{"rowid": 325, "title": "\"Z's not dead baby, Z's not dead\"", "contents": "While Mr. Moll and Mr. Budd have pipped me to the post with their predictions for 2006, I\u2019m sure they won\u2019t mind if I sneak in another. The use of positioning together with z-index will be one of next year\u2019s hot techniques \n\nBoth has been a little out of favour recently. For many, positioned layouts made way for the flexibility of floats. Developers I speak to often associate z-index with Dreamweaver\u2019s layers feature. But in combination with alpha transparency support for PNG images in IE7 and full implementation of position property values, the stacking of elements with z-index is going to be big. I\u2019m going to cover the basics of z-index and how it can be used to create designs which \u2018break out of the box\u2019.\n\nNo positioning? No Z!\n\nRemember geometry? The x axis represents the horizontal, the y axis represents the vertical. The z axis, which is where we get the z-index, represents /depth/. Elements which are stacked using z-index are stacked from front to back and z-index is only applied to elements which have their position property set to relative or absolute. No positioning, no z-index. Z-index values can be either negative or positive and it is the element with the highest z-index value appears closest to the viewer, regardless of its order in the source. Furthermore, if more than one element are given the same z-index, the element which comes last in source order comes out top of the pile. \n\nLet\u2019s take three
s.\n\n
\n
\n
\n\n #one { \n position: relative; \n z-index: 3;\n }\n\n #two { \n position: relative; \n z-index: 1;\n }\n\n #three {\n position: relative; \n z-index: 2;\n }\n\n\n\nAs you can see, the
with the z-index of 3 will appear closest, even though it comes before its siblings in the source order. As these three
s have no defined positioning context in the form of a positioned parent such as a
, their stacking order is defined from the root element . Simple stuff, but these building blocks are the basis on which we can create interesting interfaces (particularly when used in combination with image replacement and transparent PNGs).\n\nBrand building\n\nNow let\u2019s take three more basic elements, an

,
and

, all inside a branding

which acts a new positioning context. By enclosing them inside a positioned parent, we establish a new stacking order which is independent of either the root element or other positioning contexts on the page.\n\n
\n

Worrysome.com

\n

Don' worry 'bout a thing...

\n

Take the weight of the world off your shoulders.

\n
\n\nApplying a little positioning and z-index magic we can both set the position of these elements inside their positioning context and their stacking order. As we are going to use background images made from transparent PNGs, each element will allow another further down the stacking order to show through. This makes for some novel effects, particularly in liquid layouts.\n\n(Ed: We\u2019re using n below to represent whatever values you require for your specific design.) \n\n#branding {\n position: relative;\n width: n;\n height: n;\n background-image: url(n);\n }\n\n #branding>h1 {\n position: absolute;\n left: n;\n top: n;\n width: n;\n height: n;\n background-image: url(h1.png);\n text-indent: n;\n }\n\n #branding>blockquote {\n position: absolute;\n left: n;\n top: n;\n width: n;\n height: n;\n background-image: url(bq.png);\n text-indent: n;\n\n }\n\n #branding>p {\n position: absolute;\n right: n;\n top: n;\n width: n;\n height: n;\n background-image: url(p.png);\n text-indent: n;\n }\n\nNext we can begin to see how the three elements build upon each other.\n\n\n1. Elements outlined\n\n\n2. Positioned elements overlayed to show context\n\n\n3. Our final result\n\nMultiple stacking orders\n\nNot only can elements within a positioning context be given a z-index, but those positioning contexts themselves can also be stacked.\n\n\nTwo positioning contexts, each with their own stacking order\n\nInterestingly each stacking order is independent of that of either the root element or its siblings and we can exploit this to make complex layouts from just a few semantic elements. This technique was used heavily on my recent redesign of Karova.com.\n\nDissecting part of Karova.com\n\nFirst the XHTML. The default template markup used for the site places
and
as siblings inside their container.\n\n
\n
\n

\n

\n
\n
\n
\n\nBy giving the navigation
a lower z-index than the content
we can ensure that the positioned content elements will always appear closest to the viewer, despite the fact that the navigation comes after the content in the source.\n\n#content { \n position: relative; \n z-index: 2; \n }\n\n #nav_main { \n position: absolute; \n z-index: 1; \n }\n\nNow applying absolute positioning with a negative top value to the

and a higher z-index value than the following

ensures that the header sits not only on top of the navigation but also the styled paragraph which follows it.\n\nh2 {\n position: absolute;\n z-index: 200;\n top: -n;\n }\n\n h2+p {\n position: absolute;\n z-index: 100;\n margin-top: -n;\n padding-top: n;\n }\n\n\nDissecting part of Karova.com\n\nYou can see the full effect in the wild on the Karova.com site.\n\nHave a great holiday season!", "year": "2005", "author": "Andy Clarke", "author_slug": "andyclarke", "published": "2005-12-16T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2005/zs-not-dead-baby-zs-not-dead/", "topic": "design"} {"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": 99, "title": "A Christmas hCard From Me To You", "contents": "So apparently Christmas is coming. And what is Christmas all about? Well, cleaning out your address book, of course! What better time to go through your contacts, making sure everyone\u2019s details are up date and that you\u2019ve deleted all those nasty clients who never paid on time?\n\nIt\u2019s also a good time to make sure your current clients and colleagues have your most up-to-date details, so instead of filling up their inboxes with e-cards, why not send them something useful? Something like a\u2026 vCard! (See what I did there?)\n\nJust in case you\u2019ve been working in a magical toy factory in the upper reaches of Scandinavia for the last few years, I\u2019m going to tell you that now would also be the perfect time to get into microformats. Using the hCard format, we\u2019ll build a very simple web page and markup our contact details in such a way that they\u2019ll be understood by microformats plugins, like Operator or Tails for Firefox, or the cross-browser Microformats Bookmarklet.\n\nOh, and because Christmas is all about dressing up and being silly, we\u2019ll make the whole thing look nice and have a bit of fun with some CSS3 progressive enhancement. \n\nIf you can\u2019t wait to see what we end up with, you can preview it here.\n\n\n\nStep 1: Contact Details\n\nFirst, let\u2019s decide what details we want to put on the page. I\u2019d put my full name, my email address, my phone number, and my postal address, but I\u2019d rather not get surprise visits from strangers when I\u2019m fannying about with my baubles, so I\u2019m going to use Father Christmas instead (that\u2019s Santa to you Yanks).\n\nFather Christmas\nfatherchristmas@elliotjaystocks.com\n25 Laughingallthe Way\nSnow Falls\nLapland\nFinland\n010 60 58 000\n\nStep 2: hCard Creator\n\nNow I\u2019m not sure about you, but I rather like getting the magical robot pixies to do the work for me, so head on over to the hCard Creator and put those pixies to work! Pop in your details and they\u2019ll give you some nice microformatted HTML in turn.\n\n\n\n

\n\tFather Christmas\n\t fatherchristmas@elliotjaystocks.com\n\t
\n\t
25 Laughingallthe Way
\n\tSnow Falls\n\t, \n\tLapland\n\t, \n\tFI-00101\n\tFinland\n
\n
010 60 58 000
\n\t

This hCard created with the hCard creator.

\n
\n\nStep 3: Editing The Code\n\nOne of the great things about microformats is that you can use pretty much whichever HTML tags you want, so just because the hCard Creator Fairies say something should be wrapped in a doesn\u2019t mean you can\u2019t change it to a . Actually, no, don\u2019t do that. That\u2019s not even excusable at Christmas.\n\nI personally have a penchant for marking up each line of an address inside a
  • tag, where the parent url retains the class of adr. As long as you keep the class names the same, you\u2019ll be fine.\n\n
    \n\t

    Father Christmas

    \n\tfatherchristmas@elliotjaystocks.com\n\t
      \n\t\t
    • 25 Laughingallthe Way
      • \n\t\t
    • Snow Falls
      • \n\t\t
    • Lapland
      • \n\t\t
    • FI-00101
      • \n\t\t
    • Finland
      • \n\t
    \n\t010 60 58 000\n
    \n\nStep 4: Testing The Microformats\n\nWith our microformats in place, now would be a good time to test that they\u2019re working before we start making things look pretty. If you\u2019re on Firefox, you can install the Operator or Tails extensions, but if you\u2019re on another browser, just add the Microformats Bookmarklet. Regardless of your choice, the results is the same: if you\u2019ve code microformatted content on a web page, one of these bad boys should pick it up for you and allow you to export the contact info. Give it a try and you should see father Christmas appearing in your address book of choice. Now you\u2019ll never forget where to send those Christmas lists!\n\n\n\nStep 5: Some Extra Markup\n\nOne of the first things we\u2019re going to do is put a photo of Father Christmas on the hCard. We\u2019ll be using CSS to apply a background image to a div, so we\u2019ll be needing an extra div with a class name of \u201cphoto\u201d. In turn, we\u2019ll wrap the text-based elements of our hCard inside a div cunningly called \u201ctext\u201d. Unfortunately, because of the float technique we\u2019ll be using, we\u2019ll have to use one of those nasty float-clearing techniques. I shall call this \u201cchristmas-cheer\u201d, since that is what its presence will inevitably bring, of course.\n\nOh, and let\u2019s add a bit of text to give the page context, too:\n\n

    Send your Christmas lists my way...

    \n
    \n\t
    \n\t\t

    Father Christmas

    \n\t\tfatherchristmas@elliotjaystocks.com\n\t\t
      \n\t\t\t
    • 25 Laughingallthe Way
      • \n\t\t\t
    • Snow Falls
      • \n\t\t\t
    • Lapland
      • \n\t\t\t
    • FI-00101
      • \n\t\t\t
    • Finland
      • \n\t\t
    \n\t\t010 60 58 000\n\t
    \n\t
    \n\t
    \n
    \n
    \n\t

    A tutorial by Elliot Jay Stocks for 24 Ways

    \n\t

    Background: stock.xchng | Father Christmas: iStockPhoto

    \n
    \n\nStep 6: Some Christmas Sparkle\n\nSo far, our hCard-housing web page is slightly less than inspiring, isn\u2019t it? It\u2019s time to add a bit of CSS. There\u2019s nothing particularly radical going on here; just a simple layout, some basic typographic treatment, and the placement of the Father Christmas photo. I\u2019d usually use a more thorough CSS reset like the one found in the YUI or Eric Meyer\u2019s, but for this basic page, the simple * solution will do.\n\nCheck out the step 6 demo to see our basic styles in place.\n\nFrom this\u2026\n\n\n\n\u2026 to this:\n\n\n\nStep 7: Fun With imagery\n\nNow it\u2019s time to introduce a repeating background image to the element. This will seamlessly repeat for as wide as the browser window becomes.\n\nBut that\u2019s fairly straightforward. How about having some fun with the Father Christmas image? If you look at the image file itself, you\u2019ll see that it\u2019s twice as wide as the area we can see and contains a \u2018hidden\u2019 photo of our rather camp St. Nick.\n\n\n\nAs a light-hearted visual\u2026 er\u2026 \u2018treat\u2019 for users who move their mouse over the image, we move the position of the background image on the \u201cphoto\u201d div. Check out the step 7 demo to see it working.\n\nStep 8: Progressive Enhancement\n\nFinally, this fun little project is a great opportunity for us to mess around with some advanced CSS features (some from the CSS3 spec) that we rarely get to use on client projects. (Don\u2019t forget: no Christmas pressies for clients who want you to support IE6!)\n\nHere are the rules we\u2019re using to give some browsers a superior viewing experience:\n\n\n\t@font-face allows us to use Jos Buivenga\u2019s free font \u2018Fertigo Pro\u2019 on all text;\n\ttext-shadow adds a little emphasis on the opening paragraph;\n\tbody > p:first-child causes only the first paragraph to receive this treatment;\n\tborder-radius created rounded corners on our main div and the links within it;\n\tand webkit-transition allows us to gently fade in between the default and hover states of those links.\n\n\nAnd with that, we\u2019re done! You can see the results here. It\u2019s time to customise the page to your liking, upload it to your site, and send out the URL. And do it quickly, because I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve got some last-minute Christmas shopping to finish off!", "year": "2008", "author": "Elliot Jay Stocks", "author_slug": "elliotjaystocks", "published": "2008-12-10T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2008/a-christmas-hcard-from-me-to-you/", "topic": "code"} {"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": 293, "title": "A Favor for Your Future Self", "contents": "We tend to think about the future when we build things. What might we want to be able to add later? How can we refactor this down the road? Will this be easy to maintain in six months, a year, two years? As best we can, we try to think about the what-ifs, and build our websites, systems, and applications with this lens. \nWe comment our code to explain what we knew at the time and how that impacted how we built something. We add to-dos to the things we want to change. These are all great things! Whether or not we come back to those to-dos, refactor that one thing, or add new features, we put in a bit of effort up front just in case to give us a bit of safety later.\nI want to talk about a situation that Past Alicia and Team couldn\u2019t even foresee or plan for. Recently, the startup I was a part of had to remove large sections of our website. Not just content, but entire pages and functionality. It wasn\u2019t a very pleasant experience, not only for the reason why we had to remove so much of what we had built, but also because it\u2019s the ultimate \u201cI really hope this doesn\u2019t break something else\u201d situation. It was a stressful and tedious effort of triple checking that the things we were removing weren\u2019t dependencies elsewhere. To be honest, we wouldn\u2019t have been able to do this with any amount of success or confidence without our test suite.\nWriting tests for code is one of those things that developers really, really don\u2019t want to do. It\u2019s one of the easiest things to cut in the development process, and there\u2019s often a struggle to have developers start writing tests in the first place. One of the best lessons the web has taught us is that we can\u2019t, in good faith, trust the happy path. We must make sure ourselves, and our users, aren\u2019t in a tough spot later on because we only thought of the best case scenarios.\nJavaScript\nRegardless of your opinion on whether or not everything needs to be built primarily with JavaScript, if you\u2019re choosing to build a JavaScript heavy app, you absolutely should be writing some combination of unit and integration tests.\nUnit tests are for testing extremely isolated and small pieces of code, which we refer to as the units themselves. Great for reused functions and small, scoped areas, this is the closest you examine your code with the testing microscope. For example, if we were to build a calculator, the most minute piece we could test could be the basic operations.\n/*\n * This example uses a test framework called Jasmine\n */\n\ndescribe(\"Calculator Operations\", function () {\n\n it(\"Should add two numbers\", function () {\n\n // Say we have a calculator\n Calculator.init();\n\n // We can run the function that does our addition calculation...\n var result = Calculator.addNumbers(7,3);\n\n // ...and ensure we're getting the right output\n expect(result).toBe(10);\n\n });\n});\nEven though these teeny bits work in isolation, we should ensure that connecting the large pieces work, as well. This is where integration tests excel. These tests ensure that two or more different areas of code, that may not directly know about each other, still behave in expected ways. Let\u2019s build upon our calculator - we may want the operations to be saved in memory after a calculation runs. This isn\u2019t as suited for a unit test because there are a few other moving pieces involved in the process (the calculations, checking if the result was an error, etc.).\n it(\u201cShould remember the last calculation\u201d, function () {\n\n // Run an operation\n Calculator.addNumbers(7,10);\n\n // Expect something else to have happened as a result\n expect(Calculator.updateCurrentValue).toHaveBeenCalled();\n expect(Calculator.currentValue).toBe(17);\n });\nUnit and integration tests provide assurance that your hand-rolled JavaScript should, for the most part, never fail in a grand fashion. Although it still might happen, you could be able to catch problems way sooner than without a test suite, and hopefully never push those failures to your production environment.\nInterfaces\nRegardless of how you\u2019re building something, it most definitely has some kind of interface. Whether you\u2019re using a very barebones structure, or you\u2019re leveraging a whole design system, these things can be tested as well.\nAcceptance testing helps us ensure that users can get from point A to point B within our web things, which can provide assurance that major features are always functioning properly. By simulating user input and data entry, we can go through whole user workflows to test for both success and failure scenarios. These are not necessarily for simulating edge-case scenarios, but rather ensuring that our core offerings are stable.\nFor example, if your site requires signup, you want to make sure the workflow is behaving as expected - allowing valid information to go through signup, while invalid information does not let you progress.\n/*\n * This example uses Jasmine along with an add-on called jasmine-integration\n */\n\ndescribe(\"Acceptance tests\", function () {\n\n // Go to our signup page\n var page = visit(\"/signup\");\n\n // Fill our signup form with invalid information\n page.fill_in(\"input[name='email']\", \"Not An Email\");\n page.fill_in(\"input[name='name']\", \"Alicia\");\n page.click(\"button[type=submit]\");\n\n // Check that we get an expected error message\n it(\"Shouldn't allow signup with invalid information\", function () {\n expect(page.find(\"#signupError\").hasClass(\"hidden\")).toBeFalsy();\n });\n\n // Now, fill our signup form with valid information\n page.fill_in(\"input[name='email']\", \"thisismyemail@gmail.com\");\n page.fill_in(\"input[name='name']\", \"Gerry\");\n page.click(\"button[type=submit]\");\n\n // Check that we get an expected success message and the error message is hidden\n it(\"Should allow signup with valid information\", function () {\n expect(page.find(\"#signupError\").hasClass(\"hidden\")).toBeTruthy();\n expect(page.find(\"#thankYouMessage\").hasClass(\"hidden\")).toBeFalsy();\n });\n});\nIn terms of visual design, we\u2019re now able to take snapshots of what our interfaces look like before and after any code changes to see what has changed. We call this visual regression testing. Rather than being a pass or fail test like our other examples thus far, this is more of an awareness test, intended to inform developers of all the visual differences that have occurred, intentional or not. Developers may accidentally introduce a styling change or fix that has unintended side effects on other areas of a website - visual regression testing helps us catch these sooner rather than later. These do require a bit more consistent grooming than other tests, but can be valuable in major CSS refactors or if your CSS is generally a bit like Jenga.\nTools like PhantomCSS will take screenshots of your pages, and do a visual comparison to check what has changed between two sets of images. The code would look something like this:\n/*\n * This example uses PhantomCSS\n */\n\ncasper.start(\"/home\").then(function(){\n\n // Initial state of form\n phantomcss.screenshot(\"#signUpForm\", \"sign up form\");\n\n // Hit the sign up button (should trigger error)\n casper.click(\"button#signUp\");\n\n // Take a screenshot of the UI component\n phantomcss.screenshot(\"#signUpForm\", \"sign up form error\");\n\n // Fill in form by name attributes & submit\n casper.fill(\"#signUpForm\", {\n name: \"Alicia Sedlock\",\n email: \"alicia@example.com\"\n }, true);\n\n // Take a second screenshot of success state\n phantomcss.screenshot(\"#signUpForm\", \"sign up form success\");\n});\nYou run this code before starting any development, to create your baseline set of screen captures. After you\u2019ve completed a batch of work, you run PhantomCSS again. This will create a second batch of screenshots, which are then put through an image comparison tool to display any differences that occurred. Say you changed your margins on our form elements \u2013 your image diff would look something like this:\n\nThis is a great tool for ensuring not just your site retains its expected styling, but it\u2019s also great for ensuring nothing accidentally changes in the living style guide or modular components you may have developed. It\u2019s hard to keep eagle eyes on every visual aspect of your site or app, so visual regression testing helps to keep these things monitored.\nConclusion\nThe shape and size of what you\u2019re testing for your site or app will vary. You may not need lots of unit or integration tests if you don\u2019t write a lot of JavaScript. You may not need visual regression testing for a one page site. It\u2019s important to assess your codebase to see which tests would provide the most benefit for you and your team.\nWriting tests isn\u2019t a joy for most developers, myself included. But I end up thanking Past Alicia a lot when there are tests, because otherwise I would have introduced a lot of issues into codebases. Shipping code that\u2019s broken breaks trust with our users, and it\u2019s our responsibility as developers to make sure that trust isn\u2019t broken. Testing shouldn\u2019t be considered a \u201cnice to have\u201d - it should be an integral piece of our workflow and our day-to-day job.", "year": "2016", "author": "Alicia Sedlock", "author_slug": "aliciasedlock", "published": "2016-12-03T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2016/a-favor-for-your-future-self/", "topic": "code"} {"rowid": 108, "title": "A Festive Type Folly", "contents": "\u2018Tis the season to be jolly, so the carol singers tell us. At 24 ways, we\u2019re keeping alive another British tradition that includes the odd faux-Greco-Roman building dotted around the British countryside, Tower Bridge built in 1894, and your Dad\u2019s Christmas jumper with the dancing reindeer motif. \u2018Tis the season of the folly!\n\n \n 24 Ways to impress your friends\n \n\nThe example is not an image, just text. You may wish to see a screenshot in Safari to compare with your own operating system and browser rendering.\n\nLike all follies this is an embellishment\u200a\u2014\u200aa bit of web typography fun. It\u2019s similar to the masthead text at my place, but it\u2019s also a hyperlink. Unlike the architectural follies of the past, no child labour was used to fund or build it, just some HTML flavoured with CSS, and a heavy dose of Times New Roman. Why Times New Roman, you ask? Well, after a few wasted hours experimenting with heaps of typefaces, seeking an elusive consistency of positioning and rendering across platforms, it proved to be the most consistent. Who\u2019d\u2018a thought? To make things more interesting, I wanted to use a traditional scale and make the whole thing elastic by using relative lengths that would react to a person\u2019s font size. So, to the meat of this festive frippery:\n\nThere are three things we rely on to create this indulgence:\n\n\n\tDescendant selectors\n\tAbsolute positioning\n\tInheritance\n\n\nHTML & Descendant Selectors\n\nThe markup for the folly might seem complex at first glance. To semantics pedants and purists it may seem outrageous. If that\u2019s you, read on at your peril! Here it is with lots of whitespace:\n\n
    \n

    \n\u00a0\u00a0\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a02\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a04 \n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0w\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0a\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0y\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0s\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0to \n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0i\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0m\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0pre\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0s\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0s \n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0your \n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0friends\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\t\n\u00a0\u00a0\n

    \n
    \n\nWhy so much markup? Well, we want to individually style many of the glyphs. By nesting the elements, we can pick out the bits we need as descendant selectors.\n\nTo retain a smidgen of semantics, the text is wrapped in

    and elements. The two phrases, \u201c24 ways\u201d and \u201cto impress your friends\u201d are wrapped in and tags, respectively. Within those loving arms, their descendant s cascade invisibly, making a right mess of our source, but ready to be picked out in our CSS rules.\n\nSo, to select the \u201c2\u201d from the example we can simply write, #type h1 em{ }. Of course, that selects everything within the tags, but as we drill down the document tree, selecting other glyphs, any property / value styles can be reset or changed as required.\n\nPixels Versus Ems\n\nBefore we get stuck into the CSS, I should say that the goal here is to have everything expressed in relative \u201cem\u201d lengths. However, when I\u2019m starting out, I use pixels for all values, and only convert them to ems after I\u2019ve finished. It saves re-calculating the em length for every change I make as the folly evolves, but still makes the final result elastic, without relying on browser zoom.\n\nTo skip ahead, see the complete CSS.\n\nAbsolutely Positioned Glyphs\n\nIf a parent element has position: relative, or position: absolute applied to it, all children of that parent can be positioned absolutely relative to it. (See Dave Shea\u2019s excellent introduction to this.) That\u2019s exactly how the folly is achieved. As the parent, #type also has a font-size of 16px set, a width and height, and some basic style with a background and border:\n\n#type{\n\tfont-size: 16px;\n\ttext-align: left;\n\tbackground: #e8e9de;\n\tborder: 0.375em solid #fff;\n\twidth: 22.5em;\n\theight: 13.125em;\n\tposition: relative;\n}\n\nThe h1 is also given a default style with a font-size of 132px in ems relative to the parent font-size of 16px:\n\n#type h1{\n\tfont-family: \"Times New Roman\", serif;\n\tfont-size: 8.25em; /* 132px */\n\tline-height: 1em;\n\tfont-weight: 400;\n\tmargin: 0;\n\tpadding: 0;\n}\n\nTo get the em value, we divide the required size in pixels by the actual parent font-size in pixels\n\n132 \u00f7 16 = 8.25\n\nWe also give the descendants of the h1 some default properties. The line height, style and weight are normalised, they are positioned absolutely relative to #type, and a border and padding is applied:\n\n#type h1 em,\n#type h1 strong,\n#type h1 span{\n\tline-height: 1em;\n\tfont-style: normal;\n\tfont-weight: 400;\n\tposition: absolute;\n\tpadding: 0.1em;\n\tborder: 1px solid transparent;\n}\n\nThe padding ensures that some browsers don\u2019t forget about parts of a glyph that are drawn outside of their invisible container. When this happens, IE will trim the glyph, cutting off parts of descenders, for example. The border is there to make sure the glyphs have layout. Without this, positioning can be problematic. IE6 will not respect the transparent border colour\u200a\u2014\u200ait uses the actual text colour\u200a\u2014\u200abut in all other respects renders the example. You can hack around it, but it seemed unnecessary for this example.\n\nOnce these defaults are established, the rest is trial and error. As a quick example, the numeral \u201c2\u201d is first to be positioned:\n\n#type h1 a em{\n\tfont-size: 0.727em; /* (2) 96px */\n\tleft: 0.667em;\n\ttop: 0;\n}\n\nEvery element of the folly is positioned in exactly the same way as you can see in the complete CSS. When converting pixels to ems, the font-size is set first. Then, because we know what that is, we calculate the equivalent x- and y-position accordingly.\n\nInheritance\n\nCSS inheritance gave me a headache a long time ago when I first encountered it. After the penny dropped I came to experience something disturbingly close to affection for this characteristic. What it basically means is that children inherit the characteristics of their parents. For example:\n\n\n\tWe gave #type a font-size of 16px.\n\tFor #type h1 we changed it by setting font-size: 8.25em;. Than means that #type h1 now has a computed font-size of 8.25 \u00d7 16px = 132px.\n\tNow, all children of #type h1 in the document tree will inherit a font-size of 132px unless we explicitly change it as we did for #type h1 a em.\n\n\nThe \u201c2\u201d in the example\u200a\u2014\u200aselected with #type h1 a em\u200a\u2014\u200ais set at 96px with left and top positioning calculated relatively to that. So, the left position of 0.667em is 0.667 \u00d7 96 = 64px, approximately (three decimal points in em lengths don\u2019t always give exact pixel equivalents).\n\nOne way to look at inheritance is as a cascade of dependancy: In our example, the computed font size of any given element depends on that of the parent, and the absolute x- and y-position depends on the computed font size of the element itself.\n\nLink Colours\n\nThe same descendant selectors we use to set and position the type are also used to apply the colour by combining them with pseudo-selectors like :focus and :hover. Because the descendant selectors are available to us, we can pretty much pick out any glyph we like. First, we need to disable the underline:\n\n#type h1 a:link,\n#type h1 a:visited{\n\ttext-decoration: none;\n}\n\nIn our example, the \u201c24\u201d has a unique default state (colour):\n\n#type h1 a:link em,\n#type h1 a:visited em{\n\tcolor: #624;\n}\n\nThe rest of the \u201cWays\u201d text has a different colour, which it shares with the large \u201cs\u201d in \u201cimpress\u201d:\n\n#type h1 a:link em span span,\n#type h1 a:visited em span span,\n#type h1 a:link strong span span span span,\n#type h1 a:visited strong span span span span{\n\tcolor: #b32720;\n}\n\n\u201c24\u201d changes on :focus, :hover and :active. Critically though, the whole of the \u201c24 Ways\u201d text, and the large \u201cs\u201d in \u201cimpress\u201d all have the same style in this instance:\n\n#type h1 a:focus em,\n#type h1 a:hover em,\n#type h1 a:active em,\n#type h1 a:focus em span span,\n#type h1 a:hover em span span,\n#type h1 a:active em span span,\n#type h1 a:focus strong span span span span,\n#type h1 a:hover strong span span span span,\n#type h1 a:active strong span span span span{\n\tcolor: #804;\n}\n\nIf a descendant selector has a :link and :visited state set as a pseudo element, it needs to also have the corresponding :focus, :hover and :active states set.\n\nA Final Note About Web Typography\n\nFrom grids to basic leading to web fonts, and even absolute positioning, there\u2019s a wealth of things we can do to treat type on the Web with love and respect. However, experiments like this can highlight the vagaries of rasterisation and rendering that limit our ability to achieve truly subtle and refined results. At the operating system level, the differences in type rendering are extreme, and even between sequential iterations in Windows\u200a\u2014\u200afrom Standard to ClearType\u200a\u2014\u200athey can be daunting. Add to that huge variations in screen quality, and even the paper we print our type onto has many potential variations. Compare our example in Safari 3.2.1 / OS X 10.5.5 (left) and IE7 / Win XP (right). Both rendered on a 23\u201d Apple Cinema HD (LCD):\n\n\n\nBrowser developers continue to make great strides. However, those of us who set type on the Web need more consistency and quality if we want to avoid technologies like Flash and evolve web typography. Although web typography is inevitably\u200a\u2014\u200aand mistakenly\u200a\u2014\u200acompared unfavourably to print, it has the potential to achieve the same refinement in a different way. Perhaps one day, the glyphs of our favourite faces, so carefully crafted, kerned and hinted for the screen, will be rendered with the same precision with which they were drawn by type designers and styled by web designers. That would be my wish for the new year. Happy holidays!", "year": "2008", "author": "Jon Tan", "author_slug": "jontan", "published": "2008-12-17T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2008/a-festive-type-folly/", "topic": "design"} {"rowid": 150, "title": "A Gift Idea For Your Users: Respect, Yo", "contents": "If, indeed, it is the thought that counts, maybe we should pledge to make more thoughtful design decisions. In addition to wowing people who use the Web sites we build with novel features, nuanced aesthetics and the new new thing, maybe we should also thread some subtle things throughout our work that let folks know: hey, I\u2019m feeling ya. We\u2019re simpatico. I hear you loud and clear.\n\nIt\u2019s not just holiday spirit that moves me to talk this way. As good as people are, we need more than the horizon of karma to overcome that invisible demon, inertia. Makers of the Web, respectful design practices aren\u2019t just the right thing, they are good for business. Even if your site is the one and only place to get experience x, y or zed, you don\u2019t rub someone\u2019s face in it. You keep it free flowing, you honor the possible back and forth of a healthy transaction, you are Johnny Appleseed with the humane design cues. You make it clear that you are in it for the long haul.\n\nA peek back:\n\n\n\nThink back to what search (and strategy) was like before Google launched a super clean page with \u201cI\u2019m Feeling Lucky\u201d button. Aggregation was the order of the day (just go back and review all the \u2018strategic alliances\u2019 that were announced daily.) Yet the GOOG comes along with this zen layout (nope, we\u2019re not going to try to make you look at one of our media properties) and a bold, brash, teleport-me-straight-to-the-first-search-result button. It could have been titled \u201cWe\u2019re Feeling Cocky\u201d. These were radical design decisions that reset how people thought about search services. Oh, you mean I can just find what I want and get on with it?\n\nIt\u2019s maybe even more impressive today, after the GOOG has figured out how to monetize attention better than anyone. \u201cI\u2019m Feeling Lucky\u201d is still there. No doubt, it costs the company millions. But by leaving a little money on the table, they keep the basic bargain they started to strike in 1997. We\u2019re going to get you where you want to go as quickly as possible.\n\nWhere are the places we might make the same kind of impact in our work? Here are a few ideas:\n\nRespect People\u2019s Time\n\nAs more services become more integrated with our lives, this will only become more important. How can you make it clear that you respect the time a user has granted you?\n\nUser-Oriented Defaults\n\nDefault design may be the psionic tool in your belt. Unseen, yet pow-er-ful. Look at your defaults. Who are they set up to benefit? Are you depending on users not checking off boxes so you can feel ok about sending them email they really don\u2019t want? Are you depending on users not checking off boxes so you tilt privacy values in ways most beneficial for your SERPs? Are you making it a little too easy for 3rd party applications to run buckwild through your system?\n\nThere\u2019s being right and then there\u2019s being awesome. Design to the spirit of the agreement and not the letter.\n\nSee this?\n\n\n\nMake sure that\u2019s really the experience you think people want. Whenever I see a service that defaults to not opting me in their newsletter just because I bought a t shirt from them, you can be sure that I trust them that much more. And they are likely to see me again.\n\nReduce, Reuse\n\nIt\u2019s likely that people using your service will have data and profile credentials elsewhere. You should really think hard about how you can let them repurpose some of that work within your system. Can you let them reduce the number of logins/passwords they have to manage by supporting OpenID? Can you let them reuse profile information from another service by slurping in (or even subscribing) to hCards? Can you give them a leg up by reusing a friends list they make available to you? (Note: please avoid the anti-pattern of inviting your user to upload all her credential data from 3rd party sites into your system.)\n\nThis is a much larger issue, and if you\u2019d like to get involved, have a look at the wiki, and dive in.\n\nMake it simple to leave\n\nOh, this drives me bonkers. Again, the more simple you make it to increase or decrease involvement in your site, or to just opt-out altogether, the better. This example from Basecamp is instructive:\n\n\n\nAt a glance, I can see what the implications are of choosing a different type of account. I can also move between account levels with one click. Finally, I can cancel the service easily. No hoop jumping. Also, it should be simple for users to take data with them or delete it.\n\nLet Them Have Fun\n\nDon\u2019t overlook opportunities for pleasure. Even the most mundane tasks can be made more enjoyable. Check out one of my favorite pieces of interaction design from this past year:\n\n\n\nHoly knob fiddling, Batman! What a great way to get people to play with preference settings: an equalizer metaphor. Those of a certain age will recall how fun it was to make patterns with your uncle\u2019s stereo EQ. I think this is a delightful way to encourage people to optimize their own experience of the news feed feature. Given the killer nature of this feature, it was important for Facebook to make it easy to fine tune.\n\nI\u2019d also point you to Flickr\u2019s Talk Like A Pirate Day Easter egg as another example of design that delights. What a huge amount of work for a one-off, totally optional way to experience the site. And what fun. And how true to its brand persona. Brill.\n\nAnti-hype\n\nDon\u2019t talk so much. Rather, ship and sample. Release code, tell the right users. See what happens. Make changes. Extend the circle a bit by showing some other folks. Repeat.\n\nThe more you hype coming features, the more you talk about what isn\u2019t yet, the more you build unrealistic expectations. Your genius can\u2019t possibly match our collective dreaming. Disappointment is inevitable. Yet, if you craft the right melody and make it simple for people to hum your tune, it will spread. Give it time. Listen.\n\nSpeak the Language of the Tribe\n\nIt\u2019s respectful to speak in a human way. Not that you have to get all zOMGWTFBBQ!!1 in your messaging. People respond when you speak to them in a way that sounds natural. Natural will, of course, vary according to context. Again, listen in and people will signal the speech that works in that group for those tasks. Reveal those cues in your interface work and you\u2019ll have powerful proof that actual people are working on your Web site.\n\nThis example of Pownce\u2018s gender selector is the kind of thing I\u2019m talking about:\n\n\n\nNow, this doesn\u2019t mean you should mimic the lingo on some cool kidz site. Your service doesn\u2019t need to have a massage when it\u2019s down. Think about what works for you and your tribe. Excellent advice here from Feedburner\u2019s Dick Costolo on finding a voice for your service. Also, Mule Design\u2019s Erika Hall has an excellent talk on improving your word fu.\n\nPass the mic, yo\n\nHere is a crazy idea: you could ask your users what they want. Maybe you could even use this input to figure out what they really want. Tools abound. Comments, wikis, forums, surveys. Embed the sexy new Get Satisfaction widget and have a dynamic FAQ running.\n\nThe point is that you make it clear to people that they have a means of shaping the service with you. And you must showcase in some way that you are listening, evaluating and taking action against some of that user input.\n\nYou get my drift. There are any number of ways we can show respect to those who gift us with their time, data, feedback, attention, evangelism, money. Big things are in the offing. I can feel the love already.", "year": "2007", "author": "Brian Oberkirch", "author_slug": "brianoberkirch", "published": "2007-12-23T00:00:00+00:00", "url": "https://24ways.org/2007/a-gift-idea-for-your-users-respect-yo/", "topic": "ux"} {"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

    \n\n

    \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
    \n
    \n
    \n\nThis divorces the
    \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
    \n
    \n
    \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
    \n

    \n \n\n