Example: Tables v. Design

Most people who work with or around websites or web applications are aware of the mantra “Tables shouldn’t be used in design,” but I don’t think all of them understand why. To explain, I’d point you to a practical example: http://www.csszengarden.com/

The css Zen Garden is a great way to look at the power of separating content from design. Every page in the collection uses the same simple HTML page but achieves very different organization and style using simple CSS.

This wouldn’t be possible if you didn’t separate your design from your content. Using tables for layout exactly breaks this rule. A giant table that wraps your content to achieve three columns commits your page to a life of three columns with no hope of changing. (It should go without saying that tables have their place and their use…for building tables.)

Definitions: Markup, Style and Layout

It’s important to have clear definitions about the three components of web design. Some others may vary slightly, but I like to think of them this way.

Read the rest of this entry »

Sketching is not just right side of the brain stuff. All throughout my academic career my professors almost unanimously agree that students should draw more pictures when trying to solve math, physics, biology, computer science, etc. problems. After years of hearing their pleas I’ve finally started to come around. Even with all this technology surrounding me I can safely say that sketching is the quickest way to get ideas out of my head. Some may suggest mind mapping software but for me nothing beats pencil and paper. Drawing offers a physicality that we’ve yet to duplicate in computer interfaces. Things like multitouch screens and Wacom tablets come close but they just never feel quite right.

I’m not huge fan of upfront design. I prefer to take an idea and start building and design through iteration of an actual product. Pencil can be great for that. Several of the features I’ve written have started out as quick sketches on paper with mini-addendum sketches as I go. And nothing beats going to a different room with your pencil and paper to solve difficult conceptual problems. Because I kept losing these awesome sketches, a few weeks ago I bound some Idea Works notebooks. They’re recycled from old stationary that we couldn’t use because of an outdated phone number. Good for the environment and good for the brain.

The internet provides a wealth of tools for analyzing today’s election. Some of my favorites:

Check out Twitter’s Election 08 page for a live feed of election related tweets. For information how on voting experiences went go to search.twitter.com and search for #votereport.

Check out Digg’s Digg the Candidates for news stories related to the candidates voted on by the digg social network. Tends to be liberally biased, but as long as you stay away from the comments you’ll survive.

For an awesome mashup of the two check out CurrentTV’s Election Night Party. They will be displaying live feeds from both digg and twitter over their election coverage. (If CurrentTV is not available in your area you can normally watch it online, I’m not really sure if that’ll work tonight though.)

And last but not least:

CNN’s Electoral Vote Calculator which lets you chose the winners of states and plan your candidate’s path to victory! Well, not necessarily to victory but you do get a chance to play out different scenarios if you can’t wait until the polls close.

With all this who needs political analysts any more?

CNET reports that some spammers are resorting to ASCII art to bypass spam filters. I have a love/hate relationship with this idea. I love it because it is undeniably clever. I hate it because Gmail isn’t clever-er.

Stephen Shankland, in his post, makes a good point though, “the very reason the art spam is hard to screen out also makes it, well, somewhat impotent as a spam method. ” It gets the information in front of your eyes, but that’s about it.

(Image Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET News)