Process, Methodology, Life Cycle Oh My!

No matter what you call the process of managing your design project from beginning to end, it can save your butt. You land a client or buddy who wants you to design a website. No problem, that's what you do. Have you experienced the following? Scope creep Budget creep Launch delays Maintenance issues Maybe it's time to put a process in place that outlines the phases of your web design project. It doesn't have to be complex. Even a one-person shop can do it.

Evans, Meryl K. List Apart, A (2000). Design>Web Design>Tutorials

Put Your Content in My Pocket

The iPhone includes a sophisticated new Safari browser. This version is touted as 'the most advanced web browser on a portable device' and from what I've seen, it deserves this accolade. So what does this mean for you? Millions of visitors accessing your content on a small display with very high resolution. At some point in the near future, you're going to want to take a look at your current site design to make sure that it looks good and works well on this new device and its Mobile Safari browser.

Hockenberry, Craig. List Apart, A (2007). Design>Web Design>Wireless Web>CSS

Put Your Content in my Pocket, Part II

Mobile Safari--unlike other browsers--does not maintain a constant size for content viewing. Because of the small screen, the content area is constantly adjusted to maximize the space available for the task at hand.

Hockenberry, Craig. List Apart, A (2007). Design>Web Design>Wireless Web>Web Browsers

Putting Our Hot Heads Together

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

Wood, Carolyn. List Apart, A (2008). Articles>Web Design>Community Building

Quick CSS Mockups with Photoshop

You need to make a set of web design mockups for your client. You'd like to find an easy way to show these mockups in clean XHTML and CSS code, because plain JPGs don't convey the full sense of the design, and sliced tables are evil. In fact, let's forget table slices ever existed. This article is for people who need to produce valid, standards-compliant mockups quickly, with the graphics tools they already use.

Voogt, Casper. List Apart, A (2007). Design>Web Design>Planning>CSS

Random Image Rotation

Readers return to sites that appear fresh and new on each visit. On a news site, magazine, or blog, stories or headlines will be updated frequently. But how can static sites keep that fresh feeling? Dan Benjamin’s free image randomizer may do the trick, and you needn’t be a programmer to install it.

Benjamin, Dan. List Apart, A (2003). Design>Web Design>Graphic Design>DHTML

Rated XHTML

The W3C’s XHTML language is intended to bridge the web’s past (HTML) and future (XML). Shall we cross this bridge, now that we’ve come to it? Or is XHTML more trouble than it’s worth? Peter-Paul Koch puts forth the pros and cons.

Koch, Peter-Paul. List Apart, A (2000). Design>Web Design>XML>XHTML

Reading Design

Designers who work in the day-to-day grind of deadline and presentation rarely find opportunity to bring a concentration of skills to one project. I’m going to suggest, however, that designers will benefit from following Warren Chappell’s example, and approach their work now and again as being written rather than assembled.

Allen, Dean. List Apart, A (2002). Design>Typography

Retooling Slashdot with Web Standards

A look at the markup behind Slashdot.org that demonstrates how simple -- and cost-effective -- the switch to a standards-compliant Slashdot could be.

Frommelt, Daniel M. List Apart, A (2003). Design>Web Design>Standards>CSS

Retooling Slashdot with Web Standards Part II

In Part I, we showed how Slashdot could save money and reduce bandwidth requirements by converting to semantic XHTML markup and CSS layout. In Part II, we explore how standards-compliant markup and deft use of CSS could make Slashdot (and your sites) play nicely in print and on handheld devices.

Frommelt, Daniel M. List Apart, A (2003). Design>Web Design>Standards>CSS

The Road to Dystopia

Now that greed, pride, and stupidity have wrecked the web economy, how's a semi-idealistic web developer supposed to make a living? Chris Kaminski hitches a ride down the road to dystopia.

Kaminski, Chris. List Apart, A (2001). Careers>Web Design

Rolling the Start-Up Dice

So you want to work for an Internet start-up company. Bruce and Moyer show you the ropes.

Bruce, Marlene and Lee Moyer. List Apart, A (2000). Careers>Advice>Workplace

Ruining the User Experience

There's a lot we, as designers of the web experience, can learn from something as simple as a water glass.

Gustafson, Aaron. List Apart, A (2007). Design>Web Design>User Experience

The Rules of Digital Engagement

For contract web workers, consultants, and freelancers who work with far-flung collaborators, multiple clients, and constantly shifting teams, the rules of digital engagement--the way we interact with each other and resolve conflict in virtual space--are constantly changing. As we adapt to new ways of collaborating, we must also learn how to communicate effectively, set expectations, and build team confidence in an evolving work environment.

Follett, Jonathan. List Apart, A (2008). Articles>Web Design>Collaboration>Workplace

Selecting Professionals

Before you get too deeply into establishing your firm, you will need to surround yourself with business professionals who have seen all this before. Putting time and research into the process of selecting these professionals can lead to trusting business relationships that will last for years. Web design firms can count on needing at least an accountant, an attorney and a bank. Corporations will also need a registered agent if they are incorporating outside the state where the business is conducted. Some portions are repeated between professionals since the processes of selecting them are similar.

Kramer, Scott. List Apart, A (2001). Careers>Consulting>Web Design

Semantic Flash: Slippery When Wet

There's a belief within the web standards community that Flash is part of a different world. While all approaches have limitations and drawbacks, Flash has been scorned to the point that many refuse to acknowledge its benefits. Ultimately, this has led to the creation of a virtual separation among web designers; those who use Flash use it exclusively (leading to a saturation of full-screen, 'Skip Intro'-rich Flash sites on the web) and those who don't ever give it a second thought. Although the brilliant option of the hybrid (part Flash, part HTML) site had always existed, it's never really made it far past the typical Flash intro on a corporate homepage. Throughout the history of Flash on the web, the technology has always been intended to be embedded within HTML. Yet it has often seemed a foreign concept to use the two technologies to complement one another.

Mall, Dan. List Apart, A (2007). Design>Web Design>Multimedia>Flash

Sensible Forms: A Form Usability Checklist

Sometimes it’s the little things that drive you nuts. As many of us have probably noticed during this season of holiday shopping, usability problems in online forms can be infuriating. Brian Crescimanno helps solve the problem with a checklist of form-usability recommendations.

Crescimanno, Brian. List Apart, A (2005). Design>Web Design>Usability>Forms

Separation Anxiety: The Myth of the Separation of Style from Content

The separation of style from content has long been the web’s holy grail. But is it a myth? Stein claims that when design communicates, style and content are inextricably wed.

Stein, Bob. List Apart, A (2001). Design>Web Design>Theory

Separation: The Web Designer's Dilemma

With all the discussion about separating presentation from content (and structure), it's easy to lose track of the goal. So let's step back, define our terms, and take a look at why it matters.

Cohen, Michael. List Apart, A (2004). Design>Web Design>CSS>Theory

Setting Type on the Web to a Baseline Grid

It's easier these days to embed a video on the web than it is to set type consistently or align elements to a universal grid.

Miner, Wilson. List Apart, A (2007). Design>Web Design>Typography

Sign Up Forms Must Die

You load a new web service, eager to dive in and start engaging, and what's the first thing that greets you? A sign-up form. We can do better, says Luke Wroblewski, author of Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks. Via a technique of "gradual engagment," we can get people using and caring about our web services instead of frustrating them (or sending them to a competitor's site) by forcing them to fill out a sign-up form first.

Wroblewski, Luke. List Apart, A (2008). Articles>Web Design>Forms>User Centered Design

Simple Content Management

DON’T BE FOOLED by the title: this article covers the implementation of a complete, expandable, client-side content management system using REBOL. This system makes it easy for any website operator, regardless of experience, to update site content while keeping markup valid and consistent and ensuring that links stay pertinent. Why another CMS? I’m not a fan of the client-side content management provided by FrontPage or Dreamweaver, and server-based systems rely on server OS and software and are vulnerable to the restrictions of hosting packages. This CMS will work on any desktop system.

Ross-Gill, Christopher. List Apart, A (2002). Design>Content Management>Hosting

Size Matters: Making Font Size Keywords Work

The cascading style sheets standard includes seven font-size keywords intended to give designers a simple means of setting font sizes without creating accessibility problems. Sizes range from xx-small to xx-large and are relative to users' preferred 'medium' settings. Putting these seven sizes to work should be a no-brainer. Unfortunately there are plenty of obstacles ahead. Fortunately there is a workaround. Let's start by surveying the damage, then move on to a working solution.

Fahrner, Todd. List Apart, A (2001). Design>Web Design>CSS

Slash Forward

Some URLs are better than others. The effect of web addresses on usability and design. Short, sweet, simple, and useful.

List Apart, A (2002). Design>Web Design>Usability

Slash Forward (Some URLs are Better Than Others)

A frequently overlooked step in this process is the structure of your links--the actual URLs you’ll be using to point to items on your site. Here are a few handy tips.

Waferbaby. List Apart, A (2002). Design>Web Design>Usability