Publishing Archives
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ALA 258: Flickr ‘n stripes
May 6, 2008
What does it take to build an online community like Flickr’s? And how can we tell if interface design conventions we take for granted actually help or hurt users? In Issue No. 258 of A List Apart, for people who make websites, George Oates, a key member of the core team that shaped the Flickr community, tells what it will take to build the next Flickr (hint: the answer isn’t Ajax). And Jessica Enders drops some science on the widespread belief that zebra stripes aid the reader by guiding the eye along a table row.
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ALA on Ruby on Rails
April 22, 2008
Issue No. 257 of A List Apart, for people who make websites, is about the why and how of Ruby on Rails:
- The “why” of Ruby on Rails comes down to productivity, says Michael Slater. Web applications that share three characteristics—they’re database-driven, they’re new, and they have needs not well met by a typical CMS—can be built much more quickly with Ruby on Rails than with PHP, .NET, or Java, once the investment required to learn Rails has been made. Does your web app fall within the RoR “sweet spot?”
- The “how” of Ruby on Rails: Hivelogic’s Dan Benjamin prepares non-Rails developers, designers, and other creative professionals for their first foray into Rails. Learn what Ruby on Rails is (and isn’t), and where it fits into the spectrum of web development and design. See through the myths surrounding this powerful young platform, and learn how to approach working with it.
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ALA 256: swell maps
April 8, 2008
In Issue No. 256 of A List Apart, for people who make websites, Wilson Miner shares techniques for incorporating data visualization into standards-based web navigation patterns, and Paul Smith shows how to replicate Google Maps’ functionality with open source software to produce high-quality mapping applications tailored to your design goals. Read and enjoy. (P.S. We’ve also started an A List Apart Facebook group.)
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ALA 255: web forms, findability
March 25, 2008
In Issue No. 255 of A List Apart, for people who make websites:
- Findability, Orphan of the Web Design Industry – Aarron Walter, author of Building Findable Websites: Web Standards, SEO, and Beyond (New Riders, 2008), provides an overview of this essential web discipline, explains how it is like SEO but different, and tells how every member of your team can contribute to your site’s content’s findability. (See Aarron speak about findability and web standards live and in person at An Event Apart New Orleans, April 24–25, at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside.)
- Sign Up Forms Must Die – Luke Wroblewski, Senior Principal of Product Ideation and Design at Yahoo! and author of Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks (Rosenfeld Media, 2008), calls for the abolition of sign-up forms where web services are concerned. Via “gradual engagement,” says Luke, we can get people using and caring about our web services instead of frustrating them with forms. (Get more Luke live and in person at An Event Apart Boston, June 23–24, 2008 at the Boston Marriott Copley Plaza.)
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A List Apart 254: Design Double
March 4, 2008
In Issue No. 254 of A List Apart, for people who make websites, creative director Andy Rutledge explains why designers should shake off the mantle of “creativity” before it comes back to bite them, and rising supernova designer Naz Hamid explores the rewards of obsession.
In other A List Apart-related news, Microsoft has reversed the version targeting default in upcoming IE8, supporting advanced web standards by default. Details and linkage at zeldman.com.
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ALA 253: Two on target
February 20, 2008
In Issue No. 253 of A List Apart, for people who make websites, Jeremy Keith argues that version targeting in IE8 is all right, but its default is all wrong, while Happy Cog founder (and ALA publisher) Jeffrey Zeldman insists that the default seems wrong, but is actually right.
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ALA 251: the filth and the fury
January 29, 2008
Issue No. 251 of A List Apart blew the roof off the internet, with articles by Aaron Gustafson unveiling, and Eric Meyer reviewing, Microsoft’s proposed update to the toggle browsers use to distinguish between content that is authored to web standards and stuff that is not. Even we, who knew we were publishing a controversial issue, were surprised by the passions (not to mention the invective) No. 251 unleashed. Version targeting (the name Microsoft has given to its proposed web standards rendering toggle) needs to be discussed and understood, and ALA is where that begins. Look for more on version targeting in upcoming issues of the magazine.
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ALA 250: HTML 5, Design for Flow
December 4, 2007
In Issue No. 250 of A List Apart, for people who make websites, Jim Ramsey bucks conventional wisdom by citing the virtues of making your site somewhat hard to use; and Lachlan Hunt, a contributor to HTML 5, tells us what we can expect from the emerging markup specification.
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ALA 249: setting type, understanding web design
November 21, 2007
In Issue No. 249 of A List Apart for people who make websites:
- How to Size Text in CSS: Richard Rutter, creator of the best practice most of us follow in setting type on the web, presents a better best practice (and the experiments it rode in on).
- Understanding Web Design: Happy Cog founder Jeffrey Zeldman explains why cultural and business leaders mistake web design for something it’s not; shows how these misunderstandings retard critical discourse and prevent projects from reaching their greatest potential; and provides a framework for better design through clearer understanding.
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ALA 248: clarity, obscurity
November 6, 2007
In Issue No. 248 of A List Apart, for people who make websites: Hide e-mail addresses from spam bots, automatically and transparently. Plus: What can web writers learn from the greatest advertising copy of all time?