Arranged Delirium

As students in Web Design and Development start wrapping up their group project work, now would be a good time to reflect on all the little details that need to be worked out before the project is actually finished. Smashing Magazine to the rescue!

Here’s a link to an article that covers a nice lists of checks to complete before you can really consider your site to be “finished.” Four our class, the sites are a bit more basic - and no-one is using a CMS to build pages - but many of the 15 suggestions still apply. Folks working on more advanced projects int he capstone course might also find this to me information of value.

PS: Make sure to take the time to peruse the contents listed on the Smashing Magazine homepage. There are some great articles up there right now addressing issues of usability, an interesting Jquery list, and some nice detail on IE and the challenges for writing CSS3 code

If you work with Adobe software, your already checking out Layers Magazine. It full of tutorials though that might be helpful to folks learning how to complete specific tasks. Sine I do most of my work in Photoshop, I find myself frequently referencing the section on InDesign to look up a technique when I’m working on a project in that software. For the DVD cover assignment in New Media, this might prove to be a particularly valuable resource…

I’m frequently talking in class about what a designer can count on, and what’s out of our control. In web development, fonts are a good example. Even as you specify fonts, you cannot necessarily assume that the viewer’s machine has those font installed. Or, that they will render similarly - particularly given the differences of platform and browser. I think the image below from a post at The Small Wave makes the differences clear. Both of these render form the same code, but obviously appear different:

Now I know that some will argue that I’m just trying to applaud the Mac here - but I’m really not trying to do that. This is all about being able to see the fact that fonts render differently on different machines and/or browsers.

Understanding CSS for layout means understanding the Box Model. Students in ITL 370 are struggling a bit with this, so I’m providing here a link to some additional information. I covered the basics in class, but this article regarding CSS positioning is really useful if you are trying to wrap your brain around it.

This Associated Press article regarding ABC News coverage of the Toyota recall should make clear the power of video on shaping our opinion and understandings. It should also prove indicative of the dangers of shoddy journalism. It a good example of what we are always talking about in New Media: how visuals shape our understanding of the world, through both intentional means and unintentional decodings. This is the very reason why it’s important to pay attention to details when crafting new media content.