Topics: Culture: Industry

Smart tags and their ilk. Surviving downturns and booms. Corporate news that changes things. (67 articles)

Getting Real About Agile Design

by Cennydd Bowles

Issue 273December 02, 2008

Now is the time to get real, and prove design can adapt, if we want to stay relevant in these increasingly unreal times.

Flexible Fuel: Educating the Client on IA

Educating the client on standard processes and deliverables is tantamount to the success of a project. By using these standards, IA can more easily help manage both the decision-making process and the overall cost.

Working From Home: The Readers Respond

by Our Gentle Readers

Issue 270October 21, 2008

How to balance work and family, maintain energy and focus, get things done, and above all, how to remember the love.

Ten Years

by Jeffrey Zeldman

Issue 269October 07, 2008

If you don’t like the music on the radio, start a band. If you don’t like the way existing publications are defining your profession, start a magazine. Ten years ago, we did just that.

Understanding Progressive Enhancement

by Aaron Gustafson

Issue 269October 07, 2008

Concerned with content availability, overall accessibility, and mobile browser capabilities, designers and developers sought a new way to approach web development—a way that focused on the content and did more than just pay lip service to older devices.

Deafness and the User Experience

by Lisa Herrod

Issue 265August 12, 2008

Because of limited awareness around Deafness and accessibility in the web community, it seems plausible to many of us that good captioning will fix it all. It won’t.

Putting Our Hot Heads Together

by Carolyn Wood

Issue 265August 12, 2008

How can we transform discussion sections on major sites and online magazines from shooting ranges into arenas of collaboration?

The Survey, 2008

by ALA Staff

Issue 264July 29, 2008

It is time once again to pool our information so as to begin sketching a true picture of the way our profession is practiced worldwide.

Walking the Line When You Work from Home

by Natalie Jost

Issue 263July 15, 2008

Every work environment offers distractions, but those who work from home with their families face a unique set of issues—and need equally unique ways of dealing with them.

Why Did You Hire Me?

by Keith LaFerriere

Issue 259May 20, 2008

Money has a way of becoming an immediate barrier to your success. You need to address this and, to use gaudy corporate language, mitigate the risk. For freelancers, agency team members, and other hired guns, here are five tips. For full-time folks, slight variations apply.

The Cure for Content-Delay Syndrome

by Pepi Ronalds

Issue 259May 20, 2008

It is perhaps the market forces driving web development projects that find us aligning ourselves with the lexicons of marketing and advertising rather than publishing. As a result, we have lots of “brand identity guidelines,” but not so many “style guides” (for content, at least). We have “strategists,” but no “commissioning editors,” and we more often “go live” than “publish.” Hence, we tend to first think “copywriter” when trying to get our content sorted, whereas very often an editor is the person we should be engaging.

Version Targeting: Threat or Menace?

by Jeffrey Zeldman

Issue 253February 19, 2008

Real DOM support is a game changer. Enabled by default, it would bring many sites to their knees. That would break the web, and not in quotes. Providing IE8’s greater compliance on an opt-in basis is the only way to get everyone over the scripting hump.

The Rules of Digital Engagement

by Jonathan Follett

Issue 252February 05, 2008

We are, as William Gibson puts it in his novel Pattern Recognition, “post-geographic”—operating beyond physical boundaries.

From Switches to Targets: A Standardista's Journey

by Eric Meyer

Issue 251January 21, 2008

We say forward-compatible development is the mark of a professional because that’s what the profession demands. With the advent of version targeting, that need may simply evaporate, rendered not wrong but moot.

Understanding Web Design

by Jeffrey Zeldman

Issue 249November 20, 2007

Web design, like a typeface, is an environment for someone else’s expression. Stick around and I’ll tell you which site design is like Helvetica.

Findings From the Web Design Survey

by ALA Staff

Issue 247October 16, 2007

In April 2007, A List Apart and An Event Apart conducted a survey of people who make websites. The results represent the first data ever collected on the business of web design and development as practiced in the U.S. and worldwide.

Hat Heads vs. Bed Heads

by Keith LaFerriere

Issue 246September 25, 2007

Calm tension, communicate more easily, and run your projects more efficiently by applying the right relationship management techniques.

You Are Not a Robot

by Jonathan Kahn

Issue 239June 12, 2007

Learn why machines will never be able to do our jobs, and how knowing that fact can build respect for the profession.

Evangelizing Outside the Box: Web Standards and Large Companies

by Peter-Paul Koch

Issue 238May 29, 2007

The strategy of the standards movement needs an additional component aimed at convincing large web companies to become more open in their standards support.

The Web Design Survey, 2007

by ALA Staff

Issue 236April 24, 2007

People who make websites have been at it for more than a dozen years, yet almost nothing is known, statistically, about our profession. Take the survey and change all that.

The Long Hallway

by Jonathan Follett

Issue 236April 24, 2007

If a virtual design firm is to be successful, it must develop an adaptive culture that fosters and strengthens connections between far-flung collaborators.

The ALA Primer Part Two: Resources For Beginners

by Erin Lynch, ALA Staff

Issue 225October 09, 2006

ALA Production Manager, Erin Lynch, and the ALA staff offer a few starting points for the next generation of people who make websites.

The ALA Primer: A Guide for New Readers

by Erin Lynch

Issue 223September 12, 2006

ALA production manager Erin Lynch sifts through our archives and offers up a list of starting points for new readers.

A Standardista's Alphabet

by Jack Pickard

Issue 223September 12, 2006

“The Lesser (or Badged) Standardista will include badges on their site to indicate which level of automated testing their site has passed, whereas the Greater (or Smug) Standardista frowns on the use of badges, and insists on double-checking every checkpoint manually.”

Everyware: Always Crashing in the Same Car

by Adam Greenfield

Issue 215April 18, 2006

”...my fundamental point is that the outcome does not have to be something that simply happens to us. To the degree that we, the users and consumers of ubiquitous computing, educate ourselves and take action correspondingly, we get to choose the outcome.”

Everyware: The Dawning Age of Ubiquitous Computing

by Adam Greenfield

Issue 214April 04, 2006

“In everyware, all the information we now look to our phones or Web browsers to provide becomes accessible from just about anywhere, at any time, and is delivered in a manner appropriate to our location and context.”

Valentines to the Web

by Our Gentle Readers

Issue 212February 14, 2006

We asked ALA’s readers (and a few invited experts) what they love today about that repository of our mutual affection, the web.

Valentine's Day Massacre

by Our Gentle Readers

Issue 212February 14, 2006

ALA’s gentle readers tell us what they bloody well hate about the web.

Web 3.0

by Jeffrey Zeldman

Issue 210January 16, 2006

Web 2.0 is a fresh-faced starlet on the intertwingled longtail to the disruptive experience of tomorrow. Web 3.0 thinks you are so 2005.

When You Are Your Own Client, Who Are You Going To Make Fun Of At The Bar?

by Jim Coudal

Issue 201August 22, 2005

Should your blog have a business? Jim Coudal shares insights into the adventure of transitioning from client services to product creation.

Everything I Need To Know About Web Design I Learned Watching Oz

by Brian Alvey

Issue 169February 02, 2004

Making it as a web designer is like staying alive in the slammer. So before you sharpen your Photoshop skills or crack open that new book on crafting more effective customer experiences, you’d be well advised to catch a few reruns of HBO’s Oz. ALA system designer Brian Alvey points out the parallels between a successful career in web design and the popular prison drama.

How to Save Web Accessibility from Itself

by Joe Clark

Issue 163November 14, 2003

An upcoming revision to the Web Accessibility Guidelines is in danger of becoming unrealistically divorced from real-world web development, yielding guidelines that are at once too vague and too specific. Your expertise and input can help create realistic guidelines that work.

Accessibility, Web Standards, and Authoring Tools

by Christopher Schmitt

Issue 141March 22, 2002

With the advent of more compliant web browsers, the quest for standards shifts to the tools pros use to build sites. Christopher Schmitt spoke with Adobe and Macromedia for the low-down on web standards, accessibility, and authoring tools.

Information vs. Experience

by Emmanuel King Turner

Issue 125October 26, 2001

The conflict between presentation and structure reveals two views of the web. Which one’s winning?

Patents, Royalties, and Web Standards

by Jeffrey Zeldman

Issue 122October 05, 2001

This week there is only one web story that matters. The W3C has written a patent policy that opens the door to royalty payments on web standards.

Global Treaty Could Transform the Web

by Dennis A. Mahoney

Issue 119August 17, 2001

Mahoney is boiling mad over a proposed global treaty that would turn our worldwide web into a mishmash of regional Intranets, each attending to whatever local regulation allows.

CSS Talking Points: Selling Clients on Web Standards

by Greg Kise

Issue 116July 06, 2001

Selling your clients on standards-compliant design doesn’t have to hurt. Kise’s four-point CSS Selling Plan helps the medicine go down.

Nipping Client Silliness in the Bud

by Robin (roblimo) Miller

Issue 116July 06, 2001

Slashdot’s Robin (Roblimo) Miller could write a book about web clients’ mistakes. In fact, he’s writing it now – but he needs your help.

All the Access Money Can Buy

by Joe Clark

Issue 115July 22, 2001

Just when you think online multimedia will never be truly access, someone proves you wrong. In BMW Films, Clark sees a tantalizing glimpse of a better web.

Much Ado About Smart Tags

by Chris Kaminski

Issue 115July 22, 2001

Microsoft’s proprietary Smart Tags: Boon or bane? Kaminski digs deep beneath the hype and paranoia in an extensive assessment of what Microsoft hath wrought.

The Client Did It: A WWW Whodunit

by Robbie Shepherd

Issue 114July 15, 2001

Shepherd on the fine art of telling bad clients to buzz off.

Cheaper Over Better: Why Web Clients Settle for Less

by Adam Schumacher

Issue 114July 15, 2001

Adam Schumacher investigates why clients hire bad web designers—and what good web designers can do about it.

“Forgiving” Browsers Considered Harmful

by J. David Eisenberg

Issue 107April 27, 2001

By hiding the need for structure that the web will require as it moves toward XHTML and XML, “forgiving” web browsers have helped breed a world of structural markup illiterates. Eisenberg examines the damage done.

The Road to Dystopia

by Chris Kaminski

Issue 105April 13, 2001

Now that greed, pride, and stupidity have wrecked the web economy, how’s a semi-idealistic web developer supposed to make a living? Chris Kaminski hitches a ride down the road to dystopia.

Down By Law

by Carrie Bickner

Issue 104April 06, 2001

A U.S. law scheduled to take effect on the 20th of this month will force libraries and schools to censor Internet access or lose their funding. If enacted, the law will restrict free speech and punish the poorest of the poor. Librarian and web developer Carrie Bickner explores the politics of censorship and the digital divide.

A Failure to Communicate

by George Olsen

Issue 103March 30, 2001

It’s ironic that, as professionals dedicated to clear communication, information architects and user interface designers are having such trouble communicating with each other. Information designer George Olsen digs up the roots of communication breakdown and explores the three aspects of web design.

Web Designer and Proud of It

by Chris MacGregor

Issue 100April 02, 2001

Professional web designers do not “do” web page design, we practice it. We must continually work at improving our skills and techniques, learning how to use new tools and mastering the old ones. To elevate our profession from the perception it has now to the esteem that it deserves, the gap between the professional and the amateur should be evident to the casual viewer.

To Hell With Bad Browsers

by Jeffrey Zeldman

Issue 99February 16, 2001

In a year or two, all sites will be designed with standards that separate structure from presentation (or they will be built with Flash 7). We can watch our skills grow obsolete, or start learning standards-based techniques. In fact, since the latest versions of IE, Navigator, and Opera already support many web standards, if we are willing to let go of the notion that backward compatibility is a virtue, we can stop making excuses and start using these standards now. At ALA, beginning with Issue No. 99, we’ve done just that. Join us.

This HTML Kills: Thoughts on Web Accessibility

by Jim Byrne

Issue 98February 09, 2001

Activist Jim Byrne sounds off on the importance of web accessibility, and the difficulty of doing it right.

Survivor! (How Your Peers are Coping With the Dotcom Crisis)

by Jeffrey Zeldman

Issue 95January 19, 2001

It’s ugly out there, but how bad is it, really? We asked 40 colleagues to share how they were coping (or not) with the layoffs and business failures plaguing our industry.

One Boy’s Life: Surviving the Dotcom Blitz

by Nick Finck

Issue 95January 19, 2001

A boy, a job, and a floundering economy. Nick Finck tells his personal story of hirings and firings on the cusp of the dotcom crunch.

A Case for Web Storytelling

by Curt Cloninger

Issue 92December 10, 2000

In our attention to style and technology, we often overlook a vital element in the web design mix: narrative voice.

Rolling the Start-up Dice (A Survival Guide)

by Marlene Bruce

Issue 92December 10, 2000

So you want to work for an Internet start-up company. Bruce and Moyer show you the ropes.

The Web is Like Canada

by Joe Clark

Issue 84October 10, 2000

Those who “get” the web create it. Those who do not get the web are put in charge. Joe Clark presents a vision for defending our web against their worst ideas.

Indie Exposure: It's All About You

by Julia Hayden

Issue 82September 29, 2000

Reports of the death of online content have been greatly exaggerated. Julia Hayden finds that independent content production is alive and well.

Experience Design

by Bob Jacobson

Issue 77August 18, 2000

It’s time for web designers to peek over the cubicle and start sharing ideas with their peers in related design disciplines. Jacobson suggests one way to do that in this overview of the emerging Experience Design paradigm.

Dr. Strangeglobe: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The W3C.

by Erika Meyer

Issue 76August 11, 2000

Can the mysterious Dr Strangeglobe save the WWWorld from a conspiracy to contaminate our precious liquid layouts? Erika Meyer takes a non-standard look at the W3C in this charming yet educational spoof of the Kubrick classic.

Usability experts are from Mars, graphic designers are from Venus

by Curt Cloninger

Issue 74July 28, 2000

Usability mavens like Jakob Nielsen think the web is an ill-used database. Graphic designers like Kioken think it is a fledgling multimedia platform. Could both groups be right? New ALA author Curt Cloninger explains why usability experts are from Mars, graphic designers are from Venus. This one’s a hottie.

Fame Fatale

by Rich Robinson

Issue 72July 14, 2000

When did weblogs stop filtering the web and begin cluttering it instead? Rich Robinson on digital glut and creative solutions.

Why Are You Here?

by Scott Jason Cohen

Issue 72July 14, 2000

Whether we’re designing experimental sites or keeping an online diary, we go to the web in search of meaning. Will we find it? Or will we build it ourselves?

Rated XHTML

by Peter-Paul Koch

Issue 69June 23, 2000

The W3C’s XHTML language is intended to bridge the web’s past (HTML) and future (XML). Shall we cross this bridge, now that we’ve come to it? Or is XHTML more trouble than it’s worth? Peter-Paul Koch puts forth the pros and cons.

Bridging the Gap

by Robert Miller

Issue 66June 02, 2000

How can we work together if we don’t understand each other? Systems administrator Robert Miller describes the view from his side of the cubicle, and attempts to break down the barriers between “creative” and systems professionals.

Digiglut.com

by Bob Jacobson

Issue 62May 05, 2000

There is just too much stuff out there. Web surfing has turned to web surfeit, as web users and independent content site authors are buried alive in a sea of ever-more-useless crap. Bob Jacobson sifts through the wreckage.

Time to Close the Web?

by Alan Herrell

Issue 61April 28, 2000

Focusing on presentation at the expense of content, and invasive money-making schemes at the expense of everything else, designers must take some of the blame for the trashing of the web. Herrell wonders if it’s time to call it a day and close up shop .

Why Gecko Matters: What Netscape's Upcoming Browser Will Mean to the Web

by Jeffrey Zeldman

Issue 56March 24, 2000

Netscape is about to unleash its new browser, built around the Gecko rendering engine. Theoretically the first completely standards-compliant web browser, Gecko enters a world where most people use IE5 (which is not completely standards-compliant). Is Netscape’s effort too little, too late? Or is it the beginning of a new and better way to create websites? Zeldman articulates The Web Standards Project’s position and explains what Netscape’s browser will mean to the web.

Clickthru Is Evil II

by Alan Herrell

Issue 55February 25, 2000

Ten years ago, Tim Berners-Lee invented the web. Five years ago, advertisers started discovering it. Now they are poised to wreck it. Double-Click’s poison cookie has Alan Herrell foaming at the mouth as he explains why Clickthru is Evil.

Fear of Style Sheets

by Jeffrey Zeldman

Issue 8March 12, 1999

“No-fault CSS” can help you work around frightened clients, buggy software, and readers who still love last year’s browser. In Part One of a series, Zeldman walks you through the fear.

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