This is a list of information to help you continue with your work as web designers, artists, programmers, etc. It’s mostly Javascript, PHP, Python, and Ruby. Of course programming is not limited to these four languages, but this list is not meant to be totally exhaustive. (more…)
If you haven’t already posted a link to your project, please do so by responding to this post with your name and a link to the project.
Opening a new window is an oft debated procedure. Before you decide that you NEED to open a new window I would take a look at the following list of web design don’ts by Jakob Neilsen(a usability expert):
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990530.html
Something like this:
<a href="" onclick="window.open('win.html','window','width=800 height=600')">open in new window</a>
will open the file win.html in a new window that is 800X600. But, if the user has javascript turned off they will not have the ability to navigate to the page.
I recently found some standards based code to do the same thing AND it won’t fail if the user has javascript turned off. Take a look here:
http://www.accessify.com/features/tutorials/the-perfect-popup/
Sitepoint just published an article on the use of grids in webdesign:
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/breaking-out-of-the-box
Last class we looked at a number of websites I consider to be well-designed. Here they are:
Good use of grid layout, B + W:
http://www.subtraction.com/
Another site based on a grid. High density of information but still comprehensible(mostly). Anyone see room for improvement? Standards based, no tables:
http://www2.jeffcroft.com/
Very balanced symmetrical layout:
http://gr0w.com/
Green is a difficult color to make “work”, or so an old painting professor told me. Well handled here. Notice in this three column layout columns expand and contract:
http://www.djangoproject.com/
More grid!
http://veerle.duoh.com/
http://www.hicksdesign.co.uk/
Making your site easy to read is essential. Jonathan Snook developed a nice web application that tests contrast between foreground and background colors:
http://www.snook.ca/technical/colour_contrast/colour.html
http://www.cssbeauty.com/
http://stylegala.com//archive/
http://cssvault.com/
http://www.designinteract.com/sow/archive.html
How to create good navigation:
http://alistapart.com/articles/whereami
How to create standards based tabbed navigation:
http://alistapart.com/articles/slidingdoors/
As mentioned, having a page link to itself can confuse a user. Extra credit for anyone who can change the posted navigation code so that it renders the same but without the “self-linking link”.