Web Dev Blog

In testing new content for our site on mobile platforms, we discovered an unexpected but understandable context stressing the continuing importance of En Dash.  Some pages on our site include a date range listing a span of years, such as 1887 to 2010.  When viewing these on an iPad or iPhone, the text style looked wrong, which was confusing.  Upon closer examination, it was clear what was going on:  mobile Safari recognized these patterns as numbers with a specific semantic context.  Interestingly, iPhone saw them as a phone number, and iPad saw them as contact data.  Perplexed at first, I looked at the code and realized that the date range should properly be listed with an En Dash, not a hyphen.  The Wikipedia entry on Dash explains the difference between the two.  For web designers, the best piece explaining things is: The Trouble With EM ’n EN (and Other Shady Characters), from the site A List Apart. 

Here are screen shots from the test pages showing mobile Safari's treatment of dates with a hyphen and the correct view of them listed with an En Dash.  Just one more reason to remember to care about the semantic context of your code, down to every single character.

This entry was posted on March 16, 2011 at 4:50 PM and has received 17567 views. Print this entry.

Zebra Striping is a practice to assign alternating background colors to tables of information. It makes it easier to track information and it looks pretty. Long ago, people would achieve this through CSS class names or JavaScript, such as shown in this A List Apart article from 2004. Now it's possible to use zebra stripes on HTML tables with simple rules. We've added it to our site and it seems to work well. Here's a simplified view of the CSS code:

Note that for nth-child, you don't have to use odd/even pairs. This article from an Opera blog shows rules for doing this using various multiples of rows. The nth-child rules have been along for a while, but are now supported in most browsers, so we think it's time to stripe our tables. Unsurprisingly, IE8 and below don't support this rule, but the recent tests showing IE9's good ranking in HTML5 tests are promising for users of Microsoft's browser. Here's some further reading on the perceived benefits of zebra striping:

• Zebra Striping: Does it Really Help? by Jessica Enders [May 6, 2008]
• Zebra Striping: More Data for the Case by Jessica Enders [September 9, 2008]

Photo by Jim Harmer

This entry was posted on November 4, 2010 at 3:03 PM and has received 18125 views. Print this entry.

Georgetown Law Library introduced two touch screen kiosk-style devices for use in our two library locations.  We're launching the systems with no planned fanfare or press releases.  Initially, we'll rely on user feedback and local observation to plan content.  These systems have collection maps as well as digital exhibits of our library and collections. On this blog, we'll document some technical aspects of the system to share project progress.

For content, we've built a custom platform using HTML5, CSS3 and embedded fonts.  It is a simple setup running on uniform displays [32" Philips Public Signage display] with a very specific browser [Opera in Kiosk Mode]. This means we don't have to worry about browser compatability, and we can design the interface using specific pixel dimensions.

Here's what the first version looks like in Opera 10.63:

This uses HTML5 to define page content with the more semantic HTML5 markup for the page elements <header> <footer> and <nav>. It passes the W3C's HTML5 validation check as well. With simple CSS style rules, Opera renders the page structure well, but it looks pretty bad in Internet Explorer 8, as shown.

Our initial focus with the touch screens is to create content to be used while physically on campus.  Over time, we'll publish this content on our website, planning to archive all exhibits we create. Look to our WebDevBlog for technical updates on the system and underlying technologies.

 

 
 

This entry was posted on October 19, 2010 at 9:51 AM and has received 18100 views. Print this entry.

Since we launched the current law library website in January 2008, we've used a single sitewide navigation menu across the entire site.  It is anchored in a consistent place and mostly works well.  Unfortunately, it wasn't usable with Safari on the iPhone or iPad.  Also, it required proprietary JavaScript, which added page weight and complexity to our site, especally in testing.  Now we've moved to a new system for running the menus that works pretty well on iPhone and iPad browsers in Safari.  This menu uses the jQuery JavaScript library together with a menu plugin called Superfish.  Down the road, when we redesign our entire site, a jQuery plugin like jQTouch looks very promising for mobile site optimization.  For now though, we stuck with the same menu style on the same website.  The colors are even mostly the same, so we'll see who notices the difference.

This entry was posted on August 10, 2010 at 3:40 PM and has received 18648 views. Print this entry.

I recently completed a ranking analysis of 195 law school home pages, entitled the "Top 10 Law School Home Pages of 2009" The entire report is on SSRN and will be posted elsewhere later. This report looks at fourteen separate design elements, which were evaluated in November/December 2009.  Elements were given weighted values to equal 100 points for a perfect score.  Nobody got 100 points, but the survey reveals some interesting details about the state of law school home pages.

Here are some interesting numbers, showing how many schools out of 195 some of the elements surveyed:

• Use at least one microformat element: 4
• Define at least one Dublin Core element: 4
• Use embedded media (audio or video) playable directly from the page: 11
• Have a favicon defined: 144
• Display one or more social network badges/links: 47
• Include a picture of a smiling face: 170

The printed results will be in the Green Bag Almanac and Reader 2010, which is sent to most Green Bag subscribers. The version on SSRN is identical to the version to appear in print. This project may be repeated again next year.  If so, it will be interesting to see how much things change this year.  Suggestions for improvements are welcome, and criticism and complaints are okay too.

Read on for a list of the point values as well as a full abstract for the report. 


Element Name and Points Assigned:

• Address 10
• Search Box 10
• Cascading Stylesheet (CSS)* 10
• News Headlines 6
• News Headlines with Images 7
• Embedded Media 5
• Favicon 7
• Smiles 5
• Social Network Link 6
• Content Carousel 6
• RSS Meta Information 8
• Microformats 6
• Dublin Core 4
• Hierarchal Organization* 10

* partial points possible for these elements

Perfect Score 100

Abstract:
The website home page represents the virtual front door for any law school. It’s the place many prospective students start in the application process. Enrolled students, law school faculty and other employees often start with the home page to find classes, curricula and compensation plans. Home page content changes constantly. Deciding which home pages are good is often very subjective. Creating a ranking system for “good taste” is perhaps impossible.

The ranking report "Top 10 Law School Home Pages of 2009" includes a tabulation of fourteen objective design criteria to analyze and rank 195 law school home pages. The intent was to count only objective criteria to attempt to find the best sites. All law school home pages were ranked based on a weighted analysis of these criteria. Pictures of the ten best sites are included in the report, followed by a full tabulation of all schools evaluated for the report. The goal was to include elements that make websites easier to use for sighted as well as visually-impaired users. Most elements require no special design skills, sophisticated technology or significant expenses.

This entry was posted on February 18, 2010 at 4:28 PM and has received 19713 views. Print this entry.

At Georgetown Law Library, we assume our internal users (e.g. current students and faculty) are the most frequent visitors to the library's homepage.  Today we launched a new section of the page we hope will be useful for this internal audience.  We're now featuring selected databases and research guides on the homepage, which we introduced by rearranging some content on the page.

In using this, we can highlight updates to research guides and selectively promote our licensed databases and other resources.  We hope this helps us highlight useful content, and we see it as an alternative to using our Due Process blog to promote new items. Due Process still works well for certain types of content and database news, but it doesn't seem approprite to use it for more routine reminders, such as telling people that U.S. Law Week is a good place to get Supreme Court news.

Here's a view of the featured section at launch:

In testing this feature, we first tried to include the feature in the center column, but the design challenge proved to be too complex.  It works well at some screen resolutions, but at lower resolutions (even just below 1024 pixel width), the content looks almost unreadable:

Some of the more subtle changes are a shift from play control buttons under the Feedback Blog entries, as well as introduction of the "box-shadow" element to make the site look better in browsers that understand this feature.  Admittedly, we took elements of this directly from the book "Handcrafted CSS" including the suggestion of using the CSS3 properties box-shadow and border-radius, even though they're not widely supported in current browsers. We added rounded corners to the boxes earlier this year.

Let us know what you think.  Inevitably we'll tweak this based on feedback and usage data.

This entry was posted on November 9, 2009 at 2:57 PM and has received 19494 views. Print this entry.

When implementing changes to a website design, often fundamental changes are made only to a site's CSS file. Perhaps you're tweaking font spacing, adjusting margins for sections of a page or making significant layout changes. One problem that comes up when testing designs is that browsers like Firefox and Internet Explorer tend to cache a CSS file, making it hard to know whether intended changes actually work. For users, getting a current copy of the (X)HTML file may still mean you get the 'old' CSS file.

By passing a variable as part of the CSS file, this can help avoid the problem. Here's an example:

This tip was featured recently on the site: The Do's and Don'ts of Modern Web Design, which provides short posts describing best practices and things to avoid in creating websites. As the site's subtitle states, these are "Snacksized Web Design Tips and Tricks." The site makes each available with a retweet function to share them with your world of followers.

Online, the technique of the CSS Caching Hack dates back to (at least) 2006. It's a nice trick to keep in mind, and we'll be using it for some site adjustments we're planning for the law library.

This entry was posted on September 28, 2009 at 3:06 PM and has received 19707 views. Print this entry.

The Georgetown Law Library site uses a horizontal navigation bar for access to most sections of our site.  We introduced it with a redesigned site in January 2008, and people seem to like how it works.  In the course of conversations and a usability study this past Spring, we noticed that people sometimes pause, trying to decide which of five broad menu selections to choose.  We recently made a small change intended to make it easier for students and faculty to find what they need.  The audience-based items on our sitewide navigation are now in a different color, grouping them together visually.  Compare the difference:
Old:

New:

Following are two law schools that indicate different types of menu items for different audiences

Harvard Law School


Cornell Law School Library:

This entry was posted on August 20, 2009 at 4:43 PM and has received 19569 views. Print this entry.

In the world of web design, there's a concept known as "Progressive Enhancement" The basic definition on Wikipedia is as follows:

Progressive enhancement is a strategy for web design that emphasizes accessibility, semantic markup, and external stylesheet and scripting technologies. Progressive enhancement uses web technologies in a layered fashion that allows everyone to access the basic content and functionality of a web page, using any browser or Internet connection, while also providing those with better bandwidth or more advanced browser software an enhanced version of the page.

Today we updated the homepage at the Georgetown Law Library to include rounded corners for browsers that understand them. This doesn't add functionality, and it is no more advanced than it was. Given this, it seems more like "selective enhancement". We've selectively enhanced things for people using Safari or Firefox, while leaving Internet Explorer users with angled corners.

Compare the difference:
On a browser that interprets rounded corners:

On a browser that ignores this property:


For our own documentation, the corners are done with the CSS Property -moz-border-radius.

There are dozens of alternative methods of creating rounded corners, some requiring images, some with JavaScript, and some in pure CSS. For us, we decided that it's enough to selectively enhance the experience of visitors. Maybe it's a way for us to show that Firefox users tend to think outside the box (pun intended).

 

This entry was posted on August 20, 2009 at 4:20 PM and has received 19925 views. Print this entry.

Unless you're running a one-person blog or website, there is always a need for distributed content management.  The worst-case scenario with web management is that everybody emails changes to one person to post them online.  It's inefficient and it is no fun to be that content funnel. A better model is to give content editors tools they need to make changes themselves.

Adobe just updated the InContext Editing service, which is a system of distributed content management that could fill the gap for anybody not yet ready for a full web-based CMS. This is technically a product from Adobe, but it may be better described as a service, as it looks to be positioned as an entirely web-based subscription model for editing web content.

InContext editing is a web-based system that lets web developers give users the ability to edit content directly within the browser. Unlike Adobe Contribute, InContext Editing does not require a desktop software installation. It isn't as feature-rich as Contribute, but the Live Demo of InContext Editing shows that simple text editing is possible without much trouble. InContext Editing requires Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 to take advantage of all features, so this option ties you to the latest incarnations of Adobe's good (and not inexpensive) software tools.

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This entry was posted on May 21, 2009 at 2:47 PM and has received 20618 views. Print this entry.