Dec 07
An Event Apart 2008, Day 2, 5:00pm – 6:00pm
Read the previous talk in this series, Designing the Next Generation of Web Apps by Jeff Veen, or view An Event Apart’s Table of Contents
A Panel Apart
Eric Meyer, Jeffrey Zeldman & Special Guests (Jeff Veen and Cameron Moll)
- Take ownership of browser standards? Everyone is like, uh, what?
- W3C has nothing going on right now: Eric Meyer and Jeff Veen
- Eric: JS is the only way that we’re going to get advanced CSS3 standards
- JZ: being a part of the w3c is kinda weird, because it’s so time consuming, you would need a company to pay you to work at the w3c, but then you wouldn’t be into design anymore because you’ve spent so much time with w3c. Then, you’ll be discouraged because there is so much overhead involved in being a part of it, hatemail, mailing lists, it’s like going to the DMV. (not verbatim, in my own words)
- What defines an image from being content apart from presentation?
- EM: if I would need alt text for it, then it’s content, otherwise presentation because decorative. “If I need alt text so that Google can pick it up, then it needs to be content”
- JZ: like Cameron Moll’s site, the flourishes would be presentational content
- Do you have any advice about designing for phones?
- CM: Ask the boss about the need for this. What is the need? Don’t go build some mobile web piece because it’s the next big craze, but what will people need? People with blackberries aren’t going to want to be browsing like an iphone user will.
- JZ: Does it need to be exactly the same as the site? Does it need to be like NYTimes design that makes it easy to browse and look at articles? Do you want it like Flickr where you just need to see recent activity, see a few basic things? Most the cool things with Flickr happen with Ajax that a real web browser is required, so you don’t want the same behavior. Thus, there is a simpler UI. Let’s make the phone have maybe a different experience, maybe there’s a call to action on the phone, and take away the rest of the website. A call of action could be more important than making it look pretty on the phone.
- JV: got off the blue line and couldn’t remember how far the Sheraton, and they didn’t even have the address on the home page. Silliness. This is a perfect time to make a phone version.
- How do you deal with not having a copywriter?
- JZ: Happy Cog does content development and IA at the same time, they sneak in copy, unless the client understands that on his own. Good writing makes good interface, they make it part of the IA so they can have clean, good, happy copy. Happy cogs
- Know yourself, your strengths, who the users are, and what KIND of language/reading level/existence of humor/etc. Client may realize that THEY CAN’T write that and so they’ll want a writer then. They put it IN their budget.
- CM: He would just slip those things in wherever possible, and it usually went live that way. Now in house, they have an entire translation department.
This completes the An Event Apart 2008 notes series. View the Table of Contents to ensure you have completed your reading.
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