I came across Shay Howe’s website today for the first time and am very impressed with his learn section. He’s created the content for a course (or 2) to learn HTML and CSS. There is a beginner’s guide and then an advanced one is scheduled too. This is great content or curriculum and would be a great boost to anyone interested on the subject. It is very thorough and teaches good practice with bad vs good examples throughout.
Great points about apps and the web in this article.
Apps compete with the web for dominance over where people get their content. Apps as games and tools are perfect, but apps for content are not. Content is best on the web, because the web is built for sharing content. The web is open! The web is consolidated and instant and accessible (meaning that any device/browser/screen size/location/etc can already access the web and you can update it anytime and all users see the update instantaneously). The web is also accessible via the defining url. Meaning that it’s a required standard that all assets and bits of content have an address. You can take this address and share it and return to it easily, apps – not so much. You want to share an experience or idea from an app with a friend (sure, some have a process built in), you first check to see if their device has this app available, they want to go through the steps of finding the app and then installing it (likely having to pay money) and then you send them a link have to explain how to get to where the magic happened.
Newfangled, a web agency I respect for being very smart has a great article about this. It was then moved into the basis for a chapter in their ‘The Strategic Web Designer’ Book. I highly recommend them both!
Here are my notes on the presentation from Mike Chambers of Adobe at the Atlanta Adobe Users Group Meeting: http://www.meetup.com/Adobe-User-Group-of-Atlanta/events/56200162/
Honestly, the announcement from Nov was handled horribly, it was a mess. Adobe has learned a lot and there have been many changes since then to keep this from happening again. They are really pushing transparency and have begun publishing white papers that explain the flash roadmap and explain plans and commitments.
Flash runtimes is one shared core player. Flash player and adobe air both share same core.
Flash has filled many niches: animation, video, applications, games, rich media, art (Flash as an expressive medium).
While none of these functions are going anywhere, HTML5 is bringing a lot of this capability to browsers natively.
Adobe will now focus on advanced video and gaming in Flash as they are the areas that aren’t possible in web standards.
Introducing Premium features – set of features in API available for licensing. Only example for now is Stage3D used in conjunction with domainMemory API.
“I’m doing this for the love of flash, everyone else is doing it for the money” – Mike Chambers
The funding for the flash player is contradictory since more tools to publish to flash player have come out, it draws resources and funding away from flash player. This revenue sharing model allows for the player to remain funded in the current flash ecosystem.
Linux: Ppapi = pepper codename for browser plugin API which will let the player do it’s thing rather than worry about browser and OS. Working with google chrome on Linux already.
Windows 8: working closely with Microsoft to have support for flash player and air on Windows 8.
All updates will be added to the white paper (link above) along with the 2 year roadmap.
Thanks for visiting ATL and working on making this well understood and making Flash even better. I’m Always a fan of using flash when it’s the right tool for the job.
We need more articles like this that talk about process and how they are applying these new web mantras like ‘Mobile First’ and ‘RWD’ and ‘Design in the Browser’. These mantras lead us to think these techniques are very black and white, but there is a lot more to it than that. Like most everything else on the web: it depends.
Here is my collection of notes from attending An Event Apart Atlanta 2012. As I took notes, I had the thought that I’d be sharing them with co-workers and that it’d be easiest to just publish them here. I hope they are useful to someone else out there who didn’t take notes on something or wasn’t able to attend. Huge thanks to Jeffrey and Eric for organizing the event and for all the speakers! I sure learned a lot! I did miss a couple of presentations, maybe I’ll find my notes and add them one day. Let me know if you’re looking for a specific talk that I’m missing and I’ll check my notes.
Ethan Marcotte has become the father of Responsive Web Design and spent this whole day focused on principles, techniques, gotchas, examples, … all about building and how to build responsive sites. With a sprinkle of mobile first.
Compare process to print with a press – linear process has been co-opted for the web
discover, design, develop, deliver
Break down the one way process from design to develop. The workflow should cycle between design and develop.
Text:
How well does the layout adapt?
Do individual modules still feel usable?
Mobile First! – Luke Wroblewski
The argument: Mobile traffic has explided, new capabilities (touch, geo, voice, ubiquity), narrower screens force us to focus.
Think about these things earlier in the process gives a better end product
What value does each content have for our mobile users?
Mobile First and Design for Content First (really Content always)
500 Android – snapshot from google analytics: http://stephanierieger.com/the-trouble-with-android/
Will screen resolutions standardize over time? Who knows, we need to be thinking flexible, it is even the more future proof solution.
Grids
The History of Grids – Every movement in art can be seen as a response to another
Start design with a network of modules
…methods and rules upon which it is impossible to improve have been developed for centuries… -Jan Tschichold
Mark Boulton introduces “The New Canon” for web design
-Content out, not canvas in.
-Create connectedness
-Bind the content to the device
aworkinglibrary.com – change – Mandy Brown “rich designs can emerge from flexible roots… the web is not print…
it’s all about balancing the ease of dev vs ease of maintenance
Frameworks are very valuable for prototyping
Design your source code order. think about linear and layout at the same time.
Bandwidth
no correlation between screensize and connection speed (or price even)
a matter of serving appropriate images
a hack really: preloaders, cookies and race conditions (http://blog.yoav.ws/2011/09/Preloaders-cookies-and-race-conditions)
Each browser does this differently though and it’s not standardized.
Can we solve this with new markup? A new html element? Like th evideo or audio elements?
Video element can have media query attached and multiple source files referenced.
Backgrounds
stuntbox.com
background-position: 0 0; – x y; left top; 50px 0; 0 50px;
it’s a bit different for percentages: 50% 50% (centered). percentage for packground position is proportional to the image itself and the container. t places that point in the background image in that position in the container.
Resizing background images: background-size css property. Set in pixel based terms or in proportions/percentages. (not 100% supported, but can be used as progressive enhancement).
Media Queries
Descendant from media type style sheets: scree, print, handheld, projector…
display area and rendering surface
Think of the browser’s viewport as the display area and the display as the rendering surface.
Specify ranges with min- and max- prefixes for browsers above or below a certain threshold or breakpoint.
Long list of media query features: width, height, device-width, device-height, orientation, aspect-ratio, device-aspect-ratio, color, color-index, monochrome, resolution, scan, grid. These can be combined in statements.
Can combine media types as well.
Also keywords for mixing the statements: only, not, and
Put it into practice:
Looking at the weather module on the boston globe as an example. http://bostonglobe.com/
Don’t suppress things before discussing simplifying it.
How do you choose breakpoints?
(The only way I’ve ever learned anything, is by doing it wrong first)
Initial breakpoints: 320, 480, 768, 1024, 1200px
Set up the queries to support Mobile First
Mobile first workflow overview, start with one layout and additively add more.
Polyfills
css3-mediaqueries-js: slower, first on the scene.
respond.js: very fast, only tests for min-width and max-width, only ~3kb
There’s no real set of IDEAL breakpoints
We’ve been very focused on columns, let’s refocus on content! http://www.designbyfront.com/workinprogress/article/the-goldilocks-approach-to-responsive-design
Set major increments and have the smallest breakpoint totally fluid and then find breakpoints dependent on the design (content and typography) rather than devices. Let’s not choose our breakpoints based on devices, but let our designs dictate what looks best. paulrobertlloyd.com
Start with the smallest part
Advanced Layouts
Negative margins to break out of the grid
Box-sizing
CSS3 – the waiting game
Multiple background images
http://contentsmagazine.com/ Setting the top margin and absolute position to 5em/-5em, and the navigation is part of the main content. Smaller sizes the navigation is at the bottom and larger it is set to position absolute and fits inside the margin.
Use IE conditionals to load specific stylesheets for them. And use media=”only all” for the enhanced styles
Minify and combine/concatenate javascript files
Conditionally load assets (progressive enhancement – if a browser can’t be enhanced, let’s not load the files that would enhance it). Test for capabilities of device and not test for the device itself labjs.com yepnopejs.com
Constantly ask yourself: is this element content or an enhancement.
Fonts: sasquatchmusicfestival.com (fonts for web are usually pretty heavy)
Thinking about process and patterns
1. Width
2. Hierarchy
3. Density
4. Interaction
Senseless waste of asterisks… Avis used an asterisk to denote optional fields. This means that there is a lot of baggage that comes with an asterixk. Somewhere this symbol got meaning, it’s not in the bible!
We can control when something goes from unintuitive to intuitive.
A design is intuitive (although technically and grammatically speaking that is false).
An intuitive design is when the user is focused on their objective.
Simplest site online; haynet, need hay and have hay. Unclear objectives.
Intuitive Design is Invisible. you only notice it when there is something wrong with it. Like the AC in the room, it’s only notices when there is a problem with it. It’s an issue of focus.
Lytro gives focus shift to the users.
We shouldn’t force users to focus on things which they don’t choose to.
Property #1 of intuitive design: Clear Focus.
Kittens die when marketing people win.
Keep focus on the users objective and not on the interface.
Magic Escalator of Acquired Knowledge: zero knowledge at bottom, full knowledge at top. Positions at current knowledge and target knowledge show a knowledge gap. To make a site intuitive we put current and target knowledge as close as possible. An intuitive design is when current knowledge = target knowledge. We can either train people to increase their current knowledge, or we can simplify the target knowledge. Teaching examples: like facebook timeline introduction, google apps update with walkthroughs. Simplify examples: craigslist, umbrella today.
Things with a large knowledge gap that we must use we tend to hate, and when use is voluntary we avoid. Things with a smaller knowledge gap and required are tolerated, and when use is voluntary we are cautious. If the knowledge gap is small enough users love it and use it! Making things usable lets users enjoy using it and they like us!
With a million visitors and a 1.6% conversion rate all purchases. 1 foot = 16,000 Visitors. The customers are the 1.6% that convert! Don’t alienate customers! Don’t destroy current users’ current knowledge, that’s like sending our best customers back down the escalator. Learning a system is an investment and people hate to relearn. Subtle changes doesn’t throw away current knowledge.
Always keep the focus on the users’ objective. Don’t distract with design changes.
Property #2: Map design to user objectives
See price in cart – on online stores is not a trick to get people to buy more. It’s a law they have to abide with thanks to the FTC.
Hipmunk flights drawn on chart and you can sort by agony. Different presentation of flight data, makes the shopping choice much more intuitive.
The medium of design is behavior.
Core skills of user experience (Intuitive): Interaction design, visual design, user research, copy writing, information architecture…
Users only see Local – local links. Users don’t pay attention to global links.
Best way to do user testing, watch people. Watch people. You find out simple and obvious things by watching users using the site.
Property #3: Forewarning
Shopping cart showing shipping before cc input is critical.
“More”, “previous” and “next” links are noise, especially when you come in at the middle. It makes everything out of context.
Pull to refresh: low target knowledge, no current knowledge. Not intuitive – socially transmitted functionality. STF.
Property #4: Understanding of Convention
Key functions enter vs shift enter, tabbing order, google apps:auto-saving.
Convention of proximity: username and password and login button should all be close together.
Understand which conventions users will expect. Techniques for understanding: filed visits, usability tests, paper prototype, Handbook of Usability Testing, Paper Prototyping.
The iPhone changed our industry in 2007: first mobile to have a desktop class web browser and it made people start using their mobile phones as computers!
All apps other than apple provided ones were web browser apps. Most of the first apps were branded web browsers. No real difference between using mobile site or mobile app.
Now companies are asking (like they did in 2000, about a website), “Do we need a website?”
Instagram has no website, just an iOS app.
web != HTML, browsers the web, the code/HTML and native interface are all current services.
When is an app not the answer: content sites, low budget, prototypes, breadth audience.
When is a website not enough: hardware access (native access comes first, javascript coming but years out), software limitations (fullscreen, background processing), data limitations (address book, calendar, media), connectivity (offline access isn’t production ready), practical size constraints.
A website is not always enough.
People are finding apps first on their device in the store and not coming from the web. Websites aren’t promoted in the app store.
Downsides: app stores are closed gate keepers. 30% commissions taken by the app store. Reviews are not respond-able and not gauged for quality or even comprehend-ability, like comments we can’t moderate. Payments.
On the web payments are hard, so we’re using ads. For apps, payment is actually easier than ads.
user-generated content – horrible phrase vs author writes a story.
Monetizations matters, considering “users” as customers we can start serving the customer rather than the ad vendors.
Apps are not inclusive, we need to develop an app for every device. And that limits the audience to those who have that device.
Design considerations, style tips: use standard controls where possible, integrate webview seamlessly,
Native to one platform you just build for that platform and don’t have to worry about browser inconsistencies.
Tips:
Mind your encoding: utf-8
When loading content set bg to transparent to avoid white flash
show a progress spinner, hide the uiwebview when remote content loads
consider disabling scrolling in secondary or minor uiwebviews
disable long-tap link menu (add value to standard behaviors)
disable text auto-resizing and text zooming
control orizontal oerflow to prevent unintended scrolling
consider advanced text rendering (carefully – t can get pretty slow)
consider auto hyphenation (small performance cost)
consider disabling data detection (phone numbers, emails, etc)
load local resources with relative file urls, or use data urls
communicating between environments – native code to webview javascript.
consider listening for gestures in js
Why does all this stuff matter?
Able to learn it one thing at a time: because things start slow and modules are added over time. It’s easier to keep up with changes than it is to learn everything.
HTML, Web Design and Apps are all in the same eco-system and there is some overlap. Best to learn more about apps NOW, as it starts than try to catch up later.
MASS MEDIA (in waves)
Print, Recordings, Cinema, Radio, Television, Internet, Mobile
Mobile is the new Mass Media
It certainly is mass and massive. More mobile devices (by far) every day than babies born on the planet. Mobile devices are eating into our personal computing shares.
New waves of mobile media eat all previous media waves. Mobile has indeed eaten all previous forms.
A new form of media always introduces new features or characteristics! Always on, portable, digital, social, augmented reality… the list goes on.
We have to recognize that the mobile is not a desktop. Our first inclinations are to copy what we did before (in the last wave). It takes a while to shed old paradigms.
StumbleUpon has been huge on mobile (as well as Kayak). They are doing a complete relaunch based on what they’ve learned on mobile.
Take what we know on the desktop web (today) and adapt it and optimize it for the mobile (today) and move forward (tomorrow).
Logins
passwords – forgotten passwords are rarely shown on mobile login pages.
Don’t remove things that are critical.
Use input and types and attributes. (autocapitalize, autocomplete)
show passwords – “Masking passwords doesn’t even increase security, but it does cost you business due to login failures.” -Jakob Nielsen
input masks
save passwords and let users login without a password (use single sign-on via: facebook, twitter…)
Set default to smarter option (like organ donors).
Adapt and optimize what we were doing yesterday and apply it to today. We can even make these things apply to yesterday!
Think to tomorrow: touch gestures, facial recognition, sms authentication
Step back and think about problems we’ve already solved. But use new techniques that have evolved since we’ve come up with the standard solutions we are regurgitation constantly without rethinking the problem. We can do much better now, but we’re so used to throwing the same solution at the same problem there is no more thinking about it. We don’t need to inherit the same issues we already have, let’s solve them by rethinking the original solution.
Why bother?
This new mobile mass media is always on, always on them and available at point of inspiration!
Checkout
3 of 4 carts were abandoned in 2011!
We should reduce effort:
Removing unnecessary questions
Keep people on the keyboard, combine fields (first name + last name = full name)
Hide irrelevant controls (until they need them)
Set input types( type=tel ) use input masks, ignore bad characters. Credit card use input-type=tel for the numberpad.
Keep people on their keys
Check out square to see the improved cc fields.
Progressive Enhancements – use what best fits the device that’s being used.
Checkout for the futures:
Contacts API, Location Detection, Self-checkout and Scanning
Korean grocery shopping in the subway! Tesco, scan qr codes and groceries are delivered automatically.
Mobile is a massive new medium! It forces us to adapt and optimize our solutions and moves us towards the future. We should push for better device apis! Let’s agitate the blockers and the bug guys: Apple and Google. PhoneGap lets us do all these things already using existing standards! Tomorrow Today.
Mobile and touch should be revolutionizing design and user experience.
We don’t want to touch a tiny link or button. Back button is just stupid. Fitz’s Law, make things fat proximal targets for easy touching.
People are lazy, let’s as designers LET people be lazy! Maybe even use the whole screen as your control.
Eliminate buttons if we can! Buttons aren’t evil, they just aren’t as relevant for touch. Gestures are the keyboard shortcuts of touch!
Big screens invite big gestures, don’t make people hit little specific buttons or links. Buttons are a HACK. Light switches are not intuitive, they are a learned behavior, an inspired hack introducing a middle man.
We don’t need an abstraction layer for uI controls. We can directly manipulate the object by touch.
The new Windows OS is leaning this way! Twitter iPad app is doing this. Rather than a back button or a UI, we just swipe our way through content.
The web sucks as coding gestures and is like the red-headed stepchild of interaction design. It trails behind proprietary technology. Flash helps bring standards, but we’re still waiting. But we can speed that process and push standards and agitating for more and better. We need to push for support for gestures (for now all we have is touchstart, touchmove and touchend: which aren’t very helpful and not widely supported).
The gesture conventions are tap and swipe. Plus there’s the emulator layer of the browser. As a community we need to figure out together what conventions there are and how to best apply them. It’s not easy to go beyone simple taps and swipes. jQuery mobile and Sencha touch are libraries that give us more events – these are really tuned with web-kit and are pretty big frameworks meant for creating html5 apps along the lines of PhoneGap. Touchy.js – more lightweight, but there are still some big holes.
http://bit.ly/ikeatouch – Direct interaction with the content itself.
http://bit.ly/ios-clear – Playing with objects as the interface.
Ipad App Touchup – lets you paint patters on images, but rather than adjusting brush size you adjust canvas size and the brush is always the size of your finger.
For mobile: clarity trumps density. The more features and controls we have, the more things get in the way. The more power we give people sometimes the more paralyzed they become. Swiss army giant pocket knife.
Gestures are invisible. So how do you find out (or instruct) about these controls – Finding what you can’t see. Create realistic user interfaces, with a little help, people will learn to work interfaces. Nearly everything has to be learned or taught: snooze alarm, qwerty keyboard. We always start with a physical reference. Social signifiers or cultural: who knows the salt vs pepper shakers? The only thing that matters is what the person that filled them thinks! Cut out the middle men and let the content be the control. Clear salt and pepper shakers! Let people interact with the content and not the buttons.
The medium is the message, The message is the medium.
It needs to become intuitive. Nature doesn’t have instructions, look at a toddler, we figure things out as we go. Use a book metaphor, but don’t break conventions. EMBRACE the metaphor! Don’t make me tap buttons if the interface makes me think otherwise. There is a digital advantage to random access navigation.
Toddlers are learning how to use iPads faster than adults. We’ve learned incorrect gestures and are not used to thinking about them. Approach apps and designs as we’re building them for children. Video games are great at teaching you how to use the interface, not with a manual, but by drawing you through the experience by:
coaching (with active discovery) – we learn by doing. Things that move can perhaps be moved by users.
leveling up – when you learn something, it moves on, demonstrate gradual progressive controls
power ups – efficiencies in the hands of experts. keyboard shortcuts. achievement based unlock tools by learning
We should be generously talking to each other about how were trying to use our gestures. It’s exciting to be involved in inventing the futures of how we’ll be using tools, be involved in the discussion. Have empathy for the users.
