Webdesigninformer.com

Snook Go to the source

I remember a couple years ago speaking at An Event Apart and mentioning how I don’t use the definition list. I may have said it a few times, to the annoyance of the audience. When pushed on why I don’t use definition lists, I mentioned that screenreaders read out that a term is equal to a definition. Somebody tested and confirmed with me afterwards that his particular screenreader did in fact read it out in a way that would be awkward if people were to use them. (Alas, I can’t remember exactly what it was that the screenreader actually announced.) It’s been a couple years since that fateful day and the situation came up at work. A co-worker was using a definition list and I mentioned the accessibility issue. … Read the rest here

Adactio Go to the source

I spent most of February on the far side of the world. I had the great honour and pleasure of speaking at Webstock in New Zealand. This conference’s reputation had preceded it. I had heard from many friends who have spoken in previous years that the event is great and that the organisers really know how to treat their speakers. I can confirm that both assertions are absolutely true. … Read the rest here

Snook Go to the source

It is once again that time of year where I reflect on the year that has passed and contemplate the year the come. Professionally On a professional level, this has been a fantastic year but still not without its ups and downs. This year capped my second and final year with Yahoo!. Yahoo! has been a great experience for me and exposed me to an environment that I hadn’t worked in before. I was able to work with large teams on a large scale across multiple products. To know that I had a big part to play in the success of those projects is very rewarding. … Read the rest here

Adactio Go to the source

I spent last week in Belfast for the Build conference , so I did. The fun kicked off with a workshop on responsive enhancement which was a lot of fun. Toby has written a report of the day outlining all of the elements that came together for a successful workshop. The day of the conference itself was filled with inspiring, uplifting talks full of positive energy …except for mine. My talk— All Our Yesterdays —had an underlying sense of anger, especially when I spoke about the destruction of Geocities. If you heard the talk and you’d like to explore some of the resources I mentioned, here’s a grab-bag of links: Stock and Flow by Robin Sloan. … Read the rest here

Andy Budd Go to the source

I first came across the concept of the Lean Start-up® three years ago while speaking at the Web 2.0 Summit in New York. I’d finished my duties and there was little else of interest on the schedule so I dropped into a panel discussion about start-ups. One of the panellists—a chap called Eric Reis—explained how he’d been involved in two start-ups. One had been a catastrophic failure while the other a moderate success. As Eric began to recount his story I found myself nodding along with recognition and agreement. His previous start-up had taken too long to build and by the time it was ready they’d almost run out of money. … Read the rest here

Andy Budd Go to the source

Over the last few years I’ve noticed a strange and disturbing trend amongst web practitioners. There was a time—not so long ago—when passionate individuals would blog about their work for no other reason than to share their discoveries. The more prolific of these individuals built up an online reputation and became seen as experts. Some of the more articulate ones were asked to write books or present their thoughts at conferences, and received a modicum of success. After years of sharing their knowledge freely, some were able to capitalise on their notoriety by securing jobs at interesting companies or setting up small agencies. A few even managed to make a living off publishing books and speaking at conferences, although how they managed this is anybodies guess… Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

HOW Interview with Yours Truly : Bryn Mooth interviews me leading up to this November’s HOW Interactive Design Conference in San Francisco. Speaking of, the early bird registration ends this Thursday, September 1. Save an additional $50 on top of that with discount code CAMERON. Hope to see you in San Fran. … Read the rest here

Adactio Go to the source

I’m living inside Keynote these days. I’ve got a string of speaking engagements coming up and I’m freaking out about all of them. The big one is the full-day dConstruct workshop I’ll be leading called Responsive Enhancement . I’ve been working on it solidly for the last month and I hope that it’s all going to come together this week. I’m quite excited about it. … Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

The Momentus Project : This is a clever idea. Round up a bunch of top-notch designers and illustrators and have them visually interpret some of the most defining moments in United States history. Created and curated by Evan Stremke. Speaking of, today is the anniversary of the first moon landing, and there’s an illustration for that. It’s a lovely piece by Mark Weaver … Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

Ceaser: CSS Animation Tool : Speaking of year 12, this is brilliant. Preview different easing defaults, adjust the bézier curve if you like, and then grab the CSS. /via CSS3 Watch … Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

Salman Khan: Let’s Use Video to Reinvent Education : Speaking of homeschooling in yesterday’s post , here’s a TED video worth watching. An alternate title for this talk might have been, “Let’s Just Reinvent the Entire Educational System.” This is the first I’ve seen of Salman Khan, and clearly he’s not just a talented educator but a fantastic speaker, too. (Stick around for the standing ovation at the end and then Q&A with Bill Gates.) Learn more and watch the educational videos at Khan Academy . … Read the rest here

Andy Budd Go to the source

If you’re going to be speaking at a conference soon—for instance SXSW —here are my top 10 tips. Start with a story (but not your life story). Aim high and leave them wanting more. Entertain, inspire and educate (in that order). One concept per slide. Pictures not bullets. … Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom: 30-Second Rule for App Success : Speaking of Instagram, this is some sharp thinking by Kevin Systrom on pairing down features for the initial stages of an app: [Instagram] has come a long way since its first iteration, a feature-laden app called Burbn that lacked a simple value proposition. To founder and CEO Kevin Systrom, simplifying the product — paring it down into an app that enables users to share beautiful photographs quickly — was the smartest business decision his team made - and a strategy other developers should take to heart. ‘Products can introduce more complexity over time, but as far as launching and introducing a new product in to the market, it’s a marketing problem,’ Systrom tells Fast Company. ‘You have to explain everything you do, and people have to understand it, within seconds.’ … Still, there were benefits to its see-what-sticks approach: The team realized its users were gung-ho about Burbn’s photo-sharing capabilities and filters. … Read the rest here

Andy Budd Go to the source

This blog launched in August 2003 and was one of the very first standards based websites in the UK. Back then Flash was king and the latest design trend was the pixel font. We viewed the web though a 800×600 lens and few people even knew about accessibility, let along cared. How times have changed. The rest of the web has moved on, but my little backwater has remained frozen in time. What seemed like cutting edge back in 2003 is now embarrassingly out of date. … Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

humans.txt : A movement to give credit to the team members who worked on a site by including their details in a simple text file. (I know, I probably missed the Twitter train on this one. But I was off speaking when it made the rounds.) … Read the rest here

Adactio Go to the source

The secret to a good war movie is not in the depiction of battle, but in the depiction of the preparation for battle. Whether the fight will be for Agincourt , Rourke’s Drift , Helm’s Deep or Hoth , it’s the build-up that draws you in and makes you care about the outcome of the upcoming struggle. That’s what 2011 has felt like for me so far. I’m about to embark on a series of presentations and workshops in far-flung locations , and I’ve spent the first seven weeks of the year donning my armour and sharpening my rhetorical sword (so to speak). I’ll be talking about HTML5 , responsive design , cultural preservation and one web ; subjects that are firmly connected in my mind… Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

Book Review: “Living with Complexity” by Donald Norman : Review by Robert Blinn, who observes the following: Norman explains that all of our desire for ‘simplicity’ is a false hope because life is complex. Complexity, however, does not need to be confusing. Those designers who can manage to produce devices (and systems) that corral the complexity of the world into intuitively grouped and well-designed systems will garner success in our digital world. I love this. It’s the same point I try to make when speaking about visual hierarchy and managing complexity , rather than eliminating it… Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

On Hiring Front-end Engineers : Speaking of freelance gigs and jobs, Chris Zacharias, former YouTube engineer (I believe), authors some thoughts on what to look for in front-end engineers. On scripting: Bad front-end engineers are dependent on jQuery and other libraries. Good front-end engineers make use of libraries like jQuery to empower themselves, but are not beholden to them. On art: Nearly every first rate web developer I have worked with had some kind of extracurricular, no matter how casual, that focused around some form of art. … Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

I acquired an 11

SimpleBits Go to the source

Back in 2004, Christopher Schmitt asked me to share a CSS panel at SXSW alongside