Distinctive Design by Alexander Dawson

Author:Alexander Dawson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2011-05-22T16:00:00+00:00

Figure 6-1: Before the smartphone era, mobile devices had WML, which wasn’t very distinctive at all!

Before you examine how HTML can supply distinction (and before moving on to the other useful and distinctive inducing languages), it’s worth giving a “shout out” to the designer’s nemesis, compatibility (refer also to Chapter 4 for more on compatibility in web design). Although HTML4 and XHTML 1.0 do have a decent level of support, certain devices and web browsers have little support for HTML5 (the latest version at the time of this printing) or have a preference for restrictive mobile profiles or WML (a language designers should all fear because of its limitations).

If you’re looking for comfort about which languages to use for a cross-platform and user-friendly experience, eliminate XHTML 1.1 from your list. It’s not compatible with Internet Explorer 6 through 8. Tread carefully if you want to use HTML5 or CSS3. Remember that not all devices or browsers are born equal. For distinctive designs, visibility is critical (if people can’t see a site because of rendering quirks or failures, your visitors suffer), though designs can work if you provide good fail-safe fallbacks! Keep this in mind as you move forward.

With modern standards such as HTML5 and CSS3, there’s no escaping the need to tweak your code for specific rendering engines. CSS3 has a bunch of vendor prefixes (which can degrade gracefully). HTML5 often needs added markup and scripting to do the job. Although getting it right can be tricky, getting a beautiful interface has value.

Elements dictating distinction

Although structural languages such as HTML may not seem to be involved in your site’s distinctiveness, their role is more central to the process than most people realize. CSS has the power to paint your site’s canvas with visual flourishes commonly associated with the design, but a site’s structure says plenty about the relationship and influence of content within the page. Don’t dismiss a structural language’s importance in distinctive design. You may discover that in certain circumstances, the code makes all the difference.

One of the most overlooked places for distinction is a site’s header (the document head). Consider TITLE, which is one of several HEAD elements. Within a browser, this element holds emphasis by giving the window where your site resides a unique label that can be easily read. Figure 6-2 shows an example of identifying a page among a range of other tabs or windows. Such conventions may not seem influential, but they can increase visibility and reduce the amount of time a visitor must spend navigating while multitasking. Choose your titles carefully, keep them descriptive, and don’t make them so long that they are trimmed by default!

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