Frameworks

Frameworks sound like a very good way to make our jobs easier for us. Making a good website takes time and attention to detail. We need to take our time and think through every little detail about our page to make sure we convey the message we need to. How, ever on the other side “Time is Money” and I don’t have enough of either at the moment. Instead of cutting corners to make our jobs easier, we need to focus on positive ways of saving time.

A framework is basically a blank shell that you create, that sits there empty waiting for content to be pored in. Creating a variety of frameworks each with a different layout will save designers tons of time in the long run. This empty HTML shells are pre-built are ready whenever a new page comes a long. Saving time on creating a basic HTML structure will allow designers to spend more of their time on the interface and usability of a site, rather than wasting time doing the same HTML layout countless times.

Thankfully in IMD fundamentals this is something that you suggested to us. I can’t speak for everyone else, but I have been using the same basic HTML page for 1 and 2 column pages every since then. With each new class I update and correct my code and just paste it in when needed. This has helped me very much in school and I plan on continuing to use frameworks. I would also suggest the same to you guys if you don’t use them already.

Resources:

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/frameworksfordesigners/

http://meiert.com/en/blog/20080805/html-css-frameworks/

I also found a cool site sith a bunch of example frameworks:

http://www.designyourway.net/blog/resources/27-of-the-best-css-and-html-frameworks-available-to-download/

Final Project

I have been having a hard time deciding what I would like to do for my final project. The idea of trying to change something in the world with a website is a lot to try to accomplish.

I really like the example you showed us, where the shoe company gives away shoes to 3rd world countries for each pair that they sell. This is an awesome way to help people that would otherwise have to go without. I want to do something similar to this, only with school supplies.

For my final project I would like to make a company that sells school supplies, and then donates school supplies to underprivileged children here in the US.  Many kids go without essential school supplies due to a number of reasons. This would be a good way to help kids get the necessary education to help them succeed in life.

Responsive Web Development

As cool as they might be to play with, the number of new platforms are a big hurdle for web developing. The concept of using Responsive Web Development to adapt our page to different platforms might help solve this problem. It seems much more efficient to create a web site with the ability to change its format then to create seperate pages for each platform.

I found another article also titled Responsive Web Design . This is also an interesting article that goes along with the same concept. He goes along with the point that with the way Phones and Computer monitors are changing, it is impossible to be prepared for each combination and have a separate page for each. By making the computer “test” the device it is being viewed on and loaded the appropriate style sheet for it, the user is guarenteed to have an optimal experience.

Maybe my favorite thing about this concept, is the idea of a “Flexible Grid” layout for a website. This means that the actual layout of your website will change and adapt to better fit the user’s device. In an article called Understanding the Elements of Responsive Web Design, the author talks in length about the flexible grid. To me this seems to be the key to the idea of Responsive Web Design. By allowing our page to change and adapt we can now create a site without the fear of conflicts certain platforms.

This sounds like an awesome concept that I can not wait to start working with.

Week 1 – Intermediate Client Side Languages

Progressive Enhancement is a strategy for web design that emphasizes accessibility, semantic HTML markup, and external stylesheet and scripting technologies. Progressive enhancement uses web technologies in a layered fashion that allows everyone to access the basic content and functionality of a web page, using any browser or Internet connection, while also providing those with better bandwidth, more advanced browser software or more experience an enhanced version of the page.

Graceful Degradation is the property that enables a system to continue operating properly in the event of the failure of (or one or more faults within) some of its components. If its operating quality decreases at all, the decrease is proportional to the severity of the failure, as compared to a naïvely-designed system in which even a small failure can cause total breakdown.

Welcome to My World

This blog is set up to document and share what I am learning this quarter in Intermediate Client Languages. We will be covering a variety of topics, but focusing primarily on HTML5 and CSS3. I hope you learn something from this as we go along, as I know I will.