Easy Reader

This has been one crazy Fall work-wise, so I apologize for the scarcity of posts, but I do have a few holiday treats for you.

From my day job at Cronin and Company, we’ve got Cronin’s “Grab Bag of Goodness.” As with most internal projects, this was a major rush job. I take no credit for the design (which was handed to me with no wiggle room), but when it comes to the CSS and DOM Scripting, that I’ll proudly take credit for. Use the code “9301” to get in. Of particular note in this piece:

• Taking a page from Dan’s Bulletproof Logos, most all of the text is in (shock) images. Toss in the text as an alt attribute and with images and CSS off, you’re still golden. As this was a one-off, sIFR seemed like overkill.
• Ooh, check out that marquee. Brings back memories, doesn’t it. Well, this one’s a little different. The markup is an ul and each item is a li. CSS makes it all display: inline; and then JavaScript keeps reducing the margin-left of the first li by 2px until the absolute value of it’s margin-left is greater than the li’s width. That li is then plucked from the front of the list and appended to the end. Though I am not a big fan of scrolling marquees, this was a pretty fun experiment.
• Those animated icons you can click to make a donation are actually form controls. Originally, I had made them into custom submit inputs, but Safari’s inability to customize certain form controls made me abandon that element in favor of button. It’s a great effect too (IMHO).

Then there’s the Easy Designs holiday card. I will spare the commentary on this one with the exception of giving major props to Dave for building the game in a day. I’m pretty darn proud of it, especially since we pretty much went from concept to execution in a matter of days (yeah, procrastination’s a bitch). If you’re interested, you can see a rough approximation of the email that went out (our first Campaign Monitor mailing) or simply play the game.

That beautiful bastion of standards-based e-commerce, Karova, has gotten a face lift. Mr. Malarkey deserves many kudos for yet another rich, engaging and playful design. And if you think the sales materials look good, you should see the store management dashboard. I was offered a sneak peek and couldn’t help but fawn over its sophisticated simplicity. It’s not only usable, but it makes managing a web shop (dare I say it) kinda fun. For a little background on the redesign, read Andy’s writeup.

Now if only we could find a suitable partner to bring their product to the US (hint, hint).

One of the web’s preeminent marketing websites, MarketingSherpa, has just published an article which may start a web standards stampede. The focus is Firefox, but the underlying message is standards, standards and more standards:

Your more savvy Web designers are likely all agog over Firefox, because its support of Web Standards makes it easier to design and maintain effective Web pages. …

For marketers, these standards are so darn important because they affect the bottom line: your budget. In fact, The Web Standards Project … estimates that before today’s growing lack of support for standards, the “fractured browser market” was adding at least 25% to the cost of developing Web sites. And that’s just one tiny piece of the revenue picture.

“Housing construction, electrical wiring, automobile design, all these benefit from design standards,” says Scott McDaniel, MarketingSherpa’s own Internet Director. “Web site construction is maturing in much the same way.”

The author, Heidi Anderson, even tallies her “6 Business Benefits of ‘Web Standards-based’ design”:

1. Increased search engine optimization
2. Proper content presentation, including shopping carts and “contact us” forms
3. Decreased development and maintenance costs
4. Lower bandwidth usage
5. Faster download times
6. Web viewing beyond the computer (your site on wireless devices & RSS)

It’s nice to see marketers taking note of all we can do for them. Now roll up your shirt sleeves and get to work.

Andy’s beautiful standards-based design is gone, replaced by a table-based pile of (ahem) tag soup. Being the gentleman that he is, Andy has chosen to remain silent on the issue, but he has provided a forum for anyone else who wants to chime in. Molly posted an open letter to Disney which I think sums the whole thing up quite well:

Shame on you Disney.

In his most recent essay, Gerry McGovern was discussing expert opinions and voices. One particular comment he made struck a chord:

The Web is maturing. It needs more people like Jakob Nielsen who propose, explain and defend rules.

Now you can say what you will about Jakob, but I think the sentiment is right. I also think that priase needs to be spread a little farther to include Molly, Eric, Jeffrey and the countless other standards evangelists (both internationally renown and sitting in the cube next to you) who feel it is their calling to enforce the “rules” of the web. These are people who truly believe, as I do, that constraints are necessary for creativity. Jason Fried mentioned something similar in his discussion of Basecamp (and I am probably paraphrasing):

Limited time, limited people, limited funding… they make you creative

I think the same could be said for embracing web standards. I mean look at the Zen Garden, the Web Standards Awards, etc. There is some amazingly creative work out there that embraces the “restrictions” of web standards. Frankly, I think that web standards are the main reason DOM scripting (and all that comes with it) has been able to flourish: standards ensure a solid platform upon which to build anything. Their constraints free you to get creative and really make something new.

So let’s hear it for them: a round of applause for all of the standards evangelists out there. Keep up the great work, we appreciate all that you do.