Fresh Delivery

via Oaktree Creative

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:12:00 -0800

Validation isn't everything

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:38:00 -0800

so, you’re coding up a site. you’ve done this before, you know to append alternate text to images that you include in your markup. but i must ask- are you doing it so that your code will validate/meet some unofficial set of standards or are you considering each and every image as it might be encountered in a screen reader?

sometimes images should not have alt text. i know, i know! this is crazy talk… you know that missing alt text on even one image means your site will fail validation. oh, the horror! the shame! the algorithm knows all, and will not hesitate to tell you just what a crappy job you did.

to demonstrate, i’ll walk you through an example. let’s say you’re working on a video site and there is a section consisting of a list of episodes. they are displayed in list form, with a thumbnail and the title of the video as linked text. (sound familiar?)

by w3c standards, all of those little thumbnails ought to have alternate text. the validator-botgod says so. well, what exactly should the text be?

should it contain the title of the video so that it’s descriptive and good for SEO? and also so that anyone who can’t see your images can see each episode title duplicated twice? (it will show up as two separate links with the same text)
should it contain a descriptive word like ‘list item’? this is what i found in youtube’s markup, but i don’t think this is really the right way to go either. if someone can’t see the thumbnails but can read or hear the title text, it’s not really relevant whether that person is aware there ever was a thumbnail. and writing out the text “list item” 20 times before each title is just annoying. really now.
the only possible alternate text that i can imagine is that which describes what exactly the thumbnail image is, i.e. “young boy with a red ball”. but that’s not feasible with sites like youtube and vimeo.

my personal choice and preference is to omit the alt attribute entirely. w3c insists that you put alt="" in each image tag to pass validation. i think this is ridiculous.

bottom line: validation doesn’t mean shit. it’s useful sometimes for debugging, but that’s as far as it goes. instead of looking for approval from a web service, think through your decisions, test extensively, learn from mistakes and don’t half-ass it. doing those things will validate you more than an archaic web badge ever could.

"No matter how much industry or business wants to, you can’t put creativity or inspiration on a..."

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 11:10:59 -0700

“No matter how much industry or business wants to, you can’t put creativity or inspiration on a schedule.”

- Dan Rubin

Regretsy – Crapstack

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:39:19 -0700

Regretsy – Crapstack:

I’m no expert, but if you’re in the business of making candy, you might want to photograph it so it doesn’t look like something out of the North American Scat Guide. All this needs is ruler next to it and a couple of flies.

(via regretsy)

The Mustard Crush!

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:58:40 -0700

katiepalooza:

6-0 Bitches!

Yeah the unis are ugly and so are some of the wins but oh well!

The Same Color Illusion

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 08:47:00 -0700

The Same Color Illusion :

Had to check it in Photoshop just for my own self-satisfaction…

Don’t be stupid.

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 08:53:00 -0700

Don’t be stupid.

The Freshest Kids” feat. Brother Ali, Evidence & Toki...

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 23:39:00 -0700

The Freshest Kids” feat. Brother Ali, Evidence & Toki Wright

The official anthem of the Fresh Air Tour.

Please stop asking me to make it "POP"

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:11:00 -0700

Rant alert.

Most designers pride themselves on being visual problem solvers. Taking a client’s needs, desires and business goals into consideration with nearly every design and coding decision.

There are varied reasons a client contracts a professional to take care of their project but every project DOES start with a problem to be solved. “Client needs XYZ.” After client and designer have discussed cost, scope, timelines and goals, most times based on very well defined information from the client, there comes a moment in the design phase where the client’s feedback simply consists of the words:

Make it POP.

Can someone please, tell me what the hell that means?

It’s nothing I’ve ever actually had defined for me. Not in school and not in any of the twelve years of my design career.

Oh and there are variations designers should be aware of, you know, so that should you happen to encounter one you can address the situation appropriately…

There’s no POP.

It just doesn’t POP.

We need more POP.

We’d like to see it POP.

Can we… Make it POP.

Crafty clients will certainly have other as yet undiscovered variations. Of course the answer to all of these is either “So.”, “No” or “We can’t.” and sometimes “What?” because this type of feedback means NOTHING. It’s the equivalent of telling a 911 operator “Help me I’m in L.A. and I’m dying.” Oh, and account/project managers/salespeople, please don’t even bother forwarding or otherwise conveying this type of input to your design team. It’s a recipe for nothing but having a lot of people throw-up just a little bit in their mouths… simultaneously.

For a designer to help a client solve their (design) problems, the designer needs real, tangible input and feedback. Whether that feedback is positive or negative doesn’t matter, it gives the designer a sense of if they are heading in the right direction or not (based on what the client wants to see not necessarily what the proper design decisions are… but that is a whole ‘nother post…)

So now that I have that off my chest I’ll likely be able to refrain from punching someone in the neck next time they utter that damn phrase in a meeting.

<./Rant>

"OH CHRISTMAS EVE!! Please stop asking designers to make it “POP"

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 21:19:59 -0700

“OH CHRISTMAS EVE!! Please stop asking designers to make it “POP””

- Jaded Me.

New Site for Design Inspiration

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:50:00 -0700

via @behoff http://bit.ly/195glQ // Love this new site design…

* { padding-bottom: 100% !important; } #sir-mix-a-lot #css-reset

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:50:00 -0700

Image via Wikipedia

via @andyford

RT @cdharrison: Fantastic ideas. http://icio.us/wi4knx

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 14:04:23 -0700

RT @cdharrison: Fantastic ideas. http://icio.us/wi4knx

Hello, what is your name and what would you like to hear?

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 12:16:02 -0700

Hello, what is your name and what would you like to hear?

Some good thoughts on Qualifying Prospective Clients http://ow.ly/q59D

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:59:06 -0700

Some good thoughts on Qualifying Prospective Clients http://ow.ly/q59D

I like the new tumblr site from @markjardine

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:59:00 -0700

http://markjardine.com

Anatomy of a client driven design process:

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:59:00 -0700

Designing The Stop Sign: http://ow.ly/q59T

This aggregator pulls the best design related accounts and has a plethora of resources...

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:58:58 -0700

This aggregator pulls the best design related accounts and has a plethora of resources http://bit.ly/Gek56 via @cohenspire

Hey @cdharrison: Get off your ass and learn jQuery. It’d make implementing this slider a lot...

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:58:52 -0700

Hey @cdharrison: Get off your ass and learn jQuery. It’d make implementing this slider a lot easier. http://bit.ly/APFru

RT @elijahmanor: “aToolTip: Simple jQuery Tooltip” #tech #jquery http://j.mp/2E2c4l...

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:58:40 -0700

RT @elijahmanor: “aToolTip: Simple jQuery Tooltip” #tech #jquery http://j.mp/2E2c4l *Nice effect for “On Click Tooltip” demo