#13370
Since HTML first became mainstream, with HTML version 2.0, there has been a struggle between the structure of a document and its presentation. This battle is symptomatic of two competing visions for the web.
King, Emmanuel Taylor. List Apart, A (2001). Design>Web Design>User Experience
#14898
I was sitting at my desk a few days ago, whiling away the time and I suddenly wondered why HTML includes a <code> tag, and a <var> tag, and yet it takes marking up code no further than that. It’d be understandable to have just the <code> tag, but if they’re going to have a <var> tag, shouldn’t they have more programming tags?
Cannon, Lachlan. List Apart, A (2002). Design>Web Design>XML
#20249
Sooner or later, most web designers will be called upon to create an internal site. And will quickly learn that one’s own company can be tougher to deal with than any client. Linabury offers tips on surviving the process.
Linabury, Dave. List Apart, A (2000). Design>Web Design>Intranets
#28704
Inside Your Users' Minds: The Cultural Probe
Theoretically, usability testing is a great way of finding out what is wrong with the products and services we design. We sit the users down in the lab and ask them to perform certain tasks, to 'tell us what you think--give voice to your stream of consciousness.' And on the whole, it works. But...
Stalker-Firth, Ruth. List Apart, A (2007). Articles>User Centered Design>Cultural Theory
#26324
Introducing the CSS3 Multi-Column Module
This module’s intent is to allow content to flow into multiple columns inside an element. It offers new CSS properties that let the designers specify in how many columns an element should be rendered. The browser takes care of formatting the text so that the columns are balanced.
Savarese, Cédric. List Apart, A (2005). Design>Web Design>CSS
#24834
Invasion of the Body Switchers
How style-sheet switching could be extended to give users even more choices or accessibility enhancements.
Clarke, Andy and James Edwards. List Apart, A (2004). Design>Web Design>CSS
#25549
Making an online gallery of pictures should be a quick process. The gap between snapping some pictures and publishing them on the web ought to be a short one. Here’s a quick and easy way of making a one-page gallery that uses JavaScript to load images and their captions on the fly.
Keith, Jeremy. List Apart, A (2004). Design>Web Design>DHTML
#25504
Fahrner Image Replacement (FIR), a technique developed to allow designers to use image-based typesetting while meeting accessibility requirements, only serves its intended purpose when screen readers misbehave. By using JavaScript, we have an opportunity none of these solutions give us.
Heilmann, Christian. List Apart, A (2003). Design>Web Design>DHTML
#26287
Logging provides an easy way to create transparent code. You, the author, can stay on top of your data structures as they pass through each line of your code and know exactly what is happening inside the black box of a web browser’s JavaScript engine
#25259
Now that you've separated your website’s (XHTML) structure from its (CSS) presentation, wouldn’t it be great to similarly abstract the behavioral (JavaScript) layer from the others? ALA prodigal Peter-Paul Koch shows how to use JavaScript Triggers to do just that.
Koch, Peter-Paul. List Apart, A (2005). Design>Web Design>DHTML
#30888
Keeping Your Elements' Kids in Line with Offspring
CSS selectors are handy things. They make coding CSS easier, sure, but they can also help keep your markup clean.
Bischoff, Alex. List Apart, A (2008). Articles>Web Design>Standards>CSS
#13225
Web programming is not rocket science. Get comfortable with the basics, and learn some nifty Style Sheet switching tricks, in this general introduction to ASP programming for non-programmers.
Evans, Meryl K. List Apart, A (2000). Design>Web Design>Server Side Includes
#25540
Language: The Ultimate User Interface
Words. Language. Meaning. They’re a nutritious part of your complete website. So why do so many webmakers treat language like an afterthought?
Hayden, Julia. List Apart, A (2000). Articles>Web Design>Writing
#22802
A growing debate pits accessibility against usability. From our point of view, it’s like pitting peanut butter against jelly. This article helps you create a page that is both usable and accessible, saving readers the trouble of scrolling with a little help from JavaScript and the Document Object Model.
Gustafson, Aaron. List Apart, A (2004). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Usability
#10065
A weekly website for people who make websites. From pixels to prose, coding to content. Fresh every Friday.
#28738
If a virtual design firm is to be successful, it must develop an adaptive culture that fosters and strengthens connections between far-flung collaborators.
Follett, Jonathan. List Apart, A (2007). Design>Web Design>Collaboration>Online
#28240
IE/Win does not render these quotation marks, and because of this, most web authors choose not to use the Q tag. I'm here to change all that!
Cordoni, Stacey. List Apart, A (2006). Design>Web Design>HTML>XHTML
#28456
Making Compact Forms More Accessible
Space constraints can put the squeeze on accessibility and usability. Mike Brittain shares his method for making itty-bitty forms more accessible and easier to use.
Brittain, Mike. List Apart, A (2006). Design>Web Design>CSS>Forms
#13601
In this article we'll build a simple, template-driven site that separates style, content, and structure in your website. We'll create a cross-browser stylesheet switcher that remembers the user's preferences, touching on PHP variables, cookies, if statements, and including pages with require_once.
Robbins, Christopher. List Apart, A (2002). Design>Content Management>Server Side Includes>PHP
#13546
For years we’ve been preloading our on–state images to assist the browser in its rollover presentation. Preloading increases the weight of the initial download, but adds to usability by decreasing the wait time for an on–state image to appear. Decreases, but may not eliminate. Even when preloaded, some browsers present momentary pauses prior to rendering the image. Besides being annoying, this momentary pause can cause problems when a visitor mouses over an element in passing or too rapidly. If the mouse movement is too fast, the browser does not have time to render the image and, worst–case scenario, can present you with a broken image icon.
Murtaugh, Tim. List Apart, A (2002). Design>Web Design>CSS>DHTML
#13544
Modifying Dreamweaver to Produce Valid XHTML
Dreamweaver 4 falls short in its ability to produce well-–formed, standards-–compliant markup. SOLUTION: You can easily harness Dreamweaver'’s two greatest strengths, its flexibility and its user community, to make it one of the best tools on the market for producing good XHTML. This article will tell you how. With a few tweaks, hacks and extensions, you’ll be able to produce sites that validate, and to clean up legacy pages. Set aside an hour or two, follow these directions, and fall in love with Dreamweaver all over again.
Bickner, Carrie. List Apart, A (2002). Design>Web Design>XHTML>Dreamweaver
#25534
Low tech, high yield: A funny thing happened on the way to the shopping cart. One Web designer found a simpler way to make e-commerce pay. Alan Herrell shows you The Money Page.
Herrell, Alan. List Apart, A (1999). Articles>Web Design>E Commerce
#25642
Discusses the need for custom DTDs: why making a custom DTD for the sole purpose of validation is a mistake, and in which cases it does make sense to create and use one. For these cases, this article will also present techniques for creating clean custom DTDs and avoiding hacks.
W3C Quality Assurance Team. List Apart, A (2005). Design>Web Design>Standards>XML
#27551
Is there a way to display text-based data on a map, keeping it accessible, useful and visually attractive? Yes: using an accessible CSS-based map in which the underlying map data is separated from the visual layout.
Duffey, Seth. List Apart, A (2006). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>CSS
#22798
Most of us have experience creating 'rounded' corners by erasing pixels. It’s a rudimentary web design technique — or so we always thought. But in the hands of Dan Cederholm, author of Web Standards Solutions, this seemingly simple technique paves the way for boxes and borders that can change sizes and colors at your whim.
Cederholm, Dan. List Apart, A (2004). Design>Web Design>CSS
