Writing 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 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 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?
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ALA 245: client input, iPhone design 2
September 11, 2007
In Issue No. 245 of A List Apart, for people who make websites: Sarah B. Nelson of Adaptive Path shows how to create collaborative work sessions that actually work, and Iconfactory’s Craig Hockenberry concludes his remarkable two-part series on designing and coding with the iPhone and its new brethren in mind.
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ALA 242: work those words
July 31, 2007
A List Apart 242, for people who make websites, puts the focus on the last syllable of hypertext. Design your words and put the life back into web writing.
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Voices of Cog
May 31, 2007
The current issue of .NET Magazine contains an article on swfIR image replacement written by Happy Cog designer and front-end developer Daniel Mall (who, not coincidentally, invented swfIR in partnership with Happy Cog developer Mark Huot). This month, Huot and Mall also share their insights in a podcast at Boagworld, the website for people who make websites without necessarily knowing what they are doing. Crank up your headphones.
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ALA 238: words + deeds
May 29, 2007
In Issue No. 238 of A List Apart, for people who make websites, Peter-Paul Koch wants to evangelize web standards within corporations, and Shaun Crowley advises designers to gain an advantage (and produce more effective sites) by helping clients craft better content.
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Designing With Web Standards
July 26, 2006
Now available at a website or bookstore near you: Designing With Web Standards, 2nd edition—a new release of the book that changed the way people design websites.
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Style vs. Design
December 15, 2005
The newly launched Adobe Motion Design Center has resurrected Zeldman’s famous article, “Style vs. Design,” originally published in 2000. A few words and references have changed to bring the piece “up to date,” but it is essentially the same article it was five years ago.