8 posts tagged “web”
James Whittaker has a great article on his blog about the importance of vertical rhythm in web typography. The idea being that all text should flow across imaginary lines on your page, regardless of font size. Think of a ruled notebook. You write on the lines regardless of the size of your writing. In order to accomplish this on the web, you need to calculate your line height as a percentage of the font size.
Sounds complicated? Well, James has made it easy by creating a web-based (or desktop-based) tool to figure it all out for you. Isn't he nice? :)
Read up on vertical rhythm, em-based font sizes and enjoy James' stripey hat over at jameswhittaker.com
In my quest for robust HTML menu navigation systems I had a couple of requirements. The menus must be easy to maintain, using standard, semantic HTML and the the look & feel must be CSS driven. Found it! The fabulously named "Son of Suckerfish Dropdowns" from HTMLDog provides all the desired features and is pretty damn simple for anyone comfy with HTML & CSS. This menu system is based on the Suckerfish Dropdown scheme published over at A List Apart way back in 2003. The pure CSS desire is unattainable thanks to every web developers buddy, Internet Explorer 6. Just 12 lines of Javascript make it play nicely with IE6 though. Once the Javascript is in place, you can "set it and forget it".
OK ... enough of my rambling ... go at read all about it for yourself.
[Article at HTMLDog]
A List Apart, always a great source of web-geek inspiration, has posted a nice article on designing sites that nurture the visitors sense of flow. Particularly interesting are the comments about long scrollable pages. Popular web design wisdom is to break up long pages. Frankly I’ve always found this annoying in the middle of an article … now these guys back me up!
After a week off, War-N and Christa return for more random banter. This week the duo chat about preparations for two upcoming shows (in Dayton, OH and Pittsburgh, PA). War-N is working on some new arrangements and Christa on some new videos. These shows should fill the need for some full-on, real Hungry Lucy shows. War-N rants a bit about the foolish comments of Elton John and Christa shares some new writing and photos on christabelle.com. For OPM this week, War-N talks about the song "Listen" by Tears for Fears as well as the wonderful film Little Children (and soundtrack by Thomas Newman). Christa chats about Peter Murphy, his involvement with Sarah Fimm and her own return to all things dark and lovely as Fall approaches.
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I just read a very interesting article over at PickTheBrain.com on the realities of productivity for "information workers". As a web developer/programmer/whatever-they-call-me-this-week, I fall into this category. One of the main points to the article is that most of us aren't mentally capable of being in super-productive mode for a solid 8 hour day. I agree. I typically get 4-5 hours of good problem-solving work done per day. That is typically in two distinct blocks of time (one early morning, one post lunch). The rest of my "work day" is spent reading/studying or (god forbid) meetings. Sitting and thinking appear as if you're not busy, and therefore, not productive. The article talks about breaking up the day with more re-energizing tasks that most people cannot do in the office. Telecommuting is presented as one solution for this. I certainly do my best work in my studio with the door shut and music blasting ... not in a cubicle, at the top of a stair case where people stop and chat loudly throughout the day.
Anyway ... an interesting read:
Why the 9 to 5 Office Worker Will Become a Thing of the Past
Recall, if you will, my previous post on Microformats. Remember that Microformats are small bits of HTML markup that are applied to specific types of information (e.g. contact info, event info, location info) that allow the data within to be machine readable. Robert de Bruin has create a fabulous Firefox add-on called Tails Export that allows you to identify any of the microformats on a web page and export them in a number of ways. The really cool part is the Bluetooth export that allows you to export contact info or event info directly to your bluetooth cellphone very easily.
Here’s a quick video demo given by one Mr. Jeremy Keith
If you’re using Firefox, get the Tails Export Add-on at the Firefox Add-ons site. Try it out, it’s pretty cool. Note that you will need a computer and phone with Bluetooth capability to use this.
This great video was used as the introduction to the Keynotes on Day 1 of the Web 2.0 Expo ... excellent!
Indie-Music.com: Company Profile: CD Baby
Great little interview with one of my heroes, Derek Sivers (creator of CDBaby). As an entrepreneur and fellow web-geek, Derek started something small and built this huge "empire". The difference in most "empires" is that nearly all the proceeds and rewards of CDBaby go straight to the artists.
NPR story on Derek and CDBaby
Hungry Lucy's CDBaby page
