Interface Design Juggling

INTER FACE DE SIGN J UG GLING by DAN CEDERHOLM

http://www.flickr.com/photos/designerbrent/194242417/

COLO R TYPOGRA PHY ICONO GR AP HY MICRO FO RMATS FLEXIB IL IT Y

http://www.flickr.com/photos/shawnzlea/137209564/

Learning to juggle - Passing one object from one hand to the other. - Then two ... - Then three ... - You’re still not juggling.

Juggling is ... - Keeping all objects consistently in the air - Adapting to shift, changes in pattern, etc.

MY BACKYARD http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuartyeates/ 45919678/

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT (Wig 2.0?)

Color. Start with a small, core palette. Reuse that set throughout the design.

toupeepal.com

COLOR IS EMOTIONAL

“I hate that green. It reminds me of my exgirlfriend’s quilt.” —Awesome Client

http://wellstyled.com/tools/colorscheme2/index-en.html

Choosing color palettes from nature photos

Filter > Pixelate > Mosaic... #b67f72

#393643

SCULPTING an INTERFACE

Link color carries weight. On link-heavy pages, link color can be an important design element.

TYPOGRAPHY

GREAT TYPOGRAPHY IS INVISIBLE

Too few fonts? “During the Italian renaissance the typographer had one font to work with, and yet this period produced some of the most beautiful typographical work.” —Oliver Reichenstein

http://www.informationarchitects.jp/the-web-is-all-about-typography-period

“Information design is not about the use of good typefaces, it is about the use of good typography ... Anyone can use typefaces, some can choose good typefaces, but only few master typography.”

DO THE BEST WITH WHAT WE HAVE

—Oliver Reichenstein

Georgia

Verdana

Headings

Everything else

CSS Typography -font-family -font-size -font-weight -letter-spacing

h1 { font-family: Georgia, serif; font-weight: normal; }

-text-transform -text-align

h3 { font-family: Georgia, serif; ! font-size: 90%; ! text-transform: uppercase; ! letter-spacing: 2px; color: #963; }

<span class="amp">&

5.1.3 In heads and titles, use the best available ampersand.

span.amp { ! font-size: 110%; ! font-family: "Goudy Old Style", "Palatino", "Book Antiqua", serif; ! font-style: italic; ! }

Harmonize type set in graphics. Use as an opportunity to treat type consistently.

webtypography.net

Avenir

DISCOVERING TYPE

veer.com

Favicons. The most important design element of any site. No, really.

subtraction.com

tanyamerone.com

Three choices REALLY EASY or

REALLY DIFFICULT

- Scale the mark down to 16x16 - Choose a fragment to focus on - Use something unique

salon. com

technorati.com

saturn.com

andybudd.com

adidas.com

veer.com

zeldman. com

sixfoot6.com

sidesh0w.com

photomatt.net

meyerweb.com

adactio.com

CREATE IN PHOTOSHOP PASTE INTO ICONOGRAPHER

Add detail without adding complexity. Understand the limitations of background images and boring boxes. Please recycle.

Suggest the box. Style portions of the box with minimal background images for simple markup and future-proofing.

Reuse/Recycle. Simplify design and process by reusing themes, color, graphics.

diag-bg.gif

microformats are ... - Confusing - A waste of time

MICROFORMATS

“Designed for humans first and machines second, microformats are a set of simple, open data formats built upon existing and widely adopted standards. Instead of throwing away what works today, microformats intend to solve simpler problems first by adapting to current behaviors and usage patterns (e.g. XHTML, blogging).” – http://microformats.org/about

- Something geeks do with a lot of time on their hands

“I'm going to mark up a contact like this...”

“Cool. I’ll do it that way too”“Cool. I’ll do it that way too” “Cool. I’ll do it that way too” “Cool. I’ll do it that way too”



PEOPLE

APPLICATION

CSS

CONTACT INFO? PRODUCT REVIEW? EVENT DETAILS? RELATIONSHIPS?

GUIDED BY VOICES

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bluetypewriter/174367695/

USE WHAT WORKS TODAY

hCard (contact information)

http://microformats.org/code/hcard/creator

hCard

hCard



SEEING IS BELIEVING

THIS STUFF WORKS NOW

hReview hReview

hCard

rel-tag

“OBLIVIOUS DEVELOPMENT”

PLANTING SEEDS

http://www.flickr.com/photos/96434059@N00/196061290/

I HAD NO IDEA WHAT HE WAS TALKING ABOUT

“ACCIDENTAL API” —Brian Oberkirch

http://allinthehead.com/retro/301/can-your-website-be-your-api

What good is one brick?

XFN

hCard

XFN

MICROFORMATS WORK TOGETHER

hCard rel-tag

hReview

hCalendar

hResume

hReview

hReview

WIGGREGATOR? hCalendar

microformats.org

BULLETPROOFING

“Bulletproof” - Embracing flexibility - Preparing for worst-case scenarios - Protecting your designs from “breaking” - Catch-phrase to sell books and secure speaking engagements

Turn images off. When images are disabled, is the site still readable?

Styled alt text #header #logo { ! float: left; ! margin: 0 0 20px 0; ! color: #fff; ! }

INTEGRITY TESTS

WOW!

WOW!

Turn CSS off. Give your design an x-ray. A "10second usability test" isn't scientific— but it can help illustrate separation of structure and presentation.

Bump up text size. Increase text size to see how the design reacts. Can it adapt to varying amounts of content?

#wrap { width: 50em; } #content { width: 30em; } #sidebar { width: 20em; }

COLO R Validate. Validate markup and stylesheets when possible—especially during the design process.

TYPOGRA PHY ICONO GR AP HY MICRO FORMATS FLEXI BIL ITY

THAN K YOU. http://simplebits.com/publications/speak/juggling