#30098
Between April 24th and May 22nd, 2007, A List Apart conducted the first survey of 'people who make websites'; 32,831 web professionals participated. Straightforward survey responses are summarized. Detailed findings, derived by cross-referencing various data, make up the remainder and bulk of this report, and constitute its chief claim to significance.
List Apart, A (2007). Careers>Web Design>Statistics>Surveys
#13268
Web Designer -- And Proud of It!
The hardest part of being a professional web designer is telling people what I do for a living. The range of comments I get runs from dismissal of the web as a fad, to the ever popular, 'My fifth-grade son has his own website.' The main reason that job titles like Web GUI Designer or Web Creative get bandied about in the media and professional circles is that the term web designer carries about as much respect as paper boy in today's society.
MacGregor, Chris. List Apart, A (2001). Careers>Web Design>Professionalism
#20251
Those who 'get' the web create it. Those who do not get the web are put in charge. Joe Clark presents a vision for defending our web against their worst ideas.
Clark, Joe. List Apart, A (2000). Articles>Web Design>Professionalism
#20226
The web services concept being championed by computing giants like Sun, Oracle, HP, Microsoft, and IBM is a great step towards simple access to software over the network. By promoting standards–based communication, web services might change the way we build websites.
Cooney, Patrick. List Apart, A (2002). Design>Web Design>Technology
#22799
While the methods we use to create accessible websites can be complex, the essential principles are simple: consider the obstacles your site presents to users who approach it differently than you do, then remove as many of those obstacles as you can.
Moss, Trenton. List Apart, A (2004). Design>Web Design>Accessibility
#13360
XML (Extensible Markup Language) is the Eurodollar of web development. Both XML and the Euro bring order to chaos; both offer undeniable, wide-ranging benefits; both are poised, in 2002, to change the way we do things. Frankly, both scare the crap out of people. For web developers, 2002 is a time to conquer fears and take their first hands-on approach to XML. It's time to examine XML and realize the practical benefits that it can provide to web projects today. The bankers can fend for themselves.
Janisch, Troy. List Apart, A (2002). Design>Web Design>Information Design>XML
#25261
One of the biggest problems in creating and delivering a site is how to decide, specify, and communicate exactly what we’re building and why. Use cases can help answer these questions by providing a simple, fast means to decide and describe the purpose of your project. In this quick-reading article, Messieurs Carr and Meehan introduce use cases and their, uh, uses.
Carr, Norm and Tim Meehan. List Apart, A (2005). Articles>Web Design>Project Management
#26229
When You Are Your Own Client, Who Are You Going To Make Fun Of At The Bar?
Should your blog have a business? Jim Coudal shares insights into the adventure of transitioning from client services to product creation.
Coudal, Jim. List Apart, A (2005). Careers>Freelance>Consulting>Web Design
#28349
It seems strange to be talking about something as basic as 'navigation' 11 years into the web era. And yet, if you’re a web designer, chances are you’ve made some mistakes in this fundamental area. I know I have. So let’s go back to basics.
Powazek, Derek. List Apart, A (2006). Design>Web Design>User Interface
#28707
Where Our Standards Went Wrong
Regardless of whether we find validation impractical or imperative, the infighting in the standards community is the biggest obstacle to real progress. Instead of trying to understand what factors make both sides agitated, we've vilified the people on the other side of the argument. We need to identify what's making 100% validation so expensive and difficult, and work on removing those factors.
Marcotte, Ethan. List Apart, A (2007). Design>Web Design>Standards>Workflow
#28713
Sometimes, as in web design, it's difficult to add whitespace because of content requirements. Newspapers often deal with this by setting their body content in a light typeface with plenty of whitespace within and around the characters.
Boulton, Mark. List Apart, A (2007). Design>Web Design>Document Design
#28820
A designer formats and places text. Technically, the job ends there. But some designers go further, sharpening their clients' content to grab and focus user attention. In so doing, they create more effective sites--and gain an advantage over other designers. Drawing on decades of copywriter lore, Shaun Crowley discusses seduction by headline and other principles of writing that sells.
Crowley, Shaun. List Apart, A (2007). Articles>Web Design>Writing
#20259
Whether we’re designing experimental sites or keeping an online diary, we go to the web in search of meaning. Will we find it? Or will we build it ourselves?
Cohen, Scott Jason. List Apart, A (2000). Articles>Web Design>Cyberculture
#31616
Remembering why you were hired—and identifying whether or not you belong—is just as important as getting the gig. To sustain career and mental health, you must work within your means and know how to navigate ambiguous workplace situations. Using client and project management techniques is one part of the solution. Using your talent is the other.
LaFerriere, Keith. List Apart, A (2008). Careers>Advice>Project Management
#20228
Why Don't You Code for Netscape?
Long considered the Holy Grail of web design, 'backward compatibility' has its place; but at this point in web development history, shouldn’t we be more concerned about forward compatibility? ALA makes the case for authoring to web standards instead of browser quirks.
Zeldman, Jeffrey. List Apart, A (2001). Design>Web Design>Standards>Web Browsers
#25521
Why Gecko Matters: What Netscape’s Upcoming Browser Will Mean to the Web
Netscape is about to unleash its new browser, built around the Gecko rendering engine. Theoretically the first completely standards-compliant web browser, Gecko enters a world where most people use IE5 (which is not completely standards-compliant). Is Netscape’s effort too little, too late? Or is it the beginning of a new and better way to create websites? Zeldman articulates The Web Standards Project's position and explains what Netscape’s browser will mean to the web.
Zeldman, Jeffrey. List Apart, A (2000). Articles>Web Design>Standards>Web Browsers
#25520
It complies with two key web standards. And leaves out two others. It's IE5 Macintosh Edition, the first browser on any platform to truly support HTML 4 and CSS-1. Its accessibility enhancements put the user in charge, and its clever new features solve long-standing cross-platform and usability problems. All this ... but still no XML or DOM.
Zeldman, Jeffrey. List Apart, A (2000). Design>Web Design>Standards
#13541
Most seasoned web developers have learned the hard way that posting an email address on a website is a sure-fire way to guarantee a steaming pile of spam delivered to that address for years to come. Indeed, posting a naked email link anywhere on the web (or in a newsgroup, in a chatroom, on a weblog comments page ...) is generally the kiss of death for your once-healthy address.
Benjamin, Dan. List Apart, A (2002). Design>Web Design
#28237
Working with Others: Accessibility and User Research
After personally observing users with disabilities interacting with websites in unexpected ways, I have come to believe strongly in the value of user research--and to suspect that we really don't know quite as much about real-world accessibility as we think we do.
Boscarol, Maurizio. List Apart, A (2006). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>User Centered Design
#27675
The World Grows Small: Open Standards for the Global Web
We know that crafting a more accessible website relies on understanding and using web standards including (X)HTML and CSS. It's interesting to see how the same practices relate directly to the design and development of internationalized sites.
Holzschlag, Molly E. List Apart, A (2006). Design>Web Design>International>Standards
#28907
Web design is still a young discipline, and it's generally poorly understood. As the web becomes mainstream, an increasing number of people and organizations want websites--and so more people are involved in commissioning, managing, and designing them. It's not surprising that many of these people aren't familiar with how web design works. Clients, managers, and colleagues often assume that web design is a subset of some other discipline, like advertising, graphic design, or software engineering. This creates a tendency to write it off as a low-value, straightforward process that can be streamlined and automated, like a production line. The result is unhelpful pressure on you, the web designer. You're asked to design faster, using a smaller budget, and without access to key stakeholders--which can make it difficult to maintain your professionalism, leaving everyone unhappy with the final design. The logical conclusion of this perpetual streamlining would be to stop using your judgment altogether, as if you were a piece of off-the-shelf software: a robot.
Kahn, Jonathan. List Apart, A (2007). Careers>Web Design>Professionalism
#28243
An About page should provide context and necessary facts, but should also give the reader compelling reasons to do what you want them to do.
Kissane, Erin. List Apart, A (2006). Design>Web Design>Rhetoric
#31418
Zebra Striping: Does it Really Help?
The user of a table would be looking for one or more data points. Therefore, if we set a task that uses a table, and zebra striping does make things easier, then we would expect to see improvements in accuracy and speed.
Enders, Jessica. List Apart, A (2008). Articles>Web Design>Usability>CSS
#25543
While misused tables are becoming increasingly rare, the table retains a legitimate role in data formatting. A little CSS and JavaScript magic can make tables better at what they do best: displaying tabular data.
Miller, David F. List Apart, A (2004). Design>Web Design>CSS
#32140
Mapping Memory: Web Designer as Information Cartographer
The rise of the social web demands that we rethink our traditional role as builders of digital monuments, and turn our attention to the close observation of the spaces that our users are producing around us. It’s time for a new metaphor. Consider cartography.
Rester, Aaron. List Apart, A (2008). Articles>Web Design>Information Design
