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Carl just sent around a link at work — evidently I made one of the ‘past participants’ quotes for @media 2006.
note to self… re-read comments before sending. Can a conference be ‘affirming’?
(from http://www.vivabit.com/atmedia2007/europe/ - the quotes rotate)
HTML - structure
CSS - presentation
DOM - behaviour
-equivalencies between CSS selectors and DOM methods (both target elements and work with them)
CSS
#footer {}
DOM
document.getElementById(”footer”)
CSS
#nav a {}
DOM
document.getElementById(”nav”).getElementsByTagName(”a”);
CSS
* {}
DOM
document.getElementsByTagName(”*”);
CSS
.className {}
DOM
no equivalent! but can write your own..
function getElementsByClassName(clsName)
{
var arr = new Array();
var elems = document.getElementsByTagName("*");
for ( var cls, i = 0; ( elem = elems[i] ); i++ )
{
if ( elem.className == clsName )
{
arr[arr.length] = elem;
}
}
return arr;
}
As of yet, cannot do zebra tables using just css (may be supported in css3?) — looked at how to use DOM scripting to achieve this effect.
1. Plan
2. Which methods?
–get all tables (getElementsByTagName)
–loop through each
–get all table rows in each table (getElementsByTagName)
–loop through every 2nd
–set style
Where you can, don’t set styles directly, rather assign classes.
CSS3 - can assign multiple background images (already supported by Safari)
Rounded corners - unwinnable situation.
–use CSS that isn’t supported?
–add superfluous divs in the markup?
–use JS to generate superfluous divs
***note, code does not work in IE6/WIN…. 
Generated content
– there are accessibility concerns, as a buffer accessed from a screenreader does not get this ‘new’ content. Therefore, only use generated content for non-essential information
I really liked this session. I had had the concern about accessibility, which the speaker freely addressed. He did go through his examples quickly. often telling us to google for better code than his own, but his concepts were solid. I was disappointed after the fact to review his slides and see that the rounded corner example does not work in IE6/WIN. Still, I believe that DOM scripting can help us greatly, and I have already started using some of these techniques in my work.
Speakers: Andy Clarke (http://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/), Patrick Lauke (http://www.splintered.co.uk/), Ian Lloyd (http://accessify.com/) and Gez Lemon.
Significant new features to WCAG2.0 (Wuh-kag)
- Baselines, a method for preventing “doc rot”
- Move from user agents to technologies (css, scripting)
- Conformance claim (date, version of doc, “this part is not accessible”) ** not a get-out clause
- Biggest dislike – the goal of WCAG2.0 is to be technologically-agnostic, but it ends up being meaningless
Andy Clarke: “we should be guideline-agnostic. We should always be endeavouring to develop the best products we can, regardless of what the guidelines state. It is important to understand the core concepts, but ultimately our focus should be on users and user experience”
Patrick Lauke: “You’re not creating accessible websites, you’re creating websites that follow certain rigorous guidelines”
WaSP - Accessibility Task Force
P.O.U.R. Websites: Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, Robust.
I had been really looking forward to this session, but I’m afraid it disappointed. Perhaps I have a bias against panels, but I felt I didnt get as much out of this session as I’d hoped. Rather than go over specifics of the guidelines themselves, this was a more generic overview of the documentation out there ABOUT the guidelines. Particularly in light of recent articles disparaging the WCAG2.0 (for example, Joe Clark’s To Hell with WCAG2.0), I suppose I expected more tangible information on its merits (and/or, an agreement with fellow Canadian Clark).
- enable the publishing and sharing of higher fidelity information on the Web.
- small bits of (X)HTML that identify richer data types like people and events
eg:
<p><cite class="vcard">
<a href="http://meyerweb.com" class="url fn" rel="met friend colleague">Eric Meyer</a></cite> wrote:</p>
<blockquote cite="http://meyerweb.../social-protocols/">
<p>What's so interesting to me is that the guys who decided to focus on the positive went out and did something; those who want to mix in the negative seem to have nothing to offer except complaints.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>An excellent contrast between those who want to build new things and those who want to tear them down.</p>
- more than just “good class names”
- principles keep things “micro”
- process emphasizes getting real
- community minimizes duplicates
Principles:
1. solve a specific problem
2. simple as possible (evolutionary improvements)
3. humans first, machines second (presentable and parseable)
4. reuse from widely adopted standards
5. modularity/embedability
http://tantek.com/presentations/2006/06/microformats-evolution/
This was an interesting session, but not one I could really see a place for at work. I’ll admit I wondered if there could be some sort of tie-in to any of the Analyzer products or services, but I don’t think it’s really feasible.
-flexibility, preparedness
eg: What happens when images are turned off?
-there are three ways to be bulletproof on a site
1. content (text size, content amount)
2. editing (content changes, maintenance)
3. environment (device/browser)
-John Allsopp “A Dao of Web Design”
take away the design, is it still usable?
100% validation is difficult to maintain
validation during construction is key
-embrace flexibility
-let go of pixel pushing
A question was asked about radio buttons aligning with labels. His response? “maybe they don’t like up.. maybe that’s ok”.
I was very impressed with this session. Initially the speaker seemed a big nervous, but he knew his stuff.
What is Web2.0? “The ability to scale up to many users, better use of bandwidth, better ease of use .. and things like RSS feeds”
Jesse James Garrett “The Elements of User Experience”
1. Surface
- easy to get wrong
“putting users more in control, takes the designer away from deciding what’s important” (trust users with their own experience – more of a peer relationship)
I hadn’t really been looking forward to this session, but Jeff Veen was an incredibly charismatic, engaging speaker. He made me excited about ‘the next generation’, rather than simply overwhleming us with hype.
- window.external.AddSearchProvider([url])
- brings site search up to browser
- ** relevant to LN? how does it interact with authentication? Alternative to LNToolbar,
other 3rd party toolbars?
**mention that there will be forced address bars on pop-ups for security. Alters model
- Referenced http://www.positioniseverything.net/explorer.html list of IE bugs, fixed all but one
- Added support for maxwidth, minwidth, selectors: first-child, adj, attribute, child
- Alpha channel support for PNG images
- Native XMLHTTPRequest (no longer subject to ActiveXControls issues)
- Select element is now windowless (drop down issue resolved?)
- The bulk of these changes will only show in strict mode (w/ DOCTYPE) so that it doesn’t break old pages
- * html – targets IE only
- _height: 50px; - targets IE only
- height/**/: 50 px – targets all but IE
- html > body – targets all but IE
The preferred method of ‘targeting’ is to use conditional statements if you don’t want to use JS to fish for the user agent
- use “>=” not “=” to futureproof
- < ?xml prolog no longer throws brower into quirks mode
When?
-IE7 is set to be rolled out in the 2nd half of 2006.
What about running side by side versions of IE?
- they are looking at this moving forward, but it will never be backwards compatible
why not XHTML? (Doesn’t support mimetype)
-wants to avoid bad parsing, ensure it’s done right
Will it meet the ACID2 Test
-not now, but within 5 years. Right now, a lot of the ACID2 test is ‘nice to haves’, not standards.
Will IE7 be a recommended/required update?
- ”Strongly encouraged”
- see if your pages are ready: download toolkit
The next release will focus on more object model support (Yes, he stated that they had committed to at least two more releases of IE)
I was quite unimpressed with this session, it came off much like a sales pitch. I don’t know what I had been expecting, perhaps more of a demo or something like that. Still, I am encouraged that MS looked at the CSS bugs that are out there, and worked on fixing them.
One thing I found very interesting is how much they’ve beefed up security. This struck me in light of what Jeff Veen discussed in “Designing the Next Generation of Web Apps“, wherein the user is trusted more with their own experience. This seems moreso to attempt to protect users. Where’s the fun in that??
On June 15th and 16th, two web developers (Andrea Hill, Juree James) and one graphic designer (Ben Leedham) attended the @Media conference in London, England. The sessions were very informational and interesting, and it was good to see that we are in good company as we move towards designing with standards and accessibility in mind.
I attended the following sessions:
Keynote Presentation (Eric Meyer)
A brief look at the history of CSS, how it has developed over the past decade and its impact on the web.
Using DOM Scripting to Plug the Holes in CSS (Jeremy Keith)
CSS is a great technology… in theory. In practice, there are a lot of powerful CSS features that we can’t use because of poor browser support *cough*IE*cough*.
Fortunately, the Document Object Model enjoys very good cross-browser support. Not only that, but the DOM can be used to update styles. Using a combination of JavaScript and the DOM, you can achieve effects that are indistinguishable from the more advanced aspects of CSS 2.1 and CSS 3. Waiter, there’s presentation in my behaviour!
This talk will demonstrate some examples of this kind of CSS patching. It won’t stop there. You will also learn how to use DOM Scripting to achieve stylistic effects that would be impossible using CSS alone.
IE7 and Beyond (Chris Wilson)
Chris Wilson, the Group Program Manager of the Internet Explorer Platform team, talks about the implications of IE7 for web designers and developers and the future of IE and web standards. (notes)
The New Accessibility Guidelines: WCAG 2.0 (Andy Clarke, Patrick Lauke, Gez Lemon and Ian Lloyd)
The W3C’s long-awaited new accessibility guidelines are just about to drop, but do you know what they’re all about? In this panel, we’ll try and get to grips with the philosophy, the content, the good, the bad, and the controversies of the second edition of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and look at how they impact on areas such as design, or the use of widgets.
Designing the Next Generation of Web Apps (Jeffrey Veen)
As the buzz and excitement around Web 2.0 continues to increase, much is already changing in how we design and develop online. In this presentation, Jeffrey Veen will look at how new thinking is being infused into design practices in trends such as Ajax, syndication, tagging, progressive enhancement, and anticipatory interaction, philosophical shifts in business towards openness, generosity, and collaboration with users. (notes)
Bulletproof Web Design (Dan Cederholm)
Embrace the flexibility that’s made possible with XHTML and CSS while creating compelling designs. Prepare your designs for worst-case scenarios, increased user control and readability for varying text sizes and amounts of content. Dan will attempt to help you “let go of pixel precision”, while explaining the importance of lean markup, flexible CSS and planning for the unknown. We’ll also tie various components of a page’s design together by walking through the construction of a bulletproof, single-page template.
Beyond a Code Audit (Robin Christopherson)
When considering web site accessibility most people tend to concentrate on ensuring that code conforms to the WAI guidelines when, in reality, there are many issues that can only be identified by employing a range of access technologies and disabled end users. For example, did you know that many people with a vision impairment using magnification software miss vital fields when filling out badly laid out forms, or that voice recognition users can’t click on image buttons if their alt text doesn’t correspond exactly with the image text? Not everyone appreciates that most screen reader users have JavaScript enabled and hence won’t be accessing your noscript content, or that dyslexic users will see rivers of white in your fully justified text? Robin Christopherson, AbilityNet’s Web Consultancy Manager and himself blind, will be explaining these issues and many more with practical demonstrations of access technologies.
Internationalization: Awakening the Sleeping Giant (Molly E. Holzschlag)
The W3C has been involved in developing technologies and techniques to manage the various aspects of internationalisation, localisation, and multilingual document management and design for a very long time. But most Web designers and developers are only beginning to learn what’s involved in building sites for the global environment. In this overview, Molly will cover the primary concepts within internationalisation, giving insight into the general topics that Web designers and developers will face as they begin to work on global sites.
Strategic CSS Management (Rachel Andrew, Andy Budd, Roger Johansson, Dave Shea)
Who’s in charge: you or your Cascading Style Sheets? Authoring a simple CSS file for a static page is easy enough, but the story gets complicated when you’re talking about multiple pages and varying layouts across an ever-changing site driven by a content-management system. Factor in the management of browsers and their quirks — and teams of people and their quirks — and it becomes obvious that a sound project-management strategy is necessary to make the most of your code. This panel discusses how to gracefully deal with legacy browser issues, handle layout and file management demands, and manage team coordination when building Web sites with CSS.
Microformats: Evolving the Web (Tantek Celik)
The microformats community believes that standards should do less, not more. Data formats should adapt to current web publishing behaviours and reuse existing broadly interoperably implemented standards. Easy to adopt formats are enabling a diverse set of web designers and developers to visibly publish, share, and consume all kinds of common information, and microformats are leading the way.
Since returning home, I have set up a del.icio.us account (http://del.icio.us/afhill) to house technology-relevant links. I had heard of this site before, but did not realize its social and networking ramifications. I gained some good insight into the types of people using del.icio.us when I first signed up, and the #1 “hot” link was Jason Santa Maria, the graphic designer we heard at An Event Apart. This is not a teenager’s fave bookmarks site, but a legitimate information sharing tool. Over the next few weeks I will also be launching an associated blog in which I can share more detailed information (including notes from specific sessions)