May 29, 2008
Applying Divine Proportion To Your Web Designs | How-To | Smashing Magazine
Following up on our recent discussions at the Workshop and in Web Design, here is an article from Smashing Magazine on Applying Divine Proportion To Your Web Designs. The article adds some more information to our talks about the Rule of Thirds.
May 18, 2008
May 17 Meeting Report:
Grid-Based Design
Our May meeting was about effective ways to lay out webpages.
We started by briefly looking at Dreamweaver templates. We touched on this subject in April when we were talking about Contribute. Templates can be convenient for an individual developer, and in an enterprise setting, templates can enforce controls over changes that can be made on a page by other people editing the site.
We then went on to talk about page layouts and the concept of grid-based design. Many current websites employ a layout that is divided strongly into horizontal sections that can get rather complicated to organize. Using a grid can help to keep a clean design while using complex arrangements. During the discussion, we reviewed the Divine Proportion and noted how grid design can help to use that proportion to arrange material on webpages. We also briefly looked at some tools for setting up grids.
The sites we looked at are listed below.
Design and the Divine Proportion
Grid systems in Web Design
Five Simple Steps to designing grid systems
Column Techniques How-To Smashing Magazine
Blueprint Grid CSS Generator
Blueprint: A CSS Framework
Seven Smooth Steps to Superb Grids
Eric Meyer's CSS SCULPTOR
We started by briefly looking at Dreamweaver templates. We touched on this subject in April when we were talking about Contribute. Templates can be convenient for an individual developer, and in an enterprise setting, templates can enforce controls over changes that can be made on a page by other people editing the site.
We then went on to talk about page layouts and the concept of grid-based design. Many current websites employ a layout that is divided strongly into horizontal sections that can get rather complicated to organize. Using a grid can help to keep a clean design while using complex arrangements. During the discussion, we reviewed the Divine Proportion and noted how grid design can help to use that proportion to arrange material on webpages. We also briefly looked at some tools for setting up grids.
The sites we looked at are listed below.
Design and the Divine Proportion
Grid systems in Web Design
Five Simple Steps to designing grid systems
Column Techniques How-To Smashing Magazine
Blueprint Grid CSS Generator
Blueprint: A CSS Framework
Seven Smooth Steps to Superb Grids
Eric Meyer's CSS SCULPTOR
May 13, 2008
May 17, 2008 Meeting Announcement
The next session of the PACS CSS Workshop will be this Saturday at 9 - 10.
This month, we will to continue our discussion on tools for using CSS more effectively. We reviewed some in April, and I want to look at a few more this month.
We will start with Dreamweaver templates, just to give a general idea of how they work. The topic is not specific to CSS, but it ties in with the discussion about Contribute that we had last month.
Then I want to show some tools for laying out a webpage with a structure that is more complex than just the header-body-footer format. We will talk about grid-based design, see how it can be used to make modern layouts, and look at what to use to make the process easier.
If that were not enough, thanks to the generosity of Microsoft and Dani Diaz, we have a great raffle giveaway -- a copy of Expression Web, Microsoft's web design tool. The usual rule applies -- current members of PACS qualify for the raffle. We will be checking to confirm membership on this one, so be sure to join or renew your membership if you are not current with PACS.
This month, we will to continue our discussion on tools for using CSS more effectively. We reviewed some in April, and I want to look at a few more this month.
We will start with Dreamweaver templates, just to give a general idea of how they work. The topic is not specific to CSS, but it ties in with the discussion about Contribute that we had last month.
Then I want to show some tools for laying out a webpage with a structure that is more complex than just the header-body-footer format. We will talk about grid-based design, see how it can be used to make modern layouts, and look at what to use to make the process easier.
If that were not enough, thanks to the generosity of Microsoft and Dani Diaz, we have a great raffle giveaway -- a copy of Expression Web, Microsoft's web design tool. The usual rule applies -- current members of PACS qualify for the raffle. We will be checking to confirm membership on this one, so be sure to join or renew your membership if you are not current with PACS.
May 07, 2008
FeedDemon 2.6.1 [Regular Guy Reviews]
At our last meeting, we talked about RSS readers during our discussion of some good online sources of information on web design. I used FeedDemon as an example of a stand alone RSS reader. This pretty thorough article, FeedDemon 2.6.1 at Regular Guy Reviews, compares FeedDemon with Google Reader. The author likes them both and basically says it comes down to how you access your feeds, from one or two computers or from anywhere you happen to be.
May 05, 2008
Article from Smashing Magazine: Improving Code Readability With CSS Styleguides
If you have wondered about how to organize your stylesheets, check out the ideas at Improving Code Readability With CSS Styleguides from Smashing Magazine. Note the references to additional sites on the topic of CSS coding.
April 19, 2008
April 19 Meeting Report:
CSS Tools
At the April session, we looked at a number of resources and utilities for improving our ability to make effective websites and do so efficiently.
First were two websites that publish up to date information on web design and development:
In Smashing Magazine, we looked at article on The Best of March 2008 and articles on creative ways to style forms and footers.
This topic lead us to a discussion about RSS feeds with emphasis on the feed reader called FeedDemon.
Next we looked at two tools for creating color palettes based on colors used in a graphic:
We then discussed what are known as "browser resets," that is, a set of CSS declarations that on might use to start a style sheet in order to have certain styles predetermined on all pages. Eric Meyer has published his browser reset on his blog.
We finished with some discussion about Adobe Contribute and how it can be used to assign editing tasks to members of a web development team, particularly when used in conjunction with Dreamweaver templates.
First were two websites that publish up to date information on web design and development:
In Smashing Magazine, we looked at article on The Best of March 2008 and articles on creative ways to style forms and footers.
This topic lead us to a discussion about RSS feeds with emphasis on the feed reader called FeedDemon.
Next we looked at two tools for creating color palettes based on colors used in a graphic:
We then discussed what are known as "browser resets," that is, a set of CSS declarations that on might use to start a style sheet in order to have certain styles predetermined on all pages. Eric Meyer has published his browser reset on his blog.
We finished with some discussion about Adobe Contribute and how it can be used to assign editing tasks to members of a web development team, particularly when used in conjunction with Dreamweaver templates.
April 17, 2008
April 19 Meeting Announcement
The next session of the PACS CSS Workshop will be this Saturday, April 19, at our usual 9-10 am hour. This month will be review a number of tools for web design.
I will review a couple of websites that I have found to be useful and show examples from those sites of creative ways to style forms and footers (really).
We will then talk about the concept of the “browser reset” and how that might get you started on the right foot at the very beginning of your site editing.
Finally, I will demo Adobe's application called Contribute. Contribute is an easy to use HTML editor that is also an effective site management utility. It lets a website manager can give individuals the right to edit certain portions of a site and thus off-load some of the mundane maintenance tasks required to keep a site updated.
I am still learning how to use these tools, so our meeting will be a work-in-progress kind of thing. It should be fun.
The rest of the day at PACS is going to be great. We do not have JavaScript this month, but Don Arrowsmith will be starting a PHP workshop in that 10-11 hour. We have done PHP in different groups at PACS, but this workshop will be specifically devoted to the subject.
Flash will take place at 11-12. And in the afternoon, Web Design will have a special guest from Microsoft talking about that company's Expression suite of design programs. FrontPage was a breakthrough program in its time, and Expression Web is its powerful successor.
I will review a couple of websites that I have found to be useful and show examples from those sites of creative ways to style forms and footers (really).
We will then talk about the concept of the “browser reset” and how that might get you started on the right foot at the very beginning of your site editing.
Finally, I will demo Adobe's application called Contribute. Contribute is an easy to use HTML editor that is also an effective site management utility. It lets a website manager can give individuals the right to edit certain portions of a site and thus off-load some of the mundane maintenance tasks required to keep a site updated.
I am still learning how to use these tools, so our meeting will be a work-in-progress kind of thing. It should be fun.
The rest of the day at PACS is going to be great. We do not have JavaScript this month, but Don Arrowsmith will be starting a PHP workshop in that 10-11 hour. We have done PHP in different groups at PACS, but this workshop will be specifically devoted to the subject.
Flash will take place at 11-12. And in the afternoon, Web Design will have a special guest from Microsoft talking about that company's Expression suite of design programs. FrontPage was a breakthrough program in its time, and Expression Web is its powerful successor.
O'Reilly Webcast: Even Faster Web Sites
From O'Reilly Media comes this news about a webcast featuring author Steve Souders:
Under his tenure as Chief Performance Yahoo!, Steve released YSlow and wrote High Performance Web Sites (at one point the #1 selling computer book on Amazon). Now at Google, Steve is working on a new set of best practices for making web sites even faster. In this webcast Steve explains the Performance Golden Rule, reviews his performance best practices, and uses YSlow to analyze the top web sites in the world.More information is at the O'Reilly Media website.
March 17, 2008
March 15, 2008, Meeting Report:
Styling Forms
At the March meeting of the PACS CSS Workshop we worked on techniques for styling forms. We used examples from the book The Art & Science of CSS from Sitepoint: http://www.sitepoint.com/books/cssdesign1/. Our emphasis was on keeping good HTML as the foundation of our pages and using techniques to make the forms accessible. We then worked on styling that would make the forms not just visually pleasing but functional as well. It happens that this chapter on forms is available as a PDF download sample from Sitepoint. Go to the webpage for the book and click on the "Download the FREE Sample!" button.
We also had a guest from ReviewNet, http://reviewnet.net/, a local company that is looking for beta testers for its CSS skills evaluation program. If you did not get a handout, you can get more information and find out how to apply at http://reviewnet.net/testadvisor.htm.
We also had a guest from ReviewNet, http://reviewnet.net/, a local company that is looking for beta testers for its CSS skills evaluation program. If you did not get a handout, you can get more information and find out how to apply at http://reviewnet.net/testadvisor.htm.
March 13, 2008
March 15 Meeting Announcement
The next meeting of the PACS CSS Workskhop will be this Saturday, March 15, at 9 am in room 713. Javascript will not be meeting this month, so we will have some extra time to play with.
We will cover the topic of styling forms, which we had intended to do last month before the snow came. We should be able to complete the topic and then have some time for a couple of other subjects, like Macromedia Contribute.
We will also have a guest from a company called ReviewNet Corporation, www.reviewnet.net. They are looking for beta testers for their new CSS skills test. It could be a fun opportunity to test ourselves and build a relationship with a local technology company.
See you Saturday.
We will cover the topic of styling forms, which we had intended to do last month before the snow came. We should be able to complete the topic and then have some time for a couple of other subjects, like Macromedia Contribute.
We will also have a guest from a company called ReviewNet Corporation, www.reviewnet.net. They are looking for beta testers for their new CSS skills test. It could be a fun opportunity to test ourselves and build a relationship with a local technology company.
See you Saturday.
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