Really useful info notes from Jon Tan’s An Event Apart 2013 talk about font setting and selection on the web. One of the great tips: “agh! iIl1” is great text to determine the flavor of a font.
“Being thrown into the deep end of the pool has forced me to recognize quickly some of the more important aspects that make an interview successful. The following tips guide how I plan for and conduct any stakeholder interviews.”
“This mixin allows you to define your major or minor breakpoint in pixels (it automatically converts to EMs), define the media query whether it be min or max, width or height, device height or device width. The mixin has 4 variables in it, most of which are predefined.”
“In our work with design teams, we see a lot of teams using prototypes today. We’re also seeing many of those same teams fall into traps that reduce the effectiveness of their prototyping efforts. Here’s five of the most common ones we see.”
“One of the big lessons is that we spend a lot of time discussing what the frontend solutions for responsive images should be—the new picture element or srcset or a magical new image format—and little time discussing how backend systems and human processes might need to change.”
Fascinating thoughts and data on implementing redesigns. It’s still difficult or impossible for many of us to avoid flipping the switch and ruining experiences for loyal users due to business models, but this kind of data helps.
> “Symbol fonts are the next step forward in website design and optimization, and you need to understand them to work on the web today. With practice, you can create your own custom symbol fonts with logos, icons, and branding to embed into your websites. Not only will these little extras impress your audience, but they will simultaneously optimize your website’s performance. It’s time we all start using symbol fonts—and help improve the tools, standards, and techniques to make them.”
“If I told you that a company is shipping a product to hundreds of millions of users right now, and included in the product are several prominent buttons that will break the product completely if you click them, and possibly lock you out from the Internet — can you guess which product it is?”
Don Norman is always a fantastic one to read, but this one is his embrace, and his explanation of what he’s embracing, of the label “design thinking.” I love the way he recognizes that all innovators practice it, but that it is the hallmark of modern design. There’s no limit to who can use it, and that’s important.
“Who in the audience has ever had to explain layout and design decisions? And who has struggled to do that? Jon has. That’s why he wants to talk about the differences between designing for impact—to grab attention—and immersion—to get out of the way and allow for absorbing involvement.”
