Stop Worrying & Get On With It: Progressive Enhancement & Intentional Degradation (Web Directions South 2009)

What are we worried about?

What are we worried about? Some users see ‘broken’ sites.

What are we worried about? Some users see ‘broken’ sites. Don’t build broken sites: basic support can be offered as long as it doesn’t look broken. If it’s a real problem for older browsers, use universalie6.css, a warning message, or something similar

What are we worried about? Some users see ‘broken’ sites. Don’t build broken sites: basic support can be offered as long as it doesn’t look broken. If it’s a real problem for older browsers, use universalie6.css, a warning message, or something similar But this visual treatment is integral to the brand!

What are we worried about? Some users see ‘broken’ sites. Don’t build broken sites: basic support can be offered as long as it doesn’t look broken. If it’s a real problem for older browsers, use universalie6.css, a warning message, or something similar But this visual treatment is integral to the brand! Then include it (if not, don’t worry)

What are we worried about? Some users see ‘broken’ sites. Don’t build broken sites: basic support can be offered as long as it doesn’t look broken. If it’s a real problem for older browsers, use universalie6.css, a warning message, or something similar But this visual treatment is integral to the brand! Then include it (if not, don’t worry) Missing rounded corners don’t matter!

Take Your Design To The Next Level With CSS3 j.mp/smashingcss3

Fearful forabeautifulweb.com/s/598

“ ” Great article, thanks but I think to wait that the most of browsers support CSS3 totally to develop websites for my clients. Comments from Smashing Magazine readers on j.mp/smashingcss3

“ ” I hope CSS3 will be a standard in the near future, right now you cant really use anything of it ’cause not every browser supports it. Comments from Smashing Magazine readers on j.mp/smashingcss3

“ CSS 3 rocks. Unfortunately we need to stay at ” least 5 more years with CSS 2.1 if we want to offer the same design to each user (what in most ‘commercial’ projects is necessary). Comments from Smashing Magazine readers on j.mp/smashingcss3

“ I can’t wait to use CSS3 in a real project. Unfortunately I’m going to be stuck with ” things as they are for the time being as I wait for my clients to catch up. I expect this will be the case for most designers for the time being. Comments from Smashing Magazine readers on j.mp/smashingcss3

“ ” CSS3 looks really good however because of IE it will be long time before I start using it. Comments from Smashing Magazine readers on j.mp/smashingcss3

These arguments are complete and utter bullshit

If 98% of the users can’t see a text-shadow, it doesn’t matter, but it’ll be a nice enrichment for the 2% of users who can

Tap Tap Tap taptaptap.com

Tweet CC tweetcc.com

Fusion Ads fusionads.net

Progressive means progressive

Progressive means progressive Fall-back solutions (JS on and off?)

Barclaycard online admin barclaycard.co.uk

Progressive means progressive Fall-back solutions (JS on and off?) Enhancements only become features when the majority of users are experiencing them

Progressive means progressive Fall-back solutions (JS on and off?) Enhancements only become features when the majority of users are experiencing them Use progressive enrichment in your dull, corporate sites — the sexy stuff is an add-on, so it’s fine!

Do websites need to look exactly the same in every browser?

dowebsitesneedtolookexactlythesameineverybrowser.com

Do websites need to look exactly the same in every browser? Websites will never look consistent across all browsers

Do websites need to look exactly the same in every browser? Websites will never look consistent across all browsers Rendering engines, operating systems, and user-specific variables like screen settings and resolution will always stand in the way

Jon Tan: “ Designers will use [technologies like Flash, PDF, and hacks like embedding type in images] [...] because they won’t have to deal with painful inconsistencies between user agents; the bane ” of the browser wars, and in this instance, the bane of web typography in what seems like the age of the raster wars. Display Type & the Raster Wars j.mp/jontan

Bookmark these URLs Jon Tan: Web Typography tag jontangerine.com/log/tag/web-typography Web Typography (Richard Rutter) webtypography.net

Do websites need to look exactly the same in every browser? Websites will never look consistent across all browsers Rendering engines, operating systems, and user-specific variables like screen settings and resolution will always stand in the way So stop trying to reach the unreachable! Embrace the differences

Enhancement: reward

Enhancement: reward Visual treats for the more capable browser

Degradation: punishment

Degradation: punishment The removal of a treat

Degradation: punishment The removal of a treat The designer giveth and the designer taketh away!

Intention

Intention An awareness of browser capabilities and the appreciation that sites don’t need to look in the same in each one. Stuff and Nonsense stuffandnonsense.co.uk

Usability vs. aesthetics

Usability vs. aesthetics Usability / accessibility / functionality = very important

Usability vs. aesthetics Usability / accessibility / functionality = very important But don’t underestimate the importance of beauty!

The experience

The experience Beauty is the experience’s visual layer

The experience Beauty is the experience’s visual layer Visually pleasing layer = more fulfilling user experience

The experience Beauty is the experience’s visual layer Visually pleasing layer = more fulfilling user experience Functionality leads to usage; aesthetics lead to emotion

The experience Beauty is the experience’s visual layer Visually pleasing layer = more fulfilling user experience Functionality leads to usage; aesthetics lead to emotion The experience layer

The experience Beauty is the experience’s visual layer Visually pleasing layer = more fulfilling user experience Functionality leads to usage; aesthetics lead to emotion The experience layer (See Dan Mall’s FOWD presentation: events.carsonified.com/fowd/2008/newyork/videos/dan-mall/)

The experience layer “ Our emotions change the way we think ” and serve as constant guides to appropriate behaviour, steering us away from the bad and guiding us towards the good. Donald Norman, Emotional Design

Variety in web design. I can haz it?

BORING

Who’s pushing things forward?

Who’s pushing things forward? Tim Van Damme, Made By Elephant Mike Kus, Carsonified Miguel Ripoll, Cesser Digital Jason Santa Maria Matthew Smith, Squared Eye

Made By Elephant madebyelephant.com

Atebits atebits.com

Atebits atebits.com/tweetie-mac/

24 Ways 24ways.org

Stack Overflow stackoverflow.carsonified.com

Carsonified Events events.carsonified.com

Born Living bornliving.com

Jason Santa Maria jasonsantamaria.com

Squared Eye squaredeye.com/work/featured/family-life-network/

The nicer your site looks...

The nicer your site looks... ... the longer your visitors will look at it...

The nicer your site looks... ... the longer your visitors will look at it... ... the longer your visitors look at it, the longer they’ll spend on your website...

The nicer your site looks... ... the longer your visitors will look at it... ... the longer your visitors look at it, the longer they’ll spend on your website... ... and the longer they spend on your website, the easier it will be for you to sell them your product or service

Web design, for me, is predominantly full of boring, unimaginative work. Let’s change that.

N G IN l : A R W oversia con tr t at en ! em ing st ch ap p r oa

Validation is irrelevant

Yes, yes. Bear with me...

Yes, yes. Bear with me... New techniques won’t validate...

Validation errors jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator

Validator suggestions css3.info/the-big-css3-validation-debate/

The CSS3 Validator could offer the option to ignore vendor specific extensions Validator suggestions css3.info/the-big-css3-validation-debate/

The CSS3 Validator could offer the option to ignore vendor specific extensions The CSS3 Validator could highlight vendor specific extensions with a warning, rather than an error Validator suggestions css3.info/the-big-css3-validation-debate/

The CSS3 Validator could offer the option to ignore vendor specific extensions The CSS3 Validator could highlight vendor specific extensions with a warning, rather than an error The validator could mark such code as ‘experimental’ rather than an error or warning Validator suggestions css3.info/the-big-css3-validation-debate/

Yes, yes. Bear with me... New techniques won’t validate... ... and it doesn’t matter!

Yes, yes. Bear with me... New techniques won’t validate... ... and it doesn’t matter! Recognise the value of intentional invalidation

Jon Hicks hicksdesign.co.uk/journal

#tops b { display:block; float:right; width:333px; height:15px; background:url(/images/paulsmith.gif) no-repeat; } Intentional invalidation in hicksdesign.co.uk/css/layout-9.css

Yes, yes. Bear with me... New techniques won’t validate... ... and it doesn’t matter! Recognise the value of intentional invalidation Validation does not equal conformity to Web Standards: you can build a site with tables and a complete lack of semantics yet still have it validate

Validation

conformity

Standards

We’re looking at it in the wrong way

We’re looking at it in the wrong way “We can’t ensure that all users get the same experience.” // negative

We’re looking at it in the wrong way “We can’t ensure that all users get the same experience.” // negative “We can add further enhancements above the norm.” // positive

We’re looking at it in the wrong way “We can’t ensure that all users get the same experience.” // negative “We can add further enhancements above the norm.” // positive The flexibility the web offers is a blessing, not a curse

We’re looking at it in the wrong way “We can’t ensure that all users get the same experience.” // negative “We can add further enhancements above the norm.” // positive The flexibility the web offers is a blessing, not a curse Ensure a good experience for most; a great one for some

It’s not just about making things look pretty. Forward-thinking code means a future-proof website.

10% of users today will be 100% of users tomorrow

10% of users today will be 100% of users tomorrow The amount of people who see your enrichments might seem small right now, but that number will only grow, not decline

10% of users today will be 100% of users tomorrow The amount of people who see your enrichments might seem small right now, but that number will only grow, not decline It’s our duty to push forward-thinking development; to make the most of the tools made available to us and our users

10% of users today will be 100% of users tomorrow The amount of people who see your enrichments might seem small right now, but that number will only grow, not decline It’s our duty to push forward-thinking development; to make the most of the tools made available to us and our users New CSS techniques will never become mainstream if we designers aren’t using them

My site before Firefox 3.5 (no @font-face support) elliotjaystocks.com

My site after Firefox 3.5 (with @font-face support) elliotjaystocks.com

A personal typographic journey...

Note: CS3 panel shown Dreamweaver adobe.com/products/dreamweaver

The early days... ... Dreamweaver... ... confusion!

The early days... ... Dreamweaver... ... confusion! The choice of fonts appeared to be system-wide

The early days... ... Dreamweaver... ... confusion! The choice of fonts appeared to be system-wide It wasn’t clear about web-safe fonts

The early days... ... Dreamweaver... ... confusion! The choice of fonts appeared to be system-wide It wasn’t clear about web-safe fonts To an extent, Dreamweaver is still guilty

The allure of Flash

The allure of Flash You can use any font you like

The allure of Flash You can use any font you like Layout freedom, a la print design (vs. HTML inconsistency)

The allure of Flash You can use any font you like Layout freedom, a la print design (vs. HTML inconsistency) Hence type can be presented as intended

Back to basics: HTML

Back to basics: HTML Accessible: screenreader-friendly and allows for resizing

Back to basics: HTML Accessible: screenreader-friendly and allows for resizing Updatable: the source text dictates the final render

Back to basics: HTML Accessible: screenreader-friendly and allows for resizing Updatable: the source text dictates the final render Simple: HTML and CSS — that’s it!

Image replacement

Image replacement PROS It looks good It gives control over other elements besides type

Image replacement PROS It looks good It gives control over other elements besides type CONS Difficult to update Inaccessible in some situations Potentially it differs from the source code

sIFR at work on Jason Santa Maria’s site jasonsantamaria.com

sIFR The best of both worlds: the accessibility and ‘selectability’ of HTML but with (some of*) the benefits of Flash-based rendering. * = Layout is still determined by HTML

sIFR The best of both worlds: the accessibility and ‘selectability’ of HTML but with (some of*) the benefits of Flash-based rendering. Gracefully degrades for users without Flash / JS. * = Layout is still determined by HTML

sIFR The best of both worlds: the accessibility and ‘selectability’ of HTML but with (some of*) the benefits of Flash-based rendering. Gracefully degrades for users without Flash / JS. It’s brilliant, but essentially it’s a hack; not a solution. * = Layout is still determined by HTML

“ While sIFR gives us better typography today, it is clearly not the solution for the next 20 years. It is but a nice stopgap for people who value the importance of typography and don’t want to wait 1, 5, or 10 years for browser makers, OS vendors, and type foundries to figure out a better solution. ” The moment that happens however, sIFR will lift right out and give way to whatever other method is available. ~ Mike Davidson Mike Davidson, mikeindustries.com/blog/sifr

@font-face

@font-face Originated in the CSS2 spec, despite its general association with CSS3

@font-face Originated in the CSS2 spec, despite its general association with CSS3 Extremely simple to implement

@font-face Originated in the CSS2 spec, despite its general association with CSS3 Extremely simple to implement Current support: Safari (since 3.1) Firefox 3.5 Opera 10

@font-face Originated in the CSS2 spec, despite its general association with CSS3 Extremely simple to implement Current support: Safari (since 3.1) Firefox 3.5 Opera 10 Has some piracy issues (more on that in a sec!)

Jos Buivenga’s fonts josbuivenga.demon.nl

IE4!!!

Microsoft’s EOT (Embedded Open Type)

Microsoft’s EOT (Embedded Open Type) Supported since IE4 (but not in IE8 yet)

Microsoft’s EOT (Embedded Open Type) Supported since IE4 (but not in IE8 yet) Font encoding protects against piracy

Microsoft’s EOT (Embedded Open Type) Supported since IE4 (but not in IE8 yet) Font encoding protects against piracy EOT was submitted to the W3C for approval as a new standard. As far as I know, it was rejected

Microsoft’s EOT (Embedded Open Type) Supported since IE4 (but not in IE8 yet) Font encoding protects against piracy EOT was submitted to the W3C for approval as a new standard. As far as I know, it was rejected WEFT: Web Embedding Fonts Tool for making .eot files

The issues

The issues Protection is needed for font foundries to counteract font piracy (as with EOT)

The issues Protection is needed for font foundries to counteract font piracy (as with EOT) How do we cope with licenses? Mozilla proposes including license data in HTTP headers

The issues Protection is needed for font foundries to counteract font piracy (as with EOT) How do we cope with licenses? Mozilla proposes including license data in HTTP headers More fonts need to be made available so that the choice can improve. In its current state, the limited choice is turning into not much more than an alternative list of web-safe fonts

What needs to happen?

What needs to happen? Font foundries need to be protected by the technology, as they are with EOT

What needs to happen? Font foundries need to be protected by the technology, as they are with EOT Font embedding is the path to typographic enlightenment on the web... it now has multiple browser support

What needs to happen? Font foundries need to be protected by the technology, as they are with EOT Font embedding is the path to typographic enlightenment on the web... it now has multiple browser support Start using font embedding now!

2009: the year web typography started to grow up

Typekit typekit.com

Fontdeck fontdeck.com

Kernest kernest.com

Typekit, FontDeck, et al Multiple foundries

Typotheque typotheque.com

Typotheque, et al Foundry-specific system

Some recent articles I’ve written on the subject The font-as-service: ilovetypography.com/the-font-as-service/ More reasons to get excited about Typekit: elliotjaystocks.com

.webfont

.webfont This is where it gets exciting!

.webfont This is where it gets exciting! A recommendation for a new standard

.webfont This is where it gets exciting! A recommendation for a new standard Two files: font data + info.xml

.webfont This is where it gets exciting! A recommendation for a new standard Two files: font data + info.xml Built-in copyright protection

Some handy CSS3 features

Some handy CSS3 features Advanced layout

Jina Bolton creatingsexystylesheets.com/css3andwhatcouldbe.zip

Some handy CSS3 features Advanced layout Backgrounds

div.shoutbox { background: url(top.gif) top left no-repeat, url(middle.gif) left repeat-y, url(bottom.gif) bottom left no-repeat } Multiple background images

Some handy CSS3 features Advanced layout Backgrounds Borders

div.vcard { border-radius:20px; -webkit-border-radius:20px; -moz-border-radius:20px; } Borders: radius

div.vcard { border-image:url(border.png) 10 10 10 10 round round; } Borders: image

Some handy CSS3 features Advanced layout Backgrounds Borders Box shadows

div.info { box-shadow:10px 10px 5px #888; } Borders: image

Some handy CSS3 features Advanced layout Backgrounds Borders Box shadows Multi-column layout

div.article { column-count:2; column-gap:20px } Multiple column layouts

Some handy CSS3 features Advanced layout Backgrounds Borders Box shadows Multi-column layout Selectors

tr:nth-child(odd) td { background:#999 } Nth child selectors

Some handy CSS3 features Advanced layout Backgrounds Borders Box shadows Multi-column layout Selectors Text shadows

p { text-shadow:1px 2px 1px #000 } Text shadows

Sam Brown sam.brown.tc

Tim Van Damme timvandamme.com

Web Directions webdirections.org

All the small things

All the small things CSS2.1 / CSS3 etc. allows you to write less code, speeds up development time, and generally makes life easier

All the small things CSS2.1 / CSS3 etc. allows you to write less code, speeds up development time, and generally makes life easier Consider attribute selectors

<ul class="blogroll"> <li> <a href="http://shauninman.com">Shaun Inman</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://mezzoblue.com">Dave Shea</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://hicksdesign.co.uk">Jon Hicks</a> </li> </ul> HTML with no need for class names on each <li>

ul.blogroll li a[href="http://shauninman.com"]{ background:url(http://shauninman.com/favicon.ico); } Attribute selectors

All the small things CSS2.1 / CSS3 etc. allows you to write less code, speeds up development time, and generally makes life easier Consider attribute selectors Consider nth-child selectors

Fusion Ads fusionads.net/blog/

All the small things CSS2.1 / CSS3 etc. allows you to write less code, speeds up development time, and generally makes life easier Consider attribute selectors Consider nth-child selectors And if a browser doesn’t support these things... ... so what?

Thomas Silkjær theundersigned.net (Safari)

ul.gallery li:hover { webkit-transform:rotate:(-2.5deg); } theundersigned.net/wp-content/themes/default/style.css

Thomas Silkjær theundersigned.net (Firefox)

Progressive “ ” Favoring or advocating progress, change, improvement, or reform, as opposed to wishing to maintain things as they are. dictionary.reference.com/browse/progressive

Don’t fear degradation: plan for it

Slides will be available online at elliotjaystocks.com/speaking/

Thank you! elliotjaystocks.com | twitter.com/elliotjaystocks Pin-ups image by Mauren Veras - flickr.com/photos/mauren/2298724158/ Paint textures from The Stock Exchange - sxc.hu Set in FS Clerkenwell - fontsmith.com/font_details.php?font_num=251

Shameless plug! Sexy Web Design by Elliot Jay Stocks Expert reviewers: Jina Bolton & Dan Rubin Published by SitePoint

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Stop Worrying & Get On With It: Progressive Enhancement & Intentional Degradation (Web Directions South 2009)

by elliotjaystocks on Oct 18, 2009

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Stop Worrying & Get On With It: Progressive Enhancement & Intentional Degradation (Web Directions South 2009) — Presentation Transcript