We all can use some levity today, I think. So, in lieu of a Homeland Security icon, or a "countdown to the showdown" clock, I present the following things that made me smile today:
- From my colleague Andy Phelps (who, btw, will be launching a new Corante blog on gaming any minute now), StrongBad's Web Design Tips.
- Gregor's coining of the word "commenTroll" in Jill Walker's blog comments. So nice, on many levels. I can find no "prior art" on this--so the credit goes solely to him. May the word live long and prosper.
- Using the word "mellifluous" in a sentence. I like that word.
u wrote on Jill's blog: I'm hoping that Christian is referring to Cassandra's post in a previous message, rather than to me!
Sorry, my fault. Of course I refered to Cassandra.
A few links from that strongbad email was StrongSad's weblog.... http://www.homestarrunner.com/sadjournal/
Thanks, Ross! I missed that, somehow.
Hi Liz,encore,
Strongbad's Webdesign tips start off with a major error, surely, Liz?
Firstly, he turns the screen black, then starts a Flash show. I ran it on a non-Flash machine. So I just get a black screen, no alternatives, no "alt" text to tell me I need flash etc.
An example of how NOT to do it perhaps?
Stu Savory
BTW: My primitive Web design rules are at http://home.egge.net/~savory/design.htm :)
Yes, Strongbad's design tips show how not to do web design. The site is a parody. It is quite funny. He lists nearly every mistake you can make ("Be sure to use lots and lots of animated GIFs") and suggests their use in a cheery voice.
Lawrence beat me to it. Yes, of course it's a parody.
For a good set of design rules (the ones we actualy teach in classes), I highly recommend Robin Williams and John Tollett's _The Non-Designer's Web Book (2nd ed.)_.
So I just read her book , Liz, and was disappointed :(
Lotsa pictures and grinding on about typography, but poor on tips and "how to do X". And no HTML at all. There are better books surely.
And yes, I do know how hard it is to write good books, having churned out a half-dozen mediocre ones. AI text books & an (incredibly poor :( novel, I guess everyone has to try their hand at a novel, even if they're no good at it ;)
Stu Savory
We don't use that book for HTML; we use Castro's HTML for the WWW (5th ed.). We use the Williams book specifically for the design principles--the discussion of contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity in particular. Typography and color, too, to a smaller extent.
The "how" is relatively easy to learn, I think (esp for our students). It's the aesthetic guidelines, in "rule" form, that's hard to find articulate well.
When we did this, I had the students generate their own rules. We would collect media (not just web pages, but mostly) throughout the semester (quarter), & then I'd ask the students to abstract general principles from these. They could "cheat" by going to a number of readings either recommended or otherwise. Sometimes I had to have a heavier guiding hand than other times, but generally folks got at the guidelines to follow. Sometimes, they even surprised me :).
The hardest thing for them to get was the idea that there was a spectrum: that you didn't want the same sort of page if you were the WHO or Nike. But I think, in the end, they realized that abstracts really were helpful in categorizing the differences.
Also had an exercise where they "rehabbed" an existing commercial or other web page. I loved the assignment, but the students often made it worse than it started out. :(.