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Eric Meyer Go to the source

It may be that from the ashes of vendor prefixes will arise a new way forward. As proposed by François Remy , vendor tokens would serve the same basic purpose as prefixes with a different syntactical approach, and with at east a couple of extra benefits. Instead of prefixing properties, you’d instead add vendor tokens to the end of a single declaration, much as you do !important (which of course we never ever use, amirite?). For example, you might write: border-radius: 1em !webkit-draft !moz-draft !o-draft; That’s it. The prefixed alternative, of course, runs to multiple lines and has spawned a whole subindustry of framework plugins and mixins and what-all just to take the repetitive authoring burden off our shoulders. I’ve been contemplating this proposal all morning, and perhaps not too surprisingly I’ve come down in favor of the idea. … Read the rest here

Andy Budd Go to the source

User research is an extremely powerful tool (or set of tools) for understanding customer needs and behaviours. As digital projects grow in size and complexity, the risk of building the wrong thing becomes an increasing danger. So it makes sense to spend a portion of your budget to ensure that you’ve done the due diligence and are investing wisely. Marketing teams have known this for years, so few company’s would dream of launching a product or service without first understanding the market and ensuring product-market fit. However for some reason this hasn’t filtered into the world of digital products… Read the rest here

Eric Meyer Go to the source

Linear gradients in CSS can lead to all kinds of wacky, wacky results—some of them, it sometimes seems, in the syntax itself. Let me note right up front that some of what I’m talking about here isn’t widely deployed yet, nor for that matter even truly set in stone. Close, maybe, but there could still be changes. Even if nothing actually does change, this isn’t a “news you can use RIGHT NOW ” article. Like so much of what I produce, it’s more of a stroll through a small corner of CSS, just to see what we might see… Read the rest here

Jason Santa Maria Go to the source

I’m very excited for our latest release from A Book Apart available today, Mike Monteiro’s Design Is a Job . I’ve been working in design a while now and good handbooks on how to do it right are few and far between. Years ago, I read Norman Potter’s What Is a Designer , a thin yet surprisingly dense book that attempts to quantify this dear profession. There’s truth to be found there, but the language is terse. Perhaps it’s an effort to dissuade all but the most brave; if you get to the end and you still want to be a designer, you may have earned it… Read the rest here

Jason Santa Maria Go to the source

Paper is a new drawing app for the iPad from FiftyThree. Immediately after watching the video, I downloaded it (free download with paid add-ons) and ordered Cosmonaut and Jot styluses to try out. As a habitual sketcher , I’ve tried lots of drawing apps before, but this is the most promising one yet. The simplicity and lack of chrome for navigation (not unlike what we’ve seen in Clear for the iPhone) really speaks to me. … Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are. –W. Somerset Maugham Pressing ‘Pause’ on this site for a while has afforded me time and distance to realign my writing objectives. An invitation from Chris Shiflett to join today’s “ Ideas of March ” has afforded me an opportunity to break the silence… Read the rest here

Eric Meyer Go to the source

Published this morning in A List Apart #344: an interview I conducted with Tantek Çelik , web standards lead at Mozilla, on the subject of Mozilla’s plan to honor -webkit- prefixes on some properties in their mobile browser. Even better: Lea Verou’s Every Time You Call a Proprietary Feature ‘CSS3,’ a Kitten Dies . Please—think of the kittens! My hope is that the interview brings clarity to a situation that has suffered from a number of misconceptions. I do not necessarily hope that you agree with Tantek, nor for that matter do I hope you disagree. While I did press him on certain points, my goal for the interview was to provide him a chance to supply information, and insight into his position. If that job was done, then the reader can fairly evaluate the claims and plans presented… Read the rest here

Hicksdesign Go to the source

Since publishing a section from The Icon Handbook as part of 24 Ways last December ( Displaying Icons with Fonts and Data- Attributes ) I’ve been involved in a few discussions regarding its cons, some of which have since gained workarounds, and it felt a good time to do a follow up post. First of all, its worth mentioning the context of the article – it’s from Chapter 6, where all the various possible methods for deploying icons on the web are laid out. This includes creating icons with CSS , which isn’t something I’d recommend, but just may be a solution for someone out there and work well in a particular context. In the same vein, using fonts to display icons is just one of the options. Lets go over the 2 cons that keep coming up: Unicode Mapping Jon Tan states (rightly) that where matching unicode characters exist , the key should be mapped to that (such as the heart symbol for Favourites) and others that don’t to Private Use Areas where they have no associated meaning or content. This isn’t a problem with the technique as much as the current implementation of the fonts… Read the rest here

Jason Santa Maria Go to the source

The latest issue of A List Apart is one of my favorites in recent memory, and has three articles you can’t miss. In “ An Important Time for Design ”, Cameron Koczon challenges designers to be all that they can be: The web is going to increasingly shape our world and consequently our daily lives. We can either sit on the sidelines and submissively assist those who are doing the shaping or we can take a more active role in creating the future we want. This year, thanks to a spike in demand, designers have a chance to actively nudge the world in any direction they like. It’s a huge opportunity with a tiny window. Let’s not let it pass by. … Read the rest here

Snook Go to the source

Using CSS transitions can be quite fun. But what’s not fun is when you want to transition something that needs to use display:none or visibility:hidden (or really, any non-transitionable property). For example, let’s say you have a dialog. When the user clicks on the close button, you want the dialog to fade out — a simple transition from opacity:1 to opacity:0 . The problem is that the element is still there, even though you can’t see it… Read the rest here

Hicksdesign Go to the source

Todays 24ways article is Displaying Icons with Fonts and Data- Attributes , taken partly from Chapter 6 of the upcoming Icon Handbook , but rewritten to fit to the 24ways format. Instead of using the traditional route of PNG s, web fonts offer a scalable and resolution independent solution. Combined with HTML5 data attributes, you can create one CSS rule to style them all in one go. This article covers both the advantages and disadvantages of the technique. Thanks must go to Drew Wilson who helped me understand how to use data attributes. He created Pictos the excellent icon font used in the article, and his experience in making Pictos was a valuable source of research… Read the rest here

Mezzoblue Go to the source

Take it with the usual grain of salt that should accompany any news of global browser trends, but, extrapolating out from the 2011 trend in StatCounter’s Global Stats Chrome appears set to surpass IE as the most-used desktop browser some time next summer. And that will finally end the 13 year domination of the market by Internet Explorer. Though, I’m a little sad that Chrome’s market share is also coming at the expense of Firefox. … Read the rest here

Jason Santa Maria Go to the source

by Jessica Hische My love affair with candy has been lifelong, and while each year I seem to have a new favorite, there’s one variable that unites them all—they are not chocolate. I’m almost cartoonish in my ladydom in so many ways, but a lover of chocolate I am not. That’s not to say that I don’t occasionally crave a Mast Brothers’ masterpiece, but if I had to choose a desert island treat, it would likely be fruity, tart, or even flowery. Essentially any candy that you can clearly envision rotting your teeth to the core, that is what I want. … Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

It’s clear by now dust is gathering at this domain. I’ve been okay with that, and will continue to be okay with it, but only a little longer. I’ve been swamped with obligations on my current projects and have traveled much more than usual. I’ll visit NYC for the third time in a month starting next week, for example. More importantly, I’ve realized I need to realign the focus of this site. The tumblog, light-narrative format is definitely enjoyable, and it’s helped me blog more frequently, as well. … Read the rest here

SimpleBits Go to the source

I had the honor of creating the new Instapaper icon thanks to Jason Santa Maria and his art direction. The new app is superb, and it’s out today! Read all about it from creator Marco Arment and Jason . … Read the rest here

Jason Santa Maria Go to the source

The previous Instapaper icon on the left, and the updated icon on the right. Instapaper 4.0 is out! Instapaper is one of the best iOS app around. It lets you save articles from the web for offline reading, and strips out everything but the article text and images. It’s especially great for a subway commute. … Read the rest here

Snook Go to the source

I don’t think I’m the first person to come up with this idea but figured I’d document it. If you’re unfamiliar with the Yellow Fade Technique, make your way over to the 37signals article that ushered in the design effect that was all the rage for awhile. This is the same thing but using CSS animations. /** * Quick fade on target to attract user attention */ :target { -webkit-animation: target-fade 3s 1; -moz-animation: target-fade 3s 1; } @-webkit-keyframes target-fade { 0% { background-color: rgba(0,0,0,.1); } 100% { background-color: rgba(0,0,0,0); } } @-moz-keyframes target-fade { 0% { background-color: rgba(0,0,0,.1); } 100% { background-color: rgba(0,0,0,0); } } Just a short and sweet blog post. You can go back to work now. … Read the rest here

Hicksdesign Go to the source

Most people think that the opposite of play is work (especially in the corporate world) but the opposite is boredom or even depression. Great article about the design consultancy IDEO , and how they use a culture of play to support creativity. Comment on this … Read the rest here

Jason Santa Maria Go to the source

Stephen Doyle, that super smart guy that everyone loves, created some lovely tape illustration/lettering/installations for a New York Times Magazine story this weekend. Lots of people do these type illusions, but few do it this well. Check out the tape on the skeleton’s ribs! I want to be Stephen Doyle when I grow up. Also, don’t miss the behind the scenes video. … Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

A Farewell to CSS3 Gradients : Alex Walker: While the idea of programmable gradients is great, using them is seriously messy. Even in perfect-​​browser-​​utopia, gradients are consciously limited to rudimentary linear or radial application. You certainly can’t combine them, or make them contour a shape or anything useful like that…. In short, [CSS gradients are] a blunt instrument with cranky syntax and patchy support. … Read the rest here