Finally, after the well-known and much loved web site – project, the book.
The Zen of CSS design book is, to put it mildly, one of the best books based on CSS design and web standards. It’s a must have for both amateur / hobbyists and advanced / professional web designers, since it combines great CSS tips and techniques with essential web design practices.
I bought it some weeks ago, and I must say that I had to restrain myself from reading it from cover to cover in just one session. A classy, elegant book graced by simple writing, easy and pleasant to read.
Brilliant book from some great web professionals! (Dave Shea & Molly E. Holzschlag)
Five Things I Loved :
- The abundance of clear explanatory images which illustrate the book.
- The numerous links to online resources which include some real gems.
- The elegant and classy pages, subtle colours and typography which urges you to read the book.
- The structure and division of content, which covers all major aspects of current web design.
- The kazillion of creative ideas that spawn in your mind after reading just one section of the book.
Five Things I’m Sceptical About :
- The size of the book, a bit unpractical and uneasy.
- The lack of actual guidance, since the book is a collection of hints ‘n’ tips and not a hands-on tutorial.
- The language used may cause difficulties to non-native english speakers, in some parts.
- Left blank.
- Left blank.
As you too can see, it is difficult to spot any weak points in that book. It’s a must-have for any dedicated CSS fan, so if you’re into web standards, go buy it now.
web design, CSS, accessibility, web standards, zen
Today I had a completely absurd experience in a supermarket. Yes, in a supermarket.
This particular supermarket, member of a well-known international chain, decided to proceed in a radical change of its internal structure. And by change I mean a complete mix up in the way the corridors were placed.
Noone admits it, but now the store became much more difficult to navigate, especially if you were a devoted client,went there often and memorized the plan of the building. Maybe the new structure serves some revolutionary design concept, I don’t know.But all I saw while my brief disoriented trip in the area was faces equally disoriented as me, and people asking navigational questions the employees all the time, eventhough new shiny navigational signs were placed all over the store.
Excuse me, but that’s a good marketing concept?
And don’t make me start on how a corridor happened to be placed in the middle of the s/m, where the main pillar of the building is placed. Now the pillar blocks a 80% of the corridor entrance, resulting in a dramatic reduction of clients shopping in this particular area, since they cannot see what kind of products are sold there! Not to mention that disabled users would never be able to access the particular corridor…
I would expect more from a company as successful as this. Shame.
What’s the moral and its use in web design?
- Never change the position of your navigational links and menu while on the same page. It completely disorients naive users, which consist a whole lot of your clients.
- Use consistent styles and colour in your menus, and don’t use them anywhere else in your pages.
- Try to avoid Flash menus and instead use simple text links, or image links with the alt attribute defined.
- If you have no other option than Flash, use at all costs a footer menu with simple text links to all the main sections of your site.
- Don’t hide information : if a section of your site has further subsections, include some hints or a more informative title than i.e. “Me” for a page that contains info about you as well as a simple contact form.
- Place your important content as well as your menu as close to the top as possible, not many users scroll further than one page.
- Finally, include a link to your index in all of your pages. I know I found the entrance/exit of the store easily, but web browsing is a lot more confusing.
The menu of your site is one of the most important assets you have while designing in the web. Treat it with respect and it will eventually pay back.
Usability, Design, Accessibility
Are you familiar with olive trees? Crete, the greek island where I live, is a place packed with two types of agricultural flora : olive trees and vineyards.
Eventhough the olive harvesters technology has really gone far, we continue to gather olives with almost the same traditional way : hands and nets. An exhausting procedure, indeed, but these days I start to understand its value.
The harvest starts somewhere around November / December, due to the hot climate here. Traditionally, the harvest is a festive gathering of the whole family, but nowadays, many prefer hiring workers to do the hard work for them. Since our family olive trees are not too numerous, we harvest them ourselves.
What if I’m tired to no extent. What if I dragged nets and carried heavy buckets rimming with olives. What if I lost my precious weekend and sleeping time, while on Friday I worked till 22:00.
I didn’t have any clients buzzing around me, I didn’t have anyone to criticize my work, I wasn’t stressed, I worked in the middle of a pretty field during a beautiful day, I tried and pushed and dragged, I laughed and sympathized with my parents’ constant angst : the selling price and quality of our olive oil.
It was different, and it was refreshing. Some handwork now and then is necessary for a person whose major problem till last week was the connection problems of her new FTP host.
