It’s a natural tendency to consider the fact that economic issues this far gone will indeed have a direct effect on you and your lifestyle. The main question remains, however; to what extent? At what point will the questionable actions of major financial institutions cease influence on your life? We’re all reading every day about another group of employees losing jobs as a direct result of economic difficulty.

Unfortunately, it’s going to take time before the current financial situation rights itself. Considering that fact, you need to prepare yourself for as much as possible. Preparation comes from education and advice, but always keep in mind to question what you read. The advice of others may not be in your best interest, but instead in the interest of someone else entirely. I don’t mean to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but I feel strongly about personal education. Read as much as you can to arm yourself with the greatest possible variety of information. You will be much better prepared to analyze everything you read.

The economy. The Web.

I work on the Web. I’m extremely interested in what’s to come for myself as well as my colleagues in the industry over the next few years. I can reiterate what knowledge I’ve gained regarding the possible future of the Web industry, but that goes against my earlier point of researching for yourself.

The general consensus, from what I gather, is that the Web will begin to evolve from its current state, for the better. I say ‘for the better’ because I believe the Web is over-saturated with designers and developers. There are too many companies that exist purely to maximize profit and minimize time. Quality doesn’t come into the picture with these companies, just turnaround time. It’s these companies which have made Web design that much more difficult to truly respect for the general public.

There are a number of ways to interpret that, however. It all depends on your perspective. I have that opinion as a professional designer, constantly bombarded with skepticism about each hour that goes into a project. I completely sympathize with a company and its budget, but I don’t question why your budget is so small.

Analysts mention that the next few years will be the time for small firms and freelancers. That’s comforting for me to hear, as my company currently consists of 16 people. It’s disconcerting because we’re already reading about unjust position terminations from large corporations. People say that the industry will begin to weed itself out, but I have difficulty standing completely behind that opinion. If the industry were truly taking out its own garbage, why are such high profile positions sacrificed so early? I ask that question with complete ignorance, I’m more than sure there are too many factors to consider beyond raw talent, but the facts remain.

What are you doing?

Why did it take economic turmoil to trigger this self-cleansing? I’ve been thinking about this topic for quite some time, wondering if my peers have become a bit too comfortable in their professional life. That sounds terribly negative, but it should be a concern if you’re a professional designer or developer.

I thought I’d share with you some of the things I’m actively pursuing to avoid any significant negative influence the economy will have. It’s important that you keep yourself in check, not only because the economy is in a slump, but always. As always, my opinions are mine, expressed explicitly for the benefit of reading an outside opinion on a subject in which you may be interested.

Keep learning

Are you actively expanding your industry knowledge? When is the last time you read a book on a subject that would positively effect your work? On the Web, you should never stop learning. When you cease to actively expand your knowledge, you become stagnant. You will soon find yourself out of touch, and your work will indeed suffer. If you’re not currently researching various aspects of your professional duties, please start. There is always something to learn. If you’re not inspired to expand your knowledge, branch out into something a bit more abstract.

Minimize overhead

Your best course of action will be examining your current daily habits and the influence those habits have on the big picture. Are there areas of your day upon which you can maximize, not only to save yourself time and stress, but make the company a few extra dollars? That’s not to say you’re wasting company time, but there will always be overhead. Overhead in our industry can be kept to a minimum, but that depends heavily on your process. Are there any glaring issues you’ve picked up on recently? Don’t be shy, bring up your ideas.

Put in the extra time and effort

Perhaps most important is putting in a bit of extra time when you can. That’s not to say you should start working 60 hour weeks out of the goodness of your heart, but a few hours a week for the benefit of the company can work wonders. My company has recently started getting together as a team to work on internal projects over pizza and beers and the effects have been excitingly positive.

Keeping things like this on your mind is definitely not guaranteed job security, but it will indeed set you apart from the crowd should the financial belt of your company tighten. Make sure your company knows how valuable you are.

My strategy throughout this mess is to keep doing what I’m doing. I have a significant respect for this industry and the people in it. My company works extremely hard to prove itself with each project request that comes through the door. We’re confident that the time we have put in over the past decade will provide a strong foundation to carry us through. As a small business, we’re excited about the possibility of working with some bigger clients by capitalizing where we can. The Web will definitely change as a result of current financial happenings, we’ll need to work together to take advantage of the situation and make sure we all come out ahead.

Additional reading

• Goldfish
• Recession Tips for Web Designers
• 9 Ways to Improve Yourself

Improving Your Process: CSS Techniques Part 2

I love reading tips and tricks about writing CSS. From what I can see, other designers enjoy it as well. I hope to explain even more of my methods in even more detail in 2009. That is, of course, if readers are interested. Do you find these articles informative, or would you rather have more opinionated articles on a different subject entirely?

IE8, Version Targeting, and the Ruckus it’s Causing

This article reminds me of a great debate this year. To me, it’s great when the entire design and development community takes the time to offer worthwhile opinions on a subject. There was absolutely no shortage of opinion on Microsoft’s decision to allow version targeting via proprietary meta elements. There was great uproar on both sides of the fence, and I found it to be extremely enlightening to take a passive seat on the issue for a while and read what both camps had to say.

Validation Zealotry and Markup Exploitation

I love the design community. I credit so many people for everything I know, and I continue to be educated by simply reading a few articles published out of the goodness of someone’s heart. There are, however, some dark corners in the community which can make people feel unwelcome. Luckily, negative influence is becoming sparse (as far as I can see), but it’s important to remember where you came from. There was a time when you asked a foolish question, and received a helpful answer instead of a hurtful, useless comment. What’s great about the community as a whole is that many members will instead write a helpful piece as opposed to publicly ousting and pointing fingers.

Why I Like (and Use) Reset CSS

The CSS debates continued into 2008, and I’m glad for that. This past April, some waves were made concerning ‘reset’ style sheets. The division was, again, mostly even and there were plenty of arguments on both sides. I had a personal opinion to offer on the subject, and tried to be unbiased in my delivery. I got some great responses to this article, and had good conversation on the subject in other places.

Raising the Bar with Adaptive Templates

I like to pass on any tricks or techniques that I discover. I usually spend quite a bit of time trying to research whether a particular technique had already been published in hopes of trying to remain unique (and not unwittingly take credit for something not originally mine). I’m a big fan of this adaptation of Super-Easy Blendy Backgrounds I was able to implement on a client site this year. I plan to revisit the technique in early 2009, and finally provide a comprehensive working example of the subject matter.

Siding with HTML over XHTML, My Decision to Switch

The debate over choosing HTML or XHTML has been continuing for quite some time. I took some time this past year to really examine my personal list of pros and cons between the two technologies, and ended up feeling a preference for HTML over XHTML. Since publishing this article, I’ve only been able to make a complete switch in my personal endeavors. Unfortunately (for my decision) there are too many tools my company uses professionally which depend on the strict ruleset of XHTML to function properly. That said, I plan to discuss this topic in 2009, considering that exactly; are our tools preventing us from choosing HTML?

Does Higher Education Produce Web Professionalism?

Higher education is a debate the world over. Every individual has a specific opinion on the subject, influenced by personal experience. I felt it applicable to offer both my opinions and experience with higher education in professional Web design. There were some excellent responses to this article, and I’m thankful to read the great opinions left by other readers.

CSS Organization Methods and Writing Style

A small debate that found itself at the forefront of conversation for a few days was that of single line versus multiline writing style for CSS. As with all good debates, both sides had similar numbers, making for great opinions and discussions. I took things a bit further in this discussion. Seeing no feasible ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to write CSS, I offered an alternative: just reformat your CSS and put it back when you’re done.

What Works Best for Design Presentation?

Client work is another passion of mine. I try to take the things I gain from working with clients every day and transform my lessons learned into ‘future proofing articles’ to help anyone finding themselves working with clients. Client interaction can be a very delicate operation, and design presentation is a big factor in that.

Loving WebKit: The Web Inspector Redesign is Huge

I cannot wait for Safari 4. I can’t say it enough, I want Safari 4. Firefox is great, and I love it, but the latest Web Inspector is just begging to be used. I dedicated an entire article to the major revamp from the WebKit team to spread the word about the utterly fantastic work they’re doing for designers.

CSS Tools Coda Plugin

Much of my impatient desire for Safari 4 is directly correlated with Coda. I’ve been a dedicated TextMate user for quite some time now, and it is a tremendous editor. Over the past few months, I’ve been craving something more, something different, and TextMate hasn’t had a major update in eons. Panic dropped Coda 1.5 on the world and followed up with 1.6 bringing a round of changes unheard of for a free upgrade to existing users. The workflow in Coda is spot on, and I’ve found myself putting the timesaving aspects of TextMate on hold in favor of the one window deliciousness of Coda thanks to plugins. I’m usually not one to create plugins, mostly because anything I’d need has already been done. With Coda it’s a different story; plugins are brand new, and not many have been released yet. Late this year I took the time to begin porting some of my favorite features from TextMate, CSS Tools being one of them.

I hope new readers are able to find a few articles of interest in that list, and ideally you existing readers are able to find a piece you may have overlooked from the past year.

Resolutions By Noon

I’d like to give myself a list of goals to accomplish in 2009 with this website. I must admit, there were times this year during which I found it very difficult to put together an article for any particular week. Opposed to simply publishing for the sake of publishing and meeting my quota, I opted to hold off on writing until I found a subject which would be valuable and/or entertaining. I hope no faith was lost in my posting schedule, I hope to tackle that head on this year.

I’d also like to write more articles on my personal processes, not limited to design or development, but client interaction as well. Are those articles of interest to anyone, or is that information being ignored? Client interaction is a big part of my daily routine, but if that information isn’t useful to the majority, I’d much rather write about something that is.

I know I asked last year, but are Windows/Linux users put off by my publishing articles directly tied to OS X? I know my stint with Coda plugins must have been uninteresting to you. If they’re completely useless an ignore-able, I will make a consistent effort to publish those articles midweek, and restrict Monday articles to universal topics. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Thank you

Thank each of you for keeping Monday By Noon in your feed reader. It’s great that you’re able to provide your attention once a week and read whatever it is that was on my mind that week. The best part is you’ll take the time to chime in when you’re able, and I can’t thank you enough. Please continue reading, and what is more important, continue writing. See you in 2009!

JavaScript Tools Coda Plugin

One of the most useful parts of the JavaScript Tools bundle was the ability to Minify or Pack your source within TextMate. Having the ability to compress and obfuscate your JavaScript is of great benefit, and I did my part when I could. Minification and Packing are two different technologies, both with pros and cons. I decided to integrate both as they are my tools of choice.

I ran into some issues when putting this plugin together, however. While testing, I was using one of the many jQuery plugins and compression was going great. As I continued my testing, I attempted to Minify jQuery. That’s when things started getting a bit sticky. When invoking the compression of a larger JavaScript file, Coda began to act a bit strange. The application itself would seem to choke and eventually freeze. After a few seconds of locking up, my entire machine would freeze, forcing a hard reboot. I’m currently in contact with Panic to see if there is an issue with my personal machine, or something else entirely.

When working properly, the plugin operates like this:

I hope to work with Panic over the next few days to come up with a solution to the ‘large file problem’ and I’ll post a revision as soon as some new information surfaces. In the meantime, if you’d like to crack open the plugin and see if you spot any red flags, I’d be greatly appreciative. Currently the plugin misbehaves whether you Minify or Pack, so I’m lead to believe it’s an issue outside one class or the other.

Future plans include the incorporation of the YUI Compressor as well as JSLint. After solving the issue of working with larger files, I’m going to work on integrating those technologies.

Download JavaScript Tools

Version 0.5

December 15, 2008 - Initial release

CSS Tools

My latest plugin finds its roots in an article I wrote not too long ago; CSS Organization Methods and Writing Style. In the article, I took a quick look at a small rift that brought up quite a bit of conversation in the Web community. There are two distinct camps, it seems, when it comes to people who write CSS. There is one side that writes their CSS properties on a single line, and another that will devote a line to each property in a selector. Personally I’m in the ’single line’ camp, but I absolutely understand why other authors prefer multi line.

I came up with a proposed solution; reformat your CSS. That tool uses CSSTidy to allow a simple transformation of your CSS formatting. It will retain any comments, and leaves all properties as written (instead of converting to shorthand, for example.)

Basically, CSS Tools brings that functionality to Coda. You’re able to convert a style sheet from single line to multi line and vice versa. You’re also able to compress your CSS if you’d like. Take a look:

I plan on making the plugin more elaborate over the coming weeks, hopefully beefing up the template which handles reformatting, as well as providing more methods for compression, possibly the ability to include your own CSSTidy template for processing.

Download CSS Tools

Version 1.0

December 15, 2008 - Initial release

Consistently for the past year or so, I’ve become increasingly interested in JavaScript and its capabilities. Each week I find myself using JavaScript in new and better ways to progressively enhance documents on the Web. Thankfully, there is a large group of terribly intelligent people consistently publishing not only their knowledge on the subject, but also new and improved tools with which to work.

Over time, I have experimented with a number of JavaScript libraries. I first started out working with Prototype but quickly became more comfortable using MooTools. I spent a short amount of time using MooTools in conjunction with other resources to learn a bit more about JavaScript. Then I discovered jQuery. jQuery has caught on like wildfire in recent months (years?) and rightfully so. One of the reasons I work primarily with jQuery is because of its author; John Resig. From what I can gather, he and I think alike. Although his knowledge of JavaScript is leaps and bounds ahead of mine, reading his articles still makes perfect sense. It should be no surprise that his book is written in the same way.

Pro JavaScript Techniques by John Resig

I’m a bit late in reading Pro JavaScript Techniques, since it was released two years ago this month. Many times, two years is quite a while to let a Web book get out of date before reading it. I was pleasantly surprised to see that was not the case at all with Pro JavaScript Techniques. If you take a glance at the table of contents you can plainly see the great selection of topics in the book.

Who is this book for?

This book is definitely not to be used as an introductory volume. If you’re just starting out with JavaScript, I would suggest perhaps DOM Scripting by Jeremy Keith. That’s not to say DOM Scripting is an introductory text, but more applicable for sure. This book is for a JavaScript author who has the basics down. Someone looking to take the next step in their JavaScript knowledge. In the first chapter, Resig dives right into objects in JavaScript, if that helps to put things in perspective.

What can you learn from this book?

Part 1: Introducing Modern JavaScript

From the first few pages you’ll be introduced to object-oriented JavaScript. From there, you’re shown some great techniques for testing your code & packaging your distribution. Part 1 also touches upon unobtrusive scripting, the DOM, events, Ajax, and cross-browser support.

Part 2: Professional JavaScript Development

The second part of the book focused on the particulars of object oriented JavaScript through the discussion of objects, object creation, overloading, and more. This part of the book did a great job in preparing the reader for what’s to come. There is a strong focus on creating code reusability; something valuable to all aspects of programming. Part two finishes with a chapter dedicated to testing and debugging your JavaScript, something that can be exponentially frustrating when first working with any programming language. To our benefit, modern JavaScript has made available a number of very robust tools which make working with JavaScript quite pleasant.

Part 3: Unobtrusive JavaScript

Part three discusses the Document Object Model, the foundation of modern JavaScript. After covering the basics surrounding the DOM, we’re guided through an introduction to events and how to work with them. Working with CSS via JavaScript is discussed in chapter 7, helping the reader to learn that JavaScript can do much more than interact with the DOM. Part three closes up with a couple examples which employ the techniques discussed in chapters previous, allowing the reader to see some of these methods in a functional real world environment.

Part 4: Ajax

Resig devoted an entire section of this book to Ajax, and not without good reason. Ajax is one of the primary reasons for the popularity of modern JavaScript. Ajax has done quite a bit to make the usability of documents much more interactive and effective. After discussing the basics of Ajax, a number of real-world examples are discussed. There are many good examples to work from and build upon in this section of the book.

Part 5: The Future of JavaScript

When working on the Web, it’s always important to consider whether your technology of choice has any viability in such a ‘hostile’ environment. This part of the book discusses where JavaScript is going and includes a few Web applications to check out.

There is an extensive appendix available at the conclusion of the book, which can be quite useful when trying to remember something you’ve read previously.

Summary

I thought this book was great. Reading this book really helped me to see why I like working with jQuery so much. It’s as though it can be looked at as a journal of sorts, providing a structure for a JavaScript library. Although I enjoy jQuery and it’s my library of choice, it’s only mentioned a very limited number of times, and always along other JavaScript libraries. This book was in no way a billboard for Resig’s library, instead it was meant as a way to improve your knowledge of JavaScript. If you’re looking to improve your knowledge of JavaScript from a basic level, Pro JavaScript Techniques is a great way to do it.

Choice of text editor is a very personal thing for any developer. I’ve tried nearly every editor under the sun, just to make sure I wasn’t missing out on anything. Over the past year or so, I’ve wobbled back and forth between TextMate and Coda. TextMate is brutally useful, and Coda is terribly beautiful and functional. Time after time I’d return to TextMate simply because of the elaborate bundles, especially the snippet implementation. Coda’s editor just didn’t cut it when it came down to the timesaving techniques TextMate has spoiled with me.

Then came Coda 1.6. Coda now supports a full range of plugin functionality, along with a stunning plugin creator. I was instantly thrilled, dying to give Coda a fighting chance against TextMate. Since the debut of 1.6, some really great third party plugins have been published, and I’m very excited about the potential of very elaborate plugins down the line.

Writing a Coda plugin

I’ve never been one to get very detailed with plugin development, mostly because any plugin I wanted to write had already been done (and done well). With Coda plugins being brand new, there are plenty of plugins to write; I thought I’d give it a shot.

Writing a Coda plugin is terribly easy. It’s a matter of downloading the plugin creator, choosing from a number of languages, and publishing your plugin. If you’ve never built a plugin before, I’d definitely suggest playing around with Panic’s implementation with Coda, it’s a very satisfying experience.

Comment banner plugin for Coda

The functionality behind the plugin I decided to write by no surprise is rooted in TextMate. I’ve become a huge fan of the comment banner snippet in TextMate. It gave me a ridiculously fast way of inserting comment banners, allowing me to further segment some of my larger CSS documents, and I’ve even started documenting my source documents and JavaScript using comment banners. If you’re not familiar with comment banners, check out a quick screencast I put together:

Unfortunately, in its current state, my plugin is nowhere near as advanced as the TextMate implementation. In TextMate, you can simply trigger the snippet and type your comment as you go. My plugin instead uses an existing line of text and transforms that into a comment banner. Once I take a closer look at the Coda plugin architecture, I’d like to completely duplicate the TextMate implementation.

Another feature that’s currently incomplete is the syntax mode detection. I’ve only had time to implement a few of the document types I find myself editing most often. Once I look into the comment syntax of all the modes supported by Coda, I’ll make additions to make the plugin that much more comprehensive. Of course, if your syntax mode of choice is not supported (there’s a good chance it may not be) you can post a comment below and let me know about it, I’ll make updates as soon as possible.

Additionally, the syntax detection that does take place only looks at the extension of the file in which you’re working. For example, the plugin doesn’t know you’re editing a JavaScript block inside an HTML document.

You can trigger the plugin by typing your intended comment (single line of text) and choosing Plug-ins > Comment Banner, or simply use the key command from TextMate; Control + Shift + B.

If you’re a Coda user, I hope you find this plugin useful. If you’ve got any feedback at all please take a moment and post in the comment thread, and stay tuned for updates!

Download Comment Banner

Version 0.6.1

December 17, 2008 - Implemented possible fix for ‘Undefined variable’ error messages

Version 0.6

December 12, 2008 - Added Coda comment bookmark syntax (Suggested by Jason)

Version 0.5.1

December 5, 2008 - Added support for JSP

Version 0.5

December 1, 2008 - Initial release

I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I was working my plans to include stops to upcoming conferences. The first of which was the Future of Web Design NYC and the second being the first Sidebar Workshop. While I couldn’t make it to Washington D.C. for Sidebar, I thankfully was able to make the short trip to New York for FOWD.

Unlike last year, I was able to make FOWD 2008 a two day event. While New York isn’t too far from Albany, making the round trip last year was quite a long day. On the day of the workshops, I met up with Colin Devroe and Chris Fehnel to hang out, and snag some awesome Thai for lunch and check out the Apple Store. We made a day of it, snagged a beer or two, and waited for conference day.

Conference day

FOWD had another spectacular lineup this year. The keynotes found a wide range of topics, and the variation was excellent.

And that’s that

I had a great time at FOWD this year, Carsonified really knows what they’re doing and they make the experience really great. I can’t thank Colin and Chris enough for putting up with me over the two days; I really appreciate it.

Again with content management?

I’ve come to the realization that clients and content management systems do not mix. As an example, in a recent RFP (a subject unto itself), the outlined requirements of the provided CMS included the ability to adjust kerning, line-height, typeface, and color of all content on the page.

Going beyond the fact that this request was put together by someone who has absolutely no idea about modern Web design, I’m beginning to see more fluff along these lines. Are we really at such a level where average potential clients are making the leap to such things as kerning and line-height?

The client issue

What it comes down to, I suppose, is the level of client you’re working with. There are clients who just want what they have seen as possible. If there is a feature available and you don’t offer it, your skill is inferior. We’re well aware of scope creep and bloat, but clients do not often respect either.

I’m not knocking the client perspective in the least. I, in fact, truly enjoy doing client work. I feel accomplished when a client is both impressed and pleased with their project once things have been pushed live. It’s a great feeling, knowing you have helped make their project a reality. My company makes a consistent effort, however, to debunk many of the preconceived notions that follow clients through our door. It’s often a strenuous process, but everyone is better off for it.

I’m consistently in a battle with trying to better the overall experience for a client, while keeping a close eye on the direct effect any change will have on the design. I’ve written before on the general abuse of content management systems by clients. I’ve even brought up the trouble with WYSIWYG in CMSs. While both pieces shine a harsh light on client interaction with your designs, I’d like to start focusing on any positives that can come from using a WYSIWYG editor.

Overall effectiveness?

I understand that every CMS under the sun employs a WYSIWYG editor for most copy-areas, but it’s not working. I cannot in good faith discredit all the time and effort that has gone into the leading editors, and I don’t see them going anywhere soon. The trouble, however, is that they’re too easy to break. I can’t count the number of times I’ve had to manually edit a WYSIWYG block because the editor lost track of a strong tag somewhere along the line. Clients will call, furious that the entire page is bold, questioning the value of our entire CMS based on the fact that he pasted directly from Word.

It’s not his fault he used Word, however. Commonality shows that Word is a standard method of formatting text in the business world. To say that he is “not allowed” to use Word because it breaks his website goes back to the age-old issue of Internet Explorer “breaking” the Internet. Designers know it to be true, but to everyone else, the project itself is the failure, not the utility.

The trouble here is the divide between how I view the Web, and how clients view the Web. Not just taking into consideration the quality and semantic value of markup, but the design itself. A client doesn’t realize that a stylesheet has been carefully prepared for his benefit, that center justifying, bolding, and typing in all caps isn’t going to achieve the effect he’s looking for.

Stuck in a rut

I truly wish I had a flawless solution for this issue I can’t seem to leave behind, but I don’t. At the very least, I will make a continuous effort to provide the most streamlined, stripped down WYSIWYG copy editor I possibly can.

One thing I’d like to specifically raise as an issue is that of including imagery in WYSIWYG editors. I haven’t thought too much into it, but I think preventing the addition of images directly in a WYSIWYG field will solve quite a bit of my issue. That is not to say that the inclusion of images will be removed completely, simply delegated to the CMS itself as opposed to the editor. While impressive, the handling of images directly within a WYSIWYG editor has never worked out in my favor. I can’t count the number of times a client has requested that someone “look into the image on the About page, it looks funny.”

While I don’t see the omission of images in WYSIWYG as a plausible solution, it’s something I’d like to work at over the coming months. I’m not sure how, but it will be a goal of mine.

While the articles published by many of the speakers at these events are invaluable, the presentations and workshops always seem to end up at a higher level. You’re able to get that much more out of an official keynote. Whether it be the associated visuals, or the fact that you’re able to physically see and hear a designer you’ve been following for years, something about the event leaves you with that much more.

Future of Web Design

If you’ve been reading Monday By Noon for the past year, you’ll know that last year I was able to attend the Future of Web Design 2007 in New York City. It was a fantastic event. I was able to go with a few of my colleagues and we all had a tremendous time.

Thankfully, Carsonified is bringing back FOWD NYC for 2008. I’m still working out some logistical details, but I’m nearly positive I’ll be able to attend this year as well. Should it all work out, I’ll be able to again see some people I didn’t get to spend nearly enough time with. Colin, for instance, and maybe Jonathan, although I’m not completely sure if he will be attending. I was only able to shake his hand at FOWD 2007 primarily due to the (literal) line of people waiting to ask him questions. Hopefully I’ll be able to meet a few others face to face this year now that I’m more used to the scale of FOWD; we’ll see!

If you’re at all on the fence about going, just take a quick look at the list of speakers for this year - very impressive. I’d take the time to list the keynotes I’m most excited about, but that would mean typing up each presentation slotted for the day. In all honesty, there are some big names presenting on some great topics throughout the day, and I can’t wait.

FOWD starts a week from today, November 3, with a day of workshops and continues until Conference Day on the 4th.

Sidebar Workshop

To my surprise, the four musketeers took it upon themselves to become even busier by putting on a workshop of their own. The team at Sidebar Creative presents Sidebar Workshop on November 12th, 2008 in Washington D.C. Not only am I thrilled that the Sidebar team is putting on a conference, I’m thanking my lucky stars it’s on the East Cost.

A full day has been put together starring each of the Sidebar Team. Bryan Veloso will be speaking on interface planning and design, Dan Rubin plans on talking you through the export and optimization of images for your designs. Steve Smith will speak on the process of bringing your markup and style together, and Jonathan Snook will provide some of his wisdom on JavaScript libraries.

Last, but certainly not least, the Sidebar team has allowed for a group discussion at the end of the day. They’re offering a chance for attendees to ask specific questions they’ve got, and get instant feedback. If you’re in the D.C. area, I’d suggest snagging a seat at this event. The Sidebar Creative team is an impressive group consisting entirely of highly respected professionals in our field.

I hope it all works out

As I mentioned, I’m still working out some of the gritty details surrounding both events, but I’m doing my best to make it happen. Have you committed to either event?

One inescapable limitation from which we’ll never be able to escape is that of color contrast. While it’s only obvious to ensure you’re working within acceptable limitations of color contrast in the general sense of design, we have even more to contend with. Our designs must be equally readable in a myriad of situations.

Sure, print designers need to worry about what their piece is going to look like in various lighting conditions, or how a digital file will translate to something physical. There is a lot to consider as far as the method of printing as well as the material itself. Web design brings something completely new to the table; monitors.

The trouble with contrast: monitors

Even if you’re new to Web design, it won’t take long to realize that contrast is something that never goes away. Even when you’ve got a solid grasp on limitations, and you piece together a design specifically surrounding color contrast on the Web, your client will request the type be a bit darker & bold. Unfortunately, client intervention doesn’t tie directly to this issue, so we’ll move on.

Computer hardware has a tendency of following the adage “you get what you pay for.” Unfortunately, when it comes to many people and computers; the cheaper the better. Bargain equipment is very attractive for a number of reasons, none of which we’ll need to explore at this time. What does matter to us, is that many of the monitors on which your design will be displayed are of much less quality than yours. Your gradients will be less noticeable, your drop shadows nearly nonexistent, and your type more difficult to read.

It seems dismal, but Web designers need to account for the worst case scenario, or very close to it. We have the responsibility of producing work which is not only usable, versatile, aesthetically pleasing, standardized, valid, and optimized, but also beautiful on substandard equipment.

Keeping your contrast in check

There are quite a few tools available for testing your color contrast. There have been many articles written on the subject as well. Some fantastic research has been performed, allowing us to easily observe our color contrast and measure it against accepted values.

I have a tool that I’ve come to know and love in testing color contrast. Color Contrast Check by everyone’s favorite, Jonathan Snook, has come out on top for me. His tool conforms to accepted standards, and allows designers to very easily check to see how the contrast measures up.

There are many other tools available for checking color contrast, which do you use?