Topics: Design: User Interface Design
Designing systems or interfaces to help users achieve goals. Information architecture, user experience design, interaction design, graphic design, widgets, wireframes. Evaluating user interface design, usability testing. (31 articles)
Thinking Outside the Grid
by Molly E. Holzschlag
Issue 209December 19, 2005
“There is a new kid on the block, and her name is ‘I’ve never designed with a table in my career.’”
Sensible Forms: A Form Usability Checklist
by Brian Crescimanno
Issue 209December 19, 2005
”...we can make our users’ lives easier by thinking about the way people interact with our websites, providing clear direction, and then putting the burden of sorting out the details in the hands of the computers—not the users.”
Power to the People
by D. Keith Robinson
Issue 208November 28, 2005
“We should be providing solutions that work for people, not the other way around.”
Ambient Findability: Findability Hacks
by Peter Morville
Issue 205October 10, 2005
“Findability defies classification. It flows across the borders between design, engineering, and marketing. Everybody is responsible, and so we run the risk that nobody is accountable.”
High-Resolution Image Printing
by Ross Howard
Issue 202September 05, 2005
Your client looks up and says, “Why does our logo look funny when we print the pages?” Do you sigh dramatically, or learn about Ross Howard’s technique for printing high-resolution images via CSS? We vote for option B.
Invasion of the Body Switchers
by Andy Clarke, James Edwards
Issue 189November 19, 2004
Wouldn’t it be great if we could update the classic ALA Style Switcher to accommodate multiple users and devices, including some that aren’t even traditional browsers, all from a single JavaScript and CSS file? Well, now we can! Enter the Body Switcher.
Dynamically Conjuring Drop-Down Navigation
by Christian Heilmann
Issue 183June 15, 2004
Got content? Got pages and pages of content? Wouldn’t it be nice if you could offer your readers a drop-down menu providing instant access to any page, without having to sit down and program the darned thing? By marrying a seemingly forgotten XHTML element to simple, drop-in JavaScript, Christian Heilmann shows how to do just that. There’s even a PHP backup for those whose browsers lack access to JavaScript. Turn on, tune in, drop-down.
Designing for Context with CSS
by Joshua Porter
Issue 171February 20, 2004
The medium is the message: Imagine providing unique information exclusively for people who read your site via a web-enabled cell phone — then crafting a different message for those who are reading a printout instead of the screen. Let your context guide your content. All it takes is some user-centric marketing savvy and a dash of CSS.
Night of the Image Map
by Stuart Robertson
Issue 166December 12, 2003
CSS design from beyond the grave: all the secret ingredients you’ll need to resurrect the image map using CSS and structurally sensible XHTML.
JavaScript Image Replacement
by Christian Heilmann
Issue 164November 21, 2003
Perhaps it’s time to consider the ups and downs of a JavaScript-based alternative to the Fahrner Image Replacement technique. This version uses plain vanilla XHTML with no special IDs or CSS tricks.
Suckerfish Dropdowns
by Patrick Griffiths, Dan Webb
Issue 162November 07, 2003
Teach your smart little menus to do the DHTML dropdown dance without sacrificing semantics, accessibility, or standards compliance or writing clunky code.
Keeping Navigation Current With PHP
by Jason Pearce
Issue 162November 07, 2003
Turning unordered lists into elegant navigational menus has become a new favorite pastime for many web designers. A dash of PHP can add intelligence to your CSS-styled menu.
Sliding Doors of CSS, Part II
by Douglas Bowman
Issue 161October 30, 2003
In Sliding Doors of CSS Part I, Douglas Bowman introduced a new technique for creating visually stunning interface elements with simple, text-based, semantic markup. In Part II, he pushes the technique even further with rollovers, a fix for IE/Win’s CSS bugs, and lots more.
Sliding Doors of CSS
by Douglas Bowman
Issue 160October 20, 2003
![[Stylized tabs using rounded corners and subtle three-dimensional shading.]](../../../d/slidingdoors/tabex2.gif){kind=small}
Image-driven, visually compelling user interfaces. Text-based, semantic markup. Now you can have both! Douglas Bowman’s sliding doors method of CSS design offers sophisticated graphics that squash and stretch while delivering meaningful XHTML text. Have your cake and eat it, too!
Build a PHP Switcher
by Chris Clark
Issue 152October 13, 2002
ALA’s open source style sheet switchers are swell as long as your visitors use compliant browsers and have JavaScript turned on. But what if they don’t? Perhaps, this: Chris Clark tells how to build a cross-browser, backward-compatible, forward-compatible, standards-compliant style sheet switcher in just five lines of code.
CSS Design: Mo’ Betta Rollovers
by Tim Murtaugh
Issue 140March 08, 2002
Design smarter, faster, better rollovers with CSS.
Reading Design
by Dean Allen
Issue 128November 23, 2001
With so many specialists working so hard at their craft, why are so many pages so hard to read? Unabashed text enthusiast Dean Allen thinks designers would benefit from approaching their work as being written rather than assembled.
The Flash Aesthetic
by Ross Olson
Issue 123October 12, 2001
Scaling, 2-D style, cycle-free motion, and heavy strokes. They’re not just web design trends any more. Join Olson on a cultural scavenger hunt as he tracks the ways Flash design techniques have crept into non-web media.
All the Access Money Can Buy
by Joe Clark
Issue 115July 22, 2001
Just when you think online multimedia will never be truly access, someone proves you wrong. In BMW Films, Clark sees a tantalizing glimpse of a better web.
Game Design in Flash 5, Part II: Heroes & Villains
by Peter Balogh
Issue 113June 08, 2001
Flash artists and ActionScripters, roll up your sleeves for Part Two of Peter Balogh’s well-written tutorial on Game Design in Flash 5. Thrills! Chills! Math skills!
Beyond Usability and Design: The Narrative Web
by Mark Bernstein
Issue 106April 20, 2001
Crafting a narrative web: To succeed profoundly, Bernstein says, websites must go beyond usability and design, deeply engaging readers by turning their journeys through the site into rich, memorable, narrative experiences.
A Failure to Communicate
by George Olsen
Issue 103March 30, 2001
It’s ironic that, as professionals dedicated to clear communication, information architects and user interface designers are having such trouble communicating with each other. Information designer George Olsen digs up the roots of communication breakdown and explores the three aspects of web design.
SMIL When You Play That
by Jeffrey Zeldman
Issue 101March 16, 2001
A gentle introduction to the SVG and SMIL standards for programmable vector graphics and accessible rich media.
The Curse of Information Design
by Scott Jason Cohen
Issue 96August 13, 2005
With the rise of information architecture, user experience consultants, and usability experts, the fate of a website is no longer left to chance, and its design is no longer a function of organic processes. That may be good for business, but is it really good for the web? Scott Cohen has his doubts.
The Ins and Outs of Intranets
by Dave Linabury
Issue 88November 10, 2000
Sooner or later, most web designers will be called upon to create an internal site. And will quickly learn that one’s own company can be tougher to deal with than any client. Dave Linabury offers tips on surviving the process (and building something good in spite of it).
Experience Design
by Bob Jacobson
Issue 77August 18, 2000
It’s time for web designers to peek over the cubicle and start sharing ideas with their peers in related design disciplines. Jacobson suggests one way to do that in this overview of the emerging Experience Design paradigm.
A Design Method
by Ross Olson
Issue 71July 07, 2000
In a high-powered production environment like the web, a design method can help you get more done faster … and provide you with rules to break. New ALA writer Ross Olson shares his company’s game plan.
Bridging the Gap
by Robert Miller
Issue 66June 02, 2000
How can we work together if we don’t understand each other? Systems administrator Robert Miller describes the view from his side of the cubicle, and attempts to break down the barriers between “creative” and systems professionals.
Walking Backwards: Supporting Non-Western Languages on the Web
by Shoshannah L. Forbes
Issue 65May 26, 2000
And you think you?ve got problems. Try building web sites in a bi-directional language like Hebrew or Arabic. Israeli web developer Shoshannah L. Forbes discusses the mind-boggling hardships involved, and looks at what the latest browsers are doing about it.
Fragments (of Time)
by Pär Almqvist
Issue 64May 19, 2000
The best web interfaces take time – the one asset that seems to be in perpetually short supply. Leading Scandinavian web developer Pär Almqvist presents a time-based perspective on web interfaces and the network economy.
Much Ado About 5K
by Jeffrey Zeldman
Issue 63May 12, 2000
A full-fledged website under 5K? Some of the brightest people in the industry swore it could not be done. Yet hundreds of developers not only came in under the 5K budget, they built great sites in the process. Zeldman explores how the 5K Awards rocked the web.
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