Wednesday 30 April 2008

Feedback on Web Typography for the CSS Working Group

During the recent W3C CSS Working Group Face to Face, we divvied up some various responsibilities. Long-time friend and colleague Jason Cranford-Teague has become the primary advocate for font modules in CSS3.

Yesterday, Jason asked for community feedback directly related to what you want for typography in CSS3. In his blog post, Jason outlines both the process the working group is using to manage type on the Web, as well as offering up some opinions as to how things might be best managed.

The critical issue is that Jason, and those of us working on CSS3, desperately need input, especially from designers but of course to anyone working the Web, in order to ensure next-generation options are in step with what makes the most sense.

Jason asks about a few specific properties as well as other feedback. It’s a very good read, a very important article, and a very positive commentary about how we’re working for openness within the group.

Filed under:   standards, web design and development, w3c, announcement, innovation
Posted by:   Molly | 7:51 am | Comments Off

Thursday 24 April 2008

10 Tips to Finding Great Web Design and Development Services

A new type of article from me, looking to help out the IT consumer, something I feel is sorely missing as we as web devs and designers work to achieve. From CIO, check it out!

Here’s the blurb:

Losing tens of thousands of dollars is something we all want to avoid. Yet in today’s confusing world of Web development, it’s a daily occurrence. The problem, as many CIOs learn from being burned, can be solved by gaining a better understanding of what to look for in a Web design and development company, how to ask for it and how to ensure that what you pay for is really what you need.

And the lovely link to the article on CIO.

Enjoy!

Filed under:   professional, standards, software, web design and development, society
Posted by:   Molly | 3:29 pm | Comments (8)

Monday 7 April 2008

Design Coding: Rap for The Rest of Us

The very awesome iJustine posted this like ten days ago, but I can’t stop watching it, it’s just that yummy.

Just(in)e case you haven’t seen it, I’m re-sharing it here and hope you enjoy it as much as I have!

BTW, who did this bit of brilliance? Where was it filmed?

Comments are open, I want to know.

Enjoy:

Design Coding

Your site design is the first thing people see
it should be reflective of you and the industry
easy to look at with a nice navigation
when you can’t find what you want it causes frustration

a clear Call to action to increase the temptation
use appealing graphics they create motivation
if you have animation
use with moderation
cause search engines can’t index the information

display the logos of all your associations
highlight your contact info that’s an obligation
create a clean design you can use some decoration
but to try to prevent any client hesitation

every page that they click should provide and explanation
should be easy to understand like having a conversation
when you design the style go ahead and use your imagination

but make sure you use correct color combinations
do some investigation, look at other organizations
but don’t duplicate or you might face a litigation
design done, congratulations but it’s time to start construction

follow these instructions when you move into production
your photoshop functions then slice that design
do your layout with divs make sure that it’s aligned
please don’t use tables even though they work fine
when it come to indexing they give searches a hard time

make it easy for the spiders to crawl what you provide
remove font type, font color and font size
no background colors, keep your coding real neat

tag your look and feel on a separate style sheet
better results with xml and css
now you making progress, a lil closer to success
describe your doctype so the browser can relate
make sure you do it great or it won’t validate

check in all browsers, I do it directly
gotta make sure that it renders correctly
some use IE, some others use Flock
some use AOL, I use Firefox

title everything including links and images
don’t use italics, use emphasis
don’t use bold, please use strong
if you use bold that’s old and wrong

when you use CSS, you page will load quicker
client satisfied like they eating on a snicker
they stuck on your page like you made it with a sticker
and then they convert now that’s the real kicker
make you a lil richer, your site a lil slicker

design and code right man I hope you get the picture
what I’m telling you is true man it should be a scripture
if it’s built right you’ll be the pick of the litter
everyone will want to follow you like twitter
competition will get bitter and you’ll shine like glitter

if you trying to grow your company will get bigger
design and code right man can you get with it

Filed under:   humor, standards, music, pop culture, software, web design and development, society, creativity, browsers, innovation
Posted by:   Molly | 7:27 pm | Comments (17)

The John Slatin Fund Accessibility Project

For the many people who knew and worked with John Slatin, his passing comes as a deep sorrow. His humor, kindness and always energetic work for Web accessibility are an inspirational cornerstone for all of us working to create a better Web, and ultimately, a better world.

After a long illness, John’s passing has left his family with medical debt. I can’t express the amount of personal rage I have against my wealthy and powerful nation’s inability to provide quality healthcare to its citizens. It is one of my gravest fears that I will leave the same legacy of debt on my loved ones who should be left able to care and comfort one another rather than see their life savings and resources lost during such a difficult time.

This in mind, I was extremely encouraged and moved to hear that a fund to assist with the Slatin family’s needs at this time has been set up. It works like this: Any company or individual who wants an accessibility site review is asked to donate $500.00 to the fund. In return, that company or individual will receive a review performed by top accessibility experts including such impressive names as Wendy Chisholm, James Craig, Marla Erwin, Derek Featherstone, Bruce Lawson, Gez Lemon, Ian Lloyd, Ann McMeekin - the list is literally a who’s who of the finest accessibility practitioners in the world. These experts donate their time to review your site, and in turn, the fund receives the money, which goes directly to the Slatin family to offset their medical debt.

Personally, I will miss John for so many reasons. It’s hard to imagine that he’s even gone, he was one of the most supportive mentors in the last few years of my own professional life. It brings comfort to know that the community has come together in such a positive and productive way to honor him, and his family, for the richness he brought to all he did and everyone he knew.

For more information on the project, please visit The John Slatin Fund Accessibility Project Home Page. There is also a Facebook Page where you can find more information as well as community support.

Filed under:   professional, web design and development, society, announcement, accessibility, community
Posted by:   Molly | 1:13 pm | Comments Off

Sunday 30 March 2008

LOLspec

Courtesy of Eric Meyer comes this honoring of the new CSS WG Charter and meeting this past week in San Diego, California.

It’s up on Flickr but I figured I’d drop it here for everyone to enjoy until I get a chance to write up some thoughts about the meeting. Today Shamu has a higher specificity and therefore all conflicts are resolved until after Seaworld.

Caption: “O HAI WEB DEEZYNORZ WE MAD U A GUD SPEC . . . BUT WE EATED IT”

Please also note that this photo is actually two years old from the W3C Plenary in France. It doesn’t accurately reflect the current group members and invited experts.

Filed under:   humor, standards, web design and development, w3c, community
Posted by:   Molly | 5:31 am | Comments (9)

Wednesday 5 March 2008

IE8 Beta and Readiness Toolkit

Here it is folks, an actual IE8 beta, overview of features, changes and enhancements, and a readiness toolkit for developers.

Check it out, now, my web soul brothers and sisters!

Filed under:   general, standards, software, web design and development, WaSP, w3c, conferences, announcement, browsers, microsoft, ie7, ajax, javascript, ie8, MIX08
Posted by:   Molly | 12:08 pm | Comments (60)

Monday 3 March 2008

Celebrate, C’mon! IE8 Standards Mode To Be Default

By now you’ve likely read about the big news regarding Microsoft’s commitment to a more interoperable Web, starting with the very good news that standards mode in IE8 will now ship as default.

I’m off to MIX08 tomorrow, and will be attending the keynotes as well as developer discussions on IE8 and additional events surrounding Microsoft’s agenda moving forward. I’ll post more as I’m able.

In the meantime, I just want to shout out a thanks for all the hard work it took this year to keep the IE8 conversation open and alive. We’ve been through some bumpy times, and I for one know that people on the inside of Microsoft faced an enormous amount of pressure in trying to keep that conversation in the public eye.

To all who worked so very hard from both the inside and outside, I toast your dedication, your willingness to challenge what would otherwise be the status quo, and I think it’s really worth taking a celebratory moment to realize that at least for now, the community voice can, and does, truly make a difference.

Filed under:   professional, policies, standards, software, web design and development, society, w3c, conferences, announcement, browsers, microsoft, community
Posted by:   Molly | 10:13 pm | Comments (47)

Wednesday 27 February 2008

Interview: Roger & Molly: Webstock New Zealand

I like this interview! It runs a bit long but Roger made me feel so welcome it just came out as a spontaneous chat.

Anyone willing to do text transcript, holler. I’d like to make one available!

Thank you, Roger, for a great interview.

Enjoy, comment, bitch etc. below:

Filed under:   professional, humor, standards, software, web design and development, travel, food and drink, society, w3c, conferences, announcement, creativity, browsers, microsoft, ie7, innovation, whatwg, community
Posted by:   Molly | 8:12 am | Comments (39)

Monday 18 February 2008

Well-Behaved Women Rarely Make History

Guess I’m going down in those history books, because I am scandalous!

What fun! I love the fact that Matt (the fellow whose shirt I unbuttoned the top two buttons of) used to “smuggle” my books into class. In the sixth form, no less! Oh, the irony.

Filed under:   humor, blogging, pop culture, web design and development, travel, blog slut, food and drink, society, conferences
Posted by:   Molly | 7:25 pm | Comments (19)

Saturday 16 February 2008

One Very Phishy Reason to Love IE7?

I’ve been in a wonderful hotel here in Wellington, New Zealand alas, with the crappiest connectivity ever. Then, something rather suspicious began to happen.

Note the URLs - they are the same in each case. Note that the sites are in fact, not the same.

Curious, I thought I’d put a few browsers to the test. Here you see Camino (seemingly) rerouted to someone’s phishy site. Firefox, Opera, Safari and Shiira all FAILed.

Here’s IE7, on Vista, in parallels on my MBP.

Well, that’s just very strangely impressive indeed.

Filed under:   standards, software, web design and development, browsers, microsoft, ie7
Posted by:   Molly | 5:37 am | Comments (37)

Friday 15 February 2008

I Wish It Were Webstock Every Day

What a fantastic experience here in Wellington, New Zealand.

Content, personalities, activities, food, drink, entertainment were all exceptional due to the hard work of the awesome Tash and her crew of equally awesome folk.

I want to shout out a thanks to this wonderful group, who work, for free, to pull Webstock off.

This is the finest event I’ve been to in quite some time.

Webstock restores my faith that not everyone involved in conference organizing is concerned with profits these days, and in fact people, and the passions of our industry are still going strong.

My very personal thanks and endless tons of love for all involved in this fantastic and very special event.

Filed under:   professional, web design and development, society, conferences, community
Posted by:   Molly | 9:49 pm | Comments (21)

Tuesday 5 February 2008

Come Spend an Evening with Me!

What? Why, it’s “An evening with Molly Holzschlag” in Melbourne, Australia. An informal, question and answer forum, the goal is to have a great discussion about all things Web. Standards, practices, oh, and yeah, I’m sure IE8 will be of interest. The event was organized and is being brought to you free by the wonderful folks at WIPA (Web Industry Professionals Association) and Web Standards Group.

Date:	Wednesday 6 February
Time:	6.30pm for 7pm start
City:	Melbourne
Venue:	Loop Bar, 23 Meyers Place Melbourne 3000 VIC
Cost:	FREE

The conversation will likely take up an hour or so, with plenty of time for drinks, socializing and networking after. I’m very excited to be seeing old friends, and meeting new! Please come by if you’re near the area, and make sure to come say hello to me.

Filed under:   professional, standards, web design and development, travel, food and drink, w3c, announcement, microsoft, community
Posted by:   Molly | 5:26 am | Comments (21)

Sunday 3 February 2008

Call for Web Standards Quips and Clips

I’m preparing my keynote for Webstock in Wellington, New Zealand, coming up next week. I would very much like a sampling of video shots of a wide range of individual opinions and thoughts answering the question: “What is the definition of Web Standards?” You can be as funny, mean, or weird as you like so long as you have some clear point to make. If you’re an enthusiast, be enthusiastic. If you’re a hater, be a hater. Just have a point, and think of the children

If you’d like to help out, drop a me! please in the comments. Shyness definitely does not apply here. I’ll contact you by email privately with details as to where to send and format, etc.

I’ll be using these clips within the presentation to gain a widespread look at how people define, and feel, about Web standards. Mostly, the point is to demonstrate how it can mean such a variety of things to people from all over the world. The more variety, the better. I will then publish them in the public domain for all to enjoy.

Up for it? Let’s hear from you!

Filed under:   professional, standards, software, web design and development, WaSP, society, w3c, conferences, announcement, browsers, microsoft, accessibility, javascript
Posted by:   Molly | 6:55 pm | Comments (25)

Thursday 31 January 2008

From Web Standards Diva to Web Standards Devo

This post emerges from a comment I wrote to the response thread in my “Web Standards Aren’t” post, which I hope will clarify my thoughts a bit as well as take a lighter look at what I’m working to articulate here.

I’ve decided to become a Devo rather than a Diva. I’m going to design my new site with frames, tables, spacer gifs, lots of flash embedded into framed pages via iframes. I’m going to use non-semantic, presentational HTML, table based layouts, and lots of inline CSS.

The frightening issue is that I can build such a site so it will validate, pass at least WCAG priority 1 accessibility and have effective SEO.

The mere fact that I can actually do all that and be in compliance with specs should help clarify my point, I hope. It’s not the specs that define Web Standards. We are talking about best practices. We use the term “standards” fast and loose, and for an industry that is so interested in semantics, I find it endlessly ironic that we have chosen such a piss poor description to define a certain level of professional practices.

We co-opted the term “standards” and applied it to something that wasn’t a standard, rather, a series of specifications that are RECOMMENDED practices.

Am I saying stop working to specs? No. Am I saying we’re on the wrong path as we try and build a better Web by increasing education and awareness around specs and best practices - well, if anyone here thinks I mean that you must not have met me or know me too well. Rest assured my heart is right there, I want a better Web, and that means better practices, more education, more resources, more outreach.

I’m challenging the status quo. I’m just asking that you take a look at the semantics of the situation and not be led into a sense of comfort that we actually have achieved any semblance of a standard. If that were true, all browsers would behave the same way, and my code would be just like your code, and every CMS and development software would be interoperable, use correct nomenclature, and follow the specs.

Is that the Web we have? Clearly not. And as we grow and expand both on the desktop and into mobile devices, these issues become more fragmented, not less.

Filed under:   professional, standards, software, web design and development, society, w3c, browsers, accessibility, community
Posted by:   Molly | 6:49 pm | Comments (46)

Web Standards Aren’t

After a fantastic day in Perth I ended up talking to a group of oil workers. Men of all classes and walks of life. Scottish, English, Aussie. Tattoos, guys with attitude, heart, and an amazing decency of soul.

An engineer on an oil rig finds a fitting that’s defective. He tells his mates to fix or replace the fitting.

Following manufacturing specs, the person given the task consults the specs, and he builds it just so.

It fits, and will function. If it does not fit, it is not allowed to be used. Those are standards. The products developed meet manufacturing specs world over, and that’s that.

What we have today, on the Web, are not standards in the truest sense. We are at a time in the evolution of the Web where the idea of “standards” is more of a profound misnomer than ever.

Please Define Web Standards

Bet an Aussie dollar you can’t!

Most folks reading this post will say Web standards are markup and CSS, and maybe, just maybe, accessibility.

So what about JavaScript?

If you’re really smart, you raised your hand like Arnold Horschack and shouted out: JavaScript.

Surprise you markup and CSS pedantics, you know, that’s a “standard” too.

Democracy Killed My Grandma

The democratic Web fosters anarchy. That’s not a bad thing per se. I like the idea of anyone having a soap box. It makes for intrigue if not logic.

But professional sites must set some practice that is equivalent to all counterparts. And also supports my Mum when she wants to post a photo.

Don’t you agree?

Context, He Said, Is Everything

There’s a reason that we don’t have standards on the Web, or clearly understand what “standards” really are. The bottom line is it’s not that important.

Web standards aren’t, because democracy demands it.

The grand paradox is that our professional world demands a standard that can be measured and judged. And yet, we need to be free to not be conformists.

Web Standards Really Aren’t

Go ahead, tell me what they are. I know you can’t, because they aren’t. We have specifications, recommendations, implementations and a lot of best practice chatter.

What we do not have is the ace that will fit perfectly in the hole. Web standards aren’t.

It’s time to move on to whatever is next.

Filed under:   professional, standards, software, web design and development, WaSP, society, w3c, browsers, microsoft, ajax, innovation, accessibility, javascript, whatwg
Posted by:   Molly | 8:28 am | Comments (52)