#20261
In a high-powered production environment like the web, a design method can help you get more done faster…and provide you with rules to break. New ALA writer Ross Olson shares his company’s game plan.
Olson, Ross. List Apart, A (2000). Design>Web Design>Methods
#25522
Designing for Context with CSS
The medium is the message: Imagine providing unique information exclusively for people who read your site via a web-enabled cell phone — then crafting a different message for those who are reading a printout instead of the screen. Let your context guide your content. All it takes is some user-centric marketing savvy and a dash of CSS.
Porter, Joshua. List Apart, A (2004). Design>Web Design>CSS
#30450
In web design, when we think about flow we usually think about 'task flows' or 'flow charts' but there's another type of flow that we should keep in mind. It's that feeling of complete absorption when you're engaged in something you love to do without being disrupted by anxiety or boredom caused by tasks that are confusing, repetitive or overly taxing.
Ramsey, Jim. List Apart, A (2007). Articles>Web Design
#28351
We've all experienced low points, and whether they're caused by tight timelines, hostile clients, infighting, personal disasters, or something else entirely, we have to find a way to work through them.
Stevenson, Walter. List Apart, A (2006). Design>Web Design
#27972
As designers, we all face the inevitable slump. That point where our creativity stagnates and we find ourselves at a dead end. Walter Stevenson offers suggestions on staying productive and creative.
Stevenson, Warren. List Apart, A (2006). Design>Web Design>Planning
#10885
The online adult industry leads the B2C marketplace. On the web's ghost-town Main Street, populated with derelict online storefronts, the Porn Saloon is still open and still doing good business (though not as good as before). Given that success in our culture is associated with making money, the online adult industry is showing the rest of the industry a possible path to online success. Designers, developers, and site owners can learn from the porn industry. Not from its generally ridiculous branding and graphics, but rather from its affiliate programs, technology, and customer service.
Jacobson, Bob. List Apart, A (2001). Design>Web Design>Marketing
#25532
There is just too much stuff out there. Web surfing has turned to web surfeit, as web users and independent content site authors are buried alive in a sea of ever-more-useless crap. Bob Jacobson sifts through the wreckage.
Jacobson, Bob. List Apart, A (2000). Articles>Web Design>Search
#20257
DOM Design Tricks: Dynamic Text in the Document Object Model 
Be a code wizard … or, just look like one. In Part 3 of the DOM Design Tricks tutorial series, Eisenberg shows us how to dynamically change text on a page. The theory, examples, and scripts will work in Mozilla and IE5.
Eisenberg, J. David. List Apart, A (2000). Design>Web Design>DHTML
#13258
A library's core mission is to provide free and full access to a world of ideas. The most exciting thing to happen in libraries in the last decade has been to see that mission extended to include access to the Internet. New library services, funded by generous federal support, have made more Internet access available to more and more people. Now, those same sources may force public libraries to censor Internet access.
Bickner, Carrie. List Apart, A (2001). Articles>Publishing>Online
#25501
Drop-Down Menus, Horizontal Style
Anyone who has created drop-down menus will be familiar with the large quantities of scripting such menus typically require. But, using structured HTML and simple CSS, it is possible to create visually appealing drop-downs that are easy to edit and update, and that work across a multitude of browsers, including Internet Explorer. Better still, for code-wary designers, no JavaScript is required!
Rigby, Nick. List Apart, A (2004). Design>Web Design>DHTML>CSS
#23322
Let your server do the walking! Whether you're replacing one headline or a thousand, Stewart Rosenberger's Dynamic Text Replacement automatically swaps XHTML text with an image of that text, consistently displayed in any font you own. The markup is clean, semantic, and accessible. No CSS hacks are required, and you needn't open Photoshop or any other image editor. Read about it today; use it on personal and commercial web projects tomorrow.
Rosenberger, Stewart. List Apart, A (2004). Design>Web Design>CSS>XHTML
#23323
Dynamically Conjuring Drop-Down Navigation
Got content? Got pages and pages of content? Wouldn’t it be nice if you could offer your readers a drop-down menu providing instant access to any page, without having to sit down and program the darned thing? By marrying a seemingly forgotten XHTML element to simple, drop-in JavaScript, Christian Heilmann shows how to do just that. There’s even a PHP backup for those whose browsers lack access to JavaScript. Turn on, tune in, drop-down.
Heilmann, Christian. List Apart, A (2004). Design>Web Design>User Interface>DHTML
#28800
Who decides what's best for a website? Highly skilled professionals who work with the site's users and serve as their advocates? Or schmucks with money? Most often, it's the latter. That's why a web designer's first job is to educate the people who hold the purse strings.
Diffily, Shane. List Apart, A (2007). Articles>Web Design>Collaboration
#21327
Not quite liquid, yet not fixed-width either, Elastic Design combines the strengths of both. Done well, it can enhance accessibility, exploit neglected monitor and browser capabilities, and freshen your creative juices as a designer.
Griffiths, Patrick. List Apart, A (2004). Design>Web Design>Personalization
#24837
Enhance Usability by Highlighting Search Terms
Google's cache offers users a copy of your website with their search terms highlighted. You can do the same thing and make it easier for users to find what they’re looking for — whether they're coming from an external search engine or your own site search — by making their search terms easy to spot.
Suda, Brian and Matt Riggott. List Apart, A (2004). Design>Web Design>Usability>Search
#28819
Evangelizing Outside the Box: Web Standards and Large Companies
Contrary to popular belief, designers and developers at many big companies use web standards in their work every day. They just don't talk about it. For standards awareness to reach the next level, they'll have to start talking.
Koch, Peter-Paul. List Apart, A (2007). Design>Web Design>Standards
#25524
Everything I Need To Know About Web Design I Learned Watching Oz
Making it as a web designer is like staying alive in the slammer. So before you sharpen your Photoshop skills or crack open that new book on crafting more effective customer experiences, you’d be well advised to catch a few reruns of HBO's Oz. ALA system designer Brian Alvey points out the parallels between a successful career in web design and the popular prison drama.
Alvey, Brian. List Apart, A (2004). Articles>Web Design
#28352
Everyware: Always Crashing in the Same Car
Even where the application of ubiquitous technology would clearly be useful, I know enough about how informatic systems are built and brought to market to be very skeptical about its chances of bringing wholesale improvement to the quality of my life.
Greenfield, Adam. List Apart, A (2006). Design>Usability>Ubiquitous Computing
#20235
Content management systems are only as good as the content they manage. Garrity explores the care and feeding of low-budget clients who need high-quality content.
Garrity, Steven. List Apart, A (2001). Design>Content Management>Single Sourcing>Web Design
#20255
It’s time for web designers to peek over the cubicle and start sharing ideas with their peers in related design disciplines. Jacobson suggests one way to do that in this overview of the emerging Experience Design paradigm.
Jacobson, Bob. List Apart, A (2000). Design>Web Design>Theory>User Experience
#20256
Experience Strangeglobe: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the W3C
Can the mysterious Dr Strangeglobe save the WWWorld from a conspiracy to contaminate our precious liquid layouts? Erika Meyer takes a non-standard look at the W3C in this charming yet educational spoof of the Kubrick classic.
Meyer, Erika. List Apart, A (2000). Design>Web Design>Standards
#25544
With old-school table layout methods, vertical positioning is a piece of cake. With CSS layout, it's a piece of something else. New ALA contributing writer Bobby van der Sluis shows how to regain control of footers and other vertically positioned layout elements via CSS, JavaScript, and the DOM.
van der Sluis, Bobby. List Apart, A (2004). Design>Web Design>CSS>JavaScript
#20367
Facts and Opinion About Fahrner Image Replacement
Fahrner Image Replacement and its analogues aim to combine the benefits of high design with the requirements of accessibility. But how well do these methods really work? Accessibility expert Joe Clark digs up much-needed empirical data on how FIR works (and doesn’t) in leading screen readers.
Clark, Joe. List Apart, A (2003). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Usability
#26228
Facts and Opinions About PDF Accessibility
PDF accessibility is not as straightforward as HTML accessibility. But it can be done, if you put the same care into marking up your PDFs that you put into marking up websites. Joe Clark tells all.
Clark, Joe. List Apart, A (2005). Design>Document Design>Accessibility>Adobe Acrobat
#25528
It's ironic that, as professionals dedicated to clear communication, information architects and user interface designers are having such trouble communicating with each other. Information designer George Olsen digs up the roots of communication breakdown and explores the three aspects of web design.
Olsen, George. List Apart, A (2001). Articles>Communication>Professionalism
