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del.icio.us/smjdesign/
barcampindy2008

Where are we?
Graphic design
Web Hot or Not? {link}
CSS
Less obvious
Finding a Wisconsin cheese store on a WAP phone

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Inspiration for identity
Copy good sites: Advertising and design firm portfolios (my company does it)
Graphic design books
Influence of FortifiedLiving.com {link} on RachelSteely.com {link}
kuler.adobe.com for color selection
(need Flash 9) {link}
Functional versus informational in branding

Images and slices
Illustrator and Photoshop Best Practices
Alternatives: inkscape.org {link}, gimp.org {link}
Use layers to organize
slices
button
button-hover
button-selected_self  (use cursor: default in CSS)
button-selected (for sub-navigation)
button-selected_hover (for sub-navigation)
content
sidebar
background

Images and slices
Illustrator and Photoshop Best Practices
Go up layers from background and
"Save For Web" with slices
JPG for photos
GIF for vector graphics or 1-bit transparency
The future: PNG? (IE6 issues)

Images and slices
Illustrator and Photoshop Best Practices
Name images the same as CSS rules:
CSS rule: .div_header_bg-1 {}
IMG src: div_header_bg-1.gif
Standardize nomenclature for CSS class rules and image file names reduces confusion
I use hyphens to separate sections of words
I use underscore to separate words

Images and slices
Where to divide DIV tags
Choose CSS background graphics
NOT inline graphics to simplify HTML
Separate content from form

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Overwrite browser defaults
A “mass reset” of default browser styles. Set margin and padding to 0 on all elements, turning off borders on images, etc.

CSS Frameworks
Study and learn from others
WordPress Themes
Yahoo! CSS Frameworks {link}
Example of Tab View {link}
CSS Zen Garden {link}

FireFox add-ons
Firebug {link}
Inspect elements, view inheritance, edit HTML and CSS on the fly
Web Developer {link}
Disable CSS, JavaScript, & Images, outline blocks
Measure It {link}
Ruler on webpage
ColorZilla {link}
Sample and copy hex values
Link Checker {link}
Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar {link}

Semantic layout
Tables for tabular data
DIV tags for layout
Lists for navigation {UL and LI tags}
CSS tabs {link}
no Javascript mouseover scripts

Getting NAKED!
Annual Naked Day is April 5th
"I mean, who doesn't want to get naked?"
-Dustin Diaz, Founder of CSS Naked Day {link}
Disable CSS for one day

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Content at top of page valued higher
Place navigation after content
Absolute Position DIV if navigation at top {link}
Float DIV if navigation at side {link}

Floats - Any questions?
PURPOSE: Remove items out of layout flow
Can create columns
Remember to clear your floats!

Internet Explorer 6 layout bugs
If it looks good in FireFox and Safari, then use
PositionIsEverything.net
QuirksMode.org
IE / Comment Conditional Statement
<!--[if IE]> <![endif]-->
HTML 5 and IE versioning is currently a hot discussion in the blogoshere

Graded Browser Support
In the first 10 years of professional web development, back in the early ‘90s, browser support was binary: Do you — or don’t you — support a given browser? When the answer was “No”, user access to the site was often actively prevented. In the years following IE5’s release in 1998, professional web designers and developers have become accustomed to asking at the outset of any new undertaking, “Do I have to support Netscape 4.x browsers for this project?” By contrast, in modern web development we must support all browsers. Choosing to exclude a segment of users is inappropriate, and, with a “Graded Browser Support” strategy, unnecessary.
 - from developer.yahoo.com

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