login\" class=\"pp_not_logged_in\"> Login </a>\n\nAgain Polypage identifies the pp prefix but this time sees that the \u2018Login\u2019 link should not be shown when the \u2018logged in\u2019 state is selected.\n\nStates can also be joined together to add some basic logic to pages. The syntax follows natural language and uses the or and and keywords in addition to the afore-mentioned not. Some examples would be pp_logged_in_and_admin, pp_admin_or_group_owner and pp_logged_in_and_not_admin.\n\nFinally, you can set default states for a page by passing an array to the polypage.init() function like this:\n\n$.polypage.init(['logged_in', 'admin']);\n\nYou can see a fully fledged example in this fictional social network group page. The example page defaults to a logged in state. You can see the logged out state by toggling \u2018logged in\u2019 off in the Polypage control bar. There are also views specified for a group member, a group admin, a new group and notes. \n\nWhere can I get hold of it?\n\nYou can download the current version from GitHub.\n\nPolypage was originally developed by Clearleft and New Bamboo, with particular contributions from Andy Kent and Natalie Downe. It has been used in numerous real projects, but it is still an early release so there is bound to be room for improvement. We\u2019re pleased to say that Polypage is now an open source project so any feedback, particularly by way of actual improvements, is extremely welcome.", "year": "2008", "author": "Richard Rutter", "author_slug": "richardrutter", "published": "2008-12-11T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2008/easier-page-states-for-wireframes/", "topic": "process"}
{"rowid": 141, "title": "Compose to a Vertical Rhythm", "contents": "\u201cSpace in typography is like time in music. It is infinitely divisible, but a few proportional intervals can be much more useful than a limitless choice of arbitrary quantities.\u201d So says the typographer Robert Bringhurst, and just as regular use of time provides rhythm in music, so regular use of space provides rhythm in typography, and without rhythm the listener, or the reader, becomes disorientated and lost.\n\nOn the Web, vertical rhythm \u2013 the spacing and arrangement of text as the reader descends the page \u2013 is contributed to by three factors: font size, line height and margin or padding. All of these factors must calculated with care in order that the rhythm is maintained. \n\nThe basic unit of vertical space is line height. Establishing a suitable line height that can be applied to all text on the page, be it heading, body copy or sidenote, is the key to a solid dependable vertical rhythm, which will engage and guide the reader down the page. To see this in action, I\u2019ve created an example with headings, footnotes and sidenotes. \n\nEstablishing a suitable line height\n\nThe easiest place to begin determining a basic line height unit is with the font size of the body copy. For the example I\u2019ve chosen 12px. To ensure readability the body text will almost certainly need some leading, that is to say spacing between the lines. A line-height of 1.5em would give 6px spacing between the lines of body copy. This will create a total line height of 18px, which becomes our basic unit. Here\u2019s the CSS to get us to this point:\n\nbody {\n\tfont-size: 75%; \n}\nhtml>body {\n\tfont-size: 12px; \n}\np {\n\tline-height 1.5em; \n}\n\nThere are many ways to size text in CSS and the above approach provides and accessible method of achieving the pixel-precision solid typography requires. By way of explanation, the first font-size reduces the body text from the 16px default (common to most browsers and OS set-ups) down to the 12px we require. This rule is primarily there for Internet Explorer 6 and below on Windows: the percentage value means that the text will scale predictably should a user bump the text size up or down. The second font-size sets the text size specifically and is ignored by IE6, but used by Firefox, Safari, IE7, Opera and other modern browsers which allow users to resize text sized in pixels.\n\nSpacing between paragraphs\n\nWith our rhythmic unit set at 18px we need to ensure that it is maintained throughout the body copy. A common place to lose the rhythm is the gaps set between margins. The default treatment by web browsers of paragraphs is to insert a top- and bottom-margin of 1em. In our case this would give a spacing between the paragraphs of 12px and hence throw the text out of rhythm. If the rhythm of the page is to be maintained, the spacing of paragraphs should be related to the basic line height unit. This is achieved simply by setting top- and bottom-margins equal to the line height.\n\nIn order that typographic integrity is maintained when text is resized by the user we must use ems for all our vertical measurements, including line-height, padding and margins.\n\np {\n\tfont-size:1em;\n\tmargin-top: 1.5em;\n\tmargin-bottom: 1.5em; \n}\n\nBrowsers set margins on all block-level elements (such as headings, lists and blockquotes) so a way of ensuring that typographic attention is paid to all such elements is to reset the margins at the beginning of your style sheet. You could use a rule such as:\n\nbody,div,dl,dt,dd,ul,ol,li,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,pre,form,fieldset,p,blockquote,th,td {  \n\tmargin:0; \n\tpadding:0; \n}\n\nAlternatively you could look into using the Yahoo! UI Reset style sheet which removes most default styling, so providing a solid foundation upon which you can explicitly declare your design intentions.\n\nVariations in text size\n\nWhen there is a change in text size, perhaps with a heading or sidenotes, the differing text should also take up a multiple of the basic leading. This means that, in our example, every diversion from the basic text size should take up multiples of 18px. This can be accomplished by adjusting the line-height and margin accordingly, as described following.\n\nHeadings\n\nSubheadings in the example page are set to 14px. In order that the height of each line is 18px, the line-height should be set to 18\u00a0\u00f7\u00a014 =\u00a01.286. Similarly the margins above and below the heading must be adjusted to fit. The temptation is to set heading margins to a simple 1em, but in order to maintain the rhythm, the top and bottom margins should be set at 1.286em so that the spacing is equal to the full 18px unit.\n\nh2 {\n\tfont-size:1.1667em;\n\tline-height: 1.286em;\n\tmargin-top: 1.286em;\n\tmargin-bottom: 1.286em; \n}\n\nOne can also set asymmetrical margins for headings, provided the margins combine to be multiples of the basic line height. In our example, a top margin of 1\u00bd lines is combined with a bottom margin of half a line as follows:\n\nh2 {\n\tfont-size:1.1667em;\n\tline-height: 1.286em;\n\tmargin-top: 1.929em;\n\tmargin-bottom: 0.643em; \n}\n\nAlso in our example, the main heading is given a text size of 18px, therefore the line-height has been set to 1em, as has the margin:\n\nh1 {\n\tfont-size:1.5em;\n\tline-height: 1em;\n\tmargin-top: 0;\n\tmargin-bottom: 1em; \n}\n\nSidenotes\n\nSidenotes (and other supplementary material) are often set at a smaller size to the basic text. To keep the rhythm, this smaller text should still line up with body copy, so a calculation similar to that for headings is required. In our example, the sidenotes are set at 10px and so their line-height must be increased to 18\u00a0\u00f7\u00a010 =\u00a01.8.\n\n.sidenote {\n\tfont-size:0.8333em;\n\tline-height:1.8em; \n}\n\nBorders\n\nOne additional point where vertical rhythm is often lost is with the introduction of horizontal borders. These effectively act as shims pushing the subsequent text downwards, so a two pixel horizontal border will throw out the vertical rhythm by two pixels. A way around this is to specify horizontal lines using background images or, as in our example, specify the width of the border in ems and adjust the padding to take up the slack. \n\nThe design of the footnote in our example requires a 1px horizontal border. The footnote contains 12px text, so 1px in ems is 1\u00a0\u00f7\u00a012 =\u00a00.0833. I have added a margin of 1\u00bd lines above the border (1.5\u00a0\u00d7\u00a018\u00a0\u00f7\u00a012 =\u00a02.5ems), so to maintain the rhythm the border + padding must equal a \u00bd (9px). We know the border is set to 1px, so the padding must be set to 8px. To specify this in ems we use the familiar calculation: 8\u00a0\u00f7\u00a012 =\u00a00.667.\n\nHit me with your rhythm stick\n\nComposing to a vertical rhythm helps engage and guide the reader down the page, but it takes typographic discipline to do so. It may seem like a lot of fiddly maths is involved (a few divisions and multiplications never hurt anyone) but good type setting is all about numbers, and it is this attention to detail which is the key to success.", "year": "2006", "author": "Richard Rutter", "author_slug": "richardrutter", "published": "2006-12-12T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2006/compose-to-a-vertical-rhythm/", "topic": "design"}
{"rowid": 146, "title": "Increase Your Font Stacks With Font Matrix", "contents": "Web pages built in plain old HTML and CSS are displayed using only the fonts installed on users\u2019 computers (@font-face implementations excepted). To enable this, CSS provides the font-family property for specifying fonts in order of preference (often known as a font stack). For example:\n\nh1 {font-family: 'Egyptienne F', Cambria, Georgia, serif}\n\nSo in the above rule, headings will be displayed in Egyptienne F. If Egyptienne F is not available then Cambria will be used, failing that Georgia or the final fallback default serif font. This everyday bit of CSS will be common knowledge among all 24 ways readers.\n\nIt is also a commonly held belief that the only fonts we can rely on being installed on users\u2019 computers are the core web fonts of Arial, Times New Roman, Verdana, Georgia and friends. But is that really true?\n\nIf you look in the fonts folder of your computer, or even your Mum\u2019s computer, then you are likely to find a whole load of fonts besides the core ones. This is because many software packages automatically install extra typefaces. For example, Office 2003 installs over 100 additional fonts. Admittedly not all of these fonts are particularly refined, and not all are suitable for the Web. However they still do increase your options. \n\nThe Matrix\n\nI have put together a matrix of (western) fonts showing which are installed with Mac and Windows operating systems, which are installed with various versions of Microsoft Office, and which are installed with Adobe Creative Suite.\n\n\n\nThe matrix is available for download as an Excel file and as a CSV.  There are no readily available statistics regarding the penetration of Office or Creative Suite, but you can probably take an educated guess based on your knowledge of your readers.\n\nThe idea of the matrix is that use can use it to help construct your font stack. First of all pick the font you\u2019d really like for your text \u2013 this doesn\u2019t have to be in the matrix. Then pick the generic family (serif, sans-serif, cursive, fantasy or monospace) and a font from each of the operating systems. Then pick any suitable fonts from the Office and Creative Suite lists.\n\nFor example, you may decide your headings should be in the increasingly ubiquitous Clarendon. This is a serif type face. At OS-level the most similar is arguably Georgia. Adobe CS2 comes with Century Old Style which has a similar feel. Century Schoolbook is similar too, and is installed with all versions of Office. Based on this your font stack becomes:\n\nfont-family: 'Clarendon Std', 'Century Old Style Std', 'Century Schoolbook', Georgia, serif\n\n\n\n\n\n\nNote the \u2018Std\u2019 suffix indicating a \u2018standard\u2019 OpenType file, which will normally be your best bet for more esoteric fonts.\n\nI\u2019m not suggesting the process of choosing suitable fonts is an easy one. Firstly there are nearly two hundred fonts in the matrix, so learning what each font looks like is tricky and potentially time consuming (if you haven\u2019t got all the fonts installed on a machine to hand you\u2019ll be doing a lot of Googling for previews). And it\u2019s not just as simple as choosing fonts that look similar or have related typographic backgrounds, they need to have similar metrics as well, This is especially true in terms of x-height which gives an indication of how big or small a font looks.\n\nOver to You\n\nThe main point of all this is that there are potentially more fonts to consider than is generally accepted, so branch out a little (carefully and tastefully) and bring a little variety to sites out there. If you come up with any novel font stacks based on this approach, please do blog them (tagged as per the footer) and at some point they could all be combined in one place for everyone to consider.\n\nAppendix\n\nWhat about Linux?\n\nThe only operating systems in the matrix are those from Microsoft and Apple. For completeness, Linux operating systems should be included too, although these are many and varied and very much in a minority, so I omitted them for time being. For the record, some Linux distributions come packaged with Microsoft\u2019s core fonts. Others use the Vera family, and others use the Liberation family which comprises fonts metrically identical to Times New Roman and Arial.\n\nSources\n\nThe sources of font information for the matrix are as follows:\n\n\n\tWindows XP SP2\n\tWindows Vista\n\tOffice 2003\n\tOffice 2007\n\tMac OSX Tiger\n\tMac OSX Leopard (scroll down two thirds)\n\tOffice 2004 (Mac) by inspecting my Microsoft Office 2004/Office/Fonts folder\n\tOffice 2008 (Mac) is expected to be as Office 2004 with the addition of the Vista ClearType fonts\n\tCreative Suite 2 (see pdf link in first comment)\n\tCreative Suite 3", "year": "2007", "author": "Richard Rutter", "author_slug": "richardrutter", "published": "2007-12-17T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2007/increase-your-font-stacks-with-font-matrix/", "topic": "design"}
{"rowid": 239, "title": "Using the WebFont Loader to Make Browsers Behave the Same", "contents": "Web fonts give us designers a whole new typographic palette with which to work. However, browsers handle the loading of web fonts in different ways, and this can lead to inconsistent user experiences.\n\nSafari, Chrome and Internet Explorer leave a blank space in place of the styled text while the web font is loading. Opera and Firefox show text with the default font which switches over when the web font has loaded, resulting in the so-called Flash of Unstyled Text (aka FOUT). Some people prefer Safari\u2019s approach as it eliminates FOUT, others think the Firefox way is more appropriate as content can be read whilst fonts download. Whatever your preference, the WebFont Loader can make all browsers behave the same way.\n\nThe WebFont Loader is a JavaScript library that gives you extra control over font loading. It was co-developed by Google and Typekit, and released as open source. The WebFont Loader works with most web font services as well as with self-hosted fonts.\n\nThe WebFont Loader tells you when the following events happen as a browser downloads web fonts (or loads them from cache):\n\n\n\twhen fonts start to download (\u2018loading\u2019)\n\twhen fonts finish loading (\u2018active\u2019)\n\tif fonts fail to load (\u2018inactive\u2019)\n\n\nIf your web page requires more than one font, the WebFont Loader will trigger events for individual fonts, and for all the fonts as a whole. This means you can find out when any single font has loaded, and when all the fonts have loaded (or failed to do so).\n\nThe WebFont Loader notifies you of these events in two ways: by applying special CSS classes when each event happens; and by firing JavaScript events. For our purposes, we\u2019ll be using just the CSS classes.\n\nImplementing the WebFont Loader\n\nAs stated above, the WebFont Loader works with most web font services as well as with self-hosted fonts.\n\nSelf-hosted fonts\n\nTo use the WebFont Loader when you are hosting the font files on your own server, paste the following code into your web page:\n\n<script type=\"text/javascript\">\nWebFontConfig = {\n\tcustom: { families: ['Font Family Name', 'Another Font Family'],\n\turls: [ 'http://yourwebsite.com/styles.css' ] }\n};\n(function() {\n\tvar wf = document.createElement('script');\n\twf.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https' : 'http') + '://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/webfont/1/webfont.js';\n\twf.type = 'text/javascript';\n\twf.async = 'true';\n\tvar s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];\n\ts.parentNode.insertBefore(wf, s);\n})();\n</script>\n\nReplace Font Family Name and Another Font Family with a comma-separated list of the font families you want to check against, and replace http://yourwebsite.com/styles.css with the URL of the style sheet where your @font-face rules reside.\n\nFontdeck\n\nAssuming you have added some fonts to a website project in Fontdeck, use the afore-mentioned code for self-hosted solutions and replace http://yourwebsite.com/styles.css with the URL of the <link> tag in your Fontdeck website settings page. It will look something like http://f.fontdeck.com/s/css/xxxx/domain/nnnn.css.\n\nTypekit\n\nTypekit\u2019s JavaScript-based implementation incorporates the WebFont Loader events by default, so you won\u2019t need to include any WebFont Loader code.\n\nMaking all browsers behave like Safari\n\nTo make Firefox and Opera work in the same way as WebKit browsers (Safari, Chrome, etc.) and Internet Explorer, and thus minimise FOUT, you need to hide the text while the fonts are loading.\n\nWhile fonts are loading, the WebFont Loader adds a class of wf-loading to the <html> element. Once the fonts have loaded, the wf-loading class is removed and replaced with a class of wf-active (or wf-inactive if all of the fonts failed to load). This means you can style elements on the page while the fonts are loading and then style them differently when the fonts have finished loading.\n\nSo, let\u2019s say the text you need to hide while fonts are loading is contained in all paragraphs and top-level headings. By writing the following style rule into your CSS, you can hide the text while the fonts are loading:\n\n.wf-loading h1, .wf-loading p {\n\tvisibility:hidden;\n}\n\nBecause the wf-loading class is removed once the the fonts have loaded, the visibility:hidden rule will stop being applied, and the text revealed. You can see this in action on this simple example page.\n\nThat works nicely across the board, but the situation is slightly more complicated. WebKit doesn\u2019t wait for all fonts to load before displaying text: it displays text elements as soon as the relevant font is loaded. \n\nTo emulate WebKit more accurately, we need to know when individual fonts have loaded, and apply styles accordingly. Fortunately, as mentioned earlier, the WebFont Loader has events for individual fonts too.\n\nWhen a specific font is loading, a class of the form wf-fontfamilyname-n4-loading is applied. Assuming headings and paragraphs are styled in different fonts, we can make our CSS more specific as follows:\n\n.wf-fontfamilyname-n4-loading h1, \n.wf-anotherfontfamily-n4-loading p {\n\tvisibility:hidden;\n}\n\nNote that the font family name is transformed to lower case, with all spaces removed. The n4 is a shorthand for the weight and style of the font family. In most circumstances you\u2019ll use n4 but refer to the WebFont Loader documentation for exceptions.\n\nYou can see it in action on this Safari example page (you\u2019ll probably need to disable your cache to see any change occur).\n\nMaking all browsers behave like Firefox\n\nTo make WebKit browsers and Internet Explorer work like Firefox and Opera, you need to explicitly show text while the fonts are loading. In order to make this happen, you need to specify a font family which is not a web font while the fonts load, like this:\n\n.wf-fontfamilyname-n4-loading h1 { \n    font-family: 'arial narrow', sans-serif; \n}\n.wf-anotherfontfamily-n4-loading p { \n    font-family: arial, sans-serif; \n}\n\nYou can see this in action on the Firefox example page (again you\u2019ll probably need to disable your cache to see any change occur).\n\nAnd there\u2019s more\n\nThat\u2019s just the start of what can be done with the WebFont Loader. More areas to explore would be tweaking font sizes to reduce the impact of reflowing text and to better cater for very narrow fonts. By using the JavaScript events much more can be achieved too, such as fading in text as the fonts load.", "year": "2010", "author": "Richard Rutter", "author_slug": "richardrutter", "published": "2010-12-02T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2010/using-the-webfont-loader-to-make-browsers-behave-the-same/", "topic": "code"}
{"rowid": 307, "title": "Get the Balance Right: Responsive Display Text", "contents": "Last year in 24 ways I urged you to Get Expressive with Your Typography. I made the case for grabbing your readers\u2019 attention by setting text at display sizes, that is to say big. You should consider very large text in the same way you might a hero image: a picture that creates an atmosphere and anchors your layout.\nWhen setting text to be read, it is best practice to choose body and subheading sizes from a pre-defined scale appropriate to the viewport dimensions. We set those sizes using rems, locking the text sizes together so they all scale according to the page default and your reader\u2019s preferences.  You can take the same approach with display text by choosing larger sizes from the same scale.\nHowever, display text, as defined by its purpose and relative size, is text to be seen first, and read second. In other words a picture of text. When it comes to pictures, you are likely to scale all scene-setting imagery - cover photos, hero images, and so on - relative to the viewport. Take the same approach with display text: lock the size and shape of the text to the screen or browser window.\nIntroducing viewport units\nWith CSS3 came a new set of units which are locked to the viewport. You can use these viewport units wherever you might otherwise use any other unit of length such as pixels, ems or percentage. There are four viewport units, and in each case a value of 1 is equal to 1% of either the viewport width or height as reported in reference1 pixels:\n\nvw - viewport width,\nvh - viewport height,\nvmin - viewport height or width, whichever is smaller\nvmax - viewport height or width, whichever is larger\n\nIn one fell swoop you can set the size of a display heading to be proportional to the screen or browser width, rather than choosing from a scale in a series of media queries. The following makes the heading font size 13% of the viewport width:\nh1 {\n    font-size: 13 vw;\n}\nSo for a selection of widths, the rendered font size would be:\nRendered font size (px)\nViewport width\n13\u202fvw\n320\n42\n768\n100\n1024\n133\n1280\n166\n1920\n250\n\nA problem with using vw in this manner is the difference in text block proportions between portrait and landscape devices. Because the font size is based on the viewport width, the text on a landscape display is far bigger than when rendered on the same device held in a portrait orientation. \nLandscape text is much bigger than portrait text when using vw units.\nThe proportions of the display text relative to the screen are so dissimilar that each orientation has its own different character, losing the inconsistency and considered design you would want when designing to make an impression.\nHowever if the text was the same size in both orientations, the visual effect would be much more consistent. This where vmin comes into its own. Set the font size using vmin and the size is now set as a proportion of the smallest side of the viewport, giving you a far more consistent rendering.\nh1 {\n    font-size: 13vmin;\n}\nLandscape text is consistent with portrait text when using vmin units.\nComparing vw and vmin renderings for various common screen dimensions, you can see how using vmin keeps the text size down to a usable magnitude:\nRendered font size (px)\nViewport\n13\u202fvw\n13\u202fvmin\n320 \u00d7 480\n42\n42\n414 \u00d7 736\n54\n54\n768 \u00d7 1024\n100\n100\n1024 \u00d7 768\n133\n100\n1280 \u00d7 720\n166\n94\n1366 \u00d7 768\n178\n100\n1440 \u00d7 900\n187\n117\n1680 \u00d7 1050\n218\n137\n1920 \u00d7 1080\n250\n140\n2560 \u00d7 1440\n333\n187\n\nHybrid font sizing\nUsing vertical media queries to set text in direct proportion to screen dimensions works well when sizing display text. In can be less desirable when sizing supporting text such as sub-headings, which you may not want to scale upwards at the same rate as the display text. For example, we can size a subheading using vmin so that it starts at 16 px on smaller screens and scales up in the same way as the main heading:\nh1 {\n    font-size: 13vmin;\n}\nh2 {\n    font-size: 5vmin;\n}\nUsing vmin alone for supporting text can scale it too quickly\nThe balance of display text to supporting text on the phone works well, but the subheading text on the tablet, even though it has been increased in line with the main heading, is starting to feel disproportionately large and a little clumsy. This problem becomes magnified on even bigger screens.\nA solution to this is use a hybrid method of sizing text2. We can use the CSS calc() function to calculate a font size simultaneously based on both rems and viewport units. For example:\nh2 {\n    font-size: calc(0.5rem + 2.5vmin);\n}\nFor a 320 px wide screen, the font size will be 16 px, calculated as follows:\n(0.5 \u00d7 16) + (320 \u00d7 0.025) = 8 + 8 = 16px\nFor a 768 px wide screen, the font size will be 27 px:\n(0.5 \u00d7 16) + (768 \u00d7 0.025) = 8 + 19 = 27px\nThis results in a more balanced subheading that doesn\u2019t take emphasis away from the main heading:\n\nTo give you an idea of the effect of using a hybrid approach, here\u2019s a side-by-side comparison of hybrid and viewport text sizing:\ntable.ex--scale{width:100%;overflow: hidden;} table.ex--scale td{vertical-align:baseline;text-align:center;padding:0} tr.ex--scale-key{color:#666} tr.ex--scale-key td{font-size:.875rem;padding:0 0.125em} .ex--scale-2 tr.ex--scale-size{color:#ccc} tr.ex--scale-size td{font-size:1em;line-height:.34em;padding-bottom:.5rem} td.ex--scale-step{color:#000} td.ex--scale-hilite{color:red} .ex--scale-3 tr.ex--scale-size td{line-height:.9em}\n\ntop: calc() hybrid method; bottom: vmin only\n16\n20\n27\n32\n35\n40\n44\n16\n24\n38\n48\n54\n64\n72\n320\n480\n768\n960\n1080\n1280\n1440\n\nOver this festive period, try experiment with the proportion of rem and vmin in your hybrid calculation to see what feels best for your particular setting.\n\n\n\n\nA reference pixel is based on the logical resolution of a device which takes into account double density screens such as Retina displays.\u00a0\u21a9\ufe0e\n\n\nFor even more sophisticated uses of hybrid text sizing see the work of Mike Riethmuller.\u00a0\u21a9\ufe0e", "year": "2016", "author": "Richard Rutter", "author_slug": "richardrutter", "published": "2016-12-09T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2016/responsive-display-text/", "topic": "code"}
{"rowid": 330, "title": "An Explanation of Ems", "contents": "Ems are so-called because they are thought to approximate the size of an uppercase letter M (and so are pronounced emm), although 1em is actually significantly larger than this. The typographer Robert Bringhurst describes the em thus:\n\n\n\tThe em is a sliding measure. One em is a distance equal to the type size. In 6 point type, an em is 6 points; in 12 point type an em is 12 points and in 60 point type an em is 60 points. Thus a one em space is proportionately the same in any size.\n\n\nTo illustrate this principle in terms of CSS, consider these styles:\n\n#box1 {\n     font-size: 12px;\n     width: 1em;\n     height: 1em;\n     border:1px solid black;\n}\n\n#box2 {\n     font-size: 60px;\n     width: 1em;\n     height: 1em;\n     border: 1px solid black;\n}\n\nThese styles will render like:\n\n M\n\nand\n\n M\n\nNote that both boxes have a height and width of 1em but because they have different font sizes, one box is bigger than the other. Box 1 has a font-size of 12px so its width and height is also 12px; similarly the text of box 2 is set to 60px and so its width and height are also 60px.", "year": "2005", "author": "Richard Rutter", "author_slug": "richardrutter", "published": "2005-12-02T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2005/an-explanation-of-ems/", "topic": "design"}
{"rowid": 279, "title": "Design the Invisible to Tell Better Stories on the Web", "contents": "For design to be meaningful we need to tell stories. We need to design the invisible, the cues, the messages and the extra detail hidden beneath the aesthetics. It\u2019s all about the story.\n\n\n\nFrom verbal exchanges around the campfire to books, the web and everything in between, storytelling allows us to share, organize and process information more efficiently. It helps us understand our surroundings and make emotional connections to people, places and experiences.\n\nWeb design lends itself perfectly to the conventions of storytelling, a universal process. However, the stories vary because they\u2019re defined by culture, society, politics and religion. All of which need considering if you are to design stories that are relevant to your target audience.\n\nThe benefits of approaching design with storytelling in mind from the very start of the project is that we are creating considered design that allows users to quickly gather meaning from the website. They do this by reading between the lines and drawing on the wealth of knowledge they have acquired about the associations between colours, typyefaces and signs.\n\nWith so much recognition and analysis happening subconsciously you have to consider how design communicates on this level. This invisible layer has a significant impact on what you say, how you say it and who you say it to.\n\nHow can we design something that\u2019s invisible?\n\nBy researching and making conscious decisions about exactly what you are communicating, you can make the invisible visible. As is often quoted, good design is like air, you only notice it when it\u2019s bad. So by designing the invisible the aim is to design stories that the audience receive subliminally, so that they go somewhat unnoticed, like good air.\n\nStorytelling strands\n\nTo share these stories through design, you can break it down into several strands. Each strand tells a story on its own, but when combined they may start to tell a different story altogether. These strands are colour, typefaces, branding, tone of voice and symbols. All are literal and visible but the invisible element is the meaning behind them \u2013 meaning that you can extract and share. In this article I want to focus on colour, typefaces and tone of voice and on how combining story strands can change the meaning.\n\nColour\n\nLet\u2019s start with colour. Red represents emotions such as love but can also signify war. Green is commonly used for all things environmental and purple is a colour that connotes wealth and royalty. These associations between colour and emotion or value have been learned over time and are continually reinforced through media and culture. \n\n\n\nWith this knowledge come expectations from your users. For example, they will expect Valentine\u2019s Day sites to be red and kids\u2019 sites to be bright and colourful. This is true in the same way audiences have expectations of certain genres of film or music. These conventions help savvy audiences decode texts and read between the lines or, rather, to draw meaning from the invisible. It\u2019s practically an innate skill. This is why you need to design the invisible: because users will quickly deduce meaning from your site and fill in the story\u2019s gaps, it\u2019s important to give them as much of that story to begin with. A story relevant to their culture.\n\n\n\nOf all the ways you can tell stories through web design, colour is the most fascinating and important. Not only does it evoke emotions in users but its meaning varies significantly between cultures. In the west, for example, white is a colour associated with weddings, and black is the colour of mourning. This is signified by the traditions of brides wearing white and those in mourning wearing black. In other cultures the meanings are reversed, as black is a colour that represents good luck and white is a colour that signifies mourning. If you assume the same values are true in all cultures then you risk offending the very people you are targeting.\n\nWhen colours combine, the story being told can change. If you design using red, white and blue then it\u2019s going to be difficult to shake off patriotic connotations because this colour combination is so ingrained as being American or British or French thanks largely to their flags. This extends to politics too. Each party has its own representative colour. In the UK, the Conservatives are blue and Labour is red so it would be inappropriate storytelling to design a Labour-related website in blue as there would be a conflict between the content and the design, a conflict that would result in a poor user experience.\n\nConflicts become more of an issue when you start to combine story strands. I once saw a No VAT advert use the symbol on the left:\n\n\n\nThere\u2019s a complete conflict in storytelling here between the sign and its colour. The prohibition sign was used over the word VAT to mean no VAT; that makes sense. But this is a symbol that is used to communicate to people that something is being prohibited or prevented, it mustn\u2019t continue. So to use green contradicts the message of the sign itself; green is used as a colour to say yes, go, proceed, enter. The same would be true if we had a tick in red and a cross in green. Bad design here means the story is flawed and the user experience is compromised.\n\nTypefaces\n\nTypefaces also tell stories. They are so much more than the words that are written with them because they connote different values. Here are a few:\n\n\n\nSerif fonts are more formal and are associated with tradition, sophistication and high-end values. Sans serif fonts, on the other hand, are synonymous with modernity, informality and friendliness. These perceptions are again reinforced through more traditional media such as newspaper mastheads, where the serious news-focused broadsheets have serif titles, and the showbiz and gossip-led tabloids have sans serif titles. This translates to the web as well. With these associations already familiar to users, they may see copy and focus on the words, but if the way that copy is displayed jars with the context then we are back to having conflicting stories like the No VAT sign earlier.\n\nLet\u2019s take official institutions, for example. The White House, the monarchy, 10 Downing Street and other government departments are formal, traditional and important organisations. If the copy on their websites were written in a typeface like Cooper Black, it would erase any authority and respect that they were due. They need people to take them seriously and trust them, and part of the way to do this is to have a typeface that represents those values.\n\nIt works both ways though. If Innocent, Threadless or other fun companies used traditional typefaces, they wouldn\u2019t be accurate reflections of their core values, brand and personality. They are better positioned to use friendly, informal and modern typefaces. But still never Comic Sans.\n\nTone of voice\n\nClosely tied to this is tone of voice, my absolute bugbear on the web. Tone of voice isn\u2019t what is said but, rather, how it is said. When we interact with others in person we don\u2019t just listen to the words they say, but we also draw meaning from their body language, and pitch and tone of voice. Just because the web removes that face-to-face interaction with your audience it doesn\u2019t mean you can\u2019t have a tone of voice. \n\n\n\nInnocent pioneered the informal chatty tone of voice that so many others have since emulated, but unless it is representative of your company, then it\u2019s not appropriate. It works for Innocent because the tone of voice is consistent across all the company\u2019s materials, both online and offline. Ben and Jerry\u2019s takes the same approach, as does Threadless, but maybe you need a more formal or corporate tone of voice. It really depends on what your business or service is and who it is for, and that is why I think LoveFilm has it all wrong. \n\nLoveFilm offers a film and game rental service, something fun for people in their downtime. While they aren\u2019t particularly stuffy, neither is their tone of voice very friendly or informal, which is what I would expect from a service like theirs. The reason they have it wrong is in the language they use and the way their sentences are constructed.\n\nThis is the first time we\u2019ve discussed language because, on the whole, designing the invisible isn\u2019t concerned with language at all. But that doesn\u2019t mean that these strands can\u2019t still elicit an emotional response in users. Jon Tan quoted Dr Mazviita Chirimuuta in his New Adventures in Web Design talk in January 2011:\n\n\n\tAlthough there is no absolute separation between language and emotion, there will still be countless instances where you have emotional response without verbal input or linguistic cognition. In general language is not necessary for emotion.\n\n\nThis is even more pertinent when the emotions evoked are connected to people\u2019s culture, surroundings and way of life. It makes design personal, something that audiences can connect with at more than just face value but, rather, on a subliminal or, indeed, invisible level. \n\nIt also means that when you are asked the inevitable question of why \u2013 why is blue the dominant colour? why have you used that typeface? why don\u2019t we sound like Innocent? \u2013 you will have a rationale behind each design decision that can explain what story you are telling, how you discovered the story and how it is targeted at the core audience.\n\nResearch\n\nThis is where research plays a vital role in the project cycle. If you don\u2019t know and understand your audience then you don\u2019t know what story to design. Every project lends itself to some level of research, but how in-depth and what methods are most appropriate will be dictated by project requirements and budget restrictions \u2013 but do your research. \n\nEven if you think you know your audience, it doesn\u2019t hurt to research and reaffirm that because cultures and society do change, albeit slowly, but they can change. So ask questions at the start of the project during the research phase:\n\n\n\tWhat do different colours mean for your audience\u2019s culture?\n\tDo the typeface and tone of voice appeal to the demographic?\n\tDoes the brand identity represent the values and personality of your service?\n\tAre there any social, political or religious significances associated with your audience that you need to take into consideration so you don\u2019t offend them?\n\n\nAsk questions, understand your audience, design your story based on these insights, and create better user experiences in context that have good, solid storytelling at their heart.\n\nMajor hat tip to Gareth Strange for the beautiful graphics used within this article.", "year": "2011", "author": "Robert Mills", "author_slug": "robertmills", "published": "2011-12-14T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2011/design-the-invisible/", "topic": "design"}
{"rowid": 334, "title": "Transitional vs. Strict Markup", "contents": "When promoting web standards, standardistas often talk about XHTML as being more strict than HTML. In a sense it is, since it requires that all elements are properly closed and that attribute values are quoted. But there are two flavours of XHTML 1.0 (three if you count the Frameset DOCTYPE, which is outside the scope of this article), defined by the Transitional and Strict DOCTYPEs. And HTML 4.01 also comes in those flavours.\n\nThe names reveal what they are about: Transitional DOCTYPEs are meant for those making the transition from older markup to modern ways. Strict DOCTYPEs are actually the default \u2013 the way HTML 4.01 and XHTML 1.0 were constructed to be used.\n\nA Transitional DOCTYPE may be used when you have a lot of legacy markup that cannot easily be converted to comply with a Strict DOCTYPE. But Strict is what you should be aiming for. It encourages, and in some cases enforces, the separation of structure and presentation, moving the presentational aspects from markup to CSS. From the HTML 4 Document Type Definition:\n\n\n\tThis is HTML 4.01 Strict DTD, which excludes the presentation attributes and elements that W3C expects to phase out as support for style sheets matures. Authors should use the Strict DTD when possible, but may use the Transitional DTD when support for presentation attribute and elements is required.\n\n\nAn additional benefit of using a Strict DOCTYPE is that doing so will ensure that browsers use their strictest, most standards compliant rendering modes.\n\nTommy Olsson provides a good summary of the benefits of using Strict over Transitional in Ten questions for Tommy Olsson at Web Standards Group:\n\n\n\tIn my opinion, using a Strict DTD, either HTML 4.01 Strict or XHTML 1.0 Strict, is far more important for the quality of the future web than whether or not there is an X in front of the name. The Strict DTD promotes a separation of structure and presentation, which makes a site so much easier to maintain.\n\n\nFor those looking to start using web standards and valid, semantic markup, it is important to understand the difference between Transitional and Strict DOCTYPEs. For complete listings of the differences between Transitional and Strict DOCTYPEs, see XHTML: Differences between Strict & Transitional, Comparison of Strict and Transitional XHTML, and XHTML1.0 Element Attributes by DTD.\n\nSome of the differences are more likely than others to cause problems for developers moving from a Transitional DOCTYPE to a Strict one, and I\u2019d like to mention a few of those.\n\nElements that are not allowed in Strict DOCTYPEs\n\n\n\tcenter\n\tfont\n\tiframe\n\tstrike\n\tu\n\n\nAttributes not allowed in Strict DOCTYPEs\n\n\n\talign (allowed on elements related to tables: col, colgroup, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, and tr)\n\tlanguage\n\tbackground\n\tbgcolor\n\tborder (allowed on table)\n\theight (allowed on img and object)\n\thspace\n\tname (allowed in HTML 4.01 Strict, not allowed on form and img in XHTML 1.0 Strict)\n\tnoshade\n\tnowrap\n\ttarget\n\ttext, link, vlink, and alink\n\tvspace\n\twidth (allowed on img, object, table, col, and colgroup)\n\n\nContent model differences\n\nAn element type\u2019s content model describes what may be contained by an instance of the element type. The most important difference in content models between Transitional and Strict is that blockquote, body, and form elements may only contain block level elements. A few examples:\n\n\n\ttext and images are not allowed immediately inside the body element, and need to be contained in a block level element like p or div\n\tinput elements must not be direct descendants of a form element\n\ttext in blockquote elements must be wrapped in a block level element like p or div\n\n\nGo Strict and move all presentation to CSS\n\nSomething that can be helpful when doing the transition from Transitional to Strict DOCTYPEs is to focus on what each element of the page you are working on is instead of how you want it to look.\n\nWorry about looks later and get the structure and semantics right first.", "year": "2005", "author": "Roger Johansson", "author_slug": "rogerjohansson", "published": "2005-12-13T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2005/transitional-vs-strict-markup/", "topic": "code"}
{"rowid": 63, "title": "Be Fluid with Your Design Skills: Build Your Own Sites", "contents": "Just five years ago in 2010, when we were all busy trying to surprise and delight, learning CSS3 and trying to get whole websites onto one page, we had a poster on our studio wall. It was entitled \u2018Designers Vs Developers\u2019, an infographic that showed us the differences between the men(!) who created websites. \nDesigners wore skinny jeans and used Macs and developers wore cargo pants and brought their own keyboards to work. We began to learn that designers and developers were not only doing completely different jobs but were completely different people in every way. This opinion was backed up by hundreds of memes, millions of tweets and pages of articles which used words like void and battle and versus.\nThankfully, things move quickly in this industry; the wide world of web design has moved on in the last five years. There are new devices, technologies, tools \u2013 and even a few women. Designers have been helped along by great apps, software, open source projects, conferences, and a community of people who, to my unending pride, love to share their knowledge and their work.\nSo the world has moved on, and if Miley Cyrus, Ruby Rose and Eliot Sumner are identifying as gender fluid (an identity which refers to a gender which varies over time or is a combination of identities), then I would like to come out as discipline fluid! \nOK, I will probably never identify as a developer, but I will identify as fluid! How can we be anything else in an industry that moves so quickly? That\u2019s how we should think of our skills, our interests and even our job titles. After all, Steve Jobs told us that \u201cDesign is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.\u201d Sorry skinny-jean-wearing designers \u2013 this means we\u2019re all designing something together. And it\u2019s not just about knowing the right words to use: you have to know how it feels. How it feels when you make something work, when you fix that bug, when you make it work on IE.\nLike anything in life, things run smoothly when you make the effort to share experiences, empathise and deeply understand the needs of others. How can designers do that if they\u2019ve never built their own site? I\u2019m not talking the big stuff, I\u2019m talking about your portfolio site, your mate\u2019s business website, a website for that great idea you\u2019ve had. I\u2019m talking about doing it yourself to get an unique insight into how it feels.\nWe all know that designers and developers alike love an <ol>, so here it is.\nTen reasons designers should be fluid with their skills and build their own sites\n1. It\u2019s never been easier\nNow here\u2019s where the definition of \u2018build\u2019 is going to get a bit loose and people are going to get angry, but when I say it\u2019s never been easier I mean because of the existence of apps and software like WordPress, Squarespace, Tumblr, et al. It\u2019s easy to make something and get it out there into the world, and these are all gateway drugs to hard coding!\n2. You\u2019ll understand how it feels\nHow it feels to be so proud that something actually works that you momentarily don\u2019t notice if the kerning is off or the padding is inconsistent. How it feels to see your site appear when you\u2019ve redirected a URL. How it feels when you just can\u2019t work out where that one extra space is in a line of PHP that has killed your whole site.\n3. It makes you a designer\nNot a better designer, it makes you a designer when you are designing how things look and how they work. \n4. You learn about movement\nPhotoshop and Sketch just don\u2019t cut it yet. Until you see your site in a browser or your app on a phone, it\u2019s hard to imagine how it moves. Building your own sites shows you that it\u2019s not just about how the content looks on the screen, but how it moves, interacts and feels.\n5. You make techie friends\nAll the tutorials and forums in the world can\u2019t beat your network of techie friends. Since I started working in web design I have worked with, sat next to, and co-created with some of the greatest developers. Developers who\u2019ve shared their knowledge, encouraged me to build things, patiently explained HTML, CSS, servers, divs, web fonts, iOS development. There has been no void, no versus, very few battles; just people who share an interest and love of making things.  \n6. You will own domain names\nWhen something is paid for, online and searchable then it\u2019s real and you\u2019ve got to put the work in. Buying domains has taught me how to stop procrastinating, but also about DNS, FTP, email, and how servers work.\n7. People will ask you to do things\u2028\nLearning about code and development opens a whole new world of design. When you put your own personal websites and projects out there people ask you to do more things. OK, so sometimes those things are \u201cMake me a website for free\u201d, but more often it\u2019s cool things like \u201cCome and speak at my conference\u201d, \u201cWrite an article for my magazine\u201d and \u201cCollaborate with me.\u201d\n8. The young people are coming!\nThey love typography, they love print, they love layout, but they\u2019ve known how to put a website together since they started their first blog aged five and they show me clever apps they\u2019ve knocked together over the weekend! They\u2019re new, they\u2019re fluid, and they\u2019re better than us!\n9. Your portfolio is your portfolio\nOK, it\u2019s an obvious one, but as designers our work is our CV, our legacy! We need to show our skill, our attention to detail and our creativity in the way we showcase our work. Building your portfolio is the best way to start building your own websites. (And please be that designer who\u2019s bothered to work out how to change the Squarespace favicon!) \n10. It keeps you fluid!\nBuilding your own websites is tough. You\u2019ll never be happy with it, you\u2019ll constantly be updating it to keep up with technology and fashion, and by the time you\u2019ve finished it you\u2019ll want to start all over again. Perfect for forcing you to stay up-to-date with what\u2019s going on in the industry.\n</ol>", "year": "2015", "author": "Ros Horner", "author_slug": "roshorner", "published": "2015-12-12T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2015/be-fluid-with-your-design-skills-build-your-own-sites/", "topic": "code"}
{"rowid": 190, "title": "Self-Testing Pages with JavaScript", "contents": "Working at an agency I am involved more and more on projects in which client side code is developed internally then sent out to a separate team for implementation. You provide static HTML, CSS and JavaScript which then get placed into the CMS and brought to life as an actual website. As you can imagine this can sometimes lead to frustrations. However many safeguards you include, handing over your code to someone else is always a difficult thing to do effectively.\n\nIn this article I will show you how you can create a JavaScript implementation checker and that will give you more time for drink based activity as your web site and apps are launched quicker and with less unwanted drama!\n\nAn all too frequent occurrence\n\nYou\u2019ve been working on a project for weeks, fixed all your bugs and send it to be implemented. You hear nothing and assume all is going well then a few days before it\u2019s meant to launch you get an email from the implementation team informing you of bugs in your code that you need to urgently fix.\n\n The 24ways website with a misspelt ID for the years menu\n\nBeing paranoid you trawl through the preview URL, check they have the latest files, check your code for errors then notice that a required HTML attribute has been omitted from the build and therefore CSS or JavaScript you\u2019ve hooked onto that particular attribute isn\u2019t being applied and that\u2019s what is causing the \u201cbug\u201d.\n\nIt takes you seconds drafting an email informing them of this, it takes then seconds putting the required attribute in and low and behold the bug is fixed, everyone is happy but you\u2019ve lost a good few hours of your life \u2013 this time could have been better spent in the pub.\n\nI\u2019m going to show you a way that these kind of errors can be alerted immediately during implementation of your code and ensure that when you are contacted you know that there actually is a bug to fix. You probably already know the things that could be omitted from a build and look like bugs so you\u2019ll soon be creating tests to look for these and alert when they are not found on the rendered page. The error is reported directly to those who need to know about it and fix it. Less errant bug reports and less frantic emails ahoy!\n\n A page with an implementation issue and instant feedback on the problem\n\nJavaScript selector engines to the rescue\n\nWhether you\u2019re using a library or indeed tapping into the loveliness of the new JavaScript Selector APIs looking for particular HTML elements in JavaScript is fairly trivial now. \n\nFor instance this is how you look for a div element with the id attribute of year (the missing attribute from top image) using jQuery (the library I\u2019ll be coding my examples in): \n\nif ($(\u2018div#year\u2019).length) {\n\talert(\u2018win\u2019);\n}\n\nUsing this logic you can probably imagine how you can write up a quick method to check for the existence of a particular element and alert when it\u2019s not present \u2014 but assuming you have a complex page you\u2019re going to be repeating yourself a fair bit and we don\u2019t want to be doing that.\n\nTest scripts\n\nIf you\u2019ve got a lot of complex HTML patterns that need testing across a number of different pages it makes sense to keep your tests out of production code. Chances are you\u2019ve already got a load of heavy JavaScript assets, and when it comes to file size saving every little helps.\n\nI don\u2019t think that tests should contain code inside of them so keep mine externally as JSON. This also means that you can use the one set of tests in multiple places. We already know that it\u2019s a good idea to keep our CSS and JavaScript separate so lets continue along those lines here.\n\nThe test script for this example looks like this:\n\n{\n\t\"title\": \"JS tabs implementation test\",\n\t\"description\": \"Check that the correct HTML patterns has been used\",\n\t\"author\": \"Ross Bruniges\",\n\t\"created\": \"20th July 2009\",\n\t\"tests\": [\n\t\t{\n\t\t\t\"name\": \"JS tabs elements\",\n\t\t\t\"description\": \"Checking that correct HTML elements including class/IDs are used on the page for the JS to progressively enhance\",\n\t\t\t\"selector\": \"div.tabbed_content\",\n\t\t\t\"message\": \"We couldn't find VAR on the page - it's required for our JavaScript to function correctly\",\n\t\t\t\"check_for\": {\n\t\t\t\t\"contains\": {\n\t\t\t\t\t\"elements\": [\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\"div.tab_content\", \"h2\" \n\t\t\t\t\t],\n\t\t\t\t\t\"message\": \"We've noticed some missing HTML:</p><ul><li>VAR</li></ul><p>please refer to the examples sent for reference\" \n\t\t\t\t} \n\t\t\t} \n\t\t} \n\t]\n}\n\nThe first four lines are just a little bit of meta data so we remember what this test was all about when we look at it again in the future, or indeed if it ever breaks. The tests are the really cool parts and firstly you\u2019ll notice that it\u2019s an array \u2013 we\u2019re only going to show one example test here but there is no reason why you can\u2019t place in as many as you want. I\u2019ll explain what each of the lines in the example test means:\n\n\n\tname \u2013 short test name, I use this in pass/fail messaging later\n\tdescription \u2013 meta data for future reference\n\tselector \u2013 the root HTML element from which your HTML will be searched\n\tmessage \u2013 what the app will alert if the initial selector isn\u2019t found\n\tcheck_for \u2013 a wrapper to hold inner tests \u2013 those run if the initial selector does match\n\t\n\t\tcontains \u2013 the type of check, we\u2019re checking that the selector contains specified elements\n\t\t\n\t\t\telements \u2013 the HTML elements we are searching for\n\t\t\tmessage \u2013 a message for when these don\u2019t match (VAR is substituted when it\u2019s appended to the page with the name of any elements that don\u2019t exist)\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\nIt\u2019s very important to pass the function valid JSON (JSONLint is a great tool for this) otherwise you might get a console showing no tests have even been run. \n\nThe JavaScript that makes this helpful\n\nAgain, this code should never hit a production server so I\u2019ve kept it external. This also means that the only thing that\u2019s needed to be done by the implementation team when they are ready to build is that they delete this code.\n\n<script src=\"sleuth.js\" type=\"text/javascript\"></script>\n<script type=\"text/javascript\">\n\t$(document).ready(function() {\n\t  sleuth.test_page.init(\u2018js_tabs_test.js');\n\t}); \n</script>\n\n\u201cView the full JavaScript:/examples/self-testing-pages-with-javascript/js/tests/test_suite.js\n\nThe init function appends the test console to the page and inserts the CSS file required to style it (you don\u2019t need to use pictures of me when tests pass and fail though I see no reason why you shouldn\u2019t), goes and grabs the JSON file referenced and parses it. The methods to pass (tests_pass) and fail (haz_fail) the test I hope are pretty self-explanatory as is the one which creates the test summary once everything has been run (create_summary).\n\nThe two interesting functions are init_tests and confirm_html.\n\ninit_tests\n\ninit_tests:function(i,obj) {\n\tvar $master_elm = $(obj.selector);\n\tsleuth.test_page.$logger.append(\"<div id='test_\" + i + \"' class='message'><p><em>\" + obj.name + \"</em></p></div>\");\n\tvar $container = $('#test_' + i);\n\tif (!$master_elm.length) {\n\t\tvar err_sum = obj.message.replace(/VAR/gi, obj.selector);\n\t\tsleuth.test_page.haz_failed(err_sum, $container);\n\t\treturn;\n\t}\n\tif (obj.check_for) {\n\t\t$.each(obj.check_for,function(key, value){\n\t\t\tsleuth.test_page.assign_checks($master_elm, $container, key, value);\n\t\t});\n\t} else {\n\t\tsleuth.test_page.tests_passed($container);\n\t\treturn;\n\t}\n}\n\nThe function gets sent the number of the current iteration (used to create a unique id for its test summary) and the current object that contains the data we\u2019re testing against as parameters.\n\nWe grab a reference to the root element and this is used (pretty much in the example shown right at the start of this article) and its length is checked. If the length is positive we know we can continue to the inner tests (if they exist) but if not we fail the test and don\u2019t go any further. We append the error to the test console for everyone to see.\n\nIf we pass the initial check we send the reference to the root element, message contains and the inner object to a function that in this example sends us on to confirm_html (if we had a more complex test suite it would do a lot more). \n\nconfirm_html\n\nconfirm_html:function(target_selector, error_elm, obj) {\n\tvar missing_elms = [];\n\t$.each(obj.elements, function(i, val) {\n\t\tif (!target_selector.find(val).length) {\n\t\t\tmissing_elms.push(val);\n\t\t}\t\n\t});\n\tif (missing_elms.length) {\n\t\tvar file_list = missing_elms.join('</li><li>');\n\t\tvar err_sum = obj.message.replace(/VAR/gi, file_list);\n\t\tsleuth.test_page.haz_failed(err_sum, error_elm);\n\t\treturn;\n\t}\n\tsleuth.test_page.tests_passed(error_elm);\n\treturn;\n}\n\nWe\u2019re again using an array to check for a passed or failed test and checking its length but this time we push in a reference to each missing element we find.\n\nIf the test does fail we\u2019re providing even more useful feedback by informing what elements have been missed out. All the implementation team need do is look for them in the files we\u2019ve sent and include them as expected.\n\nNo more silly implementation bugs!\n\nHere is an example of a successful implementation.\n\nHere are some examples of failed implementations \u2013 one which fails at finding the root node and one that has the correct root node but none of the inner HTML tests pass.\n\nIs this all we can check for?\n\nCertainly not!\n\nJavaScript provides pretty easy ways to check for attributes, included files (if the files being checked for are being referenced correctly and not 404ing) and even applied CSS.\n\nWant to check that those ARIA attributes are being implemented correctly or that all images contain an alt attribute well this simple test suite can be extended to include tests for this \u2013 the sky is pretty much up to your imagination.", "year": "2009", "author": "Ross Bruniges", "author_slug": "rossbruniges", "published": "2009-12-12T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2009/self-testing-pages-with-javascript/", "topic": "process"}
{"rowid": 20, "title": "Make Your Browser Dance", "contents": "It was a crisp winter\u2019s evening when I pulled up alongside the pier. I stepped out of my car and the bitterly cold sea air hit my face. I walked around to the boot, opened it and heaved out a heavy flight case. I slammed the boot shut, locked the car and started walking towards the venue.\n\nThis was it. My first gig. I thought about all those weeks of preparation: editing video clips, creating 3-D objects, making coloured patterns, then importing them all into software and configuring effects to change as the music did; targeting frequency, beat, velocity, modifying size, colour, starting point; creating playlists of these\u2026 and working out ways to mix them as the music played.\n\nThis was it. This was me VJing.\n\nThis was all a lifetime (well a decade!) ago.\n\nWhen I started web designing, VJing took a back seat. I was more interested in interactive layouts, semantic accessible HTML, learning all the IE bugs and mastering the quirks that CSS has to offer. More recently, I have been excited by background gradients, 3-D transforms, the @keyframe directive, as well as new APIs such as getUserMedia, indexedDB, the Web Audio API\n\nBut wait, have I just come full circle? Could it be possible, with these wonderful new things in technologies I am already familiar with, that I could VJ again, right here, in a browser?\n\nWell, there\u2019s only one thing to do: let\u2019s try it!\n\nLet\u2019s take to the dance floor \n\nOver the past couple of years working in The Lab I have learned to take a much more iterative approach to projects than before. One of my new favourite methods of working is to create a proof of concept to make sure my theory is feasible, before going on to create a full-blown product. So let\u2019s take the same approach here.\n\nThe main VJing functionality I want to recreate is manipulating visuals in relation to sound. So for my POC I need to create a visual, with parameters that can be changed, then get some sound and see if I can analyse that sound to detect some data, which I can then use to manipulate the visual parameters. Easy, right?\n\nSo, let\u2019s start at the beginning: creating a simple visual. For this I\u2019m going to create a CSS animation. It\u2019s just a funky i element with the opacity being changed to make it flash.\n\n See the Pen Creating a light by Rumyra (@Rumyra) on CodePen\n\nA note about prefixes: I\u2019ve left them out of the code examples in this post to make them easier to read. Please be aware that you may need them. I find a great resource to find out if you do is caniuse.com. You can also check out all the code for the examples in this article\n\nStart the music\n\nWell, that\u2019s pretty easy so far. Next up: loading in some sound. For this we\u2019ll use the Web Audio API. The Web Audio API is based around the concept of nodes. You have a source node: the sound you are loading in; a destination node: usually the device\u2019s speakers; and any number of processing nodes in between. All this processing that goes on with the audio is sandboxed within the AudioContext.\n\nSo, let\u2019s start by initialising our audio context.\n\nvar contextClass = window.AudioContext;\nif (contextClass) {\n  //web audio api available.\n  var audioContext = new contextClass();\n} else {\n  //web audio api unavailable\n  //warn user to upgrade/change browser\n}\n\nNow let\u2019s load our sound file into the new context we created with an XMLHttpRequest.\n\nfunction loadSound() {\n\t//set audio file url\n\tvar audioFileUrl = '/octave.ogg';\n\t//create new request\n\tvar request = new XMLHttpRequest();\n\trequest.open(\"GET\", audioFileUrl, true);\n\trequest.responseType = \"arraybuffer\";\n\n\trequest.onload = function() {\n\t\t//take from http request and decode into buffer\n\t\tcontext.decodeAudioData(request.response, function(buffer) {\n\t    \taudioBuffer = buffer;\n\t     });\n\t\t}\n\trequest.send();\n}\n\nPhew! Now we\u2019ve loaded in some sound! There are plenty of things we can do with the Web Audio API: increase volume; add filters; spatialisation. If you want to dig deeper, the O\u2019Reilly Web Audio API book by Boris Smus is available to read online free.\n\nAll we really want to do for this proof of concept, however, is analyse the sound data. To do this we really need to know what data we have.\n\n Learning the steps\n\nLet\u2019s take a minute to step back and remember our school days and science class. I\u2019m sure if I drew a picture of a sound wave, we would all start nodding our heads.\n\n \n\nThe sound you hear is caused by pressure differences in the particles in the air. Sound pushes these particles together, causing vibrations. Amplitude is basically strength of pressure. A simple example of change of amplitude is when you increase the volume on your stereo and the output wave increases in size.\n\nThis is great when everything is analogue, but the waveform varies continuously and it\u2019s not suitable for digital processing: there\u2019s an infinite set of values. For digital processing, we need discrete numbers.\n\nWe have to sample the waveform at set time intervals, and record data such as amplitude and frequency. Luckily for us, just the fact we have a digital sound file means all this hard work is done for us. What we\u2019re doing in the code above is piping that data in the audio context. All we need to do now is access it.\n\nWe can do this with the Web Audio API\u2019s analysing functionality. Just pop in an analysing node before we connect the source to its destination node.\n\nfunction createAnalyser(source) {\n\t//create analyser node\n\tanalyser = audioContext.createAnalyser();\n\t//connect to source\n\tsource.connect(analyzer);\n\t//pipe to speakers\n\tanalyser.connect(audioContext.destination);\n}\n\nThe data I\u2019m really interested in here is frequency. Later we could look into amplitude or time, but for now I\u2019m going to stick with frequency.\n\nThe analyser node gives us frequency data via the getFrequencyByteData method.\n\n Don\u2019t forget to count!\n\nTo collect the data from the getFrequencyByteData method, we need to pass in an empty array (a JavaScript typed array is ideal). But how do we know how many items the array will need when we create it?\n\nThis is really up to us and how high the resolution of frequencies we want to analyse is. Remember we talked about sampling the waveform; this happens at a certain rate (sample rate) which you can find out via the audio context\u2019s sampleRate attribute. This is good to bear in mind when you\u2019re thinking about your resolution of frequencies.\n\nvar sampleRate = audioContext.sampleRate;\n\nLet\u2019s say your file sample rate is 48,000, making the maximum frequency in the file 24,000Hz (thanks to a wonderful theorem from Dr Harry Nyquist, the maximum frequency in the file is always half the sample rate). The analyser array we\u2019re creating will contain frequencies up to this point. This is ideal as the human ear hears the range 0\u201320,000hz.\n\nSo, if we create an array which has 2,400 items, each frequency recorded will be 10Hz apart. However, we are going to create an array which is half the size of the FFT (fast Fourier transform), which in this case is 2,048 which is the default. You can set it via the fftSize property.\n\n//set our FFT size\nanalyzer.fftSize = 2048;\n//create an empty array with 1024 items\nvar frequencyData = new Uint8Array(1024);\n\nSo, with an array of 1,024 items, and a frequency range of 24,000Hz, we know each item is 24,000 \u00f7 1,024 = 23.44Hz apart.\n\nThe thing is, we also want that array to be updated constantly. We could use the setInterval or setTimeout methods for this; however, I prefer the new and shiny requestAnimationFrame.\n\nfunction update() {\n  \t//constantly getting feedback from data\n  \trequestAnimationFrame(update);\n  \tanalyzer.getByteFrequencyData(frequencyData);\n}\n\n Putting it all together\n\nSweet sticks! Now we have an array of frequencies from the sound we loaded, updating as the sound plays. Now we want that data to trigger our animation from earlier.\n\nWe can easily pause and run our CSS animation from JavaScript:\n\nelement.style.webkitAnimationPlayState = \"paused\";\nelement.style.webkitAnimationPlayState = \"running\";\n\nUnfortunately, this may not be ideal as our animation might be a whole heap longer than just a flashing light. We may want to target specific points within that animation to have it stop and start in a visually pleasing way and perhaps not smack bang in the middle.\n\nThere is no really easy way to do this at the moment as Zach Saucier explains in this wonderful article. It takes some jiggery pokery with setInterval to try to ascertain how far through the CSS animation you are in percentage terms.\n\nThis seems a bit much for our proof of concept, so let\u2019s backtrack a little. We know by the animation we\u2019ve created which CSS properties we want to change. This is pretty easy to do directly with JavaScript.\n\nelement.style.opacity = \"1\";\nelement.style.opacity = \"0.2\";\n\nSo let\u2019s start putting it all together. For this example I want to trigger each light as a different frequency plays. For this, I\u2019ll loop through the HTML elements and change the opacity style if the frequency gain goes over a certain threshold.\n\n//get light elements\nvar lights = document.getElementsByTagName('i');\nvar totalLights = lights.length;\n\nfor (var i=0; i<totalLights; i++) {\n  //get frequencyData key\n  var freqDataKey = i*8;\n\t//if gain is over threshold for that frequency animate light\n  if (frequencyData[freqDataKey] > 160){\n    //start animation on element\n    lights[i].style.opacity = \"1\";\n  } else {\n    lights[i].style.opacity = \"0.2\";\n  }\n}\n\nSee all the code in action here. I suggest viewing in a modern browser :)\n\nAwesome! It is true \u2014 we can VJ in our browser!\n\nLet\u2019s dance!\n\nSo, let\u2019s start to expand this simple example. First, I feel the need to make lots of lights, rather than just a few. Also, maybe we should try a sound file more suited to gigs or clubs.\n\nCheck it out!\n\nI don\u2019t know about you, but I\u2019m pretty excited \u2014 that\u2019s just a bit of HTML, CSS and JavaScript!\n\nThe other thing to think about, of course, is the sound that you would get at a venue. We don\u2019t want to load sound from a file, but rather pick up on what is playing in real time. The easiest way to do this, I\u2019ve found, is to capture what my laptop\u2019s mic is picking up and piping that back into the audio context. We can do this by using getUserMedia.\n\nLet\u2019s include this in this demo. If you make some noise while viewing the demo, the lights will start to flash.\n\n And relax :)\n\nThere you have it. Sit back, play some music and enjoy the Winamp like experience in front of you.\n\nSo, where do we go from here? I already have a wealth of ideas. We haven\u2019t started with canvas, SVG or the 3-D features of CSS. There are other things we can detect from the audio as well. And yes, OK, it\u2019s questionable whether the browser is the best environment for this. For one, I\u2019m using a whole bunch of nonsensical HTML elements (maybe each animation could be held within a web component in the future). But hey, it\u2019s fun, and it looks cool and sometimes I think it\u2019s OK to just dance.", "year": "2013", "author": "Ruth John", "author_slug": "ruthjohn", "published": "2013-12-02T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2013/make-your-browser-dance/", "topic": "code"}
{"rowid": 70, "title": "Bringing Your Code to the Streets", "contents": "\u2014 or How to Be a Street VJ\nOur amazing world of web code is escaping out of the browser at an alarming rate and appearing in every aspect of the environment around us. Over the past few years we\u2019ve already seen JavaScript used server-side, hardware coded with JavaScript, a rise of native style and desktop apps created with HTML, CSS and JavaScript, and even virtual reality (VR) is getting its fair share of front-end goodness.\nYou can go ahead and play with JavaScript-powered hardware such as the Tessel or the Espruino to name a couple. Just check out the Tessel project page to see JavaScript in the world of coffee roasting or sleep tracking your pet. With the rise of the internet of things, JavaScript can be seen collecting information on flooding among other things. And if that\u2019s not enough \u2018outside the browser\u2019 implementations, Node.js servers can even be found in aircraft!\nI previously mentioned VR and with three.js\u2019s extra StereoEffect.js module it\u2019s relatively simple to get browser 3D goodness to be Google Cardboard-ready, and thus set the stage for all things JavaScript and VR. It\u2019s been pretty popular in the art world too, with interactive works such as Seb Lee-Delisle\u2019s Lunar Trails installation, featuring the old arcade game Lunar Lander, which you can now play in your browser while others watch (it is the web after all). The Science Museum in London held Chrome Web Lab, an interactive exhibition featuring five experiments, showcasing the magic of the web. And it\u2019s not even the connectivity of the web that\u2019s being showcased; we can even take things offline and use web code for amazing things, such as fighting Ebola.\nOne thing is for sure, JavaScript is awesome. Hell, if you believe those telly programs (as we all do), JavaScript can even take down the stock market, purely through the witchcraft of canvas! Go JavaScript!\nNow it\u2019s our turn\nSo I wanted to create a little project influenced by this theme, and as it\u2019s Christmas, take it to the streets for a little bit of party fun! Something that could take code anywhere. Here\u2019s how I made a portable visual projection pack, a piece of video mixing software and created some web-coded street art.\nStep one: The equipment\nYou will need:\n\nOne laptop: with HDMI output and a modern browser installed, such as Google Chrome.\nOne battery-powered mini projector: I\u2019ve used a Texas Instruments DLP; for its 120 lumens it was the best cost-to-lumens ratio I could find.\nOne MIDI controller (optional): mine is an ICON iDJ as it suits mixing visuals. However, there is more affordable hardware on the market such as an Akai LPD8 or a Korg nanoPAD2. As you\u2019ll see in the article, this is optional as it can be emulated within the software.\nA case to carry it all around in.\n\n\nStep two: The software\nThe projected visuals, I imagined, could be anything you can create within a browser, whether that be simple HTML and CSS, images, videos, SVG or canvas. The only requirement I have is that they move or change with sound and that I can mix any one visual into another.\nYou may remember a couple of years ago I created a demo on this very site, allowing audio-triggered visuals from the ambient sounds your device mic was picking up. That was a great starting point \u2013 I used that exact method to pick up the audio and thus the first requirement was complete. If you want to see some more examples of visuals I\u2019ve put together for this, there\u2019s a showcase on CodePen.\nThe second requirement took a little more thought. I needed two screens, which could at any point show any of the visuals I had coded, but could be mixed from one into the other and back again. So let\u2019s start with two divs, both absolutely positioned so they\u2019re on top of each other, but at the start the second screen\u2019s opacity is set to zero.\nNow all we need is a slider, which when moved from one side to the other slowly sets the second screen\u2019s opacity to 1, thereby fading it in.\nSee the Pen Mixing Screens (Software Version) by Rumyra (@Rumyra) on CodePen.\nMixing Screens (CodePen)\n\nAs you saw above, I have a MIDI controller and although the software method works great, I\u2019d quite like to make use of this nifty piece of kit. That\u2019s easily done with the Web MIDI API. All I need to do is call it, and when I move one of the sliders on the controller (I\u2019ve allocated the big cross fader in the middle for this), pick up on the change of value and use that to control the opacity instead.\nvar midi, data;\n// start talking to MIDI controller\nif (navigator.requestMIDIAccess) {\n  navigator.requestMIDIAccess({\n    sysex: false\n  }).then(onMIDISuccess, onMIDIFailure);\n} else {\n  alert(\u201cNo MIDI support in your browser.\u201d);\n}\n\n// on success\nfunction onMIDISuccess(midiData) {\n  // this is all our MIDI data\n  midi = midiData;\n\n  var allInputs = midi.allInputs.values();\n  // loop over all available inputs and listen for any MIDI input\n  for (var input = allInputs.next(); input && !input.done; input = allInputs.next()) {\n    // when a MIDI value is received call the onMIDIMessage function\n    input.value.onmidimessage = onMIDIMessage;\n  }\n}\n\nfunction onMIDIMessage(message) {\n  // data comes in the form [command/channel, note, velocity]\n  data = message.data;\n\n  // Opacity change for screen. The cross fader values are [176, 8, {0-127}]\n  if ( (data[0] === 176) && (data[1] === 8) ) {\n    // this value will change as the fader is moved\n    var opacity = data[2]/127;\n    screenTwo.style.opacity = opacity;\n  }\n}\n\nThe final code was slightly more complicated than this, as I decided to switch the two screens based on the frequencies of the sound that was playing, and use the cross fader to depict the frequency threshold value. This meant they flickered in and out of each other, rather than just faded. There\u2019s a very rough-and-ready first version of the software on GitHub.\nPhew, Great! Now we need to get all this to the streets!\nStep three: Portable kit\nDid you notice how I mentioned a case to carry it all around in? I wanted the case to be morphable, so I could use the equipment from it too, a sort of bag-to-usherette-tray-type affair. Well, I had an unused laptop bag\u2026\n\nI strengthened it with some MDF, so when I opened the bag it would hold like a tray where the laptop and MIDI controller would sit. The projector was Velcroed to the external pocket of the bag, so when it was a tray it would project from underneath. I added two durable straps, one for my shoulders and one round my waist, both attached to the bag itself. There was a lot of cutting and trimming. As it was a laptop bag it was pretty thick to start and sewing was tricky. However, I only broke one sewing machine needle; I\u2019ve been known to break more working with leather, so I figured I was doing well. By the way, you can actually buy usherette trays, but I just couldn\u2019t resist hacking my own :)\nStep four: Take to the streets\nFirst, make sure everything is charged \u2013 everything \u2013 a lot! The laptop has to power both the MIDI controller and the projector, and although I have a mobile phone battery booster pack, that\u2019ll only charge the projector should it run out. I estimated I could get a good hour of visual artistry before I needed to worry, though.\nI had a couple of ideas about time of day and location. Here in the UK at this time of year, it gets dark around half past four, so I could easily head out in a city around 5pm and it would be dark enough for the projections to be seen pretty well. I chose Bristol, around the waterfront, as there were some interesting locations to try it out in. The best was Millennium Square: busy but not crowded and plenty of surfaces to try projecting on to.\nMy first time out with the portable audio/visual pack (PAVP as it will now be named) was brilliant. I played music and projected visuals, like a one-woman band of A/V!\n\n\nYou might be thinking what the point of this was, besides, of course, it being a bit of fun. Well, this project got me to look at canvas and SVG more closely. The Web MIDI API was really interesting; MIDI as a data format has some great practical uses. I think without our side projects we may not have all these wonderful uses for our everyday code. Not only do they remind us coding can, and should, be fun, they also help us learn and grow as makers.\nMy favourite part? When I was projecting into a water feature in Millennium Square. For those who are familiar, you\u2019ll know it\u2019s like a wall of water so it produced a superb effect. I drew quite a crowd and a kid came to stand next to me and all I could hear him say with enthusiasm was, \u2018Oh wow! That\u2019s so cool!\u2019\nYes\u2026 yes, kid, it was cool. Making things with code is cool.\nMassive thanks to the lovely Drew McLellan for his incredibly well-directed photography, and also Simon Johnson who took a great hand in perfecting the kit while it was attached.", "year": "2015", "author": "Ruth John", "author_slug": "ruthjohn", "published": "2015-12-06T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2015/bringing-your-code-to-the-streets/", "topic": "code"}
{"rowid": 248, "title": "How to Use Audio on the Web", "contents": "I know what you\u2019re thinking. I never never want to hear sound anywhere near a browser, ever ever, wow! \ud83d\ude49\nYou\u2019re having flashbacks, flashbacks to the days of yore, when we had a <bgsound> element and yup did everyone think that was the most rad thing since <blink>. I mean put those two together with a <marquee>, only use CSS colour names, make sure your borders were all set to ridge and you\u2019ve got yourself the neatest website since 1998.\nThe sound played when the website loaded and you could play a MIDI file as well! Everyone could hear that wicked digital track you chose. Oh, surfing was gnarly back then.\nYes it is 2018, the end of in fact, soon to be 2019. We are certainly living in the future. Hoverboards self driving cars, holodecks VR headsets, rocket boots drone racing, sound on websites get real, Ruth.\nWe can\u2019t help but be jaded, even though the <bgsound> element is depreciated, and the autoplay policy appeared this year. Although still in it\u2019s infancy, the policy \u201ccontrols when video and audio is allowed to autoplay\u201d, which should reduce the somewhat obtrusive playing of sound when a website or app loads in the future.\nBut then of course comes the question, having lived in a muted present for so long, where and why would you use audio?\n\u2728 Showcase Time \u2728\nThere are some incredible uses of audio on websites today. This is my personal favourite futurelibrary.no, a site from Norway chronicling books that have been published from a forest of trees planted precisely for the books themselves. The sound effects are lovely, adding to the overall experience.\nfuturelibrary.no\nAnother site that executes this well is pottermore.com. The Hogwarts WebGL simulation uses both sound effects and ambient background music and gives a great experience. The button hovers are particularly good.\npottermore.com\nEighty-six and a half years is a beautiful narrative site, documenting the musings of an eighty-six and a half year old man. The background music playing on this site is not offensive, it adds to the experience.\nEighty-six and a half years\nSound can be powerful and in some cases useful. Last year I wrote about using them to help validate forms. Audiochart is a library which \u201callows the user to explore charts on web pages using sound and the keyboard\u201d. Ben Byford recorded voice descriptions of the pages on his website for playback should you need or want it. There is a whole area of accessibility to be explored here.\nThen there\u2019s education. Fancy beginning with some piano in the new year? flowkey.com is a website which allows you to play along and learn at the same time. Need to brush up on your music theory? lightnote.co takes you through lessons to do just that, all audio enhanced. Electronic music more your thing? Ableton has your back with learningmusic.ableton.com, a site which takes you through the process of composing electronic music. A website, all made possible through the powers with have with the Web Audio API today.\nlightnote.co\nlearningmusic.ableton.com\nConsiderations\nYes, tis the season, let\u2019s be more thoughtful about our audios. There are some user experience patterns to begin with. 86andahalfyears.com tells the user they are about to \u2018enter\u2019 the site and headphones are recommended. This is a good approach because it a) deals with the autoplay policy (audio needs to be instigated by a user gesture) and b) by stating headphones are recommended you are setting the users expectations, they will expect sound, and if in a public setting can enlist the use of a common electronic device to cause less embarrassment.\nEighty-six and a half years\nAllowing mute and/or volume control clearly within the user interface is a good idea. It won\u2019t draw the user out of the experience, it\u2019ll give more control to the user about what audio they want to hear (they may not want to turn down the volume of their entire device), and it\u2019s less thought to reach for a very visible volume than to fumble with device settings.\nIndicating that sound is playing is also something to consider. Browsers do this by adding icons to tabs, but this isn\u2019t always the first place to look for everyone.\nTo The Future\nSo let\u2019s go!\nWe see amazing demos built with Web Audio, and I\u2019m sure, like me, they make you think, oh wow I wish I could do that / had thought of that / knew the first thing about audio to begin to even conceive that.\nBut audio doesn\u2019t actually need to be all bells and whistles (hey, it\u2019s Christmas). Starting, stopping and adjusting simple panning and volume might be all you need to get started to introduce some good sound design in your web design.\nIsn\u2019t it great then that there\u2019s a tutorial just for that! Head on over to the MDN Web Audio API docs where the Using the Web Audio API article takes you through playing and pausing sounds, volume control and simple panning (moving the sound from left to right on stereo speakers).\nThis year I believe we have all experienced the web as a shopping mall more than ever. It\u2019s shining store fronts, flashing adverts, fast food, loud noises.\nLet\u2019s use 2019 to create more forests to explore, oceans to dive and mountains to climb.", "year": "2018", "author": "Ruth John", "author_slug": "ruthjohn", "published": "2018-12-22T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2018/how-to-use-audio-on-the-web/", "topic": "design"}
{"rowid": 30, "title": "Making Sites More Responsive, Responsibly", "contents": "With digital projects we\u2019re used to shifting our thinking to align with our target audience. We may undertake research, create personas, identify key tasks, or observe usage patterns, with our findings helping to refine our ongoing creations.\u00a0A product\u2019s overall experience can make or break its success, and when it comes to defining these experiences our development choices play a huge role alongside more traditional user-focused activities.\n\nThe popularisation of responsive web design is a great example of how we are able to shape the web\u2019s direction through using technology to provide better experiences. If we think back to the move from table-based layouts to CSS, initially our clients often didn\u2019t know or care about the difference in these approaches, but\u00a0we\u00a0did. Responsive design was similar in this respect \u2013 momentum grew through the web industry choosing to use an approach that we felt would give a better experience, and which was more future-friendly.\u00a0\n\nWe tend to think of responsive design as a means of displaying content appropriately across a range of devices, but the technology and our implementation of it can facilitate much more. A responsive layout not only helps your content work when the newest smartphone comes out, but it also ensures your layout suitably adapts if a visually impaired user drastically changes the size of the text.\n\n The 24 ways site at 400% on a Retina MacBook Pro displays a layout more typically used for small screens.\n\nWhen we think more broadly, we realise that our technical choices and approaches to implementation can have knock-on effects for the greater good, and beyond our initial target audiences. We can make our experiences more\u00a0responsive to people\u2019s needs, enhancing their usability and accessibility along the way.\n\nBeing responsibly responsive\n\nOf course, when we think about being more responsive, there\u2019s a fine line between creating useful functionality and becoming intrusive and overly complex. In the excellent Responsible Responsive Design, Scott Jehl states that:\n\n\nA responsible responsive design equally considers the following throughout a project:\n\nUsability: The way a website\u2019s user interface is presented to the user, and how that UI responds to browsing conditions and user interactions.\nAccess: The ability for users of all devices, browsers, and assistive technologies to access and understand a site\u2019s features and content.\nSustainability: The ability for the technology driving a site or application to work for devices that exist today and to continue to be usable and accessible to users, devices, and browsers in the future.\nPerformance: The speed at which a site\u2019s features and content are perceived to be delivered to the user and the efficiency with which they operate within the user interface.\n\n\n\nScott\u2019s book covers these ideas in a lot more detail than I\u2019ll be able to here (put it on your Christmas list if it\u2019s not there already), but for now let\u2019s think a bit more about our roles as digital creators\u00a0and the power this gives us.\n\nOur choices around technology and the decisions we have to make can be extremely wide-ranging. Solutions will vary hugely depending on the needs of each project, though we can further explore the concept of making our creations more responsive through the use of humble web technologies.\n\nThe power of the web\n\nWe all know that under the HTML5 umbrella are some great new capabilities, including a number of JavaScript APIs such as geolocation, web audio, the file API and many more. We often use these to enhance the functionality of our sites and apps, to add in new features, or to facilitate device-specific interactions.\n\nYou\u2019ll have seen articles with flashy titles such as \u201cTop 5 JavaScript APIs You\u2019ve Never Heard Of!\u201d, which you\u2019ll probably read, think \u201cThat\u2019s quite cool\u201d, yet never use in any real work.\n\nThere is great potential for technologies like these\u00a0to be misused, but there are also great prospects for them to be used well to enhance experiences. Let\u2019s have a look at a few\u00a0examples you may not have considered.\n\nOffline first\n\nWhen we make websites, many of us follow a process which involves user stories \u2013 standardised snippets of context explaining who needs what, and why.\n\n\u201cAs a student I want to pay online for my course so I don\u2019t have to visit the college in person.\u201d\n\n\u201cAs a retailer I want to generate unique product codes so I can manage my stock.\u201d\n\nWe very often focus heavily on what\u00a0needs doing, but may not consider carefully how it will be done. As in Scott\u2019s list, accessibility is extremely important, not only in terms of providing a great experience to users of assistive technologies, but also to make your creation more accessible in the general sense \u2013 including under different conditions.\n\nOffline first is yet another \u2018first\u2019 methodology (my personal favourite being \u2018tea first\u2019), which encourages us to develop so that connectivity\u00a0itself is an enhancement \u2013 letting\u00a0users continue with tasks even when they\u2019re offline. Despite the rapid growth in public Wi-Fi, if we consider data costs and connectivity in developing countries, our travel habits with planes, underground trains and roaming (or simply if you live in the UK\u2019s signal-barren East Anglian wilderness as I do), then you\u2019ll realise that connectivity isn\u2019t as ubiquitous as our internet-addled brains would make us believe. Take a scenario that I\u2019m sure we\u2019re all familiar with \u2013 the digital conference. Your venue may be in a city served by high-speed networks, but after overloading capacity with a full house of hashtag-hungry attendees, each carrying several devices, then everyone\u2019s likely to be offline after all. Wouldn\u2019t it be better if we could do something like this instead?\n\n\n\tSomeone visits our conference website.\n\tOn this initial run, some assets may be cached for future use: the conference schedule, the site\u2019s CSS, photos of the speakers.\n\tWhen the attendee revisits the site on the day, the page shell loads up from the cache.\n\tIf we have cached content (our session timetable, speaker photos or anything else), we can load it directly from the cache. We might then try to update this, or get some new content from the internet, but the conference attendee already has a base experience to use.\n\tIf we don\u2019t have something cached already, then we can try\u00a0grabbing it online.\n\tIf for any reason our requests for new content fail (we\u2019re offline), then we can display a pre-cached error message from the initial load, perhaps providing our users with alternative suggestions from what is\u00a0cached.\n\n\nThere are a number of ways we can make something like this, including using the application cache (AppCache) if you\u2019re that way inclined. However, you may want to look into service workers\u00a0instead. There are also some great resources on Offline First!\u00a0if you\u2019d like to find out more about this.\n\nBuilding in offline functionality isn\u2019t necessarily about starting offline first, and it\u2019s also perfectly possible to retrofit sites and apps to catch offline scenarios, but this kind of graceful degradation can end up being more complex than if we\u2019d considered it from the start. By treating connectivity as an enhancement, we can improve the experience and provide better performance than we can when waiting to counter failures. Our websites can respond to connectivity and usage scenarios, on top of adapting how we present our content. Thinking in this way can enhance each point in Scott\u2019s criteria.\n\nAs I mentioned, this isn\u2019t necessarily the kind of development choice that our clients will ask us for, but it\u2019s one we may decide is simply the right way to build based on our project, enhancing the experience we provide to people, and making it more responsive to their situation.\n\nEven more accessible\n\nWe\u2019ve looked at accessibility in terms of broadening when we can interact with a website, but what about how? Our user stories and personas are often of limited use. We refer in very general terms to students, retailers, and sometimes just users. What if we have a student whose needs are very different from another student? Can we make our sites even more usable and accessible through our development choices?\n\nAgain using JavaScript to illustrate this concept, we can do a lot more with the ways people interact with our websites, and with the feedback we provide, than simply accepting keyboard, mouse and touch inputs and displaying output on a screen.\n\nInput\n\nAmbient light detection is one of those features that looks great in simple demos, but which we struggle to put to practical use. It\u2019s not new \u2013 many satnav systems automatically change the contrast for driving at night or in tunnels, and our laptops may alter the screen brightness or keyboard backlighting to better adapt to our surroundings. Using web technologies we can adapt our presentation to be better suited to ambient light levels.\n\nIf our device has an appropriate light sensor and runs a browser that supports the API, we can grab the ambient light in units using ambient light events, in JavaScript. We may then change our presentation based on different bandings, perhaps like this:\n\nwindow.addEventListener('devicelight', function(e) {\n    var lux = e.value;\n\n    if (lux < 50) {\n        //Change things for dim light\n    }\n    if (lux >= 50 && lux <= 10000) {\n        //Change things for normal light\n    }\n    if (lux > 10000) {\n        //Change things for bright light\n    }\n});\n\nLive demo\u00a0(requires light sensor and supported browser).\n\nSoon we may also be able to do such detection through CSS, with light-level being cited in the Media Queries Level 4 specification. If that becomes the case, it\u2019ll probably look something like this:\n\n@media (light-level: dim) {\n  /*Change things for dim light*/\n}\n\n@media (light-level: normal) {\n  /*Change things for normal light*/\n}\n\n@media (light-level: washed) {\n  /*Change things for bright light*/\n}\n\nWhile we may be quick to dismiss this kind of detection as being a gimmick, it\u2019s important to consider that apps such as Light Detector, listed on Apple\u2019s accessibility page, provide important context around exactly this functionality.\n\n\n\t\u201cIf you are blind, Light Detector helps you to be more independent in many daily activities. At home, point your iPhone towards the ceiling to understand where the light fixtures are and whether they are switched on. In a room, move the device along the wall to check if there is a window and where it is. You can find out whether the shades are drawn by moving the device up and down.\u201d\n\n\teverywaretechnologies.com/apps/lightdetector\n\n\nInput can be about so much more than what we enter through keyboards. Both an ever increasing amount of available sensors and more APIs being supported by the major browsers will allow us to cater for more scenarios and respond to them accordingly. This can be as complex or simple as you need; for instance, while x-webkit-speech has been deprecated, the web speech API is available for a number of browsers, and research into sign language detection is also being performed by organisations such as Microsoft.\n\nOutput\n\nWeb technologies give us some great enhancements around input, allowing us to adapt our experiences accordingly. They also provide us with some nice ways to provide feedback to users.\n\nWhen we play video games, many of our modern consoles come with the ability to have rumble effects on our controller pads. These are a great example of an enhancement, as they provide a level of feedback that is entirely optional, but which can give a great deal of extra information to the player in the right circumstances, and broaden the scope of our comprehension beyond what we\u2019re seeing and hearing.\n\nHaptic feedback is possible on the web as well. We could use this in any number of responsible applications, such as alerting a user to changes or using different patterns as a communication mechanism. If you find yourself in a pickle, here\u2019s how to print out SOS in Morse code through the vibration API. The following code indicates the length of vibration in milliseconds, interspersed by pauses in milliseconds.\n\nnavigator.vibrate([100, 300, 100, 300, 100, 300, 600, 300, 600, 300, 600, 300, 100, 300, 100, 300, 100]);\n\nLive demo\u00a0(requires supported browser)\n\nWith great power\u2026\n\nWhat you\u2019ve no doubt come to realise by now is that these are just more examples of progressive enhancement, whose inclusion will provide a better experience if the capabilities are available, but which we should not rely on. This idea isn\u2019t new, but the most important thing to remember, and what I would like you to take away from this article, is that it is up to us to decide to include these kind of approaches within our projects \u2013 if we don\u2019t root for them, they probably won\u2019t happen. This is where our professional responsibility comes in.\n\nWe won\u2019t necessarily be asked to implement solutions for the scenarios above, but they illustrate how we can help to push the boundaries of experiences. Maybe we\u2019ll have to switch our thinking about how we build, but we can create more usable products for a diverse range of people and usage scenarios through the choices we make around technology. Let\u2019s stop thinking simply in terms of features inside a narrow view of our target users, and work out how we can extend these to cater for a wider set of situations.\n\nWhen you plan your next digital project, consider the power of the web and the enhancements we can use, and try to make your projects even more responsive and responsible.", "year": "2014", "author": "Sally Jenkinson", "author_slug": "sallyjenkinson", "published": "2014-12-10T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2014/making-sites-more-responsive-responsibly/", "topic": "code"}
{"rowid": 57, "title": "Cooking Up Effective Technical Writing", "contents": "Merry Christmas! May your preparations for this festive season of gluttony be shaping up beautifully. By the time you read this I hope you will have ordered your turkey, eaten twice your weight in Roses/Quality Street (let\u2019s not get into that argument), and your Christmas cake has been baked and is now quietly absorbing regular doses of alcohol.\nSome of you may be reading this and scoffing Of course! I\u2019ve also made three batches of mince pies, a seasonal chutney and enough gingerbread men to feed the whole street! while others may be laughing Bake? Oh no, I can\u2019t cook to save my life.\nFor beginners, recipes are the step-by-step instructions that hand-hold us through the cooking process, but even as a seasoned expert you\u2019re likely to refer to a recipe at some point. Recipes tell us what we need, what to do with it, in what order, and what the outcome will be. It\u2019s the documentation behind our ideas, and allows us to take the blueprint for a tasty morsel and to share it with others so they can recreate it. In fact, this is a little like the open source documentation and tutorials that we put out there, similarly aiming to guide other developers through our creations.\nThe \u2018just\u2019ification of documentation\nLately it feels like we\u2019re starting to consider the importance of our words, and the impact they can have on others. Brad Frost warned us of the dangers of \u201cJust\u201d when it comes to offering up solutions to queries:\n\n\u201cJust use this software/platform/toolkit/methodology\u2026\u201d\n\u201cJust\u201d makes me feel like an idiot. \u201cJust\u201d presumes I come from a specific background, studied certain courses in university, am fluent in certain technologies, and have read all the right books, articles, and resources. \u201cJust\u201d is a dangerous word.\n\u201cJust\u201d by Brad Frost\n\nI can really empathise with these sentiments. My relationship with code started out as many good web tales do, with good old HTML, CSS and JavaScript. University years involved some time with Perl, PHP, Java and C. In my first job I worked primarily with ColdFusion, a bit of ActionScript, some classic\u00a0 ASP and pinch of Java. I\u2019d do a bit of PHP outside work every now and again. .NET came in, but we never really got on, and eventually I started learning some Ruby, Python and Node. It was a broad set of learnings, and I enjoyed the similarities and differences that came with new languages. I don\u2019t develop day in, day out any more, and my interests and work have evolved over the years, away from full-time development and more into architecture and strategy. But I still make things, and I still enjoy learning.\nI have often found myself bemoaning the lack of tutorials or courses that cater for the middle level \u2013 someone who may be learning a new language, but who has enough programming experience under their belt to not need to revise the concepts of how loops or objects work, and is perfectly adept at googling the syntax for getting a substring. I don\u2019t want snippets out of context; I want an understanding of architectural principles, of the strengths and weaknesses, of the type of applications that work well with the language.\nI\u2019m caught in the place between snoozing off when \u2018Using the Instagram API with Ruby\u2019 hand-holds me through what REST is, and feeling like I\u2019m stupid and need to go back to dev school when I can\u2019t get my environment and dependencies set up, let alone work out how I\u2019m meant to get any code to run.\nIt\u2019s seems I\u2019m not alone with this \u2013 Erin McKean seems to have been here too:\n\n\u201cSome tutorials (especially coding tutorials) like to begin things in media res. Great for a sense of dramatic action, bad for getting to \u201cStep 1\u201d without tears. It can be really discouraging to fire up a fresh terminal window only to be confronted by error message after error message because there were obligatory steps 0.1.0 through 0.9.9 that you didn\u2019t even know about.\u201d\n\u201cTips for Learning What You Don\u2019t Know You Don\u2019t Know\u201d by Erin McKean\n\nI\u2019m sure you\u2019ve been here too. Many tutorials suffer badly from the fabled \u2018how to draw an owl\u2019-itis.\n\nIt\u2019s the kind of feeling you can easily get when sifting through recipes as well as with code. Far from being the simple instructions that let us just follow along, they too can be a minefield. Fall in too low and you may be skipping over an explanation of what simmering is, or set your sights too high and you may get stuck at the point where you\u2019re trying to sous vide a steak using your bathtub and a Ziploc bag.\nDon\u2019t be a turkey, use your loaf!\nMy mum is a great cook in my eyes (aren\u2019t all mums?). I love her handcrafted collection of gathered recipes from over the years, including the one below, which is a great example of how something may make complete sense to the writer, but could be impermeable to a reader.\n\nDepending on your level of baking knowledge, you may ask: What\u2019s SR flour? What\u2019s a tsp? Should I use salted or unsalted butter? Do I use sticks of cinnamon or ground? Why is chopped chocolate better? How do I cream things? How big should the balls be? How well is \u201cwell spaced\u201d? How much leeway do I have for \u201c(ish!!)\u201d? Does the \u201c20\u201d on the other cookie note mean I\u2019ll end up with twenty? At any point, making a wrong call could lead to rubbish cookies, and lead to someone heading down the path of an I can\u2019t cook mentality.\nYou may be able to cook (or follow recipes), but you may not understand the local terms for ingredients, may not be able to acquire something and need to know what kind of substitutes you can use, or may need to actually do some prep before you jump into the main bit.\nHowever, if we look at good examples of recipes, I think there\u2019s a lot we can apply when it comes to technical writing on the web. I\u2019ve written before about the benefit of breaking documentation into small, reusable parts, and this will help us, but we can also take it a bit further. Here are my five top tips for better technical writing.\n1. Structure and standardise your information\nThink of the structure of a recipe. We very often have some common elements and they usually follow roughly the same format. We have standards and conventions that allow us to understand very quickly what a recipe is and how it should be used.\u00a0\n\nGreat recipes help their chefs know what they need to get ready in advance, both in terms of buying ingredients and putting together their kit. They then talk through the process, using appropriate language, and without making assumptions that the person can fill in any gaps for themselves; they explain why things are done the way they are. The best recipes may also suggest how you can take what you\u2019ve done and put your own spin on it. For instance, a good recipe for the simple act of boiling an egg will explain cooking time in relation to your preference for yolk gooiness. There are also different flavour combinations to try, accompaniments, or presentation suggestions.\u00a0\nBy breaking down your technical writing into similar sections, you can help your audience understand the elements they\u2019ll be working with, what they need to do once they have these, and how they can move on from your self-contained illustration.\nTitle\n      \n        Ensure your title is suitably descriptive and representative of the result. Getting Started with Python perhaps isn\u2019t as helpful as Learn Python: General Syntax and Basics.\n      \n    Result\n      \n        Many recipes include a couple of lines as an overview of what you\u2019ll end up with, and many include a photo of the finished dish. With our technical writing we can do the same:\n        In this tutorial we\u2019re going to learn how to set up our development environment, and we\u2019ll then undertake some exercises to explore the general syntax, finishing by building a mini calculator.\n      \n    Ingredients\n      \n        What are the components we\u2019ll be working with, whether in terms of versions, environment, languages or the software packages and libraries you\u2019ll need along the way? Listing these up front gives the reader a great summary of the things they\u2019ll be using, and any gotchas.\n        Being able to provide a small amount of supporting information will also help less experienced users. Ideally, explain briefly what things are and why we\u2019re using it.\n      \n    Prep\n      \n        As we heard from Erin above, not fully understanding the prep needed can be a huge source of frustration. Attempting to run a code snippet without context will often lead to failure when the prerequisites and process aren\u2019t clear. Be sure to include information around any environment set-up, installation or config you\u2019ll need to have done before you start.\nStu Robson\u2019s Simple Sass documentation aims to do this before getting into specifics, although ideally this would also include setting up Sass itself.\n      \n    Instructions\n      \nThe body of the tutorial itself is the whole point of our writing. The next four tips will hopefully make your tutorial much more successful.\n      \n    Variations\n      \n        Like our ingredients section, as important as explaining why we\u2019re using something in this context is, it\u2019s also great to explain alternatives that could be used instead, and the impact of doing so.\n        Perhaps go a step further, explaining ways that people can change what you have done in your tutorial/readme for use in different situations, or to provide further reading around next steps. What happens if they want to change your static array of demo data to use JSON, for instance? By giving some thought to follow-up questions, you can better support your readers.\n        While not in a separate section, the source code for GreenSock\u2019s GSAP JS basics explains:\n        We\u2019ll use a window.onload for simplicity, but typically it is best to use either jQuery\u2019s $(document).ready() or $(window).load() or cross-browser event listeners so that you\u2019re not limited to one.\n        Keep in mind to both:\n        Explain what variations are possible.\n          Explain why certain options may be more desirable than others in different situations.\n        \n    \n2. Small, reusable components\nReusable components are for life, not just for Christmas, and they\u2019re certainly not just for development. If you start to apply the structure above to your writing, you\u2019re probably going to keep coming across the same elements: Do I really have to explain how to install Sass and Node.js again, Sally? The danger with more clarity is that our writing becomes bloated and overly convoluted for advanced readers, those who don\u2019t need to be told how to beat an egg for the hundredth time.\u00a0\nInstead, by making our writing reusable and modular, and by creating smaller, central resources, we can provide context and extra detail where needed without diluting our core message. These could be references we create, or those already created well by others.\n\nThis recipe for katsudon makes use of this concept. Rather than explaining how to make tonkatsu or dashi stock, these each have their own page. Once familiar, more advanced readers will likely skip over the instructions for the component parts.\n\n3. Provide context to aid accessibility\nHere I\u2019m talking about accessibility in the broadest sense. Small, isolated snippets can be frustrating to those who don\u2019t fully understand the wider context of how our examples work.\nShowing an exciting standalone JavaScript function is great, but giving someone the full picture of how and when this is called, and how it should be included in relation to other HTML and CSS is even better. Giving your readers the ability to view a big picture version, and ideally the ability to download a full version of the source, will help to reduce some of the frustrations of trying to get your component to work in their set-up.\u00a0\n4. Be your own tech editor\nA good editor can be invaluable to your work, and wherever possible I\u2019d recommend that you try to get a neutral party to read over your writing. This may not always be possible, though, and you may need to rely on yourself to cast a critical eye over your work.\nThere are many tips out there around general editing, including printing out your work onto paper, or changing the font size: both will force your eyes to review it in a new light. Beyond this, I\u2019d like to encourage you to think about the following:\n\nExplain what things are. For example, instead of referencing Grunt, in the first instance perhaps reference \u201cGrunt (a JavaScript task runner that minimises repetitive activities through automation).\u201d\nExplain how you get things, even if this is a link to official installers and documentation. Don\u2019t leave your readers having to search.\nWhy are you using this approach/technology over other options?\nWhat happens if I use something else? What depends on this?\nAvoid exclusionary lingo or acronyms.\n\nAirbnb\u2019s JavaScript Style Guide includes useful pointers around their reasoning:\n\nUse computed property names when creating objects with dynamic property names.\nWhy? They allow you to define all the properties of an object in one place.\n\nThe language we use often makes assumptions, as we saw with \u201cjust\u201d. An article titled \u201cES6 for Beginners\u201d is hugely ambiguous: is this truly for beginner coders, or actually for people who have a good pre-existing understanding of JavaScript but are new to these features? Review your writing with different types of readers in mind. How might you confuse or mislead them? How can you better answer their questions?\nThis doesn\u2019t necessarily mean supporting everyone \u2013 your audience may need to have advanced skills \u2013 but even if you\u2019re providing low-level, deep-dive, reference material, trying not to make assumptions or take shortcuts will hopefully lead to better, clearer writing.\n5. A picture is worth a thousand words\u2026\n\u2026or even better: use a thousand pictures, stitched together into a quick video or animated GIF. People learn in different ways. Just as recipes often provide visual references or a video to work along with, providing your technical information with alternative demonstrations can really help get your point across. Your audience will be able to see exactly what you\u2019re doing, what they should expect as interaction responses, and what the process looks like at different points.\nThere are many, many options for recording your screen, including QuickTime Player on Mac OS X (File \u2192 New Screen Recording), GifGrabber, or Giffing Tool on Windows.\nPaul Swain, a UX designer, uses GIFs to provide additional context within his documentation, improving communication:\n\n\u201cMy colleagues (from across the organisation) love animated GIFs. Any time an interaction is referenced, it\u2019s accompanied by a GIF and a shared understanding of what\u2019s being designed. The humble GIF is worth so much more than a thousand words; and it\u2019s great for cats.\u201d\nPaul Swain\n\n\nNext time you\u2019re cooking up some instructions for readers, think back to what we can learn from recipes to help make your writing as accessible as possible. Use structure, provide reusable bitesize morsels, give some context, edit wisely, and don\u2019t scrimp on the GIFs. And above all, have a great Christmas!", "year": "2015", "author": "Sally Jenkinson", "author_slug": "sallyjenkinson", "published": "2015-12-18T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2015/cooking-up-effective-technical-writing/", "topic": "content"}
{"rowid": 42, "title": "An Overview of SVG Sprite Creation Techniques", "contents": "SVG can be used as an icon system to replace icon fonts. The reasons why SVG makes for a superior icon system are numerous, but we won\u2019t be going over them in this article. If you don\u2019t use SVG icons and are interested in knowing why you may want to use them, I recommend you check out \u201cInline SVG vs Icon Fonts\u201d by Chris Coyier \u2013 it covers the most important aspects of both systems and compares them with each other to help you make a better decision about which system to choose.\n\nOnce you\u2019ve made the decision to use SVG instead of icon fonts, you\u2019ll need to think of the best way to optimise the delivery of your icons, and ways to make the creation and use of icons faster.\n\nJust like bitmaps, we can create image sprites with SVG \u2013 they don\u2019t look or work exactly alike, but the basic concept is pretty much the same.\n\nThere are several ways to create SVG sprites, and this article will give you an overview of three of them. While we\u2019re at it, we\u2019re going to take a look at some of the available tools used to automate sprite creation and fallback for us.\n\nPrerequisites\n\nThe content of this article assumes you are familiar with SVG. If you\u2019ve never worked with SVG before, you may want to look at some of the introductory tutorials covering SVG syntax, structure and embedding techniques. I recommend the following:\n\n\n\tSVG basics: Using SVG.\n\tStructure: Structuring, Grouping, and Referencing in SVG  \u2014  The <g>, <use>, <defs> and <symbol> Elements. We\u2019ll mention <use> and <symbol> quite a bit in this article.\n\tEmbedding techniques: Styling and Animating SVGs with CSS. The article covers several topics, but the section linked focuses on embedding techniques.\n\tA compendium of SVG resources compiled by Chris Coyier  \u2014  contains resources to almost every aspect of SVG you might be interested in.\n\n\nAnd if you\u2019re completely new to the concept of spriting, Chris Coyier\u2019s CSS Sprites explains all about them.\n\nAnother important SVG feature is the viewBox attribute. For some of the techniques, knowing your way around this attribute is not required, but it\u2019s definitely more useful if you understand \u2013 even if just vaguely \u2013 how it works. The last technique mentioned in the article requires that you do know the attribute\u2019s syntax and how to use it. To learn all about viewBox, you can refer to my blog post about SVG coordinate systems.\n\nWith the prerequisites in place, let\u2019s move on to spriting SVGs!\n\nBefore you sprite\u2026\n\nIn order to create an SVG sprite with your icons, you\u2019ll of course need to have these icons ready for use.\n\nSome spriting tools require that you place your icons in a folder to which a certain spriting process is to be applied. As such, for all of the upcoming sections we\u2019ll work on the assumption that our SVG icons are placed in a folder named SVG.\n\nEach icon is an individual .svg file.\n\nYou\u2019ll need to make sure each icon is well-prepared and optimised for use \u2013 make sure you\u2019ve cleaned up the code by running it through one of the optimisation tools or processes available (or doing it manually if it\u2019s not tedious).\n\nAfter prepping the icon files and placing them in a folder, we\u2019re ready to create our SVG sprite.\n\nHTML inline SVG sprites\n\nSince SVG is XML code, it can be embedded inline in an HTML document as a code island using the <svg> element. Chris Coyier wrote about this technique first on CSS-Tricks.\n\nThe embedded SVG will serve as a container for our icons and is going to be the actual sprite we\u2019re going to use. So we\u2019ll start by including the SVG in our document.\n\n<!DOCTYPE html>\n<!-- HTML document stuff -->\n\n<svg style=\"display:none;\">\n  <!-- icons here -->\n</svg>\n\n<!-- other document stuff -->\n</html>\n\nNext, we\u2019re going to place the icons inside the <svg>. Each icon will be wrapped in a <symbol> element we can then reference and use elsewhere in the page using the SVG <use> element. The <symbol> element has many benefits, and we\u2019re using it because it allows us to define a symbol (which is a convenient markup for an icon) without rendering that symbol on the screen. The elements defined inside <symbol> will only be rendered when they are referenced \u2013 or called \u2013 by the <use> element.\n\nMoreover, <symbol> can have its own viewBox attribute, which makes it possible to control the positioning of its content inside its container at any time.\n\nBefore we move on, I\u2019d like to shed some light on the style=\"display:none;\" part of the snippet above. Without setting the display of the SVG to none, and even though its contents are not rendered on the page, the SVG will still take up space in the page, resulting in a big empty area. In order to avoid that, we\u2019re hiding the SVG entirely with CSS.\n\nNow, suppose we have a Twitter icon in the icons folder. twitter.svg might look something like this:\n\n<!-- twitter.svg -->\n<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\"?>\n<!DOCTYPE svg PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD SVG 1.1//EN\" \"http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/1.1/DTD/svg11.dtd\">\n<svg version=\"1.1\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\" xmlns:xlink=\"http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink\" width=\"32\" height=\"32\" viewBox=\"0 0 32 32\">\n<path d=\"M32 6.076c-1.177 0.522-2.443 0.875-3.771 1.034 1.355-0.813 2.396-2.099 2.887-3.632-1.269 0.752-2.674 1.299-4.169 1.593-1.198-1.276-2.904-2.073-4.792-2.073-3.626 0-6.565 2.939-6.565 6.565 0 0.515 0.058 1.016 0.17 1.496-5.456-0.274-10.294-2.888-13.532-6.86-0.565 0.97-0.889 2.097-0.889 3.301 0 2.278 1.159 4.287 2.921 5.465-1.076-0.034-2.088-0.329-2.974-0.821-0.001 0.027-0.001 0.055-0.001 0.083 0 3.181 2.263 5.834 5.266 6.437-0.551 0.15-1.131 0.23-1.73 0.23-0.423 0-0.834-0.041-1.235-0.118 0.835 2.608 3.26 4.506 6.133 4.559-2.247 1.761-5.078 2.81-8.154 2.81-0.53 0-1.052-0.031-1.566-0.092 2.905 1.863 6.356 2.95 10.064 2.95 12.076 0 18.679-10.004 18.679-18.68 0-0.285-0.006-0.568-0.019-0.849 1.283-0.926 2.396-2.082 3.276-3.398z\" fill=\"#000000\"></path>\n</svg>\n\nWe don\u2019t need the root svg element, so we\u2019ll strip the code and only keep the parts that make up the Twitter icon\u2019s shape, which in this example is just the <path> element.Let\u2019s drop that into the sprite container like so:\n\n<svg style=\"display:none;\">\n  <symbol id=\"twitter-icon\" viewBox=\"0 0 32 32\">\n    <path d=\"M32 6.076c-1.177 \u2026\" fill=\"#000000\"></path>\n  </symbol>\n\n <!-- remaining icons here -->\n  <symbol id=\"instagram-icon\" viewBox=\"0 0 32 32\">\n   <!-- icon contents -->\n  </symbol>\n\n  <!-- etc. -->\n</svg>\n\nRepeat for the other icons.\n\nThe value of the <symbol> element\u2019s viewBox attribute depends on the size of the SVG. You don\u2019t need to know how the viewBox works to use it in this case. Its value is made up of four parts: the first two will almost always be \u201c0 0\u201d; the second two will be equal to the size of the icon. For example, our Twitter icon is 32px by 32px (see twitter.svg above), so the viewBox value is \u201c0 0 32 32\u201d.\n\nThat said, it is certainly useful to understand how the viewBox works \u2013 it can help you troubleshoot SVG sometimes and gives you better control over it, allowing you to scale, position and even crop SVGs manually without having to resort to an editor. My blog post explains all about the viewBox attribute and its related attributes.\n\nOnce you have your SVG sprite ready, you can display the icons anywhere on the page by referencing them using the SVG <use> element:\n\n<svg class=\"twitter-icon\">\n  <use xlink:href=\"#twitter-icon\"></use>\n<svg>\n\nAnd that\u2019s all there is to it!\n\nHTML-inline SVG sprites are simple to create and use, but when you have a lot of icons (and the more icon sets you create) it can easily become daunting if you have to manually transfer the icons into the <svg>. Fortunately, you don\u2019t have to do that. Fabrice Weinberg created a Grunt plugin called grunt-svgstore which takes the icons in your SVG folder and generates the SVG sprites for you; all you have to do is just drop the sprites into your page and use the icons like we did earlier.\n\nThis technique works in all browsers supporting SVG. There seems to be a bug in Safari on iOS which causes the icons not to show up when the SVG sprite is defined at the bottom of the document after the <use> references to the icons, so it\u2019s safest to include the sprite before you use the icons until this bug is fixed.\n\nThis technique has one disadvantage: the SVG sprite cannot be cached. We\u2019re saving an extra HTTP request here but the browser cannot cache the image, so we aren\u2019t speeding up any subsequent page loads by inlining the SVG. There must be a better way \u2013 and there is.\n\nStyling the icons is possible, but getting deep into the styles becomes a bit harder owing to the nature of the contents of the <use> element \u2013 these contents are cloned into a shadow DOM, and hence selecting elements in CSS the traditional way is not possible. However, some techniques to work around that do exist, and give us slightly more styling flexibility. Animations work as expected.\n\nReferencing an external SVG sprite in HTML\n\nInstead of including the SVG inline in the document, you can reference the sprite and the icons inside it externally, taking advantage of fragment identifiers to select individual icons in the sprite.\n\nFor example, the above reference to the Twitter icon would look something like this instead:\n\n<svg class=\"twitter-icon\">\n  <use xlink:href=\"path/to/icons.svg#twitter-icon\"></use>\n<svg>\n\n\nicons.svg is the name of the SVG file that contains all of our icons as symbols, and the fragment identifier #twitter-icon is the reference to the <symbol> wrapping the Twitter icon\u2019s contents. Very convenient, isn\u2019t it? The browser will request the sprite and then cache it, speeding up subsequent page loads. Win!\n\nThis technique also works in all browsers supporting SVG except Internet Explorer \u2013 not even IE9+ with SVG support permits this technique. No version of IE supports referencing an external SVG in <use>.\n\nFortunately (again), Jonathan Neil has created a plugin called svg4everybody which fills this gap in IE; you can reference an external sprite in <use> and also provide fallback for browsers that do not support SVG. However, it requires you to have the fallback images (PNG or JPEG, for example) available to do so. For details, refer to the plugin\u2019s Github repository\u2019s readme file.\n\nCSS inline SVG sprites\n\nAnother way to create an SVG sprite is by inlining the SVG icons in a style sheet using data URIs, and providing fallback for non-supporting browsers \u2013 also within the CSS.\n\nUsing this approach, we\u2019re turning the style sheet into the sprite that includes our icons. The style sheet is normally cached by the browser, so we have that concern out of the way.\n\nThis technique is put into practice in Filament Group\u2019s icon system approach, which uses their Grunticon plugin \u2013 or its sister Grumpicon web app \u2013 for generating the necessary CSS for the sprite. As such, we\u2019re going to cover this technique by following a workflow that uses one of these tools.\n\nAgain, we start with our icon SVG files. To focus on the actual spriting method and not on the tooling, I\u2019ll go over the process of sprite creation using the Grumpicon web app, instead of the Grunticon plugin. Both tools generate the same resources that we\u2019re going to use for the icon system. Whether you choose the web app or the Grunt set-up, after processing your SVG folder you\u2019re going to end up with the same set of resources that we\u2019ll be using throughout this section.\n\nThe first step is to drop your icons into the Grumpicon web app.\n\n Grumpicon homepage screenshot.\n\nThe application will then show you a preview of your icons, and a download button will allow you to download the generated files. These files will contain everything you need for your icon system \u2013 all that\u2019s left is for you to drop the generated files and code into your project as recommended and you\u2019ll have your sprite and icons ready to use anywhere you want in your page.\n\nGrumpicon generates five files and one folder in the downloaded package: a png folder containing PNG versions of your icons; three style sheets (that we\u2019ll go over briefly); a loader script file; and preview.html which is a live example showing you the other files in action.\n\nThe script in the loader goes into the <head> of your page. This script handles browser and feature detection, and requests the necessary style sheet depending on browser support for SVG and base64 data URIs. If you view the source code of the preview page, you can see exactly how the script is added.\n\nicons.data.svg.css is the style sheet that contains your icons \u2013 the sprite. The icons are embedded inline inside the style sheet using data URIs, and applied to elements of your choice as background images, using class names. For example:\n\n.twitter-icon{\n    background-image: url('data:image/svg+xml;\u2026'); /* the ellipsis is where the icon\u2019s data would go */\n    background-repeat: no-repeat;\n    background-position: 50% 50%;\n    height: 2em;\n    width: 2em;\n    /* etc. */\n}\n\nThen, you only have to apply the twitter-icon class name to an element in your HTML to apply the icon as a background to it:\n\n<span class=\"twitter-icon\"></span>\n\nAnd that\u2019s all you need to do to get an icon on the page.\n\nicons.data.svg.css, along with the other two style sheets and the png folder should be added to your CSS folder.\n\nicons.data.png.css is the style sheet the script will load in browsers that don\u2019t support SVG, such as IE8. Fallback for the inline SVG is provided as a base64-encoded PNG. For instance, the fallback for the Twitter icon from our example would look like so:\n\n.twitter-icon{\n    background-image: url('data:image/png;base64;\u2026\u2019);\n    /* etc. */\n}\n\nicons.fallback.css is the style sheet required for browsers that don\u2019t support base64-encoded PNGs \u2013 the PNG images are loaded as usual using the image\u2019s URL. The script will load this style sheet for IE6 and IE7, for example.\n\n.twitter-icon{\n    background-image: url(png/twitter-icon.png);\n    /* etc. */\n}\n\nThis technique is very different from the previous one. The sprite in this case is literally the style sheet, not an SVG container, and the icon usage is very similar to that of a CSS sprite \u2013 the icons are provided as background images.\n\nThis technique has advantages and disadvantages. For the sake of brevity, I won\u2019t go into further details, but the main limitations worth mentioning are that SVGs embedded as background images cannot be styled with CSS; and animations are restricted to those defined inside the <svg> for each icon. CSS interactions (such as hover effects) don\u2019t work either. Thus, to apply an effect for an icon that changes its color on hover, for example, you\u2019ll need to export a set of SVGs for each colour in order for Grumpicon to create matching fallback PNG images that can then be used for the animation.\n\nFor more details about the Grumpicon workflow, I recommend you check out \u201cA Designer\u2019s Guide to Grumpicon\u201d on Filament Group\u2019s website.\n\nUsing SVG fragment identifiers and views\n\nThis spriting technique is, again, different from the previous ones, and it is my personal favourite.\n\nSVG comes with a standard way of cropping to a specific area in a particular SVG image. If you\u2019ve ever worked with CSS sprites before then this definitely sounds familiar: it\u2019s almost exactly what we do with CSS sprites \u2013 the image containing all of the icons is cropped, so to speak, to show only the one icon that we want in the background positioning area of the element, using background size and positioning properties.\n\nInstead of using background properties, we\u2019ll be using SVG\u2019s viewBox attribute to crop our SVG to the specific icon we want.\n\nWhat I like about this technique is that it is more visual than the previous ones. Using this technique, the SVG sprite is treated like an actual image containing other images (the icons), instead of treating it as a piece of code containing other code.\n\nAgain, our SVG icons are placed inside a main SVG container that is going to be our SVG sprite. If you\u2019re working in a graphics editor, position or arrange your icons inside the canvas any way you want them to be, and then export the graphic as is. Of course, the less empty space there is in your SVG, the better.\n\nIn our example, the sprite contains three icons as shown in the following image. The sprite is open in Sketch. Notice how the SVG is just big enough to fit the icons inside it. It doesn\u2019t have to be like this, but it\u2019s cleaner this way.\n\n Screenshot showing the SVG sprite containing our icons.\n\nNow, suppose you want to display only the Instagram icon. Using the SVG viewBox attribute, we can crop the SVG to the icon. The Instagram icon is positioned at 64px along the positive x-axis, and zero pixels along the y-axis. It is also 32px by 32px in size.\n\n Screenshot showing the position (offset) of the Instagram icon inside the SVG sprite, and its size.\n\nUsing this information, we can specify the value of the viewBox as: 64 0 32 32. This area of the view box contains only the Instagram icon. 64 0 specifies the top-left corner of the view box area, and 32 32 specify its dimensions.\n\nNow, if we were to change the viewBox value on the SVG sprite to this value, only the Instagram icon will be visible inside the SVG viewport. Great. But how do we use this information to display the icon in our page using our sprite?\n\nSVG comes with a native way to link to portions or areas of an image using fragment identifiers. Fragment identifiers are used to link into a particular view area of an SVG document. Thus, using a fragment identifier and the boundaries of the area that we want (from the viewBox), we can link to that area and display it.\n\nFor example, if you want to display the icon from the sprite using an <img> tag, you can reference the icon in the sprite like so:\n\n<img src='uiIcons.svg#svgView(viewBox(64, 0, 32, 32))' alt=\"Settings icon\"/>\n\nThe fragment identifier in the snippet above (#svgView(viewBox(64, 0, 32, 32))) is the important part. This will result in only the Instagram icon\u2019s area of the sprite being displayed.\n\nThere is also another way to do this, using the SVG <view> element. The <view> element can be used to define a view area and then reference that area somewhere else. For example, to define the view box containing the Instagram icon, we can do the following:\n\n<view id='instagram-icon' viewBox='64 0 32 32' />\n\nThen, we can reference this view in our <img> element like this:\n\n<img src='sprite.svg#instagram-icon' alt=\"Instagram icon\" />\n\nThe best part about this technique \u2013 besides the ability to reference an external SVG and hence make use of browser caching \u2013 is that it allows us to use practically any SVG embedding technique and does not restrict us to specific tags.\n\nIt goes without saying that this feature can be used for more than just icon systems, owing to viewBox\u2019s power in controlling an SVG\u2019s viewable area.\n\nSVG fragment identifiers have decent browser support, but the technique is buggy in Safari: there is a bug that causes problems when loading a server SVG file and then using fragment identifiers with it. Bear Travis has documented the issue and a workaround.\n\nWhere to go from here\n\nPick the technique that works best for your project. Each technique has its own pros and cons, relating to convenience and maintainability, performance, and styling and scripting. Each technique also requires its own fallback mechanism.\n\nThe spriting techniques mentioned here are not the only techniques available. Other methods exist, such as SVG stacks, and others may surface in future, but these are the three main ones today.\n\nThe third technique using SVG\u2019s built-in viewBox features is my favourite, and with better browser support and fewer (ideally, no) bugs, I believe it is more likely to become the standard way to create and use SVG sprites. Fallback techniques can be created, of course, in one of many possible ways.\n\nDo you use SVG for your icon system? If so, which is your favourite technique? Do you know or have worked with other ways for creating SVG sprites?", "year": "2014", "author": "Sara Soueidan", "author_slug": "sarasoueidan", "published": "2014-12-16T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2014/an-overview-of-svg-sprite-creation-techniques/", "topic": "code"}
{"rowid": 296, "title": "Animation in Design Systems", "contents": "Our modern front-end workflow has matured over time to include design systems and component libraries that help us stay organized, improve workflows, and simplify maintenance. These systems, when executed well, ensure proper documentation of the code available and enable our systems to scale with reduced communication conflicts. \nBut while most of these systems take a critical stance on fonts, colors, and general building blocks, their treatment of animation remains disorganized and ad-hoc. Let\u2019s leverage existing structures and workflows to reduce friction when it comes to animation and create cohesive and performant user experiences. \nUnderstand the importance of animation\nPart of the reason we treat animation like a second-class citizen is that we don\u2019t really consider its power. When users are scanning a website (or any environment or photo), they are attempting to build a spatial map of their surroundings. During this process, nothing quite commands attention like something in motion. \nWe are biologically trained to notice motion: evolutionarily speaking, our survival depends on it. For this reason, animation when done well can guide your users. It can aid and reinforce these maps, and give us a sense that we understand the UX more deeply. We retrieve information and put it back where it came from instead of something popping in and out of place. \n\n\u201cWhere did that menu go? Oh it\u2019s in there.\u201d \n\nFor a deeper dive into how animation can connect disparate states, I wrote about the Importance of Context-Shifting in UX Patterns for CSS-Tricks.\nAn animation flow on mobile.\nAnimation also aids in perceived performance. Viget conducted a study where they measured user engagement with a standard loading GIF versus a custom animation. Customers were willing to wait almost twice as long for the custom loader, even though it wasn\u2019t anything very fancy or crazy. Just by showing their users that they cared about them, they stuck around, and the bounce rates dropped.\n\n14 second generic loading screen.22 second custom loading screen.\nThis also works for form submission. Giving your personal information over to an online process like a static form can be a bit harrowing. It becomes more harrowing without animation used as a signal that something is happening, and that some process is completing. That same animation can also entertain users and make them feel as though the wait isn\u2019t as long. \nEli Fitch gave a talk at CSS Dev Conf called: \u201cPerceived Performance: The Only Kind That Really Matters\u201d, which is one of my favorite talk titles of all time. In it, he discussed how we tend to measure things like timelines and network requests because they are more quantifiable\u2013and therefore easier to measure\u2013but that measuring how a user feels when visiting the site is more important and worth the time and attention. \nIn his talk, he states \u201cHumans over-estimate passive waits by 36%, per Richard Larson of MIT\u201d. This means that if you\u2019re not using animation to speed up how fast the wait time of a form submission loads, users are perceiving it to be much slower than the dev tools timeline is recording.\nReign it in\nUnlike fonts, colors, and so on, we tend to add animation in as a last step, which leads to disorganized implementations that lack overall cohesion. If you asked a designer or developer if they would create a mockup or build a UI without knowing the fonts they were working with, they would dislike the idea. Not knowing the building blocks they\u2019re working with means that the design can fall apart or the development can break with something so fundamental left out at the start. Good animation works the same way.\nThe first step in reigning in your use of animation is to perform an animation audit. Look at all the places you are using animation on your site, or the places you aren\u2019t using animation but probably should. (Hint: perceived performance of a loader on a form submission can dramatically change your bounce rates.) \nNot sure how to perform a good audit? Val Head has a great chapter on it in her book, Designing Interface Animations, which has of buckets of research and great ideas.\nEven some beautiful component libraries that have animation in the docs make this mistake. You don\u2019t need every kind of animation, just like you don\u2019t need every kind of font. This bloats our code. Ask yourself questions like: do you really need a flip 180 degree animation? I can\u2019t even conceive of a place on a typical UI where that would be useful, yet most component libraries that I\u2019ve seen have a mixin that does just this.\nWhich leads to\u2026\nHave an opinion\nMany people are confused about Material Design. They think that Material Design is Motion Design, mostly because they\u2019ve never seen anyone take a stance on animation before and document these opinions well. But every time you use Material Design as your motion design language, people look at your site and think GOOGLE. Now that\u2019s good branding.\nBy using Google\u2019s motion design language and not your own, you\u2019re losing out on a chance to be memorable on your own website.\nWhat does having an opinion on motion look like in practice? It could mean you\u2019ve decided that you never flip things. It could mean that your eases are always going to glide. In that instance, you would put your efforts towards finding an ease that looks \u201cgliding\u201d and pulling out any transform: scaleX(-1) animation you find on your site. Across teams, everyone knows not to spend time mocking up flipping animation (even if they\u2019re working on an entirely different codebase), and to instead work on something that feels like it glides. You save time and don\u2019t have to communicate again and again to make things feel cohesive.\nCreate good developer resources\nSometimes people don\u2019t incorporate animation into a design system because they aren\u2019t sure how, beyond the base hover states. All animation properties can be broken into interchangeable pieces. This allows developers and designers alike to mix and match and iterate quickly, while still staying in the correct language. Here are some recommendations (with code and a demo to follow):\nCreate timing units, similar to h1, h2, h3. In a system I worked on recently, I called these t1, t2, t3. T1 would be reserved for longer pieces, down to t5 which is a bit like h5 in that it\u2019s the default (usually around .25 seconds or thereabouts).\nKeep animation easings for entrance, exit, entrance emphasis and exit emphasis that people can commonly refer to. This, and the animation-fill-mode, are likely to be the only two properties that can be reused for the entrance and exit of the animation.\nUse the animation-name property to define the keyframes for the animation itself. I would recommend starting with 5 or 6 before making a slew of them, and see if you need more. Writing 30 different animations might seem like a nice resource, but just like your color palette having too many can unnecessarily bulk up your codebase, and keep it from feeling cohesive. Think critically about what you need here. \nSee the Pen Modularized Animation for Component Libraries by Sarah Drasner (@sdras) on CodePen.\n\nThe example above is pared-down, but you can see how in a robust system, having pieces that are interchangeable cached across the whole system would save time for iterations and prototyping, not to mention make it easy to make adjustments for different feeling movement on the same animation easily.\nOne low hanging fruit might be a loader that leads to a success dialog. On a big site, you might have that pattern many times, so writing up a component that does only that helps you move faster while also allowing you to really zoom in and focus on that pattern. You avoid throwing something together at the last minute, or using a GIF, which are really heavy and mushy on retina. You can make singular pieces that look really refined and are reusable. \nReact and Vue Implementations are great for reusable components, as you can create a building block with a common animation pattern, and once created, it can be a resource for all. Remember to take advantage of things like props to allow for timing and easing adjustments like we have in the previous example!\nResponsive\nAt the very least we should ensure that interaction also works well on mobile, but if we\u2019d like to create interactions that take advantage of all of the gestures mobile has to offer, we can use libraries like zingtouch or hammer to work with swipe or multiple finger detection. With a bit of work, these can all be created through native detection as well.\nResponsive web pages can specify initial-scale=1.0 in the meta tag so that the device is not waiting the required 300ms on the secondary tap before calling action. Interaction for touch events must either start from a larger touch-target (40px \u00d7 40px or greater) or use @media(pointer:coarse) as support allows.\nBuy-in\nSometimes people don\u2019t create animation resources simply because it gets deprioritized. But design systems were also something we once had to fight for, too. This year at CSS Dev Conf, Rachel Nabors demonstrated how to plot out animation wants vs. needs on a graph (reproduced with her permission) to help prioritize them:\n\n\nThis helps people you\u2019re working with figure out the relative necessity and workload of the addition of these animations and think more critically about it. You\u2019re also more likely to get something through if you\u2019re proving that what you\u2019re making is needed and can be reused. \nGood compromises can be made this way: \u201cwe\u2019re not going to go all out and create an animated \u2018About Us\u2019 page like you wanted, but I suppose we can let our users know their contact email went through with a small progress and success notification.\u201d \nSuccessfully pushing smaller projects through helps build trust with your team, and lets them see what this type of collaboration can look like. This builds up the type of relationship necessary to push through projects that are more involved. It can\u2019t be overstressed that good communication is key.\nGet started!\nWith these tools and good communication, we can make our codebases more efficient, performant, and feel better for our users. We can enhance the user experience on our sites, and create great resources for our teams to allow them to move more quickly while innovating beautifully.", "year": "2016", "author": "Sarah Drasner", "author_slug": "sarahdrasner", "published": "2016-12-16T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2016/animation-in-design-systems/", "topic": "code"}
{"rowid": 231, "title": "Designing for iOS: Life Beyond Media Queries", "contents": "Although not a new phenomenon, media queries seem to be getting a lot attention online recently and for the right reasons too \u2013 it\u2019s great to be able to adapt a design with just a few lines of CSS \u2013 but many people are relying only on them to create an iPhone-specific version of their website. \n\nI was pleased to hear at FOWD NYC a few weeks ago that both myself and Aral Balkan share the same views on why media queries aren\u2019t always going to be the best solution for mobile. Both of us specialise in iPhone design ourselves and we opt for a different approach to media queries. The trouble is, regardless of what you have carefully selected to be display:none; in your CSS, the iPhone still loads everything in the background; all that large imagery for your full scale website also takes up valuable mobile bandwidth and time.\n\nYou can greatly increase the speed of your website by creating a specific site tailored to mobile users with just a few handy pointers \u2013 media queries, in some instances, might be perfectly suitable but, in others, here\u2019s what you can do.\n\nRedirect your iPhone/iPod Touch users\n\nTo detect whether someone is viewing your site on an iPhone or iPod Touch, you can either use JavaScript or PHP. \n\nThe JavaScript \n\nif((navigator.userAgent.match(/iPhone/i)) || (navigator.userAgent.match(/iPod/i))) { \n    if (document.cookie.indexOf(\"iphone_redirect=false\") == -1) window.location = \"http://mobile.yoursitehere.com\"; \n}\n\nThe PHP\n\nif(strstr($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'],'iPhone') || strstr($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'],'iPod')) \n{\n    header('Location: http://mobile.yoursitehere.com');\n    exit();\n}\n\nBoth of these methods redirect the user to a site that you have made specifically for the iPhone. At this point, be sure to provide a link to the full version of the website, in case the user wishes to view this and not be thrown into an experience they didn\u2019t want, with no way back.\n\nTailoring your site\n\nSo, now you\u2019ve got 320\u2009\u00d7\u2009480 pixels of screen to play with \u2013 and to create a style sheet for, just as you would for any other site you build. There are a few other bits and pieces that you can add to your code to create a site that feels more like a fully immersive iPhone app rather than a website.\n\nRetina display\n\nWhen building your website specifically tailored to the iPhone, you might like to go one step further and create a specific style sheet for iPhone 4\u2019s Retina display. Because there are four times as many pixels on the iPhone 4 (640\u2009\u00d7\u2009960 pixels), you\u2019ll find specifics such as text shadows and borders will have to be increased. \n\n<link rel=\"stylesheet\" \n   media=\"only screen and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2)\" \n   type=\"text/css\" href=\"../iphone4.css\" />\n\n(Credit to Thomas Maier)\n\nPrevent user scaling\n\nThis declaration, added into the <head>, stops the user being able to pinch-zoom in and out of your design, which is perfect if you are designing to the exact pixel measurements of the iPhone screen. \n\n<meta name=\"viewport\" \n   content=\"width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0; maximum-scale=1.0;\">\n\nDesigning for orientation \n\nAs iPhones aren\u2019t static devices, you\u2019ll also need to provide a style sheet for horizontal orientation. We can do this by inserting some JavaScript into the <head> as follows: \n\n<script type=\"text/javascript\">\nfunction orient() {\n    switch(window.orientation) {\n        case 0: \n            document.getElementById(\"orient_css\").href = \"css/iphone_portrait.css\";\n            break;\n        case -90: \n            document.getElementById(\"orient_css\").href = \"css/iphone_landscape.css\";\n            break;\n        case 90: \n            document.getElementById(\"orient_css\").href = \"css/iphone_landscape.css\";\n            break;\n    }\n}\nwindow.onload = orient();\n</script>\n\nYou can also specify orientation styles using media queries. This is absolutely fine, as by this point you\u2019ll already be working with mobile-specific graphics and have little need to set a lot of things to display:none;\n\n<link rel=\"stylesheet\" \n   media=\"only screen and (max-device-width: 480px)\" href=\"/iphone.css\">\n<link rel=\"stylesheet\" \n   media=\"only screen and (orientation: portrait)\" href=\"/portrait.css\">\n<link rel=\"stylesheet\" \n   media=\"only screen and (orientation: landscape)\u201d href=\"/landscape.css\">\n\nRemove the address and status bars, top and bottom\n\nTo give you more room on-screen and to make your site feel more like an immersive web app, you can place the following declaration into the <head> of your document\u2019s code to remove the address and status bars at the top and bottom of the screen. \n\n<meta name=\"apple-mobile-web-app-capable\" content=\"yes\" />\n\nMaking the most of inbuilt functions\n\nSimilar to mailto: e-mail links, the iPhone also supports another two handy URI schemes which are great for enhancing contact details. When tapped, the following links will automatically bring up the appropriate call or text interface:\n\n<a href=\"tel:01234567890\">Call us</a>\n<a href=\"sms:01234567890\">Text us</a>\n\niPhone-specific Web Clip icon\n\nAlthough I believe them to be fundamentally flawed, since they rely on the user bookmarking your site, iPhone Web Clip icons are still a nice touch. You need just two declarations, again in the <head> of your document:\n\n<link rel=\"apple-touch-icon\" href=\"icons/regular_icon.png\" />\n<link rel=\"apple-touch-icon\" sizes=\"114x114\" href=\"icons/retina_icon.png\" />\n\nFor iPhone 4 you\u2019ll need to create a 114\u2009\u00d7\u2009114 pixels icon; for a non-Retina display, a 57\u2009\u00d7\u200957 pixels icon will do the trick.\n\nPrecomposed \n\nApple adds its standard gloss \u2018moon\u2019 over the top of any icon. If you feel this might be too much for your particular icon and would prefer a matte finish, you can add precomposed to the end of the apple-touch-icon declaration to remove the standard gloss. \n\n<link rel=\"apple-touch-icon-precomposed\" href=\"/images/touch-icon.png\" />\n\nWrapping up\n\nMedia queries definitely have their uses. They make it easy to build a custom experience for your visitor, regardless of their browser\u2019s size. For more complex sites, however, or where you have lots of imagery and other content that isn\u2019t necessary on the mobile version, you can now use these other methods to help you out. Remember, they are purely for presentation and not optimisation; for busy people on the go, optimisation and faster-running mobile experiences can only be a good thing. \n\nHave a wonderful Christmas fellow Webbies!", "year": "2010", "author": "Sarah Parmenter", "author_slug": "sarahparmenter", "published": "2010-12-17T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2010/life-beyond-media-queries/", "topic": "code"}
{"rowid": 277, "title": "Raising the Bar on Mobile", "contents": "One of the primary challenges of designing for mobile devices is that screen real estate is often in limited supply. Through the advocacy of Luke W and others, we\u2019ve drawn comfort from the idea that this constraint ends up benefiting users and designers alike, from obvious advantages like portability and reach, to influencing our content strategy decisions through focus and restraint. But that doesn\u2019t mean we shouldn\u2019t take advantage of every last pixel of that screen we can snag!\n\nAs anyone who has designed a website for use on a smartphone can attest, there\u2019s an awful lot of space on mobile screens dedicated to browser functions that would be better off toggled out of view. Unfortunately, the visibility of some of these elements is beyond our control, such as the buttons fixed to the bottom of the viewport in iOS\u2019s Safari and the WebOS browser. However, in many devices, the address bar at the top can be manually hidden, and its absence frees up enough pixel room for a large, impactful heading, a critical piece of navigation, or even just a little more white space to air things out.\n\nSo, as my humble contribution to this most festive of web publications, today I\u2019ll dig into the approach I used to hide the address bar in a browser-agnostic fashion for sites like BostonGlobe.com, and the jQuery Mobile framework.\n\nSurveying the land\n\nFirst, let\u2019s assess the chromes of some popular, current mobile browsers. For example purposes, the following screen-captures feature the homepage of the Boston Globe site, without any address-bar-hiding logic in place.\n\nNote: these captures are just mockups \u2013 actual experience on these platforms may vary.\n\n On the left is iOS5\u2019s Safari (running on iPhone), and on the right is Windows Phone 7 (pre-Mango).\n\n BlackBerry 7 (left), and Android 2.3 (right).\n\n WebOS (left), Opera Mini (middle), and Opera Mobile (right).\n\nSome browsers, such the default browsers on WebOS and BlackBerry 5, hide the bar automatically without any developer intervention, but many of them don\u2019t. Of these, we can only manually hide the address bar on iOS Safari and Android (according to Opera Web Opener, Mike Taylor, some discussion is underway for support in Opera Mini and Mobile as well, which would be great!). This is unfortunate, but iOS and Android are incredibly popular, so let\u2019s direct our focus there.\n\nGreat API, or greatest API?\n\nAs it turns out, iOS and Android not only allow you to hide the address bar, they use the same JavaScript method to do so, too (this shouldn\u2019t be surprising, given that they are both WebKit browsers, but nothing expected happens in mobile). However, the method they use is not exactly intuitive. You might set out looking for a JavaScript API dedicated to this purpose, like, say, window.toolbar.hide(), but alas, to hide the address bar you need to use the window.scrollTo method!\n\nwindow.scrollTo(0, 0);\n\nThe scrollTo method is not new, it\u2019s just this particular use of it that is. For the uninitiated, scrollTo is designed to scroll a document to a particular set of coordinates, assuming the document is large enough to scroll to that spot. The method accepts two arguments: a left coordinate; and a top coordinate. It\u2019s both simple and supported well pretty much everywhere. In iOS and Android, these coordinates are calculated from the top of the browser\u2019s viewport, just below the address bar (interestingly, it seems that some platforms like BlackBerry 6 treat the top of the browser chrome as 0 instead, meaning the page content is closer to 20px from the top).\n\nAnyway, by passing the coordinates 0, 0 to the scrollTo method, the browser will jump to the top of the page and pull the address bar out of view! Of course, if a quick call to scrollTo was all we need to do to hide the address bar in iOS and Android, this article would be pretty short, and nothing new. Unfortunately, the first issue we need to deal with is that this method alone will not usually do the trick: it must be called after the page has finished loading.\n\nThe browser gives us a load event for just that purpose, so we\u2019ll wrap our scrollTo method in it and continue on our merry way! We\u2019ll use the standard, addEventListener method to bind the the load event, passing arguments for event name load, and a callback function to execute when the event is triggered.\n\nwindow.addEventListener(\"load\",function() {\n    window.scrollTo(0, 0);\n});\n\nFor the sake of preventing errors in those using browsers that don\u2019t support addEventListener, such as Internet Explorer 8 and under, let\u2019s make sure that method exists before we use it:\n\nif( window.addEventListener ){\n    window.addEventListener(\"load\",function() {\n        window.scrollTo(0, 0);\n    });\n}\n\nNow we\u2019re getting somewhere, but we must also call the method after the load event\u2019s default behavior has been applied. For this, we can use the setTimeout method, delaying its execution to after the load event has run its course.\n\nif( window.addEventListener ){\n    window.addEventListener(\"load\",function() {\n        setTimeout(function(){\n            window.scrollTo(0, 0);\n        }, 0);\n    });\n}\n\nSweet sugar of Christmas! Hit this demo in iOS and watch that address bar drift up and away!\n\nNot so fast\u2026\n\nWe\u2019ve got a little problem: the approach above does work in iOS but, in some cases, it works a little too well. In the process of applying this behavior, we\u2019ve broken one of the primary tenets of responsible web development: don\u2019t break the browser\u2019s default behaviour. This usability rule of thumb is often violated by developers with even the best of intentions, from breaking the browser\u2019s back button through unrecorded Ajax page refreshes, to fancy momentum touch scrolling scripts that can wreak havoc in all but the most sophisticated of devices. In this case, we\u2019ve prevented the browser\u2019s native support of deep-linking to sections of a page (a hash identifier in the URL matching a page element\u2019s id attribute, for example, http://example.com#contact) from working properly, because our script always scrolls to the top.\n\nTo avoid this collision, we\u2019ll need to detect whether a deep link, or hash, is present in the URL before applying our logic. We can do this by ensuring that the location.hash property is falsey:\n\nif( !window.location.hash && window.addEventListener ){\n    window.addEventListener( \"load\",function() {\n        setTimeout(function(){\n            window.scrollTo(0, 0);\n        }, 0);\n    });\n}\n\nStill works great! And a quick test using a hash-based URL confirms that our script will not execute when a deep anchor is in play. Now iOS is looking sharp, and we\u2019ve added our feature defensively to avoid conflicts.\n\n\n\nNow, on to Android\u2026\n\nWait. You didn\u2019t expect that we could write code for one browser and be finished, right? Of course you didn\u2019t. I mentioned earlier that Android uses the same method for getting rid of the scrollbar, but I left out the fact that the arguments it prefers vary slightly, but significantly, from iOS. Bah!\n\nDifferering from the earlier logic from iOS, to remove the address bar on Android\u2019s default browser, you need to pass a Y coordinate of 1 instead of 0. Aside from being just plain odd, this is particularly unfortunate because to any other browser on the planet, 1px is a very real, however small, distance from the top of the page!\n\nwindow.scrollTo( 0, 1 );\n\nLooks like we\u2019re going to need a fork\u2026\n\nR UA Android?\n\nAt this point, some developers might decide to simply not support this feature in Android, and more determined devs might decide that a quick check of the User Agent string would be a reliable way to determine the browser and tweak the scroll value accordingly. Neither of those decisions would be tragic, but in the spirit of cross-browser and future-friendly development, I\u2019ll propose an alternative.\n\nBy this point, it should be clear that neither of the implementations above offer a particularly intuitive way to hide an address bar. As such, one might be skeptical that these approaches will stick around very long in their present state in either browser. Perhaps at some point, Android will decide to use 0 like iOS, making our lives a little easier, or maybe some new browser will decide to model their address bar hiding method after one of these implementations. In any case, detecting the User Agent only allows us to apply logic based on the known present, and in the world of mobile, let\u2019s face it, the present is already the past.\n\nWriting a check\n\nIn this next step of today\u2019s technique, we\u2019ll apply some logic to quickly determine the behavior model of the browser we\u2019re using, then capitalize on that model \u2013 without caring which browser it happens to come from \u2013 by applying the appropriate scroll distance.\n\nTo do this, we\u2019ll rely on a fortunate side effect of Android\u2019s implementation, which is when you programatically scroll the page to 1 using scrollTo, Android will report that it\u2019s still at 0 because oddly enough, it is! Of course, any other browser in this situation will report a scroll distance of 1. Thus, by scrolling the page to 1, then asking the browser its scroll distance, we can use this artifact of their wacky implementation to our advantage and scroll to the location that makes sense for the browser in play.\n\nGetting the scroll distance\n\nTo pull off our test, we\u2019ll need to ask the browser for its current scroll distance. The methods for getting scroll distance are not entirely standardized across popular browsers, so we\u2019ll need to use some cross-browser logic. The following scroll distance function is similar to what you\u2019d find in a library like jQuery. It checks the few common ways of getting scroll distance before eventually falling back to 0 for safety\u2019s sake (that said, I\u2019m unaware of any browsers that won\u2019t return a numeric value from one of the first three properties).\n\n// scrollTop getter\nfunction getScrollTop(){\n    return scrollTop  = window.pageYOffset ||\ndocument.compatMode === \"CSS1Compat\" && document.documentElement.scrollTop ||\ndocument.body.scrollTop || 0;\n}\n\nIn order to execute that code above, the body object (referenced here as document.body) will need to be defined already, or we\u2019ll risk an error. To determine that it\u2019s defined, we can run a quick timer to execute code as soon as that object is defined and ready for use.\n\nvar bodycheck = setInterval(function(){\n    if( document.body ){\n        clearInterval( bodycheck );\n        //more logic can go here!!\n    }   \n}, 15 );\n\nAbove, we\u2019ve defined a 15 millisecond interval called bodycheck that checks if document.body is defined and, if so, clears itself of running again. Within that if statement, we can extend our logic further to run other code, such as our check for the scroll distance, defined via the variable scrollTop below:\n\nvar scrollTop,\n    bodycheck = setInterval(function(){\n    if( document.body ){\n        clearInterval( bodycheck );\n        scrollTop = getScrollTop();\n    }   \n}, 15 );\n\nWith this working, we can immediately scroll to 1, then check the scroll distance when the body is defined. If the distance reports 1, we\u2019re likely in a non-Android browser, so we\u2019ll scroll back to 0 and clean up our mess.\n\nwindow.scrollTo( 0, 1 );\n\nvar scrollTop,\n    bodycheck = setInterval(function(){\n    if( document.body ){\n        clearInterval( bodycheck );\n        scrollTop = getScrollTop();\n        window.scrollTo( 0, scrollTop === 1 ? 0 : 1 );\n    }   \n}, 15 );\n\nCashing in\n\nAll of the pieces are written now, so all we need to do is combine them with our previous logic for scrolling when the window is loaded, and we\u2019ll have a cross-browser solution of which John Resig would be proud. Here\u2019s our combined code snippet, with some formatting updates rolled in as well:\n\n(function( win ){\n\tvar doc = win.document;\n\n\t// If there\u2019s a hash, or addEventListener is undefined, stop here\n\tif( !location.hash && win.addEventListener ){\n\t\t//scroll to 1\n\t\twindow.scrollTo( 0, 1 );\n\t\tvar scrollTop = 1,\n\t\t\tgetScrollTop = function(){\n\t\t\t\treturn win.pageYOffset || doc.compatMode = \"CSS1Compat\" && doc.documentElement.scrollTop || doc.body.scrollTop || 0;\n\t\t\t},\n\t\t\t//reset to 0 on bodyready, if needed\n\t\t\tbodycheck = setInterval(function(){\n\t\t\t\tif( doc.body ){\n\t\t\t\t\tclearInterval( bodycheck );\n\t\t\t\t\tscrollTop = getScrollTop();\n\t\t\t\t\twin.scrollTo( 0, scrollTop = 1 ? 0 : 1 );\n\t\t\t\t}\t\n\t\t\t}, 15 );\n\t\twin.addEventListener( \u201cload\u201d, function(){\n\t\t\tsetTimeout(function(){\n\t\t\t\t\t//reset to hide addr bar at onload\n\t\t\t\t\twin.scrollTo( 0, scrollTop === 1 ? 0 : 1 );\n\t\t\t}, 0);\n\t\t} );\n\t}\n})( this );\nView code example\n\nAnd with that, we\u2019ve got a bunch more room to play with on both iOS and Android.\n\n\n\nBreak out the eggnog\n\n\u2026because we\u2019re not done yet! In the spirit of making our script act more defensively, there\u2019s still another use case to consider. It was essential that we used the window\u2019s load event to trigger our scripting, but on pages with a lot of content, its use can come at a cost. Often, a user will begin interacting with a page, scrolling down as they read, before the load event has fired. In those situations, our script will jump the user back to the top of the page, resulting in a jarring experience.\n\nTo prevent this problem from occurring, we\u2019ll need to ensure that the page has not been scrolled beyond a certain amount. We can add a simple check using our getScrollTop function again, this time ensuring that its value is not greater than 20 pixels or so, accounting for a small tolerance.\n\nif( getScrollTop() < 20 ){\n    //reset to hide addr bar at onload\n    window.scrollTo( 0, scrollTop === 1 ? 0 : 1 );\n}\n\nAnd with that, we\u2019re pretty well protected! Here\u2019s a final demo.\n\nThe completed script can be found on Github (full source: https://gist.github.com/1183357 ). It\u2019s MIT licensed. Feel free to use it anywhere or any way you\u2019d like!\n\nYour thoughts?\n\nI hope this article provides you with a browser-agnostic approach to hiding the address bar that you can use in your own projects today. Perhaps alternatively, the complications involved in this approach convinced you that doing this well is more trouble than it\u2019s worth and, depending on the use case, that could be a fair decision. But at the very least, I hope this demonstrates that there\u2019s a lot of work involved in pulling off this small task in only two major platforms, and that there\u2019s a real need for standardization in this area.\n\nFeel free to leave a comment or criticism and I\u2019ll do my best to answer in a timely fashion.\n\nThanks, everyone!\n\nSome parting notes\n\nI scream, you scream\u2026\n\nAt the time of writing, I was not able to test this method on the latest Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) build. According to Sencha Touch\u2019s browser scorecard, the browser in 4.0 may have a different way of managing the address bar, so I\u2019ll post in the comments once I get a chance to dig into it further.\n\nShort pages get no love\n\nToday\u2019s technique only works when the page is as tall, or taller than, the device\u2019s available screen height, so that the address bar may be scrolled out of view. On a short page, you might work around this issue by applying a minimum height to the body element ( body { min-height: 460px; } ), but given the variety of screen sizes out there, not to mention changes in orientation, it\u2019s tough to find a value that makes much sense (unless you manipulate it with JavaScript).", "year": "2011", "author": "Scott Jehl", "author_slug": "scottjehl", "published": "2011-12-20T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2011/raising-the-bar-on-mobile/", "topic": "design"}
{"rowid": 276, "title": "Your jQuery: Now With 67% Less Suck", "contents": "Fun fact: more websites are now using jQuery than Flash.\n\njQuery is an amazing tool that\u2019s made JavaScript accessible to developers and designers of all levels of experience. However, as Spiderman taught us, \u201cwith great power comes great responsibility.\u201d The unfortunate downside to jQuery is that while it makes it easy to write JavaScript, it makes it easy to write really really f*&#ing bad JavaScript. Scripts that slow down page load, unresponsive user interfaces, and spaghetti code knotted so deep that it should come with a bottle of whiskey for the next sucker developer that has to work on it. \n\nThis becomes more important for those of us who have yet to move into the magical fairy wonderland where none of our clients or users view our pages in Internet Explorer. The IE JavaScript engine moves at the speed of an advancing glacier compared to more modern browsers, so optimizing our code for performance takes on an even higher level of urgency.\n\nThankfully, there are a few very simple things anyone can add into their jQuery workflow that can clear up a lot of basic problems. When undertaking code reviews, three of the areas where I consistently see the biggest problems are: inefficient selectors; poor event delegation; and clunky DOM manipulation. We\u2019ll tackle all three of these and hopefully you\u2019ll walk away with some new jQuery batarangs to toss around in your next project.\n\nSelector optimization\n\nSelector speed: fast or slow?\n\nSaying that the power behind jQuery comes from its ability to select DOM elements and act on them is like saying that Photoshop is a really good tool for selecting pixels on screen and making them change color \u2013 it\u2019s a bit of a gross oversimplification, but the fact remains that jQuery gives us a ton of ways to choose which element or elements in a page we want to work with. However, a surprising number of web developers are unaware that all selectors are not created equal; in fact, it\u2019s incredible just how drastic the performance difference can be between two selectors that, at first glance, appear nearly identical. For instance, consider these two ways of selecting all paragraph tags inside a <div> with an ID.\n\n$(\"#id p\");\n\n$(\"#id\").find(\"p\");\n\nWould it surprise you to learn that the second way can be more than twice as fast as the first? Knowing which selectors outperform others (and why) is a pretty key building block in making sure your code runs well and doesn\u2019t frustrate your users waiting for things to happen.\n\nThere are many different ways to select elements using jQuery, but the most common ways can be basically broken down into five different methods. In order, roughly, from fastest to slowest, these are:\n\n\n\t$(\"#id\"); \nThis is without a doubt the fastest selector jQuery provides because it maps directly to the native document.getElementbyId() JavaScript method. If possible, the selectors listed below should be prefaced with an ID selector in conjunction with jQuery\u2019s .find() method to limit the scope of the page that has to be searched (as in the $(\"#id\").find(\"p\") example shown above).\n\t$(\"p\");, $(\"input\");, $(\"form\"); and so on\nSelecting elements by tag name is also fast, since it maps directly to the native document.getElementsByTagname() method.\n\t$(\".class\"); \nSelecting by class name is a little trickier. While still performing very well in modern browsers, it can cause some pretty significant slowdowns in IE8 and below. Why? IE9 was the first IE version to support the native document.getElementsByClassName() JavaScript method. Older browsers have to resort to using much slower DOM-scraping methods that can really impact performance.\n\t$(\"[attribute=value]\");\nThere is no native JavaScript method for this selector to use, so the only way that jQuery can perform the search is by crawling the entire DOM looking for matches. Modern browsers that support the querySelectorAll() method will perform better in certain cases (Opera, especially, runs these searches much faster than any other browser) but, generally speaking, this type of selector is Slowey McSlowersons.\n\t$(\":hidden\");\nLike attribute selectors, there is no native JavaScript method for this one to use. Pseudo-selectors can be painfully slow since the selector has to be run against every element in your search space. Again, modern browsers with querySelectorAll() will perform slightly better here, but try to avoid these if at all possible. If you must use one, try to limit the search space to a specific portion of the page: $(\"#list\").find(\":hidden\");\n\n\nBut, hey, proof is in the performance testing, right? It just so happens that said proof is sitting right here. Be sure to notice the class selector numbers beside IE7 and 8 compared to other browsers and then wonder how the people on the IE team at Microsoft manage to sleep at night. Yikes.\n\nChaining\n\nAlmost all jQuery methods return a jQuery object. This means that when a method is run, its results are returned and you can continue executing more methods on them. Rather than writing out the same selector multiple times over, just making a selection once allows multiple actions to be run on it.\n\nWithout chaining\n\n$(\"#object\").addClass(\"active\");\n$(\"#object\").css(\"color\",\"#f0f\");\n$(\"#object\").height(300);\n\nWith chaining\n\n$(\"#object\").addClass(\"active\").css(\"color\", \"#f0f\").height(300);\n\nThis has the dual effect of making your code shorter and faster. Chained methods will be slightly faster than multiple methods made on a cached selector, and both ways will be much faster than multiple methods made on non-cached selectors. Wait\u2026 \u201ccached selector\u201d? What is this new devilry? \n\nCaching\n\nAnother easy way to speed up your code that seems to be a mystery to developers is the idea of caching your selectors. Think of how many times you end up writing the same selector over and over again in any project. Every $(\".element\") selector has to search the entire DOM each time, regardless of whether or not that selector had been previously run. Running the selection once and then storing the results in a variable means that the DOM only has to be searched once. Once the results of a selector have been cached, you can do anything with them.\n\nFirst, run your search (here we\u2019re selecting all of the <li> elements inside <ul id=\"blocks\">): \n\nvar blocks = $(\"#blocks\").find(\"li\");\n\nNow, you can use the blocks variable wherever you want without having to search the DOM every time.\n\n$(\"#hideBlocks\").click(function() {\n    blocks.fadeOut();\n});\n$(\"#showBlocks\").click(function() {\n    blocks.fadeIn();\n});\n\nMy advice? Any selector that gets run more than once should be cached. This jsperf test shows just how much faster a cached selector runs compared to a non-cached one (and even throws some chaining love in to boot).\n\nEvent delegation\n\nEvent listeners cost memory. In complex websites and apps it\u2019s not uncommon to have a lot of event listeners floating around, and thankfully jQuery provides some really easy methods for handling event listeners efficiently through delegation.\n\nIn a bit of an extreme example, imagine a situation where a 10\u00d710 cell table needs to have an event listener on each cell; let\u2019s say that clicking on a cell adds or removes a class that defines the cell\u2019s background color. A typical way that this might be written (and something I\u2019ve often seen during code reviews) is like so:\n\n$('table').find('td').click(function() {\n    $(this).toggleClass('active');\n});\n\njQuery 1.7 has provided us with a new event listener method, .on(). It acts as a utility that wraps all of jQuery\u2019s previous event listeners into one convenient method, and the way you write it determines how it behaves. To rewrite the above .click() example using .on(), we\u2019d simply do the following:\n\n$('table').find('td').on('click',function() {\n    $(this).toggleClass('active');\n});\n\nSimple enough, right? Sure, but the problem here is that we\u2019re still binding one hundred event listeners to our page, one to each individual table cell. A far better way to do things is to create one event listener on the table itself that listens for events inside it. Since the majority of events bubble up the DOM tree, we can bind a single event listener to one element (in this case, the <table>) and wait for events to bubble up from its children. The way to do this using the .on() method requires only one change from our code above:\n\n$('table').on('click','td',function() {\n    $(this).toggleClass('active');\n});\n\nAll we\u2019ve done is moved the td selector to an argument inside the .on() method. Providing a selector to .on() switches it into delegation mode, and the event is only fired for descendants of the bound element (table) that match the selector (td). With that one simple change, we\u2019ve gone from having to bind one hundred event listeners to just one. You might think that the browser having to do one hundred times less work would be a good thing and you\u2019d be completely right. The difference between the two examples above is staggering.\n\n(Note that if your site is using a version of jQuery earlier than 1.7, you can accomplish the very same thing using the .delegate() method. The syntax of how you write the function differs slightly; if you\u2019ve never used it before, it\u2019s worth checking the API docs for that page to see how it works.)\n\nDOM manipulation\n\njQuery makes it very easy to manipulate the DOM. It\u2019s trivial to create new nodes, insert them, remove other ones, move things around, and so on. While the code to do this is simple to write, every time the DOM is manipulated, the browser has to repaint and reflow content which can be extremely costly. This is no more evident than in a long loop, whether it be a standard for() loop, while() loop, or jQuery $.each() loop.\n\nIn this case, let\u2019s say we\u2019ve just received an array full of image URLs from a database or Ajax call or wherever, and we want to put all of those images in an unordered list. Commonly, you\u2019ll see code like this to pull this off:\n\nvar arr = [reallyLongArrayOfImageURLs]; \n    $.each(arr, function(count, item) {\n        var newImg = '<li><img src=\"'+item+'\"></li>';\n        $('#imgList').append(newImg);\n    });\n\nThere are a couple of problems with this. For one (which you should have already noticed if you\u2019ve read the earlier part of this article), we\u2019re making the $(\"#imgList\") selection once for each iteration of our loop. The other problem here is that each time the loop iterates, it\u2019s adding a new <li> to the DOM. Each of those insertions is going to be costly, and if our array is quite large then this could lead to a massive slowdown or even the dreaded \u2018A script is causing this page to run slowly\u2019 warning.\n\nvar arr = [reallyLongArrayOfImageURLs],\n    tmp = ''; \n$.each(arr, function(count, item) {\n    tmp += '<li><img src=\"'+item+'\"></li>';\n});\n$('#imgList').append(tmp);\n\nAll we\u2019ve done here is create a tmp variable that each <li> is added to as it\u2019s created. Once our loop has finished iterating, that tmp variable will contain all of our list items in memory, and can be appended to our <ul> all in one go. Browsers work much faster when working with objects in memory rather than on screen, so this is a much faster, more CPU-cycle-friendly method of building a list.\n\nWrapping up\n\nThese are far from being the only ways to make your jQuery code run better, but they are among the simplest ones to implement. Though each individual change may only make a few milliseconds of difference, it doesn\u2019t take long for those milliseconds to add up. Studies have shown that the human eye can discern delays of as few as 100ms, so simply making a few changes sprinkled throughout your code can very easily have a noticeable effect on how well your website or app performs. Do you have other jQuery optimization tips to share? Leave them in the comments and help make us all better.\n\nNow go forth and make awesome!", "year": "2011", "author": "Scott Kosman", "author_slug": "scottkosman", "published": "2011-12-13T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2011/your-jquery-now-with-less-suck/", "topic": "code"}
{"rowid": 255, "title": "Inclusive Considerations When Restyling Form Controls", "contents": "I would like to begin by saying 2018 was the year that we, as developers, visual designers, browser implementers, and inclusive design and experience specialists rallied together and achieved a long-sought goal: We now have the ability to fully style form controls, across all modern browsers, while retaining their ease of declaration, native functionality and accessibility.\nI would like to begin by saying all these things. However, they\u2019re not true. I think we spent the year debating about what file extension CSS should be written in, or something. Or was that last year? Maybe I\u2019m thinking of next year.\nReturning to reality, styling form controls is more tricky and time consuming these days rather than flat out \u201chard\u201d. In fact, depending on the length of the styling-leash a particular browser provides, there are controls you can style quite a bit. As for browsers with shorter leashes, there are other options to force their controls closer to the visual design you\u2019re tasked to match.\nHowever, when striving for custom styled controls, one must be careful not to forget about the inherent functionality and accessibility that many provide. People expect and deserve the products and services they use and pay for to work for them. If these services are visually pleasing, but only function for those who fit the handful of personas they\u2019ve been designed for, then we\u2019ve potentially deprived many people the experiences they deserve.\nQuick level setting\nGetting down to brass tacks, when creating custom styled form controls that should retain their expected semantics and functionality, we have to consider the following:\n\nMany form elements can be styled directly through standard and browser specific selectors, as well as through some clever styling of markup patterns. We should leverage these native options before reinventing any wheels.\nIt is important to preserve the underlying semantics of interactive controls. We must not unintentionally exclude people who use assistive technologies (ATs) that rely on these semantics. \nMake sure you test what you create. There is a lot of underlying complexity to form controls which may not be immediately apparent if they\u2019re judged solely by their visual presentation in a single browser, or with limited AT testing.\n\nVisually resetting and restyling form controls\nOver the course of 2018, I worked on a project where I tested and reported on the accessibility impact of styling various form controls. In conducting my research, I reviewed many of the form controls available in HTML, testing to see how malleable they were to direct styling from standardized CSS selectors. \nAs I expected, controls such as the various text fields could be restyled rather easily. However, other controls like radio buttons and checkboxes, or sub-elements of special text fields like date, search, and number spinners were resistant to standard-based styling. These particular controls and their sub-elements required specific pseudo-elements to reset and allow for restyling of some of their default presentation.\nSee the Pen form control styling comparisons by Scott (@scottohara) on CodePen.\nhttps://codepen.io/scottohara/pen/gZOrZm/\nOver the years, the ability to directly style form controls has been something many people have clamored for. However, one should realize the benefits of being able to restyle some of these controls may involve more effort than originally anticipated. \nIf you want to restyle a control from the ground up, then you must also recreate any :active, :focus, and :hover states for the control\u2014all those things that were previously taken care of by browsers. Not only that, but anything you restyle should also work with Windows High Contrast mode, styling for dark mode, and other OS-level settings that browser respect without you even realizing.   \n\n            You ever try playing with the accessibility settings of your display on macOS, or similar Windows setting?\n    \nIt is also worth mentioning that any browser prefixed pseudo-elements are not standardized CSS selectors. As MDN mentions at the top of their pages documenting these pseudo-elements:\n\nNon-standard\nThis feature is non-standard and is not on a standards track. Do not use it on production sites facing the Web: it will not work for every user. There may also be large incompatibilities between implementations and the behavior may change in the future.\n\nWhile this may be a deterrent for some, it\u2019s my opinion the risks are often only skin-deep. By which I mean if a non-standard selector does change, the control may look a bit quirky, but likely won\u2019t cease to function. A bug report which requires a CSS selector change can be an easy JIRA ticket to close, after all.\nCan\u2019t make it? Fake it.\nInternet Explorer 11 (IE11) is still neck-and-neck with other browsers in vying for the number 2 spot in desktop browser share. Due to IE not recognizing vendor-prefixed appearance properties, some essential controls like checkboxes won\u2019t render as intended. \nAdditionally, some controls like select boxes, file uploads, and sub-elements of date fields (calendar popups) cannot be modified by just relying on styling their HTML selectors alone. This means that unless your company designs and develops with a progressive enhancement, or graceful degradation mindset, you\u2019ll need to take a different approach in styling.\nGetting clever with markup and CSS\nThe following CodePen demonstrates how we can create a custom checkbox markup pattern. By mindfully utilizing CSS sibling selectors and positioning of the native control, we can create custom visual styling while also retaining the functionality and accessibility expectations of a native checkbox.\nSee the Pen Accessible Styled Native Checkbox by Scott (@scottohara) on CodePen.\nhttps://codepen.io/scottohara/pen/RqEayN/\nCustomizing checkboxes by visually hiding the input and styling well-placed markup with sibling selectors may seem old hat to some. However, many variations of these patterns do not take into account how their method of visually hiding the checkboxes can create discovery issues for certain screen reader navigation methods. For instance, if someone is using a mobile device and exploring by touch, how will they be able to drag their finger over an input that has been reduced to a single pixel, or positioned off screen?\nAs we move away from the simplicity of declaring a single HTML element and using clever CSS and markup patterns to create restyled form controls, we increase the need for additional testing to ensure no expected behaviors are lost. In other words, what should work in theory may not work in practice when you introduce the various different ways people may engage with a form control. It\u2019s worth remembering: what might be typical interactions for ourselves may be problematic if not impossible for others.\nLimitations to cleverness\nCreative coding will allow us to apply more consistent custom styles to some of the more problematic form controls. There will be a varied amount of custom markup, CSS, and sometimes JavaScript that will be needed to preserve the control\u2019s inherent usability and accessibility for each control we take this approach to.\nHowever, this method of restyling still doesn\u2019t solve for the lack of feature parity across different browsers. Nor is it a means to account for controls which don\u2019t have a native HTML element equivalent, such as a switch or multi-thumb range slider? Maybe there\u2019s a control that calls for a visual design or proposed user experience that would require too much fighting with a native control\u2019s behavior to be worth the level of effort to implement. Here\u2019s where we need to take another approach.\nUsing ARIA when appropriate\nSometimes we have no other option than to roll up our sleeves and start building custom form controls from scratch. Fair warning though: just because we\u2019re not leveraging a native HTML control as our foundation, it doesn\u2019t mean we have carte blanche to throw semantics out the window. Enter Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA).\nARIA is a set of attributes that can modify existing elements, or extend HTML to include roles, properties and states that aren\u2019t native to the language. While divs and spans have no meaningful semantic information for us to leverage, with help from the ARIA specification and ARIA Authoring Practices we can incorporate these elements to help create the UI that we need while still following the first rule of Using ARIA:\n\nIf you can use a native HTML element or attribute with the semantics and behavior you require already built in, instead of re-purposing an element and adding an ARIA role, state or property to make it accessible, then do so.\n\nBy using these documents as guidelines, and testing our custom controls with people of various abilities, we can do our best to make sure a custom control performs as expected for as many people as possible.\nExceptions to the rule\nOne example of a control that allows for an exception to the first rule of Using ARIA would be a switch control.\nSwitches and checkboxes are similar components, in that they have both on/checked and off/unchecked states. However, checkboxes are often expected within the context of forms, or used to filter search queries on e-commerce sites. Switches are typically used to instantly enable or deactivate a particular setting at a component or app-based level, as this is their behavior in the native mobile apps in which they were popularized.\nWhile a switch control could be created by visually restyling a checkbox, this does not automatically mean that the underlying semantics and functionality will match the visual representation of the control. For example, the following CodePen restyles checkboxes to look like a switch control, but the semantics of the checkboxes remain which communicate a different way of interacting with the control than what you might expect from a native switch control.\nSee the Pen Switch Boxes - custom styled checkboxes posing as switches by Scott (@scottohara) on CodePen.\nhttps://codepen.io/scottohara/pen/XyvoeE/\nBy adding a role=\"switch\" to these checkboxes, we can repurpose the inherent checked/unchecked states of the native control, it\u2019s inherent ability to be focused by Tab key, and Space key to toggle state.\nBut while this is a valid approach to take in building a switch, how does this actually match up to reality?\nDoes it pass the test(s)?\nWhether deconstructing form controls to fully restyle them, or leveraging them and other HTML elements as a base to expand on, or create, a non-native form control, building it is just the start. We must test that what we\u2019ve restyled or rebuilt works the way people expect it to, if not better.\nWhat we must do here is run a gamut of comparative tests to document the functionality and usability of native form controls.  For example:\n\n\nIs the control implemented in all supported browsers?\nIf not: where are the gaps? Will it be necessary to implement a custom solution for the situations that degrade to a standard text field?  \nIf so: is each browser\u2019s implementation a good user experience? Is there room for improvement that can be tested against the native baseline?  \n\n\nTest with multiple input devices.\nWhere the control is implemented, what is the quality of the user experience when using different input devices, such as mouse, touchscreen, keyboard, speech recognition or switch device, to name a few.  \nYou\u2019ll find some HTML5 controls (like date pickers and number spinners) have additional UI elements that may not be announced to AT, or even allow keyboard accessibility. Often these controls can be adjusted by other means, such as text entry, or using arrow keys to increase or decrease values.  If restyling or recreating a custom version of a control like these, it  may make sense to maintain these native experiences as well.\n\n\nHow well does the control take to custom styles?\nIf a control can be styled enough to not need to be rebuilt from scratch, that\u2019s great! But make sure that there are no adverse affects on the accessibility of it.  For instance, range sliders can be restyled and maintain their functionality and accessibility.  However, elements like progress bars can be negatively affected by direct styling.  \nAlways test with different browser and AT pairings to ensure nothing is lost when controls are restyled.  \n\n\nDo specifications match reality?\nIf recreating controls to get around native limitations, such as the inability to style the options of a select element, or requiring a Switch control which is not native to HTML, do your solutions match user expectations?  \nFor instance, selects have unique picker interfaces on touch devices.  And switches have varied levels of support for different browser and screen reader pairings.  Test with real people, and check your analytics.  If these experiences don\u2019t match people\u2019s expectations, then maybe another solution is in order?  \n\n\nWrapping up\nWhile styling form controls is definitely easier than it\u2019s ever been, that doesn\u2019t mean that it\u2019s at all simple, nor will it likely ever be. The level of difficulty you\u2019re going to face is going to depend entirely on what it is you\u2019re hoping to style, add-on to, or recreate. And even if you build your custom control exactly to specification, you\u2019ll still be reliant on browsers and assistive technologies being able to fully understand the component they\u2019ve been presented.\nForms and their controls are an incredibly important part of what we need the Internet for. Paying bills, scheduling appointments, ordering groceries, renewing your license or even ordering gifts for the holidays. These are all important tasks that people should be able to complete with as little effort as possible. Especially since for some, completing these tasks online might be their only option.\n2018 didn\u2019t end up being the year we got full customization of form controls sorted out. But that\u2019s OK. If we can continue to mindfully work with what we have, and instead challenge ourselves to follow inclusive design principles, well thought out Form Design Patterns, and solve problems with an accessibility first approach, we may come to realize that we can get along just fine without fully branded drop downs.  \nAnd hey. There\u2019s always next year, right?", "year": "2018", "author": "Scott O'Hara", "author_slug": "scottohara", "published": "2018-12-13T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2018/inclusive-considerations-when-restyling-form-controls/", "topic": "code"}
{"rowid": 221, "title": "\u201cProbably, Maybe, No\u201d: The State of HTML5 Audio", "contents": "With the hype around HTML5 and CSS3 exceeding levels not seen since 2005\u2019s Ajax era, it\u2019s worth noting that the excitement comes with good reason: the two specifications render many years of feature hacks redundant by replacing them with native features. For fun, consider how many CSS2-based rounded corners hacks you\u2019ve probably glossed over, looking for a magic solution. These days, with CSS3, the magic is border-radius (and perhaps some vendor prefixes) followed by a coffee break.\n\nCSS3\u2019s border-radius, box-shadow, text-shadow and gradients, and HTML5\u2019s <canvas>, <audio> and <video> are some of the most anticipated features we\u2019ll see put to creative (ab)use as adoption of the \u2018new shiny\u2019 grows. Developers jumping on the cutting edge are using subsets of these features to little detriment, in most cases. The more popular CSS features are design flourishes that can degrade nicely, but the current audio and video implementations in particular suffer from a number of annoyances.\n\nThe new shiny: how we got here\n\nSound involves one of the five senses, a key part of daily life for most \u2013 and yet it has been strangely absent from HTML and much of the web by default. From a simplistic perspective, it seems odd that HTML did not include support for the full multimedia experience earlier, despite the CD-ROM-based craze of the early 1990s. In truth, standards like HTML can take much longer to bake, but eventually deliver the promise of a lowered barrier to entry, consistent implementations and shiny new features now possible \u2018for free\u2019 just about everywhere.\n\n<img> was introduced early and naturally to HTML, despite having some opponents at the time. Perhaps <audio> and <video> were avoided, given the added technical complexity of decoding various multi-frame formats, plus the hardware and bandwidth limitations of the era. Perhaps there were quarrels about choosing a standard format or \u2013 more simply \u2013 maybe these elements just weren\u2019t considered to be applicable to the HTML-based web at the time. In any event, browser plugins from programs like RealPlayer and QuickTime eventually helped to fill the in-page audio/video gap, handling <object> and <embed> markup which pointed to .wav, .avi, .rm or .mov files. Suffice it to say, the experience was inconsistent at best and, on the standards side of the fence right now, so is HTML5 in terms of audio and video.\n\n: the theory\n\nAs far as HTML goes, the code for <audio> is simple and logical. Just as with <img>, a src attribute specifies the file to load. Pretty straightforward \u2013 sounds easy, right?\n\n<audio src=\"mysong.ogg\" controls>\n\t<!-- alternate content for unsupported case -->\n\tDownload <a href=\"mysong.ogg\">mysong.ogg</a>;\n</audio>\n\nAh, if only it were that simple. The first problem is that the OGG audio format, while \u2018free\u2019, is not supported by some browsers. Conversely, nor is MP3, despite being a de facto standard used in all kinds of desktop software (and hardware). In fact, as of November 2010, no single audio format is commonly supported across all major HTML5-enabled browsers.\n\nWhat you end up writing, then, is something like this:\n\n<audio controls>\n\t<source src=\"mysong.mp3\" />\n\t<source src=\"mysong.ogg\" />\n\t<!-- alternate content for unsupported case, maybe Flash, etc. -->\n\tDownload <a href=\"mysong.ogg\">mysong.ogg</a> or <a href=\"mysong.mp3\">mysong.mp3</a>\n</audio>\n\nKeep in mind, this is only a \u2018first class\u2019 experience for the HTML5 case; also, for non-supported browsers, you may want to look at another inline player (object/embed, or a JavaScript plus Flash API) to have inline audio. You can imagine the added code complexity in the case of supporting \u2018first class\u2019 experiences for older browsers, too.\n\n: the caveats\n\nWith <img>, you typically don\u2019t have to worry about format support \u2013 it just works \u2013 and that\u2019s part of what makes a standard wonderful. JPEG, PNG, BMP, GIF, even TIFF images all render just fine if for no better reason, perhaps, than being implemented during the \u2018wild west\u2019 days of the web. The situation with <audio> today reflects a very different \u2013 read: business-aware \u2013 environment in 2010. (Further subtext: There\u2019s a lot of [potential] money involved.) Regrettably, this is a collision of free and commercial interests, where the casualty is ultimately the user. Second up in the casualty list is you, the developer, who has to write additional code around this fragmented support.\n\nThe HTML5 audio API as implemented in JavaScript has one of the most un-computer-like responses I\u2019ve ever seen, and inspired the title of this post. Calling new Audio().canPlayType('audio/mp3'), which queries the system for format support according to a MIME type, is supposed to return one of \u201cprobably\u201d, \u201cmaybe\u201d, or \u201cno\u201d. Sometimes, you\u2019ll just get a null or empty string, which is also fun. A \u201cmaybe\u201d response does not guarantee that a format will be supported; sometimes audio/mp3 gives \u201cmaybe,\u201d but then audio/mpeg; codecs=\"mp3\" will give a more-solid \u201cprobably\u201d response. This can vary by browser or platform, too, depending on native support \u2013 and finally, the user may also be able to install codecs, extending support to include other formats. (Are you excited yet?)\n\nDamn you, warring formats!\n\nNew market and business opportunities go hand-in-hand with technology developments. What we have here is certainly not failure to communicate; rather, we have competing parties shouting loudly in public in attempts to influence mindshare towards a de facto standard for audio and video. Unfortunately, the current situation means that at least two formats are effectively required to serve the majority of users correctly.\n\nAs it currently stands, we have the free and open source software camp of OGG Vorbis/WebM and its proponents (notably, Mozilla, Google and Opera in terms of browser makers), up against the non-free, proprietary and \u2018closed\u2019 camp of MP3 and MPEG4/HE-AAC/H.264 \u2013 which is where you\u2019ll find commitments from Apple and Microsoft, among others. Apple is likely in with H.264 for the long haul, given its use of the format for its iTunes music store and video offerings.\n\nIt is generally held that H.264 is a technically superior format in terms of file size versus quality, but it involves intellectual property and, in many use cases, requires licensing fees. To be fair, there is a business model with H.264 and much has been invested in its development, but this approach is not often the kind that wins over the web. On that front, OGG/WebM may eventually win for being a \u2018free\u2019 format that does not involve a licensing scheme.\n\nClosed software and tools ideologically clash with the open nature of the web, which exists largely thanks to free and open technology. Because of philosophical and business reasons, support for audio and video is fragmented across browsers adopting HTML5 features. It does not help that a large amount of audio and video currently exists in non-free MP3 and MPEG-4 formats. Adoption of <audio> and <video> may be slowed, since it is more complex than <img> and may feel \u2018broken\u2019 to developers when edge cases are encountered. Furthermore, the HTML5 spec does not mandate a single required format. The end result is that, as a developer, you must currently provide at least both MP3 and OGG, for example, to serve most existing HTML5-based user agents.\n\nTransitioning to \n\n\n\nThere will be some growing pains as developers start to pick up the new HTML5 shiny, while balancing the needs of current and older agents that don\u2019t support either <audio> or the preferred format you may choose (for example, MP3). In either event, Flash or other plugins can be used as done traditionally within HTML4 documents to embed and play the relevant audio.\n\n\n\nThe SoundManager 2 page player demo in action.\n\n\n\nIdeally, HTML5 audio should be used whenever possible with Flash as the backup option. A few JavaScript/Flash-based audio player projects exist which balance the two; in attempting to tackle this problem, I develop and maintain SoundManager 2, a JavaScript sound API which transparently uses HTML5 Audio() and, if needed, Flash for playing audio files. The internals can get somewhat ugly, but the transition between HTML4 and HTML5 is going to be just that \u2013 and even with HTML5, you will need some form of format fall-back in addition to graceful degradation.\n\nIt may be safest to fall back to MP3/MP4 formats for inline playback at this time, given wide support via Flash, some HTML5-based browsers and mobile devices. Considering the amount of MP3/MP4 media currently available, it is wiser to try these before falling through to a traditional file download process.\n\nEarly findings\n\nHere is a brief list of behavioural notes, annoyances, bugs, quirks and general weirdness I have found while playing with HTML5-based audio at time of writing (November 2010):\n\nApple iPad/iPhone (iOS 4, iPad 3.2+)\n\n\n\tOnly one sound can be played at a time. If a second sound starts, the first is stopped.\n\tNo auto-play allowed. Sounds follow the pop-up window security model and can only be started from within a user event handler such as onclick/touch, and so on. Otherwise, playback attempts silently fail.\n\tOnce started, a sequence of sounds can be created or played via the \u2018finish\u2019 event of the previous sound (for example, advancing through a playlist without interaction after first track starts).\n\tiPad, iOS 3.2: Occasional \u2018infinite loop\u2019 bug seen where audio does not complete and stop at a sound\u2019s logical end \u2013 instead, it plays again from the beginning. Might be specific to example file format (HE-AAC) encoded from iTunes.\n\n\nApple Safari, OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.5\n\n\n\tCritical bug: Safari 4 and 5 intermittently fail to load or play HTML5 audio on Snow Leopard due to bug(s) in QuickTime X and/or other underlying frameworks. Known Apple \u2018radar\u2019 bug: bugs.webkit.org #32159 (see also, test case.) Amusing side note: Safari on Windows is fine.\n\n\nApple Safari, Windows\n\n\n\tFood for thought: if you download \u201cSafari\u201d alone on Windows, you will not get HTML5 audio/video support (tested in WinXP). You need to download \u201cSafari + QuickTime\u201d to get HTML5 audio/video support within Safari. (As far as I\u2019m aware, Chrome, Firefox and Opera either include decoders or use system libraries accordingly. Presumably IE 9 will use OS-level APIs.)\n\n\nGeneral Quirks\n\n\n\tSeeking and loading, \u2018progress\u2019 events, and calculating bytes loaded versus bytes total should not be expected to be linear, as users can arbitrarily seek within a sound. It appears that some support for HTTP ranges exists, which adds a bit of logic to UI code. Browsers seem to vary slightly in their current implementations of these features.\n\tThe onload event of a sound may be of little relevance, if non-linear loading is involved (see above note re: seeking).\n\tInterestingly (perhaps I missed it), the current spec does not seem to specify a panning or left/right channel mix option.\n\tThe preload attribute values may vary slightly between browsers at this time.\n\n\nUpcoming shiny: HTML5 Audio Data API\n\n\n\n\n\tWith access to audio data, you can incorporate waveform and spectrum elements that make your designs react to music.\n\n\n\nThe HTML5 audio spec does a good job covering the basics of playback, but did not initially get into manipulation or generation of audio on-the-fly, something Flash has had for a number of years now. What if JavaScript could create, monitor and change audio dynamically, like a sort of audio <canvas> element? With that kind of capability, many dynamic audio processing features become feasible and, when combined with other media, can make for some impressive demos.\n\nWhat started as a small idea among a small group of audio and programming enthusiasts grew to inspire a W3C audio incubator group, and continued to establish the Mozilla Audio Data API. Contributors wrote a patch for Firefox which was reviewed and revised, and is now slated to be in the public release of Firefox 4. Some background and demos are also detailed in an article from the BBC R&D blog.\n\nThere are plenty of live demos to see, which give an impression of the new creative ideas this API enables. Many concepts are not new in themselves, but it is exciting to see this sort of thing happening within the native browser context.\n\nMozilla is not alone in this effort; the WebKit folks are also working on a JavaScriptAudioNode interface, which implements similar audio buffering and sample elements.\n\nThe future?\n\nIt is my hope that we\u2019ll see a common format emerge in terms of support across the major browsers for both audio and video; otherwise, support will continue to be fragmented and mildly frustrating to develop for, and that can impede growth of the feature. It\u2019s a big call, but if <img> had lacked a common format back in the wild west era, I doubt the web would have grown to where it is today.\n\nComplaints and nitpicks aside, HTML5 brings excellent progress on the browser multimedia front, and the first signs of native support are a welcome improvement given all audio and video previously relied on plugins. There is good reason to be excited. While there is room for more, support could certainly be much worse \u2013 and as tends to happen with specifications, the implementations targeting them should improve over time.\n\nNote: Thanks to Nate Koechley, who suggested the Audio().canPlayType() response be part of the article title.", "year": "2010", "author": "Scott Schiller", "author_slug": "scottschiller", "published": "2010-12-08T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2010/the-state-of-html5-audio/", "topic": "code"}
{"rowid": 295, "title": "Internet of Stranger Things", "contents": "This year I\u2019ve been running a workshop about using JavaScript and Node.js to work with all different kinds of electronics on the Raspberry Pi. So especially for 24 ways I\u2019m going to show you how I made a very special Raspberry Pi based internet connected project! And nothing says Christmas quite like a set of fairy lights connected to another dimension1.\nWhat you\u2019ll see\nYou can rig up the fairy lights in your home, with the scrawly letters written under each one. The people from the other side (i.e. the internet) will be able to write messages to you from their browser in real time. In fact why not try it now; check this web page. When you click the lights in your browser, my lights (and yours) will turn on and off in real life! (There may be a queue if there are lots of people accessing it, hit the \u201cSend a message\u201d button and wait your turn.)\n\n\n\n\nIt\u2019s all done with JavaScript, using Node.js running on both the Raspberry Pi and on the server. I\u2019m using WebSockets to communicate in real time between the browser, server and Raspberry Pi.\nWhat you\u2019ll need\n\nRaspberry Pi any of the following models: Zero (will need straight male header pins soldered2 and Micro USB OTG adaptor), A+, B+, 2, or 3\nMicro SD card at least 4Gb Class 10 speed3\nMicro USB power supply at least 2A\nUSB Wifi dongle (unless you have a Pi 3 - that has wifi built in). \nAddressable fairy lights\nLogic level shifter (with pins soldered unless you want to do it!)\nBreadboard\nJumper wires (3x male to male and 4x female to male)\n\nOptional but recommended\n\nBase board to hold the Pi and Breadboard (often comes with a breadboard!)\n\nFind links for where to buy all of these items that goes along with this tutorial. The total price should be around $1004.\nSetting up the Raspberry Pi\nYou\u2019ll need to install the SD card for the Raspberry Pi. You\u2019ll find a link to download a disk image on the support document, ready-made with the Raspbian version of Linux, along with Node.js and all the files you need. Download it and write it to the SD card using the fantastic free software Etcher5. \nNext up you have to configure the wifi details on the SD card. If you plug the card into your computer you should see a drive called BOOT. There\u2019s a text file on there called wpa_supplicant.conf. Open it up in your favourite text editor and replace mywifi and mypassword with your wifi details6.\nnetwork={\n   ssid=\"mywifi\"\n   psk=\"mypassword\"\n}\nSave the file, eject the card from your computer and plug it into the Raspberry Pi. \nIf you have a base board or holder for the Raspberry Pi, attach it now. Then connect the wifi USB dongle7 and power supply, but don\u2019t plug it in yet!\nWiring!\nTime to wire everything up! \nFirst of all, push the Logic Level Converter into the middle of the breadboard:\n\nLogic Level Converter\nThe logic level converter may be labelled differently from the one in the diagram but the pins are usually exactly the same internally. I would just make sure the pins marked HV (High Voltage) are on the bottom and LV (Low Voltage) are on the top. \n\nRaspberry Pi pins only output 3.3v but the lights need 5v. That\u2019s why we need the logic level converter in there to boost up the signal.\nConnect the first two wires between the Raspberry Pi pins and the breadboard:\n\nNote that the pins on the Raspberry Pi are male, so you need a female to male jumper wire to connect between them and the breadboard. The colours don\u2019t have to match but it\u2019s easier to follow (and check) if you use the same ones as in the diagram. \n\nThen the next two:\n\nThis is what you should have so far:\n\nLights\nNow to connect the lights! My ones have a connector with three holes in it that I can push jumper wires into, and hopefully yours will too! So I used the male-to-male jumper wires to connect them to the breadboard.\n\n\n\nMake sure that you connect the right end of the lights, mine has a male connector at the wrong end so it\u2019s impossible to do this, but double check.  \nAlso make sure that the holes in the light connector are the same as mine. To do this, follow the wires from the connector to the first light and look at the circuit board inside. You should just about be able to make out the connections labelled + (sometimes 5V, V+ or VCC), GND (or \u2018-\u2019 or G) and DI (sometimes DIN for data in).\n\nYou can just about make out the +, DI and GND on this picture. Note that on the other side of the board there is a DO for data out - that\u2019s what takes the data along to the chip in the next light. Make sure that you\u2019re plugging into the data-in and not the data-out! \nThat\u2019s it! Everything\u2019s plugged in and ready to go! But before you plug power into your Pi, double check all your wires and make sure they\u2019re exactly right! You could damage your Raspberry Pi if it is not wired correctly. So triple check!\n\nThe Moment of Truth!\nPlug in the Raspberry Pi and wait around a minute or two for it to boot up. If all is well, the lights should strobe rainbow colours for one second - that\u2019s your confirmation that it\u2019s connected to my WebSocket server and ready to receive messages from the upside-down! \n\nHowever, if the first light in the string is pulsing red, it means that you\u2019re not connected to the internet. So check the Troubleshooting section of the support document. If it\u2019s pulsing green then you\u2019re connected to the internet but can\u2019t connect to my server. It must have gone down. Sorry! The code will keep trying so leave it running and maybe it\u2019ll come back up.  \nRig up the lights!\nFix the lights up on the wall however you want, pins, nails, tape. I\u2019ve used cable clips. Just be careful! I\u2019m using a 50 light string so I\u2019ve programmed it to use the lights at the end for the letters. That way I have just under half the string to extend down to the floor where I can keep the Raspberry Pi. \nCheck the photo here to see how the lights line up, note that there are spare unused lights in-between each row:\n\nNow visit lights.seb.ly and you\u2019ll see this : \n\nIf you\u2019re the only one online you\u2019ll have direct connection to the lights and any letter you click on will light up both in the browser and in real life. If there are other people there, you\u2019ll need to click the button to join the queue and wait your turn. \nHow it works - the geeky details!\nElectronics:\nThe pins on the Raspberry Pi are known as GPIO pins, general-purpose input/output. You can connect a wide variety of electronic components to them, LED lights, buttons, switches, and sensors. You can turn the power to the pins on and off using Node.js (or Python, if you prefer). \nAddressable LEDs or \u201cNeopixels\u201d\nWe\u2019re only using one GPIO pin on the Raspberry Pi (the other connections are 5V, 3.3V and ground) and that single pin is controlling all of the lights in the string. The code turns the pin on and off really fast in strictly timed morse-code-like dots and dashes to transmit binary data. The chips attached to each LED decode the binary and adjust the output to the LED accordingly. That chip then sends the data on to the next light in the string. \nThe chips on each light are the WS2811, part of the WS281x family that come in a multitude of different form factors and are often packaged with tiny LEDs in a single component. They are commonly referred to as Neopixels8 and I used them on my Laser Light Synths project.\nNeopixels with the chip and the LED all in one - it\u2019s the white square shaped component and the darker square inside is the chip. These are only 5mm wide!\nA Laser Light Synth! Covered with around 800 super bright neopixels!\nLogic Level Converter\nThe logic level converter is a really cheap and easy way to change the level from 3.3v to 5v and back again. You must be careful that you do not connect 5v into a GPIO pin or you will most likely damage the Raspberry Pi processor chip. \nPower\nNeopixels can often draw a lot of current so you need to be careful how you power them. I\u2019ve measured the current draw from the string to be less than 800mA so you should be fine wired directly to the 5V output. But if you use more lights or have them all on really bright at once, you\u2019ll need to use a separate 5V power supply. If you want to learn more, check out Adafruit\u2019s Neopixel Uberguide. \nNode.js\nThere are two Node.js apps running here, one on the Raspberry Pi and one on my server. You can see the code on my GitHub at github.com/sebleedelisle/stranger-lights for the Raspberry Pi and github.com/sebleedelisle/stranger-lights-server for the server.  And they\u2019re hosted on npm as stranger-lights and stranger-lights-server.  \nThe server side code sets up a standard web server to deliver the HTML for the web interface. It also sets up a WebSocket server that allows for real-time communication between the browser and the server. This server code also manages the queue and who is in control of the lights at any given time.\nWebSockets\nI\u2019m using the excellent Socket.io library to manage the WebSocket connection. Both the browser and the Raspberry Pi Node.js app connects to my WebSocket server. \nWhen you click on a letter in the browser, a message is sent to the server, which forwards it to the connected Raspberry Pi clients and also all the web browsers9. \nThe Raspberry Pi code\nThe Node.js app runs automatically on startup, and I made this happen by adding this to the /etc/rc.local file: \nnode /home/pi/strangerthings/client.js > /dev/null &\nAnything in the rc.local file gets executed when the Pi boots up and this line of code runs the Node.js app and routes its output to nowhere (ie /dev/null). The & means that it runs it in the background and doesn\u2019t hold up the boot process. \nWorking with the Raspberry Pi headless\nYou might know that when a computer has no screen or keyboard, you would refer to it as \u201crunning headless\u201d. So just like most web servers, you need to configure it over the network with ssh10. If you\u2019re on a mac you can find your Pi on the network through the name raspberrypi.local11, otherwise you\u2019ll need to find its IP address. There\u2019s more on the guide to Remote Access instructions on the Raspberry Pi website. And if you\u2019re very new to the terminal, I highly recommend this great online Linux command line tutorial.\nImprovements\nThis is quite an early experiment and I\u2019m sure I\u2019ll discover lots of optimisations over the next few weeks, especially if the server gets a proper hammering today! But there are a few things you can do. Obviously I\u2019ve just rigged up my lights with Post-it notes. It\u2019d be a lot nicer to get a paint brush and try to recreate the Winona-in-a-manic-state text style. \nWhere next?\nFinding quality resources about Node.js for electronics on the Pi can be somewhat hit and miss, but this is getting better all the time. Alternatively I am thinking about running some online courses, please let me know if that\u2019s something you\u2019d be interested in, or sign up to my mailing list at st4i.com. \nThere are many many more resources for the Raspberry Pi with Python (gpiozero is a good place to start), so if that language works for you, you\u2019ll be spoilt for choice! \nAlso take a look at Arduino - it\u2019s an incredibly popular platform for electronics and the internet is literally bursting with resources. \nI hope you enjoyed this little foray into the world of JavaScript electronics on the Raspberry Pi! If you get this working at home please let me know! Tweet me at @seb_ly. \n\n\n\n\nNot a particularly original idea, but I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve seen anyone do it quite like this before, ie using WebSockets, and Node.js on a Raspberry Pi. Other examples: Internet of Stranger Things, Strangerlights.com, and loads of examples on Instructables\u00a0\u21a9\ufe0e\n\n\nVideo guide to soldering pins on to a Pi Zero and further soldering advice from Adafruit\u00a0\u21a9\ufe0e\n\n\nSlower cards will work but performance may suffer\u00a0\u21a9\ufe0e\n\n\nOr \u00a35,000 in UK money. Sorry, Brexit joke :)\u00a0\u21a9\ufe0e\n\n\nYou will need a card reader on your computer - most micro SD cards come with an adaptor that fits standard SD slots. \u00a0\u21a9\ufe0e\n\n\nSSID and password should be all that you need but you can see all the config options on this wpa supplicant guide\u00a0\u21a9\ufe0e\n\n\nRaspberry Pi Zero will require the OTG to USB adaptor to attach the wifi dongle\u00a0\u21a9\ufe0e\n\n\nThanks to Adafruit who invented the term neopixels so we don\u2019t have to refer to them as WS281x any more!\u00a0\u21a9\ufe0e\n\n\nSo you can see other people sending messages in the browser\u00a0\u21a9\ufe0e\n\n\nssh is short for Secure Shell and is a way to connect to a remote computer and type in it just like you would in the terminal.\u00a0\u21a9\ufe0e\n\n\nYou can change this default hostname using raspi-config\u00a0\u21a9\ufe0e", "year": "2016", "author": "Seb Lee-Delisle", "author_slug": "sebleedelisle", "published": "2016-12-01T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2016/internet-of-stranger-things/", "topic": "code"}
{"rowid": 211, "title": "Automating Your Accessibility Tests", "contents": "Accessibility is one of those things we all wish we were better at. It can lead to a bunch of questions like: how do we make our site better? How do we test what we have done? Should we spend time each day going through our site to check everything by hand? Or just hope that everyone on our team has remembered to check their changes are accessible?\nThis is where automated accessibility tests can come in. We can set up automated tests and have them run whenever someone makes a pull request, and even alongside end-to-end tests, too.\nAutomated tests can\u2019t cover everything however; only 20 to 50% of accessibility issues can be detected automatically. For example, we can\u2019t yet automate the comparison of an alt attribute with an image\u2019s content, and there are some screen reader tests that need to be carried out by hand too. To ensure our site is as accessible as possible, we will still need to carry out manual tests, and I will cover these later.\nFirst, I\u2019m going to explain how I implemented automated accessibility tests on Elsevier\u2019s ecommerce pages, and share some of the lessons I learnt along the way.\nPicking the right tool\nOne of the hardest, but most important parts of creating our automated accessibility tests was choosing the right tool.\nWe began by investigating aXe CLI, but soon realised it wouldn\u2019t fit our requirements. It couldn\u2019t check pages that required a visitor to log in, so while we could test our product pages, we couldn\u2019t test any customer account pages. Instead we moved over to Pa11y. Its beforeScript step meant we could log into the site and test pages such as the order history. \nThe example below shows the how the beforeScript step completes a login form and then waits for the login to complete before testing the page:\nbeforeScript: function(page, options, next) {\n  // An example function that can be used to make sure changes have been confirmed before continuing to run Pa11y\n  function waitUntil(condition, retries, waitOver) {\n    page.evaluate(condition, function(err, result) {\n      if (result || retries < 1) {\n        // Once the changes have taken place continue with Pa11y testing\n        waitOver();\n      } else {\n        retries -= 1;\n        setTimeout(function() {\n          waitUntil(condition, retries, waitOver);\n        }, 200);\n      }\n    });\n  }\n\n  // The script to manipulate the page must be run with page.evaluate to be run within the context of the page\n  page.evaluate(function() {\n    const user = document.querySelector('#login-form input[name=\"email\"]');\n    const password = document.querySelector('#login-form input[name=\"password\"]');\n    const submit = document.querySelector('#login-form input[name=\"submit\"]');\n    user.value = 'user@example.com';\n    password.value = 'password';\n    submit.click();\n  }, function() {\n    // Use the waitUntil function to set the condition, number of retries and the callback\n    waitUntil(function() {\n      return window.location.href === 'https://example.com';\n    }, 20, next);\n  });\n}\nThe waitUntil callback allows the test to be delayed until our test user is successfully logged in.\nAnother thing to consider when picking a tool is the type of error messages it produces. aXe groups all elements with the same error together, so the list of issues is a lot easier to read, and it\u2019s easier to identify the most commons problems. For example, here are some elements that have insufficient colour contrast:\nViolation of \"color-contrast\" with 8 occurrences!\nEnsures the contrast between foreground and background colors meets\nWCAG 2 AA contrast ratio thresholds. Correct invalid elements at:\n  - #maincontent > .make_your_mark > div:nth-child(2) > p > span > span\n  - #maincontent > .make_your_mark > div:nth-child(4) > p > span > span\n  - #maincontent > .inform_your_decisions > div:nth-child(2) > p > span > span\n  - #maincontent > .inform_your_decisions > div:nth-child(4) > p > span > span\n  - #maincontent > .inform_your_decisions > div:nth-child(6) > p > span > span\n  - #maincontent > .inform_your_decisions > div:nth-child(8) > p > span > span\n  - #maincontent > .inform_your_decisions > div:nth-child(10) > p > span > span\n  - #maincontent > .inform_your_decisions > div:nth-child(12) > p > span > span\nFor details, see: https://dequeuniversity.com/rules/axe/2.5/color-contrast\naXe also provides links to their site where they discuss the best way to fix the problem.\nIn comparison, Pa11y lists each individual error which can lead to a very verbose list. However, it does provide helpful suggestions of how to fix problems, such as suggesting an alternative shade of a colour to use:\n\u2022 Error: This element has insufficient contrast at this conformance level.\n  Expected a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1, but text in this element has a contrast ratio of 2.96:1.\n  Recommendation: change text colour to #767676.\n  \u23a3 WCAG2AA.Principle1.Guideline1_4.1_4_3.G18.Fail\n  \u23a3 #maincontent > div:nth-child(10) > div:nth-child(8) > p > span > span\n  \u23a3 <span style=\"color:#969696\">Featured products:</span>\nIntegrating into our build pipeline\nWe decided the perfect time to run our accessibility tests would be alongside our end-to-end tests. We have a Jenkins job that detects changes to our staging site and then triggers the end-to-end tests, and in turn our accessibility tests. Our Jenkins job retrieves the contents of a GitHub repository containing our Pa11y script file and npm package manifest.\nOnce Jenkins has cloned the repository, it installs any dependencies and executes the tests via:\nnpm install && npm test\nBundling the URLs to be tested into our test script means we don\u2019t have a command line style test where we list each URL we wish to test in the Jenkins CLI. It\u2019s an effective method but can also be cluttered, and obscure which URLs are being tested.\nIn the middle of the office we have a monitor displaying a Jenkins dashboard and from this we can see if the accessibility tests are passing or failing. Everyone in the team has access to the Jenkins logs and when the build fails they can see why and fix the issue.\nFixing the issues\nAs mentioned earlier, Pa11y can generate a long list of areas for improvement which can be very verbose and quite overwhelming. I recommend going through the list to see which issues occur most frequently and fix those first. For example, we initially had a lot of errors around colour contrast, and one shade of grey in particular. By making this colour darker, the number of errors decreased, and we could focus on the remaining issues.\nAnother thing I like to do is to tackle the quick fixes, such as adding alt text to images. These are small things that allow us to make an impact instantly, giving us time to fix more detailed concerns such as addressing tabindex issues, or speaking to our designers about changing the contrast of elements on the site.\nManual testing\nAdding automated tests to check our site for accessibility is great, but as I mentioned earlier, this can only cover 20-50% of potential issues. To improve on this, we need to test by hand too, either by ourselves or by asking others.\nOne way we can test our site is to throw our mouse or trackpad away and interact with the site using only a keyboard. This allows us to check items such as tab order, and ensure menu items, buttons etc. can be used without a mouse. The commands may be different on different operating systems, but there are some great guides online for learning more about these. \nIt\u2019s tempting to add alt text and aria-labels to make errors go away, but if they don\u2019t make any sense, what use are they really? Using a screenreader we can check that alt text accurately represents the image. This is also a great way to double check that our ARIA roles make sense, and that they correctly identify elements and how to interact with them. When testing our site with screen readers, it\u2019s important to remember that not all screen readers are the same and some may interact with our site differently to others. \nConsider asking a range of people with different needs and abilities to test your site, too. People experience the web in numerous ways, be they permanent, temporary or even situational. They may interact with your site in ways you hadn\u2019t even thought about, so this is a good way to broaden your knowledge and awareness.\nTips and tricks\nOne of our main issues with Pa11y is that it may find issues we don\u2019t have the power to solve. A perfect example of this is the one pixel image Facebook injects into our site. So, we wrote a small function to go though such errors and ignore the ones that we cannot fix.\nconst test = pa11y({\n  ....\n  hideElements: '#ratings, #js-bigsearch',\n  ...\n});\n\nconst ignoreErrors: string[] = [\n  '<img src=\"https://books.google.com/intl/en/googlebooks/images/gbs_preview_button1.gif\" border=\"0\" style=\"cursor: pointer;\" class=\"lightbox-is-image\">',\n  '<script type=\"text/javascript\" id=\"\">var USI_orderID=google_tag_mana...</script>',\n  '<img height=\"1\" width=\"1\" style=\"display:none\" src=\"https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=123456789012345&ev=PageView&noscript=1\">'\n  ];\n  const filterResult = result => {\n    if (ignoreErrors.indexOf(result.context) > -1) {\n      return false;\n    }\n    return true;\n  };\nInitially we wanted to focus on fixing the major problems, so we added a rule to ignore notices and warnings. This made the list or errors much smaller and allowed us focus on fixing major issues such as colour contrast and missing alt text. The ignored notices and warnings can be added in later after these larger issues have been resolved. \nconst test = pa11y({\n  ignore: [\n    'notice',\n    'warning'\n  ],\n...\n});\nJenkins gotchas\nWhile using Jenkins we encountered a few problems. Sometimes Jenkins would indicate a build had passed when in reality it had failed. This was because Pa11y had timed out due to PhantomJS throwing an error, or the test didn\u2019t go past the first URL. Pa11y has recently released a new beta version that uses headless Chrome instead of PhantomJS, so hopefully these issues will less occur less often. \nWe tried a few approaches to solve these issues. First we added error handling, iterating over the array of test URLs so that if an unexpected error happened, we could catch it and exit the process with an error indicating that the job had failed (using process.exit(1)). \nfor (const url of urls) {\n  try {\n    console.log(url);\n    let urlResult = await run(url);\n    urlResult = urlResult.filter(filterResult);\n    urlResult.forEach(result => console.log(result));\n  }\n  catch (e) {\n    console.log('Error:', e);\n    process.exit(1);\n  }\n}\nWe also had issues with unhandled rejections sometimes caused by a session disconnecting or similar errors. To avoid Jenkins indicating our site was passing with 100% accessibility, when in reality it had not executed any tests, we instructed Jenkins to fail the job when an unhandled rejection or uncaught exception occurred:\nprocess.on('unhandledRejection', (reason, p) => {\n  console.log('Unhandled Rejection at:', p, 'reason:', reason);\n  process.exit(1);\n});\nprocess.on('uncaughtException', (err) => {\n  console.log('Caught exception: ${err}n');\n  process.exit(1);\n});\nNow it\u2019s your turn\nThat\u2019s it! That\u2019s how we automated accessibility testing for Elsevier ecommerce pages, allowing us to improve our site and make it more accessible for everyone. I hope our experience can help you automate accessibility tests on your own site, and bring the web a step closer to being accessible to all.", "year": "2017", "author": "Seren Davies", "author_slug": "serendavies", "published": "2017-12-07T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2017/automating-your-accessibility-tests/", "topic": "code"}
{"rowid": 27, "title": "Putting Design on the Map", "contents": "The web can leave us feeling quite detached from the real world. Every site we make is really just a set of abstract concepts manifested as tools for communication and expression. At any minute, websites can disappear, overwritten by a newfangled version or simply gone. I think this is why so many of us have desires to create a product, write a book, or play with the internet of things. We need to keep in touch with the physical world and to prove (if only to ourselves) that we do make real things.\n\nI could go on and on about preserving the web, the challenges of writing a book, or thoughts about how we can deal with the need to make real things. Instead, I\u2019m going to explore something that gives us a direct relationship between a website and the physical world \u2013 maps.\n\n\n\tA map does not just chart, it unlocks and formulates meaning; it forms bridges between here and there, between disparate ideas that we did not know were previously connected.\nReif Larsen, The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet\n\n\nThe simplest form of map on a website tends to be used for showing where a place is and often directions on how to get to it. That\u2019s an incredibly powerful tool. So why is it, then, that so many sites just plonk in a default Google Map and leave it as that? You wouldn\u2019t just use dark grey Helvetica on every site, would you? Where\u2019s the personality? Where\u2019s the tailored experience? Where is the design?\n\nJumping into design\n\nLet\u2019s keep this simple \u2013 we all want to be better web folk, not cartographers. We don\u2019t need to go into the history, mathematics or technology of map making (although all of those areas are really interesting to research). For the sake of our sanity, I\u2019m going to gloss over some of the technical areas and focus on the practical concepts.\n\nTiles\n\nIf you\u2019ve ever noticed a map loading in sections, it\u2019s because it uses tiles that are downloaded individually instead of requiring the user to download everything that they might need. These tiles come in many styles and can be used for anything that covers large areas, such as base maps and data. You\u2019ve seen examples of alternative base maps when you use Google Maps as Google provides both satellite imagery and road maps, both of which are forms of base maps. They are used to provide context for the real world, or any other world for that matter. A marker on a blank page is useless.\n\nThe tiles are representations of the physical; they do not have to be photographic imagery to provide context. This means you can design the map itself. The easiest way to conceive this is by comparing Google\u2019s road maps with Ordnance Survey road maps. Everything about the two maps is different: the colours, the label fonts and the symbols used. Yet they still provide the exact same context (other maps may provide different context such as terrain contours).\n\n Comparison of Google Maps (top) and the Ordnance Survey (bottom).\n\nCarefully designing the base map tiles is as important as any other part of the website. The most obvious, yet often overlooked, aspect are aesthetics and branding. Maps could fit in with the rest of the site; for example, by matching the colours and line weights, they can enhance the full design rather than inhibiting it. You\u2019re also able to define the exact purpose of the map, so instead of showing everything you could specify which symbols or labels to show and hide.\n\nI\u2019ve not done any real research on the accessibility of base maps but, having looked at some of the available options, I think a focus on the typography of labels and the colour of the various elements is crucial. While you can choose to hide labels, quite often they provide the data required to make sense of the map. Therefore, make sure each zoom level is not too cluttered and shows enough to give context. Also be as careful when choosing the typeface as you are in any other design work. As for colour, you need to pay closer attention to issues like colour-blindness when using colour to convey information. Quite often a spectrum of colour will be used to show data, or to show the topography, so you need to be aware that some people struggle to see colour differences within a spectrum.\n\nA nice example of a customised base map can be found on Michael K Owens\u2019 check-in pages:\n\n One of Michael K Owens\u2019 check-in pages.\n\nAs I\u2019ve already mentioned, tiles are not just for base maps: they are also for data. In the screenshot below you can see how Plymouth Marine Laboratory uses tiles to show data with a spectrum of colour.\n\n A map from the Marine Operational Ecology data portal, showing data of adult cod in the North Sea.\n\nTechnical\n\nYou\u2019re probably wondering how to design the base layers. I will briefly explain the concepts here and give you tools to use at the end of the article. If you\u2019re worried about the time it takes to design the maps, don\u2019t be \u2013 you can automate most of it. You don\u2019t need to manually draw each tile for the entire world!\n\nWe\u2019ve learned the importance of web standards the hard way, so you\u2019ll be glad (and I won\u2019t have to explain the advantages) of the standard for web mapping from the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) called the Web Map Service (WMS). You can use conventional file formats for the imagery but you need a way to query for the particular tiles to show for the area and zoom level, that is what WMS does.\n\nFeatures\n\nTiles are great for covering large areas but sometimes you need specific smaller areas. We call these features and they usually consist of polygons, lines or points. Examples include postcode boundaries and routes between places, or even something more dynamic such as borders of nations changing over time.\n\nShowing features on a map presents interesting design challenges. If the colour or shape conveys some kind of data beyond geographical boundaries then it needs to be made obvious. This is actually really hard, without building complicated user interfaces. For example, in the image below, is it obvious that there is a relationship between the colours? Does it need a way of showing what the colours represent?\n\n Choropleth map showing ranked postcode areas, using ViziCities.\n\n\n\tFeatures are represented by means of lines or colors; and the effective use of lines or colors requires more than knowledge of the subject \u2013 it requires artistic judgement.\nErwin Josephus Raisz, cartographer (1893\u20131968)\n\n\nWhere lots of boundaries are small and close together (such as a high street or shopping centre) will it be obvious where the boundaries are and what they represent? When designing maps, the hardest challenge is dealing with how the data is represented and how it is understood by the user.\n\nTechnical\n\nAs you probably gathered, we use WMS for tiles and another standard called the web feature service (WFS) for specific features. I need to stress that the difference between the two is that WMS is for tiling, whereas WFS is for specific features. Both can use similar file formats but should be used for their particular use cases. You may be wondering why you can\u2019t just use a vector format such as KML, GeoJSON (or even SVG) \u2013 and you can \u2013 but the issue is the same as for WMS: you need a way to query the data to get the correct area and zoom level.\n\nUser interface\n\nThere is of course never a correct way to design an interface as there are so many different factors to take into consideration for each individual project. Maps can be used in a variety of ways, to provide simple information about directions or for complex visualisations to explain large amounts of data. I would like to just touch on matters that need to be taken into account when working with maps.\n\nAs I mentioned at the beginning, there are so many Google Maps on the web that people seem to think that its UI is the only way you can use a map. To some degree we don\u2019t want to change that, as people know how to use them; but does every map require a zoom slider or base map toggle? In fact, does the user need to zoom at all? The answer to that one is generally yes, zooming does provide more context to where the map is zoomed in on.\n\nIn some cases you will need to let users choose what goes on the map (such as data layers or directions), so how do they show and hide the data? Does a simple drop-down box work, or do you need search? Google\u2019s base map toggle is quite nice since it doesn\u2019t offer many options yet provides very different contexts and styling.\n\nIt isn\u2019t until we get to this point that we realise just plonking a quick Google map is really quite ridiculous, especially when compared to the amount of effort we make in other areas such as colour, typography or how the CSS is written. Each of these is important but we need to make sure the whole site is designed, and that includes the maps as much as any other content.\n\nPutting it into practice\n\nI could ramble on for ages about what we can do to customise maps to fit a site\u2019s personality and correctly represent the data. I wanted to focus on concepts and standards because tools constantly change and it is never good to just rely on a tool to do the work. That said, there are a large variety of tools that will help you turn these concepts into reality. This is not a comparison; I just want to show you a few of the many options you have for maps on the web.\n\nGoogle\n\nOK, I\u2019ve been quite critical so far about Google Maps but that is only because there is such a large amount of the default maps across the web. You can style them almost as much as anything else. They may not allow you to use custom WMS layers but Google Maps does have its own version, called styled maps. Using an array of map features (in the sense of roads and lakes and landmarks rather than the kind WFS is used for), you can style the base map with JavaScript. It even lets you toggle visibility, which helps to avoid the issue of too much clutter on the map. As well as lacking WMS, it doesn\u2019t support WFS, but it does support GeoJSON and KML so you can still show the features on the map. You should also check out Google Maps Engine (the new version of My Maps), which provides an interface for creating more advanced maps with a selection of different base maps. A premium version is available, essentially for creating map-based visualisations, and it provides a step up from the main Google Maps offering. A useful feature in some cases is that it gives you access to many datasets.\n\nLeaflet\n\nYou have probably seen Leaflet before. It isn\u2019t quite as popular as Google Maps but it is definitely used often and for good reason. Leaflet is a lightweight open source JavaScript library. It is not a service so you don\u2019t have to worry about API throttling and longevity. It gives you two options for tiling, the ability to use WMS, or to directly get the file using variables in the filename such as /{z}/{x}/{y}.png. I would recommend using WMS over dynamic file names because it is a standard, but the ability to use variables in a file name could be useful in some situations. Leaflet has a strong community and a well-documented API.\n\nMapbox\n\nAs a freemium service, Mapbox may not be perfect for every use case but it\u2019s definitely worth looking into. The service offers incredible customisation tools as well as lots of data sources and hosting for the maps. It also provides plenty of libraries for the various platforms, so you don\u2019t have to only use the maps on the web.\n\nMapbox is a service, though its map design tool is open source. Mapbox Studio is a vector-only version of their previous tool called Tilemill. Earlier I wrote about how typography and colour are as important to maps as they are to the rest of a website; if you thought, \u201cYes, but how on earth can I design those parts of a map?\u201d then this is the tool for you. It is incredibly easy to use. Essentially each map has a stylesheet.\n\nIf you do not want to open a paid-for Mapbox account, then you can export the tiles (as PNG, SVG etc.) to use with other map tools.\n\nOpenLayers\n\nAfter a long wait, OpenLayers 3 has been released. It is similar to Leaflet in that it is a library not a service, but it has a much broader scope. During the last year I worked on the GIS portal at Plymouth Marine Laboratory (which I used to show the data tiles earlier), it essentially used OpenLayers 2 to create a web-based geographic information system, taking a large amount of data and permitting analysis (such as graphs) without downloading entire datasets and complicated software. OpenLayers 3 has improved greatly on the previous version in both performance and accessibility. It is the ideal tool for complex map-based web apps, though it can be used for the simple use cases too.\n\nOpenStreetMap\n\nI couldn\u2019t write an article about maps on the web without at least mentioning OpenStreetMap. It is the place to go for crowd-sourced data about any location, with complete road maps and a strong API.\n\nViziCities\n\nThe newest project on this list is ViziCities by Robin Hawkes and Peter Smart. It is a open source 3-D visualisation tool, currently in the very early stages of development. The basic example shows 3-D buildings around the world using OpenStreetMap data. Robin has used it to create some incredible demos such as real-time London underground trains, and planes landing at an airport. Edward Greer and I are currently working on using ViziCities to show ideal housing areas based on particular personas. We chose it because the 3-D aspect gives us interesting possibilities for the data we are able to visualise (such as bar charts on the actual map instead of in the UI). Despite not being a completely stable, fully featured system, ViziCities is worth taking a look at for some use cases and is definitely going to go from strength to strength.\n\n\n\nSo there you have it \u2013 a whistle-stop tour of how maps can be customised. Now please stop plonking in maps without thinking about it and design them as you design the rest of your content.", "year": "2014", "author": "Shane Hudson", "author_slug": "shanehudson", "published": "2014-12-11T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2014/putting-design-on-the-map/", "topic": "design"}
{"rowid": 298, "title": "First Steps in VR", "contents": "The web is all around us. As web folk, it is our responsibility to consider the impact our work can have. Part of this includes thinking about the future; the web changes lives and if we are building the web then we are the ones making decisions that affect people in every corner of the world. I find myself often torn between wanting to make the right decisions, and just wanting to have fun. To fiddle and play. We all know how important it is to sometimes just try ideas, whether they will amount to much or not. \nI think of these two mindsets as production and prototyping, though of course there are lots of overlap and phases in between. I mention this because virtual reality is currently seen as a toy for rich people, and in some ways at the moment it is. But with WebVR we are able to create interesting experiences with a relatively low entry point. I want us to have open minds, play around with things, and then see how we can use the tools we have at our disposal to make things that will help people.\nEvery year we see articles saying it will be the \u201cyear of virtual reality\u201d, that was especially prevalent this year. 2016 has been a year of progress, VR isn\u2019t quite mainstream but with efforts like Playstation VR and Google Cardboard, we are definitely seeing much more of it. This year also saw the consumer editions of the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. So it does seem to be a good time for an overview of how to get involved with creating virtual reality on the web.\nWebVR is an API for connecting to devices and retrieving continuous data such as the position and orientation. Unlike the Web Audio API and some other APIs, WebVR does not feel like a framework. You use it however you want, taking the data and using it as you wish. To make it easier, there are plenty of resources such as Three.js, A-Frame and ReactVR that help to make the heavy lifting a bit easier.\nGetting Started with A-Frame\nI like taking the opportunity to learn new things whenever I can. So while planning this article I thought that instead of trying to teach WebGL or even Three.js in a way that is approachable for all, I would create my first project using A-Frame and write about that. This is not a tutorial as such, I just want to show how to go about getting involved with VR. The beauty of A-Frame is that it is very similar to web components, you can just write HTML to build worlds that will automatically work on all the different types of devices. It uses WebGL and WebVR but in such a way that it quite drastically reduces the learning curve. That\u2019s not to say you can\u2019t build complex things, you have complete access to write JavaScript and shaders.\nI\u2019m lazy. Whenever I learn a new language or framework I have found that the best way, personally, for me to learn is to have a project and to copy the starting code from someone else. A project lets you have a good idea of what you want to produce and it means you can ignore a lot of the irrelevant documentation, focussing purely on what you need. That reduces the stress of figuring things out. Copying code also makes it easier, because you know your boilerplate code is working. There\u2019s nothing worse than getting stuck before anything actually works the first time. So I tinker. I take code and I modify it, I play around. It\u2019s fun.\nFor this project I wanted to keep things as simple as possible, so I can easily explain it without the classic \u201cdraw a circle then draw an owl\u201d. I wrote a list of requirements, with some stretch goals that you can give a try yourself if you fancy:\n\nMust work on Google Cardboard at a minimum, because of price\nTherefore, it must not rely on having a controller\nAuto-moving around a maze would be a good example\nMove in direction you look\nStretch goal: Scoring, time until you hit a wall or get stuck in maze\nStretch goal: Levels, so the map doesn\u2019t need to be random\nStretch goal: Snow!\n\nI decided to  base this project on an example, Platforms, by Don McCurdy who wrote the really useful aframe-extras. Platforms has random 3D blocks that you can jump onto, going up into the sky. So I took his code and reduced it so that the blocks are randomly spread on the ground. \n<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html>\n<head>\n    <meta charset=\"utf-8\">\n    <meta name=\"viewport\" content=\"width=device-width\">\n    <title>24 ways</title>\n    <script src=\"https://aframe.io/releases/0.3.2/aframe.js\"></script>\n    <script src=\"//cdn.rawgit.com/donmccurdy/aframe-extras/v2.6.1/dist/aframe-extras.min.js\"></script>\n</head>\n<body>\n<a-scene>\n    <a-entity id=\"player\"\n              camera\n              universal-controls\n              kinematic-body\n              position=\"0 1.8 0\">\n    </a-entity>\n\n    <a-entity id=\"walls\"></a-entity>\n\n    <a-grid id=\"ground\" static-body></a-grid>\n\n    <a-sky id=\"sky\" color=\"#AADDF0\"></a-sky>\n\n    <!-- Lighting -->\n    <a-light type=\"ambient\" color=\"#ccc\"></a-light>\n</a-scene>\n<script>\n    document.querySelector('a-scene').addEventListener('render-target-loaded', function () {\n        var MAP_SIZE = 10,\n                PLATFORM_SIZE = 5,\n                NUM_PLATFORMS = 50;\n        var platformsEl = document.querySelector('#walls');\n        var v, box;\n        for (var i = 0;  i < NUM_PLATFORMS; i++) {\n            // y: 0 is ground\n            v = {\n                x: (Math.floor(Math.random() * MAP_SIZE) - PLATFORM_SIZE) * PLATFORM_SIZE,\n                y: PLATFORM_SIZE / 2,\n                z: (Math.floor(Math.random() * MAP_SIZE) - PLATFORM_SIZE) * PLATFORM_SIZE\n            };\n            box = document.createElement('a-box');\n            platformsEl.appendChild(box);\n            box.setAttribute('color', '#39BB82');\n            box.setAttribute('width', PLATFORM_SIZE);\n            box.setAttribute('height', PLATFORM_SIZE);\n            box.setAttribute('depth', PLATFORM_SIZE);\n            box.setAttribute('position', v.x + ' ' + v.y + ' ' + v.z);\n            box.setAttribute('static-body', '');\n        }\n        console.info('Platforms loaded.');\n    });\n</script>\n</body>\n</html>\nAs you can see, this is very readable. Especially if you ignore the JavaScript that is used to create the maze. A-Frame (with A-Frame Extras) gives you a lot of power with relatively little to learn. We start with an <a-scene> which is the container for everything that is going to show up on the screen. There are a few <a-entity> which can be compared to <div> as they are essentially non-semantic containers, able to be used for any purpose. The attributes are used to define functionality, for example the camera attribute sets the entity to function as a camera and kinematic-body makes it collide instead of go through objects. Attributes are also used to set position and sizes, often using JavaScript to dynamically define them.\nStyling\nNow we\u2019ve got the HTML written, we need to style it. To do this we add A-Frame compatible attributes such as color and material. I recommend playing around, you can get some quite impressive effects fairly easily. Originally I wanted a light snowy maze but it ended up being dark and foggy, as I really liked the feeling it gave.\nNote, you will probably need a server running for images to work. You can do this by running python -m \"SimpleHTTPServer\" in the folder where the code is, then go to localhost:8000 in browser.\nTextures\nUnless you are going for a cartoony style, you probably want to find some textures. I found some on textures.com, one image worked well for the walls and the other for the floor.\n<a-assets>\n    <img id=\"texture-floor\" src=\"floor.jpg\">\n    <img id=\"texture-wall\" src=\"wall.jpg\">\n</a-assets>\nThe <a-assets> is used to define (as well as preload and cache) all assets, including images, audio and video. As you can see, images in the Asset Management System just use normal img tags. The ids are important here as we can use them later for using the textures. \nTo apply a texture to an object, you create a material. For a simple material where it just shows the image, you set the src to the id selector of the image.\nReplace: \n<a-grid id=\"ground\" static-body></a-grid>\nWith:\n<a-grid id=\"ground\" static-body material=\"src: #texture-floor\"></a-grid>\nThis will automatically make the image repeat over the entire floor, in my case filling it with bricks. The walls are pretty much identical, with the slight exception that it is set in JavaScript as they are dynamically defined.\nbox.setAttribute('material', 'src: #texture-wall');\nThat\u2019s it for the textures, for now at least. These will not look completely realistic, as the light will bump off the rectangular wall rather than texture itself. This can be improved by using maps, textures that are used to modify the shape and physical properties of the object. \nLighting\nThe next part of styling is lighting. By using fog and different types of lighting, we are able to add atmospheric details to the game to make it feel that bit more realistic and polished.\nThere are lots of types of light in A-Frame (most coming from Three.js). You can add a light either by using the <a-light> entity or by attaching a light attribute to any other entity. If there are no lights defined then A-Frame adds some by default so that the scene is always lit.\nTo start with I wanted to light up the scene with a general light, type=\"ambient\", so that the whole game felt slightly dark. I chose to set the light to a reddish colour #92455E. After playing around with intensity I chose 0.4, it added enough light to get the feeling I wanted without it being overly red. I also added a blue skybox (<a-sky>), as it looked a bit odd with a white sky.\n<a-light type=\"ambient\" color=\"#92455E\" intensity=\"0.4\"></a-light>\n<a-sky id=\"sky\" color=\"#0000ff\"></a-sky>\nI felt that the maze looked good with a red tinge but it was a bit flat, everything was the same colour and it was a bit dark. So I added a light within the #player entity, this could have been as an attribute but I set it as a child a-light instead. By using type=\"point\" with a high intensity and low distance, it showed close walls as being lighter. It also added a sort-of object to the player, it isn\u2019t a walking human or anything but by moving light where the player is it feels a bit more physical.\n<a-light color=\"#fff\" distance=\"5\" intensity=\"0.7\" type=\"point\"></a-light>\n\nBy this point it was starting to look decent, so I wanted to add the fog to really give some personality and depth to the maze. To do this I added the fog attribute to the <a-scene> with type=exponential so it looks thicker the further away it is and a mid intensity, so you feel a bit lost but can still see.\n\nI was very happy with this result. It took a lot of playing around with colours and values, which is fun in itself. I highly recommend you take the code (or write your own) and play around with the numbers.\nMovement\nOne of the reasons I decided to use aframe-extras is that it has a few different camera controls built in. As you saw earlier, I am using the universal-controls which gives WASD (keyboard) controls by default. I wanted to make it automatically move in the direction that you\u2019re looking, but I wasn\u2019t quite sure how without rewriting the controls. So I asked Don McCurdy for advice and he very nicely gave me a small snippet of code to get it working.\nAFRAME.registerComponent('automove-controls', {\n    init: function () {\n        this.speed = 0.1;\n        this.isMoving = true;\n        this.velocityDelta = new THREE.Vector3();\n    },\n    isVelocityActive: function () {\n        return this.isMoving;\n    },\n    getVelocityDelta: function () {\n        this.velocityDelta.z = this.isMoving ? -speed : 0;\n        return this.velocityDelta.clone();\n    }\n});\nReplace:\nuniversal-controls\nWith:\nuniversal-controls=\"movementControls: automove, gamepad, keyboard\"\nThis works by creating a component automove-controls that adds auto-move to the player without overriding movement completely. It doesn\u2019t even touch direction, it just checks if isMoving is true then moves the player by the set speed. Components can be creating for adding all kinds of functionality with relative ease. It makes it very powerful for people of all difficulty levels.\nBuilding a map\nCurrently the maze is created randomly, which is great but means there will often be walls that overlap or the player gets trapped with nowhere to go. So to solve this, I decided to use a map editor (Tiled) so that we can create the mazes ourselves. This is a great start towards one of the stretch goals, levels.\nI made the maze in Tiled by finding a random tileset online (we don\u2019t need to actually show the images), I used one tile for the wall and another for the player. Then I exported as a JavaScript file and modified it in my text editor to get rid of everything I didn\u2019t need. I made it so 0 is the path, 1 is the wall and 2 is the player. I then added the script to the HTML, as a separate file so it\u2019s easy to update in the future. \nvar map =\n{\n \"data\":[1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 1, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1],\n \"height\":10,\n \"width\":10\n}\n\nAs you can see, this gives a simple 10x10 maze with some dead ends. The player starts in the bottom right corner (my choice, could be anywhere). I rewrote the random platforms code (from Don\u2019s example) to instead loop over the map data and place walls where it is 1 and position the player where data is 2. I set the position so that the origin of the map would be 0,1.5,0. The y axis is in this case the height (ground being 0), but if a wall is positioned at 0 by its centre then some of it is underground. So the y needed to be the height divided by 2.\ndocument.querySelector('a-scene').addEventListener('render-target-loaded', function () {\n    var WALL_SIZE = 5,\n        WALL_HEIGHT = 3;\n    var el = document.querySelector('#walls');\n    var wall;\n\n    for (var x = 0; x < map.height; x++)  {\n        for (var y = 0; y < map.width; y++) {\n\n            var i = y*map.width + x;\n            var position = (x-map.width/2)*WALL_SIZE + ' ' + 1.5 + ' ' + (y-map.height/2)*WALL_SIZE;\n            if (map.data[i] === 1) {\n                // Create wall\n                wall = document.createElement('a-box');\n                el.appendChild(wall);\n                wall.setAttribute('color', '#fff');\n                wall.setAttribute('material', 'src: #texture-wall;');\n                wall.setAttribute('width', WALL_SIZE);\n                wall.setAttribute('height', WALL_HEIGHT);\n                wall.setAttribute('depth', WALL_SIZE);\n                wall.setAttribute('position', position);\n                wall.setAttribute('static-body', ');\n            }\n\n            if (map.data[i] === 2)  {\n                // Set player position\n                document.querySelector('#player').setAttribute('position', position);\n            }\n\n        }\n    }\n    console.info('Walls added.');\n});\n\nWith this added, it makes it nice and easy to change around the map as well as to add new features. Perhaps you want monsters or objects. Just set the number in the map data and add an if statement to the loop. In the future you could add layers, so multiple things can be in the same position. Or perhaps even make the maze go up the y axis too, with ramps or staircases. There\u2019s a lot you can do with relative ease. As you can see, A-Frame really does reduce the learning curve of 3D and VR on the web.\nIt\u2019s Not All Fun And Games\nA lot of examples of virtual reality are games, including this one. So it is understandable to think that VR is for gaming, but actually that\u2019s just a tiny subset. There are all sorts of applications for VR, including story telling, data visualisation and even meditation.\nThere have been a number of cases where it has been shown virtual reality can help as a tool for therapies:\n\nOxford study finds virtual reality can help treat severe paranoia\nVirtual Reality Therapy for Phobias at the Duke Faculty Practice\nBravemind: Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy at the University of Southern California\n\nThese are just a few examples of where virtual reality is being used around the world to help people feel better and get through some very tough times. There have also been examples of it being used for simulating war zones or medical situations, both as a teaching and journalism tool.\nWrapping Up\nTen years ago, on this very site, Cameron Moll wrote an article explaining the mobile web. He explained how mobile phones with data plans were becoming increasingly common, that WAP 2.0 included the XHTML Mobile Profile meaning it would be familiar with web folk. \u201cThe mobile web is rapidly becoming an XHTML environment, and thus you and I can apply our existing \u201cdesktop web\u201d skills to understand how to develop content for it.\u201d\nWe can look at that and laugh a little, we have come a very long way in the last decade. Even people in developing countries with very little money have mobile phones with access to a web that is far more capable than the \u201cdesktop web\u201d Cameron was referring to.\nSo while I am not saying virtual reality is going to change the world or replace our phones, who knows! We can use our skills as web folk to dabble, we don\u2019t need to learn any new languages. If on the 2026 edition of 24 ways, somebody references this article and looks at how far we have come\u2026 well, let\u2019s hope we have used our skills well and made the world just that little bit better. And if VR is a fad? Well it\u2019s fun\u2026 have a go anyway.", "year": "2016", "author": "Shane Hudson", "author_slug": "shanehudson", "published": "2016-12-11T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2016/first-steps-in-vr/", "topic": "code"}
{"rowid": 129, "title": "Knockout Type - Thin Is Always In", "contents": "OS X has gorgeous native anti-aliasing (although I will admit to missing 10px aliased Geneva \u2014 *sigh*). This is especially true for dark text on a light background. However, things can go awry when you start using light text on a dark background. Strokes thicken. Counters constrict. Letterforms fill out like seasonal snackers.\n\n \n\nSo how do we combat the fat? In Safari and other Webkit-based browsers we can use the CSS \u2018text-shadow\u2019 property. While trying to add a touch more contrast to the navigation on haveamint.com I noticed an interesting side-effect on the weight of the type. \n\n\n\nThe second line in the example image above has the following style applied to it:\n\n  \n\nThis creates an invisible drop-shadow. (Why is it invisible? The shadow is positioned directly behind the type (the first two zeros) and has no spread (the third zero). So the color, black, is completely eclipsed by the type it is supposed to be shadowing.)\n\n \n\nWhy applying an invisible drop-shadow effectively lightens the weight of the type is unclear. What is clear is that our light-on-dark text is now of a comparable weight to its dark-on-light counterpart.\n\n \n\nYou can see this trick in effect all over ShaunInman.com and in the navigation on haveamint.com and Subtraction.com. The HTML and CSS source code used to create the example images used in this article can be found here.", "year": "2006", "author": "Shaun Inman", "author_slug": "shauninman", "published": "2006-12-17T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2006/knockout-type/", "topic": "code"}
{"rowid": 316, "title": "Have Your DOM and Script It Too", "contents": "When working with the XMLHttpRequest object it appears you can only go one of three ways: \n\n\n\tYou can stay true to the colorful moniker du jour and stick strictly to the responseXML property\n\tYou can play with proprietary \u2013 yet widely supported \u2013 fire and inject the value of responseText property into the innerHTML of an element of your choosing\n\tOr you can be eval() and parse JSON or arbitrary JavaScript delivered via responseText\n\n\nBut did you know that there\u2019s a fourth option giving you the best of the latter two worlds? Mint uses this unmentioned approach to grab fresh HTML and run arbitrary JavaScript simultaneously. Without relying on eval(). \u201cBut wait-\u201d, you might say, \u201cwhen would I need to do this?\u201d Besides the example below this technique is handy for things like tab groups that need initialization onload but miss the main onload event handler by a mile thanks to asynchronous scripting.\n\nConsider the problem\n\nOriginally Mint used option 2 to refresh or load new tabs into individual Pepper panes without requiring a full roundtrip to the server. This was all well and good until I introduced the new Client Mode which when enabled allows anyone to view a Mint installation without being logged in. If voyeurs are afoot as Client Mode is disabled, the next time they refresh a pane the entire login page is inserted into the current document. That\u2019s not very helpful so I needed a way to redirect the current document to the login page.\n\n\n\nEnter the solution\n\nWouldn\u2019t it be cool if browsers interpreted the contents of script tags crammed into innerHTML? Sure, but unfortunately, that just wasn\u2019t meant to be. However like the body element, image elements have an onload event handler. When the image has fully loaded the handler runs the code applied to it. See where I\u2019m going with this?\n\nBy tacking a tiny image (think single pixel, transparent spacer gif \u2013 shudder) onto the end of the HTML returned by our Ajax call, we can smuggle our arbitrary JavaScript into the existing document. The image is added to the DOM, and our stowaway can go to town.\n\n<p>This is the results of our Ajax call.</p>\n <img src=\"../images/loaded.gif\" alt=\"\" onload=\"alert('Now that I have your attention...');\" />\n\nPlease be neat\n\nSo we\u2019ve just jammed some meaningless cruft into our DOM. If our script does anything with images this addition could have some unexpected side effects. (Remember The Fly?) So in order to save that poor, unsuspecting element whose innerHTML we just swapped out from sharing Jeff Goldblum\u2019s terrible fate we should tidy up after ourselves. And by using the removeChild method we do just that.\n\n<p>This is the results of our Ajax call.</p>\n <img src=\"../images/loaded.gif\" alt=\"\" \n     onload=\"alert('Now that I have your attention...');this.parentNode.removeChild(this);\" />", "year": "2005", "author": "Shaun Inman", "author_slug": "shauninman", "published": "2005-12-24T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2005/have-your-dom-and-script-it-too/", "topic": "code"}