I haven’t seen many articles about float layouts as thorough as an older (2007) article in Smashing Magazine about “Float Theory: Things You Should Know“. The article covers many areas of float technique including some basic rules about float behavior, the problems with IE in detail – and how to work around them semantically, a discussion and examples of clearing floats, and a series of tutorials and techniques. It is an outstanding reference on all things float – although it could use a little updating.

A second resource about floats is from positioniseverything which gets a little deep, but as this site is the best of dealing with browser issues, it is worth the time. “Any Order Columns” is about keeping columns logically ordered in the source while allowing the designer to display them in any order necessary – all with semantic markup. The combination of floats and negative margins – also discussed in the Smashing Magazine article, is an important though different type of solution. It involves some math, but then that’s why they explain the process!

One last example, that includes several types of float layouts comes from the CSS-Discuss Wiki which comes from the well-known css-discuss listserv started by Erik Meyer and others. The “Float layouts” section contains several options to study different float situations. Here I chose the “galleryfloats” section because it brings up a special situation that some would use absolute position to manage. This article references “Practical CSS Layout Tips, Tricks, & Techniques” by Mark Newhouse and published in A List Apart. This article describes an interesting approach to creating floated gallery elements with captions which I demonstrated years ago, and which I still use when this situation appears. The combined information provides well detailed methodology for this unique type of float layout.

One last article, again from A List Apart, is from Ryan Brill and is titled: “Creating Liquid Layouts with Negative Margins“. Notice the repetition of negative margins and floats! This shows a way of using % based widths and negative margins to achieve liquid layouts with floats. All good exercises and a way of looking beyond the basics of float layouts.

The Web was designed as an information space, with the goal that it should be useful not only for human-human communication, but also that machines would be able to participate and help. One of the major obstacles to this has been the fact that most information on the Web is designed for human consumption, and even if it was derived from a database with well defined meanings (in at least some terms) for its columns, that the structure of the data is not evident to a robot browsing the web. Leaving aside the artificial intelligence problem of training machines to behave like people, the Semantic Web approach instead develops languages for expressing information in a machine processable form.

This document gives a road map – a sequence for the incremental introduction of technology to take us, step by step, from the Web of today to a Web in which machine reasoning will be ubiquitous and devastatingly powerful.

It follows the note on the architecture of the Web, which defines existing design decisions and principles for what has been accomplished to date.

From Semantic Web Roadmap, by Tim Berners-Lee,
September 1998 (http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/Semantic.html)

Trying to find more current thinking, I ran into Tim Berners-Lee presenting at the current 2009 TED conference. While WordPress now links TED movies directly, I choose to send readers to the page the movie is served on, and because it is a 16 min presentation. Berners-Lee didn’t mention Semantic Web, or any of the other terms associated with it. This presentation was about linked-data, a more advanced concept of the same concern. It is worth a listen as this just may be a better route to the same purpose.
Tim Berners-Lee at TED

An important subject, confusing to most, but what if…

I reference an older article to begin my serious side of design issues. Richard MacManus and Joshua Porter discussed Web 2.0 for designers by in 2005 and their approach clearly represents my primary design sense. I am concerned that the design of a site be as effective as it possibly can be to achieve the goals of the the client’s users. To accomplish this the technologies to be included are vital to the ‘design’. Websites are no longer static and cute, they must contain the best of the tools as they are called for. This means an XML page that transmits content for subscription as well as accurate search engine optimization. It may need a portal approach, or interactive communication processes from blogging activities. It must respond to emergent navigation from RSS readers, search engines, links from other blogs, or a social bookmarking tag. Each technology that is required to accomplish the site goals needs to be appropriately woven into the visual design of the pages.

Another important aspect of design is how the site relates to social networking processes. Does the client value interactive communication and users who are attracted to companies who are transparently describing their products and services? There is more to design that visual appeal. Many users today are more interested in companies that will listen to their needs and put that first, over pushing products and services to define their profit goals.

Tomorrow’s trends in web design, by Craig Grannnell appears in .net’s February 2009 issue. Various designers share their view of the trends. Jeffrey Zeldman (Happy Cog) suggests that standards will be an important focus that includes content, usability, user experience and design excellence. Anyone not focusing on these assets will need to get in gear. Eric Meyer suggests that designers continue to learn and diversify their skills, and learn to survive rather than a specialization.

Design is also communicating with other designers and anyone interested in your craft. Suw Charman-Anderson’s article in .net (April, 2009), Boost your career with social media, offers an interesting discussion of the value of designers being very active with social networks as a way of expanding the professional potential of your design career. Using a blog to communicate your particular interests and skill set, expanding your contacts with Linkedin and Facebook, using Twitter to communicate micro-content and distribute it broadly to friends, clients, and colleagues will help to build interest in your design services.

I love meaningful images, especially anything well representing nature and life, but they need to be dispersed with the rich communications’ tool-set that drives the purpose of a site and offers unique experiences between user and words.

Clarke was suggesting a newer more current vision of web development, one that transitioned from where we were to a new level of thinking about design and the designer/client/user interaction. I liked the "don’t play games with browsers" attitude that takes a stance – use current browsers, current standards, and make sites usable to all.

He also emphasizes the use of all selectors and CSS3 which isn't a full recommendation yet. My understanding of this is stay on the edge of what is possible with the language – don’t just do the familiar. Use each tool in the development kit to communicate as effectively as we possibly can. It also says don't get stuck in a routine of coding. Coding for the web is an art and the palette we have is deep and flexible if we choose to go beneath the surface and understand what we can do with each asset on our palette. Until we understand each and every selector available to us, we do not fully grasp the potential we have as designers. And a valid part of the assets includes Javascript, CSS3, microformats, and RSS. All are a part of web development, and each contributes significant dimensions to our ability to communicate.

I especially appreciate his focus on sharing and collaborating as a community of designers. I often think I overly focus on this aspect of learning design, but then I realize the tremendous value of the ideas and work of colleagues like Clarke, who inspire and push us to new ways of seeing our work. And in the process perhaps we also see a little more of ourselves.