Everything we make is made to be used: read, heard, pushed, swiped, clicked, followed, interacted with. Hard edges must be smoothed and blunt instruments sharpened. Users carry the web we’ve made with them and it must be ready to work on whatever they have to hand. From prototypes to product, from wireframe to web app, and all the research, analysis and testing in between, there are at least twenty-four ways.
Divya Sasidharan calls into question the trade-offs often made between security and usability. Does a secure interface by necessity need to be hard to use? Or is it the choice we make based on years of habit? Snow has fallen, snow on snow.
Andy Bell rings out a fresh call in support of the timeless concept of progressive enhancement. What does it mean to build a modern JavaScript-focussed web experience that still works well if part of the stack isn’t supported or fails? Andy shows us how that might be done.
Michelle Barker appears as one of a heavenly host, coming forth with scroll in hand to pronounce an end to janky scrolljacking! Unto us a new specification is born, in the city of TimBL, and its name shall be called Scroll Snap.
Eric Bailey asks us to take on the role of King Herod in our projects to consider how the products, services and processes we design could be abused to cause harm rather than to do good. No matter how good our intentions, we must remember that not every user has pure motivations and that every tool is a weapon if you hold it right.
Alan Dalton reaches for the glistening box of accessibility guidelines under the tree and unwraps them, taking his time to explain each carefully as he does so. Born unto you is a new guideline, and its name shall be called WCAG.
Mustafa Kurtuldu mulls over the topic of performance - both perceived and measured - for users of mobile devices. Of course, in managing to deliver millions of gifts around the world on the night before Christmas perhaps Santa is the real expert in mobile performance.
Steph Troeth rallies the workshop elves around an idea for revolutionising their worksheets and giving them a new way to think about approaching each job. One thing’s for certain, as Christmas approaches there’s always plenty of jobs to be done.
Wren Lanier sets aside time to explore the benefits of a regular schedule for user research. Santa’s elves quickly discovered the benefits of working to a fixed schedule, which is of course why we don’t get presents at Easter.
Joe Leech offers a rundown on his UX review process, sharing tips about analysing data and creating personas, and setting out findings in a form that benefits clients. From quick wins to workshops, there are gifts here everyone will be grateful for.
Cameron Moll brings the tenth 24 ways to a close with a look at the increasing need for common experiences across devices. Despite our differences, there are more things we share than divide us. Merry Christmas!
Jeffrey Zeldman beckons us cosily closer to his warm websmith’s hearth to spin a winter’s tale of hope born of (user) experience. Regardless of job title or discipline, we’re all designers. It takes all the reindeers to pull the sleigh.
Rachel Nabors clears the snowy drift of delight from web animation to reveal the need for necessity and usefulness when we decide to animate web interactions. The box it comes in is as important as the gift.
Emma Boulton maintains that better research leads to better design and shows how research can solve common problems during a project’s life cycle. Santa does his research well every year — let’s hope you’ve been good this year…
Anna Debenham harnesses the console browser huskies to the sled of web design and races off into the deeply forested landscape, leaving in her wake only an in-depth analysis of the new Wii U and its internet capabilities.
Rebecca Cottrell speeds through the dark landscape of web wireframes towards the snowy slopes of early prototypes with glittering animations and transitions that show your developing product at its best.
Andrew Clarke re-examines the formula used to convert static to fluid grids, and describes how he adapts it within his own custom grids to maintain connectedness in designs across devices. Like great design, there’s a perfect Christmas out there somewhere, but there’s no formula for it.
Simon Collison wonders why we sometimes sacrifice powerful complexity in the name of empty simplicity. To create engaging experiences with loyal communities we should embrace and tame complexity. Easier than Christmas with your in-laws, surely?
Jonathan Snook saddles up to take us on a whirlwind tour of the world of bidirectional documents. “What’s left to write about internationalisation?” you may ask. Allow Jonathan, if you will, to offer you some festive words of direction.
Jake Archibald scratches the responsive images itch with a client-side riposte to Matt Wilcox’s server-side solution. Christmas is all about giving and receiving, after all.
Matt Wilcox regales us with an in-depth explanation of his Adaptive Images technique, showing how we can serve an appropriate size of image to web devices without altering our <img> markup. Secret magic and bottled pixie dreams? Almost.
Chris Sealey sweats the sometimes imperceptible details of user experience by looking closely at some finer points of interface design. At Christmas, it’s decorations and mistletoe that should be left hanging, not the user.
Jeremy Keith loads up his sleigh this year with a nifty mobile-first approach that responds to onscreen conditions. So, no matter the size of your Christmas stocking, there’s something the right size to fill it.
Paul Hammond injects some pace into page rendering with a nifty idea to allow the most important content to take precedence over your site’s more decorative baubles. What’s Christmas without the anticipation?
Gavin Bell takes some time to consider date-based content and how we publish it on the web. We’re generating more digital content than ever, and the date and time of creation is an increasingly useful metric. But how do we publish that in a way that remains useful for us now and the generations to come?
Kimberly Blessing takes a look at some different methods for marking up the progress meters commonly found on site checkouts. Particularly looking with respect to semantics and accessibility, Kimberly presents a neat solution of her own. Check it out. (sorry!)
Drew McLellan rounds off our series with a look at the challenges facing a site that needs to cope with occasional peaks in traffic without spending out on high-performance hosting that’s not needed for the majority of the time. Come behind the scenes at 24 ways and see how we keep the site online through the month of December each year. Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!
Brian Oberkirch gives a little respect back to his users, and suggests some way in which you might be able to do the same. Like a plate full of brussel sprouts, your users deserve a little respect, you can’t just rush in there. Not that I consider my users to be in any way like stupid old brussel sprouts. Oh no. What a mess.
Molly E. Holzschlag discusses the importance of the medium to the message, and how a better understanding of the theory and just technique can help in developing our craft. After all, a piece of chocolate is a piece of chocolate. But press it into a coin and wrap it in golden foil, and that’s Christmas right there people.
Brian Suda rings in the festivities by demonstrating how merriment can be plotted on a graph using the Google Charts API. It’s critically important to keep track of my mince pie consumption each year – it goes on my tax return. If you like your stats visual, let’s see how it’s done.
Cameron Moll eases us into the idea of developing for the mobile web with four quick tips to get you started. Sleigh bells ring, are you listening? In the lane someone has a mobile device and they’re trying to get to your content. Hark!
Ian Lloyd labels up and ships out a tip for improving the usability of form labels. Whilst checking the labels on the gifts under your tree, why not take some time out to check the labels on your forms and see where it might be appropriate to add some extra touches.
James Edwards takes the good stuff down off the shelf and illustrates how forms can be built to be both highly stylable and remain accessible to all comers. Good looking and accessible all at once? Surely it can’t be so.
Mike Davies kicks off a mini-series on Accessibility and JavaScript by considering a number of techniques for hiding links, yet keeping them accessible. And when I say hiding links, I don’t mean hiding your links to seedy underworld of organised crime, no sir. Moving swiftly along…
Molly E. Holzschlag explores the many issues surrounding the internationalization and localization of both web design and site content. As a W3C invited expert for internationalization, and an International Woman of Mystery, she knows what she’s talking about – in anyone’s language.
