A BulletProof Idea*

Look What My RSS Dragged In #6 May 2008

// June 8th, 2008 // RSS Feeds

Well, here we are again with another helping of my monthly RSS feeds and we are in for a treat this month with some very interesting articles from some very clever people.

Writing an Interface Style Guide

Our first feature comes from the brilliant A List Apart and it’s a great article by Gina Bolton who demonstrates how we can design, maintain and create beautiful user interfaces. Gina shows us how to follow a design style guide in which we can adhere to best practices to ensure that we create the best possible user experience whilst maintaining all key aspects of accessibility and usability.

Read: Writing An Interface Style Guide

Improving Code Readability With CSS Styleguides

Following on from our previous article, Smashing Magazine shows us how to create a style guide using sensible structuring. Very handy for when a project is finished you have a solid document of code management.

Read: Improving Code Readability With CSS Styleguides

Saving the Spark: Developing Creative Ideas

Theres more from A List Apart in our second feature, where Mark Boulton asks the questions “How do we get inspiration?” and “Where does it come from?” Boulton gives us food for thought and some tools to avoid hitting that creative brick wall.

Read: Saving the Spark: Developing Creative Ideas

Why we don’t skip Photoshop

Jeff Croft from 37 Signals discusses why using rough sketches instead of photoshop comps is their preferred method of developing ideas before coding. But Croft dismisses the idea that their way is the best solution as he says that both using sketches or Photoshop are both winning solutions.

Read: Why we don’t skip Photoshop

Getting Design Approval: The Single Mockup Theory

Darren Hoyt from Web Design Trends Journal Fadtastic, talks about how we can avoid ‘Frankenstein’ web pages. This is where a client is presented with 3 mock up pages and choosing the weakest design and the strongest design and wishing to merge them together. This can pose problems for yourself as the project can go over budget due to the confusing dialogue that can ensure between yourself and the client.

Instead of yourself steering the client in the right direction using your expertise, the client is using their inexperience to guide you in the overall design which is not good!
Hoyt uses a method of just 1 wireframe, 1 home page mockup, 2-3 secondary page mock ups and demonstrates how this has been successful.

A brilliant article, one worth checking out.

Read: Getting Design Approval: The Single Mockup Theory

getElementsByClassName

If you’re a Javascripter, Peter Paul Koch from Quirksmode.org now informs us that getElementsByClassName () is now supported by the most recent versions of Firefox, Safari, and Opera. But the caveat being, most other browsers do not support this as of yet so we cannot really use it globally.

Read: getElementsByClassName

Google Doctype

Google has launched something new yet again!

“Google Doctype is an open encyclopedia and reference library. Written by web developers, for web developers. It includes articles on web security, JavaScript DOM manipulation, CSS tips and tricks, and more. The reference section includes a growing library of test cases for checking cross-browser and cross-platform compatibility.” Google Doctype Info

Looks a promising resource which will hopefully grow -watch the video to see more.

Read: Google Doctype

Daniel Burka video on iterative design live

Watch Digg creative director Daniel Burka give his presentation on Iterative design at this years Future of Web Design conference.

Watch: Video Presentation
View: Presentation Slides

Blockbusting

We all hit a creative brick wall at some point and look to search out new ways of getting that creative spark. Eric Karjaluoto over at ideasonideas is here to kickstart your creative process with a number of steps to take in getting the best ideas from some rather unusual places.

Read: Blockbusting

This Is How You Get SIFR To Work

All you need to know in getting the popular image replacement technique to work on your blog/website in some easy steps.

Read: This Is How You Get SIFR To Work

16 Ways to Keep A Razor- Sharp Focus at Work

Does what it says on the tin! Glen Stansberry tells us to have a good look at ourselves and the way we work in order to stay focused and productive at our desks.

Read: 16 Ways to Keep A Razor- Sharp Focus at Work

Applying Divine Proportion To Your Web Designs

Everything you ever wanted to know about the Divine Proportion and the Rule of Thirds to really make your designs clear and intuitive. Smashing Magazine strikes again!

Read: Applying Divine Proportion To Your Web Designs

Andy Budd – FOWD London 2008 Designing The User Experience Curve

Our last feature from this month is a special one. It’s a video presentation by Clear Lefts very own Andy Budd from this years Future Of Web Design Conference. The presentation titled “Designing The User Experience Curve” is well worth watching for those of you who did not attend the conference.

Watch: Andy Budd – FOWD London 2008 Designing The User Experience Curve