Jason Cranford Teague's Blogs

Over the past year, I've had the honor of teaching the CSS Basics classes to dozens of AOL designers and programmers. The class takes students from the basics of what makes a Web page through to the fundamentals of the CSS Language and finishing with best practices.

After the class, I get a lot of good feedback and questions from the students, but the most frequently asked question is "What's next?"

If you are struggling with CSS in your projects, help is near!

The AOL Design Guide is now your go to place for CSS information, including:

• Recommended Software: a list of software and add-ons with free or have a free trial period.
• CSS Resources: the latest AOL CSS template file to start your project, CSS reference guides, the list of browser safe fonts, and other tools for working with CSS.
• Best Practices: If you have a question about how to get the best code and designs with CSS, check out the Best practices list. This list will answer questions such as when to use inline styles (never) and which is the best color value notation (RGB).

But the page is still growing! We will be adding CSS training materials, the AOL Dev/Design Process for working with CSS, and expanding the best practices list. Stay tuned!

If you have any questions about the best practices, want to suggest software and resources, or have any questions about designing with CSS at AOL, please email me at j.cranfordteague@corp.aol.com

Visit the CSS Best Practices page:
http://designguide.office.aol.com/BestPractices/CSS

I've had a few weeks now to play with the new Web enabled application from Google, known as Chrome. Some, including Google, call it a Web browser.

I respectfully disagree.

If it is only a Web browser, Chrome leaves a lot to be desired. Despite promised improvements (like the basic ability to organize your bookmarks), its stripped down interface has a long way to go to compete with the feature sets of Firefox, Safari, or Internet Explorer. But, then, it may not be Google's goal to create an application for browsing the Web.

Consider it's name: Chrome. In the world of user interface design, we call the buttons, backgrounds, icons and other graphic bits of the interface "chrome." And that's exactly what Google's Chrome is: it is the chrome ( lower case "c") for Google's current and future Web based applications.

And I'm not the only one who seems to thinks so. I remember just ten years ago when Marc Andreesen had the same idea and threw down the gauntlet, stating that Netscape would replace the operating system as the vector for users interacting with computer applications. It did not quite turn out that way, but maybe Google will be able to pull it off.

Maybe.

Here's a little laugh to get your weekend started. Who knew fonts could be so funny?


Thanks to Ryan McCullah for sending the link.

Over at InfoQ, they are debating whether it's worth while to support Internet Explorer 6 anymore. The article details several online serivices, vendors, and developmental frameworks that are pulling support, arguing that the browser that once made up 95% of the market share is no longer an online player now that Internet Explorer is on the scene.

On the one hand, deciding not to support IE6 and embracing Web standards can make it easier to create Web sites, expand your design possibilities, and generally allow for a better experience. On the down side, if you do go with a Web standards compliant site and ignore IE6, these sites do not tend to degrade gracefully and many users on the older browser can get frustrated. Any thoughts about what we should do?

At the recent Voices that Matter conference, I had the privilege of having dinner with Bill Cullifer, the Executive Director of WOW (World Organization of Webmasters). I hadn't check in with that group in a while (they've been around since 1996), so I was excited to hear about a lot of the great stuff the are doing to help educate Web professionals, including conferences, and "Iron Chef" student competition, and certification. Bill invited me to be interviewed for the WOW Technology Minute, and we talked about Web Typography.

Check it out on the WOW Technology Minute Web site.

The Web is always changing and so is Web Design. Whether you just got out of design school or have been pushing pixels for decades, there's always something new to learn.

Every other Thursday, AOL presents speakers who will help you stay on the cutting edge of your profession, hone your skills, understand industry best practices and keep you ahead of the competition. We'll meet 12PM-1:30PM on alternating Thursdays in Dulles and New York to hear about new and advanced topics in Web design.

As a special bonus, the first session comes with lunch provided free! Expand your knowledge of Web Typography and fill your stomach! Who could pass that up?

If you plan to attend, please RSVP Jason Cranford Teague (j.cranfordteague@corp.aol.com) at least 24 hours in advance of the meet-up.

Click "Read More" for session dates and descriptions.

Last week at the Voices That Matter Conference, I was privaleged to attend a great presentation on how to give great presentations. Garr Reynolds, the author of Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery, wowed the crowd by creating a compelling and informative presentation using Power Point (actually he was using Keynote, but Power-Point has become the "Band-Aid" of slide software). Unlike other information design experts (ie. Edward Tufte), Garr has a lot of hope for Power-point presentations, but with a few helpful suggestions (paraphrased here):

This week I'll be at the Voices That matter Conference in Nashville, TN speaking on the topic of Web typography, but I wanted to give everybody at AOL a little preview of the center-piece of my presentation: Web Safe Fonts.

Web typography is pretty much synonymous with limitations. Limited controls, limited styles, but, most importantly, limited font-family choices. The first of these limitations will require changes in the browsers, however, there are a surprisingly large number of fonts to choose from, but only if you are willing to work with a more fluid typography. Most designers are familiar with the 11 "Core Web Fonts" that are industry standards. Primarily, we will use Arial (or Helvetica), Times New Roman (or just Times), and Georgia has become popular in the last few years. You will occasionally see Verdana and Trebuchet MS tried, but these are not the most elegant looking of fonts. We use these fonts because we know that they are pre-installed on most computers. Yet most computers will also have many other fonts pre-installed on them, either by the operating system or by specific applications.

I have created a list of "Web Safe Fonts" showing fonts pre-installed on Windows and Mac as well as fonts installed by iLife on the Mac (which is standard on all Macs) and Microsoft Office for both Mac and PC. Although not all of these fonts will be of general use, it does balloon the list of reliable fonts from 11 to around 200. To make selection easier, I have also indicated which OS the font is pre-installed for, ranked each font on a scale from 1 to 5 (with 1 for fonts almost certain to be installed and 5 for fonts unlikely to be installed), and the source of the font.

Let me know what you think of the list, and if you spot any fonts that should be or should not be in it. The site is in "Beta" while I work on vetting the list and adding functionality (like the ability to sort the list), so any constructive criticism would be most appreciated.

View the Web Safe Fonts >>

I am sooooo tired of my mouse. Move-click-move-click-move-click-move-click-click-move. We've been using mice for almost 25 years now while movies like Minority Report have shown us a glimpse of a future where all you have to do is wave your hands around a bit to get the job done (OK, you also have to live with Tom Cruze in a distopian future (OK, some might argue that we already are living with Tom Cruze in a distopian future)). Yes, there are some extremely big expensive systems thate promise to do some cool things, but we need something cheap and portable.

The portfolio for Publicis & Hal Riney are taking us into the future with a Flash site that allows you to navigate with hand gestures using your Web cam. Just move your hand over certain "hot spots" in front of your computer (shown in a handy mini-window on the bottom right of the screen) and you can move around their portfolio to see their ideas, news, and examples of their work. It may not be replacing your mouse anytime soon, but it's still pretty cool.