- this is a list
- with
- a
- bunch
- of
- nonsense
Sep 15, 2010
Aug 4, 2010
Web Design for Mobile Phones
Maybe you notice things more because you're already thinking about them. At least I'm guessing that's what happened when I came across an article on my Reader about web design for mobile phones.
Yesterday, at work, a client requested that we give them some advice on/help them test a new mini-site they were designing. Designing a website that is not only cross-browser compatible, but also usable on mobile phones? What a challenge! Or possibly not. Reading the above-mentioned article made me realize that the requirements for a good mobile design are pretty similar to the best practices for building just about any simpler site.
1.) Fluidity is KEY. Mobile phone screens (and therefore their browsers) come in an ever-increasing number of sizes. So a mobile-friendly site needs - even more than a cross-browser compatible one - to be able to adjust to the settings of the viewer.
2.) Clear Navigation. It might seem overly obvious that you would pay special attention to navigation in the design of a website, but when thinking of designing for a mobile phone, its even more critical. Users will not have the benefit of a mouse, and scroll may take time. Navigation should be place where it will be easy to see and easy to use.
3.) Clear and concise content. As a general rule, pages load more slowly on a mobile phone browser. Different connections allow for the transfer of different amounts of information. Also, someone who is browsing from a mobile phone is going to be even more ADD when it comes to combing through content than someone who has the advantage of a larger screen. Make your point quickly and provide direction to a place where you can say more on your point, IF they are interested.
4.) Know when to just create a different version of the site. Keep in mind that not all websites are going to move gracefully from computer to phone. In some cases it may be a good idea to actually create a mobile version of the site. I know that I feel something like relief when I go to a site on my phone and discover that they have a mobile version. This allows you to have a beautiful site to view on a computer screen - without sacrificing fun features and extras that would bog down a mobile phone. And frankly, probably gives the mobile viewer more confidence to browse your site - knowing that the frustration of plowing through a long-load and seeing features that are unusable on their phone will not be something they'll have to deal with from you.
Yesterday, at work, a client requested that we give them some advice on/help them test a new mini-site they were designing. Designing a website that is not only cross-browser compatible, but also usable on mobile phones? What a challenge! Or possibly not. Reading the above-mentioned article made me realize that the requirements for a good mobile design are pretty similar to the best practices for building just about any simpler site.
1.) Fluidity is KEY. Mobile phone screens (and therefore their browsers) come in an ever-increasing number of sizes. So a mobile-friendly site needs - even more than a cross-browser compatible one - to be able to adjust to the settings of the viewer.
2.) Clear Navigation. It might seem overly obvious that you would pay special attention to navigation in the design of a website, but when thinking of designing for a mobile phone, its even more critical. Users will not have the benefit of a mouse, and scroll may take time. Navigation should be place where it will be easy to see and easy to use.
3.) Clear and concise content. As a general rule, pages load more slowly on a mobile phone browser. Different connections allow for the transfer of different amounts of information. Also, someone who is browsing from a mobile phone is going to be even more ADD when it comes to combing through content than someone who has the advantage of a larger screen. Make your point quickly and provide direction to a place where you can say more on your point, IF they are interested.
4.) Know when to just create a different version of the site. Keep in mind that not all websites are going to move gracefully from computer to phone. In some cases it may be a good idea to actually create a mobile version of the site. I know that I feel something like relief when I go to a site on my phone and discover that they have a mobile version. This allows you to have a beautiful site to view on a computer screen - without sacrificing fun features and extras that would bog down a mobile phone. And frankly, probably gives the mobile viewer more confidence to browse your site - knowing that the frustration of plowing through a long-load and seeing features that are unusable on their phone will not be something they'll have to deal with from you.
Jul 28, 2010
Things I've Learned About Design - the 6-month list.
When August rolls around, it will mark 6 months at my current (awesome) internship. I had intended to start a blog quite early in those 6 months, at the urging of my (superhero-status) supervisor - so I started taking notes. I called them "things I learned about design today." As work got busier, some days I forgot about the list - okay some weeks I forgot about the list - and here I am, approaching the 6 month mark. It seemed as appropriate a time as any to write this post. So here are some things that I've learned in my 6 months of interning. Some of these will seem painfully obvious - but they made an impression on me, so I'm going to share them.
1.) A single uniftying theme - like a color - can be the basis for greatness in a web design. Stay true to it, but don't get carried away.
2.) You have no idea how happy it makes a developer/designer to receive files that are optimized, in the right format, and/or sliced correctly. I worked on a site where I was given that were all set to simply be uploaded and plugged into the CSS and working on that site was an utter, utter joy!
3.) CSS sprites are terrific - especially in the case of a nav bar that is all images and includes a hover state.
4.) Flash sites are very cool and dynamic, but they are also snobs. Like the group of kids at school who everyone wanted to be, but usually never got to hang out with. Like the hot guy or girl who is totally out of your league, flash sites can be beautiful, fun and allow for effects that wow the user, but they can also be frustratingly inaccessible if you don't have the right tools to view them. And I know that when I'm browsing the web, I get pretty irritated when a site requires that I download or install something in order to see their content. In short, flash sites are high maintenance, both for the user and the maintainer - and are something to be indulged in with care.
Even if the client is launching their first site - actually, especially if - having a clear view of what and how long your role in that process is will be helpful to them. Much more helpful than you holding their hand and making every tiny change they ask for on the whim of every person who might possibly want input.
6.) Don't use fixed size design if at all possible. Different users will have different browser sizes and different viewing preferences. Sites need to be flexible in response to changes in font-size preferences to be more user friendly and a window that scrolls side to side in a browser window, rather than resizing the content to fit, is simply a bad idea. And on that note - make sure that your designs don't rely on an ability to fit content perfectly into a certain space based on font sizes. Its a pain to set up, a pain to maintain, and will break if the user tries to view the site in a larger or smaller font.
7.) Avoid using the phrase "click here." This surprised me when I came across it, but it actually makes sense. "Click here" doesn't add any meaning to the content in the site - and people click on everything that looks like a link these days. So use something that is descriptive of the information that they'll receive if they click the link, and rely on the link styles and people's curiosity to do the rest.
1.) A single uniftying theme - like a color - can be the basis for greatness in a web design. Stay true to it, but don't get carried away.
2.) You have no idea how happy it makes a developer/designer to receive files that are optimized, in the right format, and/or sliced correctly. I worked on a site where I was given that were all set to simply be uploaded and plugged into the CSS and working on that site was an utter, utter joy!
3.) CSS sprites are terrific - especially in the case of a nav bar that is all images and includes a hover state.
4.) Flash sites are very cool and dynamic, but they are also snobs. Like the group of kids at school who everyone wanted to be, but usually never got to hang out with. Like the hot guy or girl who is totally out of your league, flash sites can be beautiful, fun and allow for effects that wow the user, but they can also be frustratingly inaccessible if you don't have the right tools to view them. And I know that when I'm browsing the web, I get pretty irritated when a site requires that I download or install something in order to see their content. In short, flash sites are high maintenance, both for the user and the maintainer - and are something to be indulged in with care.
- pros - dynamic, exciting, look cutting-edge.
- cons - load time, user accessibility
Even if the client is launching their first site - actually, especially if - having a clear view of what and how long your role in that process is will be helpful to them. Much more helpful than you holding their hand and making every tiny change they ask for on the whim of every person who might possibly want input.
6.) Don't use fixed size design if at all possible. Different users will have different browser sizes and different viewing preferences. Sites need to be flexible in response to changes in font-size preferences to be more user friendly and a window that scrolls side to side in a browser window, rather than resizing the content to fit, is simply a bad idea. And on that note - make sure that your designs don't rely on an ability to fit content perfectly into a certain space based on font sizes. Its a pain to set up, a pain to maintain, and will break if the user tries to view the site in a larger or smaller font.
7.) Avoid using the phrase "click here." This surprised me when I came across it, but it actually makes sense. "Click here" doesn't add any meaning to the content in the site - and people click on everything that looks like a link these days. So use something that is descriptive of the information that they'll receive if they click the link, and rely on the link styles and people's curiosity to do the rest.
Jul 24, 2010
Art History presented by Google
Logging into my iGoogle today - I was pleasantly surprised by the Google Doodle that's sitting in the place of the regular Google icon. Although I've never been terribly successful at creating much of anything in the Art Nouveau style myself - it ranks among my favorite styles for the melding of clean lines and intricate design.
Today was the birthday (150 years ago) of the painter Alphonse Mucha, whose Art Nouveau work had a heavy influence on modern art - including the ever-more-popular artwork of Manga.
http://www.muchafoundation.org/MGalleries.aspx - Go. Be inspired!
Today was the birthday (150 years ago) of the painter Alphonse Mucha, whose Art Nouveau work had a heavy influence on modern art - including the ever-more-popular artwork of Manga.
http://www.muchafoundation.org/MGalleries.aspx - Go. Be inspired!
Jul 20, 2010
Exit, stage left
So this morning, per usual, I started off my day by checking my work email and my Google Reader. Over the weekend, the posts in the Reader tend to pile up and some of them catch my eye more than others. Today I found myself reading through information about HTML5, and ended up at this post:
http://www.onextrapixel.com/2010/06/02/build-a-html5-css3-website-layout-without-images%E2%80%93part-1/
I admit to not knowing a great deal about HTML5, but the bits of it that I saw in this article made me extremely happy. The idea that there will be standardized naming conventions for elements and layout items that are generally the basic framework of a site - thus cutting down the number of words inside the HTML documents - and subsequently the simplification of applying certain CSS rules . . . I'm smiling on the inside.
However, in the work I've done, its clear to me that although IE6 is tentatively edging it's way towards the stage exit, other iterations of IE and other browsers that do not support HTML5 (or CSS3) are still going to be major players for a long time yet - so I have to wonder how efficient the use of HTML5 and CSS3 in creating a website is going to be. If the so-called "death" of IE6 is any indication, its going to be a long time before we'll be able to move fully and practically into this world of simplified HTML5/CSS3 documents. (I'm kind of hoping that I'm wrong.)
http://www.onextrapixel.com/2010/06/02/build-a-html5-css3-website-layout-without-images%E2%80%93part-1/
I admit to not knowing a great deal about HTML5, but the bits of it that I saw in this article made me extremely happy. The idea that there will be standardized naming conventions for elements and layout items that are generally the basic framework of a site - thus cutting down the number of words inside the HTML documents - and subsequently the simplification of applying certain CSS rules . . . I'm smiling on the inside.
However, in the work I've done, its clear to me that although IE6 is tentatively edging it's way towards the stage exit, other iterations of IE and other browsers that do not support HTML5 (or CSS3) are still going to be major players for a long time yet - so I have to wonder how efficient the use of HTML5 and CSS3 in creating a website is going to be. If the so-called "death" of IE6 is any indication, its going to be a long time before we'll be able to move fully and practically into this world of simplified HTML5/CSS3 documents. (I'm kind of hoping that I'm wrong.)
Jul 16, 2010
This isn't just for the typographers . . .
Lately at work I've had some serious back and forth about what font to use on a particular website. Web typography can be challenging - especially since the use of special embedded/implemented fonts requires special licensing if you don't want to get yourself in big trouble.
Sites like fontsquirrel.com can be extremely helpful, but only if you know what you're looking for. If not, its easy to get swept away by a wave of fonts that all look almost the same to a great many people.
So with fonts on the brain, I stumbled across this: http://www.cracked.com/funny-5647-fonts/ , which brought back the days I spent sitting in my college Typography class, and which, despite the occasional swear word, manages to be both amusing and a reminder of why we should care about fonts.
Sites like fontsquirrel.com can be extremely helpful, but only if you know what you're looking for. If not, its easy to get swept away by a wave of fonts that all look almost the same to a great many people.
So with fonts on the brain, I stumbled across this: http://www.cracked.com/funny-5647-fonts/ , which brought back the days I spent sitting in my college Typography class, and which, despite the occasional swear word, manages to be both amusing and a reminder of why we should care about fonts.
Jul 13, 2010
Geek? Or Nerd?
According to my "How to" feed on iGoogle, Today is "Embrace Your Geekness" day.
How are you a geek? Go ahead, count the ways!
http://www.wikihow.com/Tell-the-Difference-Between-Nerds-and-Geeks
How are you a geek? Go ahead, count the ways!
http://www.wikihow.com/Tell-the-Difference-Between-Nerds-and-Geeks
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