Talk I gave with Andy Rutledge, at the Dallas Society of Visual Communications — to an audience of (mostly) print designers, wanting to learn more about the principles of web design.
Andy Rutledge Principal, Unit Interactive http://unitinteractive.com http://andyrutledge.com Nathan Smith UX Designer / Developer http://sonspring.com http://960.gs
Today, we’d like to share a few gotchas that we think are good to keep in mind when making the transition from designing for print, to designing for the web. Note: We’re not print guys. So bear with us if we can’t recite what exactly CMYK stands for! :)
Everything we cover today can be thought of like learning to play sheet music. Once you get the basics, then you can break the rules and play jazz. But know how/when to do it! :)
DESIGNING FOR THE WEB, IN GENERAL... — Art is meant to be appreciated — Design is meant to be used — Make links distinctive from content — Use color with purpose & meaning — A page is not a “page” but an experience — Consider the file size of images & code — Accept the fact everything is a rectangle — Use “real” copywriting when possible — Lorem ipsum is not real content — Be terse, but also... — Design for discoverability & exploration
— Don’t focus only “above the fold” — Don’t forget about :hover for links — Resist over-using :hover or animations — Consider placing content on a grid — Be aware users will change things... — Either via text resizing, or — Full-page zooming — Plan for contingencies: form errors, etc. — Plan for both keyboard & mouse navigation DESIGNING FOR THE WEB, ON DESKTOP...
— You cannot rely on :hover — Don’t forget about :active link state — Fetching files taxes the battery — Only present the most pertinent info — Don’t try to emulate “native” 100% — Consider size of user’s fingertip(s) — Compress images — Minify CSS and JavaScript files — Avoid JavaScript animations — JS runs much slower on mobile — position:fixed - doesn’t work — overflow:auto/scroll - doesn’t work DESIGNING FOR THE WEB, ON MOBILE...
http://www.trentwalton.com/2010/07/05/non-hover/ Elements that rely only on mousemove, mouseover, mouseout or the CSS pseudo- class :hover may not always behave as expected on a touch-screen device such as iPad or iPhone. — Apple Reference Library
— sIFR = Uses Flash for custom fonts — Cufón = Uses JavaScript for custom fonts — CSS3 features — text-shadow — letter-spacing — line-height, etc. — @font-face (font embedding) — Google Font API — Font Squirrel — Typekit With font embedding, be sure you’re using each font legally. Not all foundries allow it. TYPOGRAPHICAL POSSIBILITIES
ANY FURTHER QUESTIONS? Andy Rutledge TWITTER: http://twitter.com/andyrutledge CONTACT: http://andyrutledge.com/about.php Nathan Smith TWITTER: http://twitter.com/nathansmith CONTACT: http://sonspring.com/contact GET THESE SLIDES... http://slideshare.net/nathansmith/dsvc-design-talk
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