Mr. Clarke advocates creating one single universal style sheet to handle all styling in IE6, and to stop worrying about making content in IE6 look anything like the high-end experience.
I’m now advocating to my clients (and to you), that where feasible, not to waste hours in time and a client’s money on lengthy workarounds in an unnecessary attempt at cross-browser perfection. Instead, you and I should provide simple but effectively designed HTML elements. This means just great typography for headings, paragraphs, quotations, lists, tables and forms and no styling of layout.
This will work well for content-focused web sites. And then maybe it’s officially time to completely drop support of IE6 for web apps.
# tagged: browser, css
Nice going, Ethan. Definitely one to keep in the ol’ bag o’ tricks.
# tagged: css, tips
I love this in-depth look at implementing grids for liquid layouts. Ethan goes into detail just how it all fits together, and the magic formula needed to make it all work. Now if we could just have the ability to easily scale images inside a liquid layout (without resorting to clipping background images), we’d be golden (pun intended).
# tagged: css, grid
Eric Meyer elaborates on why we need a better layout mechanism for web content (whether it be via CSS or not). We know we shouldn’t use tables for layout. Floats are a hack, positioning is flawed, and display:table-cell is no better than using a table itself. But Eric explains here why table behavior works moderately well for layout:
… this is why the old “only use tables for layout” argument keeps coming up over and over: strip away the overheated rhetoric and obvious link-baiting, and you find the core of a real need. Because as powerful as CSS can be, table cells do certain things very easily that CSS makes very, very hard. Cells stretch vertically, keeping equal heights as a matter of their intrinsic nature. They stay out of each others’ way, while still being allowed to sit next to each other and use any sizing dimensions. They tie their layout to their parent elements, and vice versa.
# tagged: css
Until some future version of HTML gives us new native controls to use in a browser, at Google, we’ve been playing and experimenting with controls we call “custom buttons” in our apps (among other custom controls). These buttons just launched in Gmail yesterday, and they’ve been in Google Reader for two months now. The buttons are designed to look very similar to basic HTML input buttons. But they can handle multiple interactions with one basic design. The buttons we’re using are imageless, and they’re created entirely using HTML and CSS, plus some JavaScript to manage the behavior. They’re also easily skinnable with a few lines of CSS, which was a key factor now that Gmail has themes.
I thought it would be interesting to provide a portion of the background on our buttons here, and discuss some of the iterations we’ve been through so far to get to the current state. read more
# tagged: browsers, css, design, google
Bookmarking this late. But an interesting perspective into Jason Santa Maria's simple system for creating the dynamic layouts of his recent entries.
# tagged: css
On the one year anniversary of the article: Throwing Tables Out the Window, I thought it appropriate to reveal some behind-the-scenes info regarding the Microsoft example discussed in the article.
When I published that article last year, the words and advice contained within were welcomed warmly by large numbers of people. The article was translated into at least eight different languages, and continues to be referenced in other writings and in academic curricula. On the flip side, the same article was also the cause of flaming, accusations of ignorance, and general vitriol thrown my way, claiming I was over-hyping CSS and deceiving the multitudes of its capabilities. Those claims were voiced more loudly when readers couldn’t find any proving example code whatsoever. Those who refused to let go of their old ways assumed that I fabricated the entire case study. read more
# tagged: css, microsoft
In a presentation for @media entitled, Zoom the Web, Joe Clark revealed and explained several possible options (a new trend, hopefully) for making sites more accessible and readable for low-vision users. In the continuing effort to make our sites accessible as possible, many have assumed accessibility best practices deal primarily with blind people who often use screen readers. read more
# tagged: access, css, zoom
Do you write and manage large CSS files? Ever get tired of scrolling up and down in search of a specific rule or set of rules? The CSS files I work with for client projects are often quite long, requiring constant scrolling up and down several screen’s worth of text to alter rules or add new ones. While working on a current project, I just made a tiny little addition that makes finding what I want almost immediate. read more
# tagged: css, tips
When I finally met Hugh Forrest for the first time in Austin this past week, I told him I keep thinking each year that SXSW is the biggest it can possibly get. That there’s no way the following year can top the previous year in terms of the talent he pulls in for speakers, and the amount of interesting people attending who are so open and receptive to new ideas. Each time I’ve been wrong.
read more
# tagged: css, events, people
In conjunction with the launch of Microsoft’s new search effort, MSN gets a pretty significant makeover. Significant, not because of the new look, nor because of the multi-million-dollar ad campaign which will attempt to oust Google out of the #1 search spot. But because the underpinnings of the home page represent a considerable move toward web standards. read more
# tagged: css, microsoft
Early last week, I spoke to packed crowds at Web Design World in Boston. Clearly the conference scene is heating back up, as budgets for events and off-site training seem to be reappearing. The two sessions I presented (”Beautiful Interfaces with CSS” and “Throwing Tables out the Window“) were lots of fun. I had to bolt to the airport to catch a flight after my last talk. So I didn’t get to stick around to see the rest of the conference or talk to more of the attendees over the next two days. read more
# tagged: css, events, mobile
With the return of the full-color, fixed-width design to this site over the weekend, Stopdesign received numerous messages and even a few comments regarding the switch back. Some of the messages and comments are in favor, heralding the welcome return. Others cry foul as their Bleach is stolen away.
“More power to the people!”
… the crowds shout from all around. And just like that, their wish was granted. read more
# tagged: css, design, site
Promised one week ago today, this is the next phase in a temporary exploration of page design and CSS layout for Stopdesign. Bleached turns liquid, making this Liquid Bleach. read more
# tagged: css, design, site
Ever wanted to ditch what you’ve got and start over? No, wait a minute. This sounds like a broken record.
Ahem. Let’s try that again.
Ever wondered what your site would look like devoid of most of its color and imagery? Bleach the entire design, remove the saturation and leave behind the basic visual structure on a stark white background? Sure, some sites already use a white background for their design. But Stopdesign has been filled with deep colors and prominent header images since I launched this design a few months ago. read more
# tagged: css, design, site
In the article published here yesterday, “Throwing Tables out the Window“, I provided a few what if projections of bandwidth savings based on a shot-in-the-dark conservative estimate that Microsoft.com might average about 1 million page views per day.
Turns out I underestimated. By just a little. read more
# tagged: business, css, microsoft, tables
Those who were at Digital Design World in Seattle this year saw me present a session titled, “No More Tables, CSS Layout Techniques“. In that session, we reviewed proper use of tables, and a few pointers for styling them with CSS. Then we turned to tableless layout, reviewing examples and an overview of the two basic approaches (positioning and floats). read more
# tagged: css, microsoft, tables
Seattle was great. Period. I wish I could have stayed longer. The weather was incredible while I was there. Not a sign of rain or an overcast sky in sight. Throughout summer months in San Francisco, fog blows in late in the afternoon, often cooling down the temperatures into the 50-60 degree range by dusk. There’s nothing like being out and about on a warm summer night like those I experienced while in Seattle this week. I wish we had more of those in San Francisco. read more
# tagged: css
Interesting that the same topic I wrote about at the end of last year (Who/Where are the Women?) is resurfacing. Well, actually, it’s always a topic, but one that seems to be getting hot again read more
# tagged: css, design, people
