To design responsive websites effectively and responsibly, I had to completely redefine the way I view the web. It pains me to admit it, but I wasn’t too keen on responsive web design right out of the box. Weeks after Ethan’s ALA article, I even briefly entertained the idea of writing a post haranguing the practice, nit-picking concerns on how using media queries to relocate elements on a page... Read more →
I’ve been tinkering with the font-size and the media queries that trigger width-based changes for this site regularly over the past month. I thought that maxing out at 20px for body copy at widths above 900px would be my final answer, but I decided to drop in one more increase last week: media screen and (min-width: 1234px) and (min-height:700px) { body {font-size: 137.5%;} } This bumps body copy up... Read more →
Molly Holzschlag wrote a great article for .Net Magazine outlining seven things still missing from CSS. She gets into web fonts on #5, which is my favorite. I particularly liked this point: Fine control remains elusive – kerning, character spacing – controlling these aspects are both difficult to specify for numerous reasons. This is frustrating to designers who love typography and want to have that finer control. Huzzah! I couldn’t... Read more →
Yesterday Issue #2 of The Manual arrived. I cracked it open to read just one article before bed and wound up reading the entire thing straight through. I really do love that this publication exists. Sure, these articles would make fine blog posts, but there’s something about reading The Manual without the glow of a window-filled monitor or sound of email notification dings to stifle your attention. It... Read more →
Mark Boulton on the challenges we face when incorporating traditional ad spaces into responsive layouts: The template > slot > ad mental model is engrained both in advertisers, planners and web sites. Providing space for ads needs to be broadened into multiple spaces for one ad concept. This requires closer collaboration between advertisers and web sites, designers and marketeers and sales teams. It’s clear that Mark has gotten his hands... Read more →
I love what the power of the Internet can do for small businesses, especially when those businesses belong to friends and industry cohorts. Bob & Kris Galmarini run a fantastic shop called Neve Inspired that sells handmade kids’ clothes. We recently bought my 9 month old, Henry, their Ahoy! and Super Hero shirts, and we think they’re great. As cool as it is that people I know start... Read more →
