StraTechnologist

Arial is everywhere. If you don’t know what it is, you don’t use a modern personal computer. Arial is a font that is familiar to anyone who uses Microsoft products, whether on a PC or a Mac. It has spread like a virus through the typographic landscape and illustrates the pervasiveness of Microsoft’s influence in the world.

Arial’s ubiquity is not due to its beauty. It’s actually rather homely. Not that homeliness is necessarily a bad thing for a typeface. With typefaces, character and history are just as important. Arial, however, has a rather dubious history and not much character. In fact, Arial is little more than a shameless impostor.

The Scourge of Arial

Favourite Favicons | Delta Tango Bravo

YourTotalSite was designed to help you develop the web. Better. We touch on a wide range of subjects that include usability, accessibility, visual design, online marketing, (X)HTML & CSS, JavaScript, Information Architecture, and more.

YourTotalSite.com / helping you develop the web. better.

The Weekly Standards - Featured Site: AT&T

Great list of typography resources collected thanks to the provocation of SimpleBits

what books or online resources provide the best, most helpful information regarding typography — identifying typefaces, how to best utilize type, etc.? I know there is most likely an endless amount of information out there, but knowing where to start is essential.

Link: SimpleBits | Typography Resources?

user-experience.org - Keith Instone, User Experience professional

Nice diagrams about the process of defining Information Architecture at:

Practicing Information Architecture

The essence of a website is self-service. There are three core things that self-service needs to get right: convenience, speed, and price. Convenience means task achievement with minimum effort. Speed means that you get in and out of a website as quickly as possible. People are cheap on the Web.

The three core principles of great web design: April 12, 2004: New Thinking by Gerry McGovern

• What are the advantages of using web standards? (WaSP : Learn : FAQ)
• Developing With Web Standards
• Simpler development and maintenance: Using more semantic and structured HTML makes it easier and quicker to understand code created by somebody else.
• Compatibility with future web browsers: When you use defined standards and valid code you future-proof your documents by reducing the risk of future web browsers not being able to understand the code you have used.
• Faster download and rendering of web pages: Less HTML results in smaller file sizes and quicker downloads. Modern web browsers render pages faster when they are in their standards mode than when they are in their backwards compatible mode.
• Better accessibility: Semantic HTML, where structure is separated from presentation, makes it easier for screen readers and alternative browsing devices to interpret the content.
• Better search engine rankings: The separation of content and presentation makes the content represent a larger part of the total file size. Combined with semantic markup this will improve search engine rankings.
• Simpler adaptation: A semantically marked up document can be easily adapted to print and alternative browsing devices, like handheld computers and cellular phones, just by linking to a different CSS file. You can also make site-wide changes to presentation by editing a single file.
• W3C QA - How to achieve Web standards and quality on your Web site?
• Benefits of Web Standards for Business Sites
• Making A Commercial Case for Adopting Web Standards

HiT Syndicaat is an enterprise syndication management system (based on the RSS 2.0 XML standard) that simplifies the tasks involved in the creation and editing of content to syndicate.

It is an all-in-one solution (a single install file) that contains:

an HTTP application server capable of returning RSS XML feeds according to your user authentication credentials;

a GUI smart client (Administration Console) for
- administering your server;
- managing your users and your user roles;
- managing creation and updates fo your RSS XML feed;

a GUI smart client (Authoring Studio) for
- creating and editing your syndication items;
- attaching enclosures to your items (podcasting);
- creating and storing Rich HTML content with your items;

a set of Web pages for browsing your feeds and feed items from a Web Browser;

a search processor for
- querying your feeds using a URL-based query syntax;
- rendering your channels in a format compatible with the OpenSearch™ specification(see A9) (web aggregations);

a complete JRE environment together with compatible server software.
Using HiT Syndicaat, you do not need
- to manually edit XML text;
- to perform FTP uploads or file transfers.
- configure/install php modules or other server software.

HiT Syndicaat | Publish & Search RSS

After 6 successful years of research, the PLAY studio of the Interactive Institute is pleased to announce a launch into the new year with a new name! From January 1, 2005 the studio will be called RE:FORM.

The new name symbolizes the renewed vision in the studio, which has evolved and progressed over the years within the rapidly growing field of interaction design. RE:FORM is a name which reflects our deepening of focus in the area of design practice and research, and our mission to re-think notions of form and experience as emerging technologies expand into people’s everyday life and lifestyles.

The RE:FORM studio will have a strong design focus and presence in Göteborg, nationally and internationally, as part of the Interactive Institute’s commitment to developing IT through art and design perspectives. At the same time, the Institute’s game research will be integrated more strongly in the GAME studio, which will be represented both in Visby and Göteborg.

PLAY - info page