CSS Techniques I Wish I Knew When I Started Designing Websites

Tim Wright and TJ Kelly have written about CSS Techniques in NOUPE on 18-Dec-2009. To quote:-

CSS is the best thing to happen to the web since Tim Berners-Lee. It’s simple, powerful, and easy to use. But even with all its simplicity, it hides some important capabilities. Ask any designer, and they’ll tell you that the majority of their code headaches are caused and ultimately solved by CSS.

All designers at some point in their career go through the process of encountering a weird display issue, searching for a resolution, and discovering a trick, technique, or hack could have saved them hours of frustration—if they had only known when they started.

Tree Testing - A quick way to evaluate your IA

Dave O'Brien has written about evaluating Information Architecture organization with "Tree Testing" in "Boxes and Arrows" on 5-Dec-2009. To quote:-

A big part of information architecture is organisation – creating the structure of a site. For most sites – particularly large ones – this means creating a hierarchical “tree” of topics.

But to date, the IA community hasn’t found an effective, simple technique (or tool) to test site structures. The most common method used—closed card sorting—is neither widespread nor particularly suited to this task.

Some years ago, Donna Spencer pioneered a simple paper-based technique to test trees of topics. Recent refinements to that method, some made possible by online experimentation, have now made “tree testing” more effective and agile.

Future scenario: starting a new job

James Robertson has written about the ideal "assistant" in "Column Two" on 8-Dec-2009. To quote:-

Her email inbox has a message from Morris, the intranet. Hmm, “welcome to the business Sarah!”, it seems even the intranet is friendly. Firing up “Morris”, Sarah spends a little time familiarising herself with the system she’s expecting to spend a fair bit of time in.

Part of Morris displays the standard corporate links and tools, but the right-hand half of the page seems to be just for her. There’s a prominent box linking her to an induction package, including a few get-up-to-speed videos, some recorded by other staff members.

Included in her online to-do list are a number of induction items, and she expects these will keep popping up over the next few months. Clicking on one of the tasks, she goes into her staff profile, and fills in a few easy details. The rest can wait for a quiet time over the coming week.

Noting that she’s involved in sales and customer service activities, Morris has suggested a few office groups she might want to join. Not today — too much too quickly — but Sarah does click the checkboxes so she can keep an eye on what’s being talked about, before she works out which groups to join.

She’s already been signed up to her local project group, and browses through the profiles and activities of the team members. Seems like there’s a fair bit happening, with a big report delivered last week. Better add that to my favourites.

Sarah’s also been recommended a “buddy” in a similar role, and she reads through their profile. Looks good, let’s have lunch. Now to unpack the mobile.