You've Mastered CSS, Now What?

Published 6 August 04 by Justin French, 4 comments

Accessibility

Accessibility guidelines such as 508 & WAIG will eventually become law (if it hasn’t already) in your area. Most of the requirements are quite simple to comply with, and make perfect sense.

There’s no excuse for not familiarising ourselves with these guidelines and gaining a greater understanding of what accessibility involves. Sure, client or business goals may make it hard to achieve a 100% compliant and accessible site every time, but 95% is a whole lot better than nothing.

Usability

Making something truly easy to understand and intuitive to interact with is the difference between a good interface, and a bad one. We could spend a lifetime studying semiotics and the interaction between humans & information systems, so why not get started right now?

DOM Scripting

JavaScript (EMACScript) can be used to enhance the user experience on browsers/user agents which have JavaScript available, while continuing to remain 100% accessible to those without.

There are some great examples (eat cake, form fields, flash replacement) out there, and web designers are just starting to realise it’s full potential.

Flash replacement in particular is going to be huge. They can allow us designers to meet some of the more graphical needs of our clients (like headings in obscure or custom fonts) with minimal impact on our time and budget.

Server-Side Scripting

We may not all want to become programmers, but we need a basic understanding of PHP or a similar server-side language (as well as databases and data design) in order to:

• meet basic client needs & goals
• solve common problems
• collaborate efficiently with programmers and development teams

Personally speaking, picking up PHP has completely altered my career, opening up opportunities and income streams that would otherwise have been impossible.

Defensive Design, User Experience Design

Defensive Design (a term penned by 37signals I believe) is more of a methodology than a technique or technology. What happens when things go wrong? What message do I receive if the database goes off line, or if I forget to fill in all required fields on a form? By designing and developing interfaces and applications defensively, we can ensure a good user experience.

Content is King

Writing or editing for the web is a fine art. You may believe this isn’t the job of a web designer, but I beg to differ. We should know what sort of content works on the web. We should at least be able to edit and re-word client-supplied content to suit the web.

What else?

Given endless hours in the day, what areas of web design would you be focusing your attention? Post your comments, or drop me an email.