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Eric Meyer Go to the source

Right in the middle of AEA Atlanta—which was awesome , I really must say—there were two announcements that stand to invalidate (or at least greatly alter) portions of the talk I delivered. One, which I believe came out as I was on stage, was the publication of the latest draft of the CSS3 Positioned Layout Module . We’ll see if it triggers change or not; I haven’t read it yet. The other was the publication of the minutes of the CSS Working Group meeting in Paris , where it was revealed that several vendors are about to support the -webkit- vendor prefix in their own very non-WebKit browsers. Thus, to pick but a single random example, Firefox would throw a drop shadow on a heading whose entire author CSS is h1 {-webkit-box-shadow: 2px 5px 3px gray;} . As an author, it sounds good as long as you haven’t really thought about it very hard, or if perhaps you have a very weak sense of the history of web standards and browser development… Read the rest here

Adactio Go to the source

I’ve published the transcript of a talk I gave at An Event Apart in 2010 . It’s mostly about interaction design, with a couple of diversions into progressive enhancement and personality in products. It’s called Paranormal Interactivity . I had a lot of fun with this talk. It’s interspersed with videos from The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy , Alan Partridge , and Super Mario , with special guest appearances from the existentialist chalkboard and Poshy’s upper back torso . If you don’t feel like reading it , you can always watch the video or listen to the audio . … Read the rest here

Adactio Go to the source

I flew out to San Francisco last week for An Event Apart . This was the final event (apart) of the year so it was something of a bittersweet affair. This year the line-up for AEA was—with some minor modifications—consistent from city to city: Seattle Boston Atlanta Minneapolis Washington DC San Francisco It was like a travelling roadshow, a carnival of web geekery. Next year’s AEA line-up will be very different from city to city, showcasing lots of new speakers, so last week’s San Francisco gig felt like the last concert of a tour before the band breaks up. Well, we went out with a bang. … Read the rest here

Adactio Go to the source

I’m on a bit of a sojourn in the United States right now, and I’m having a rather lovely time. It all started with Brooklyn Beta which was a jolly gathering in New York. It reminded me a bit of the Reboot events of old: grassroots gatherings that may be rough around the edges but are put together with much love and affection. There were plenty of inspiring talks and repeated entreaties to go out there and change the world. As with Reboot, I think Brooklyn Beta is an excellent part of a balanced conference diet: other conferences will give you more detail on how exactly you can go out there and change the world. In fact, my trip is perfectly balanced by two complementary events at either end… Read the rest here

Adactio Go to the source

I was in Minnesota last week for An Event Apart Minneapolis . A great time was had by all. Not only were the locals living up to their reputation with Amy and Kasia demonstrating that Kristina isn’t an outlier in the super-nice, super-smart Minnesotan data sample, but the conference itself was top-notch too. It even featured some impromptu on-stage acrobatics by Stan . A recurring theme of the conference—right from Zeldman ’s opening talk—was Content First . In Luke ’s talk it was more than a rallying cry; it was a design pattern he recommends for mobile: content first, navigation second. … Read the rest here

Adactio Go to the source

June was a busy month. I went to Newcastle for the DIBI conference , which was quite excellent. I was very pleased with the talk I gave—called “ One Web ”. I think the talks were recorded on video so I hope they’ll be showing up on a video-sharing site before too long. I spoke on the Using Blue podcast about all sorts of design- and development-related topics. … Read the rest here

Adactio Go to the source

Usually when I go to a conference it involves crossing a body of water to arrive on foreign shores, often in Europe or America. But the last two events I attended were much closer to home. Two weeks ago there was Web Directions @media in London. Thank you to everyone who provided questions for the Hot Topics Panel . It went swimmingly, thanks to the eloquence and knowledge of the panelists: Brian , Relly , Bruce and Douglas Fucking Crockford . There was a surprising lack of contentiousness on the panel but I made up for it by arguing with the audience instead. … Read the rest here

Adactio Go to the source

I’m back from An Event Apart in Boston . It was quite an experience …and not just because I went to Fenway Park for my first baseball game. It was quite an experience because of the people that were there. The Brads were there. The Spiderwomen were there… Read the rest here

Adactio Go to the source

If you were at An Event Apart in Boston and you want to follow up on some of the things I mentioned in my talk, here are some links: Stock and Flow by Robin Sloan. Archive Fever by Matt Ogle. This Place Is Not A Place Of Honor on Damn Interesting. The 10,000 Year Clock by The Long Now Foundation. Carl Sagan And Ann Druyan’s Ultimate Mix Tape by Radiolab. Small Pieces, Loosely Joined by David Weinberger. … Read the rest here

Adactio Go to the source

The final speaker of the first day of An Event Apart in Boston is Jared Spool . Now, when Jared gives a talk …well, you really have to be there. So I don’t know how well liveblogging is going to work but here goes anyway. The talk is called The Secret Lives of Links . … Read the rest here

Adactio Go to the source

The next talk here at An Event Apart in Boston is one I’ve really, really, really been looking forward to: it’s a presentation by my hero Ethan Marcotte . I’ll try to liveblog it here… The talk is called The Responsive Web Designer’s Workflow but Ethan begins by talking about his grandmother. She was born in 1910 and she’s still in great shape. This past Christmas she gave Ethan a gift of three battered and worn books that were her father’s diaries from the 1880s. They’re beautiful… Read the rest here

Adactio Go to the source

Next up at An Event Apart in Boston is Luke Wroblewski . Let’s see if I can liveblog just some his awesomeness. Luke begins with some audience interactivity. We’ve all got to stand up. … Read the rest here

Adactio Go to the source

The next speaker at An Event Apart in Boston is Veerle Pieters . I’m going to try liveblogging some of what she’s got to say. Veerle’s talk is called The Experimental Zone and it’s all about experimentation in web design. People often ask her how she comes up with, say, certain colour combinations but she doesn’t really have a straightforward answer—a lot of it is down to experimentation. So it’s good to learn how to experiment better… Read the rest here

Adactio Go to the source

The second speaker at this mornings An Event Apart in Boston is Whitney Hess . Here goes with the liveblogging… Whitney’s talk is about design principles. As a consultant, she spends a lot of time talking about UX and inevitably, the talk turns to deliverables and process but really we should be establishing a philosophy about how to treat people, in the same way that visual design is about establishing a philosophy about how make an impact. Visual design has principles to achieve that: contrast, emphasis, balance, proportion, rhythm, movement, texture, harmony and unity. Why have these principles? It’s about establishing a basis for your design decisions, leading to consistency. … Read the rest here

Adactio Go to the source

I’m at An Event Apart in Boston where Jeffrey Zeldman is about to kick things off. I figured I’d try my hand at a little bit of good ol’ fashioned liveblogging… Jeffrey’s talk is called What Every Web Designer Should Know—A Better You At What You Do . He asks “what does it mean to be a designer when everyone is calling themselves a designer?” 15 years ago, Jeffrey thought everyone would learn HTML and be a web designer. That didn’t happen but what did happen is social media, which is democratising online publishing. His 6-year old daughter uses an iPad like a natural, figuring out the interfaces of drawing tools. … Read the rest here

Adactio Go to the source

I was nervous as hell before my talk at An Event Apart Seattle . I don’t normally get quite so nervous but it was a new talk and also …it’s An Event Apart! They set a very, very high bar. Once I got on stage though, I just started geeking out. I was talking about design principles, a subject I find fascinating. I’m hoping that some of my enthusiasm for the subject helped make for a compelling presentation… Read the rest here

Adactio Go to the source

I was in Amsterdam at the end of last week for the Fronteers conference . It was a good conference but the fact that Jake Archibald was on the bill meant that my presentation paled in comparison

Eric Meyer Go to the source

Just before noon (Eastern U.S. time) today, An Event Apart Minneapolis sold its last available seat. That’s three events so far in 2010 and three sell-outs. If you were hoping to join us in Minneapolis but hadn’t registered yet, we’re sorry we won’t see you there! You can contact our Event Manager to get put on the waiting list, or you can join us for one of the remaining two shows of the year: Washington DC and San Diego . There are strong reasons to prefer either one. In Washington DC , we’ll have our second-ever A Day Apart , a full day of in-depth learning with Jeremy Keith and Ethan Marcotte taking on the topics of HTML5 and CSS3, respectively… Read the rest here

Jason Santa Maria Go to the source

I’m very pleased to present A Book Apart , a new publisher of brief books for people who make websites, founded by Jeffrey Zeldman , Mandy Brown , and myself. Our first book is HTML5 For Web Designers , by the indomitable Jeremy Keith . If you’re already getting your feet wet with HTML5, or just trying to figure out what the hell it’s all about, you’ll want this one. I’ve read it three times and love how approachable it is. You can read more from Jeffrey about how we chose our first title , or from Mandy on how A Book Apart works as a publisher . … Read the rest here

Adactio Go to the source

I hereby declare April to be HTML5 Month