It’s Away!
There are only a couple days left until the deadline for Interaction 13 submissions. I just got mine in. In addition to my talk, “Working with Developers for Fun and Profit”, I achieved my goal of submitting a workshop. In fact, I submitted two. Hopefully, one or the other will be selected. With my teaching experience, I do believe that conference workshops would be an excellent fit for me.
Introduction to Typography
Typography is one of the foundations of design. It should be part of the fundamental training of a designer, whether pursuing Graphic Design, Interaction Design, Industrial Design, Information Design, or Service Design. Unfortunately, due to the limitations of technology, especially on the web, typography was given short shrift. Designer’s control of type was hamstrung, so the importance of learning the finer points of working with type diminished. A large percentage of Interaction Designers don’t have a visual design background and have not been exposed to typographic training.
Now, with the advent of web fonts and services that provide them, typography on the web is seeing a resurgence. CSS 3 provides fine control of type, making it, once again, a powerful tool in the hands of those that know how to wield it. We are the caretakers of an art that has been under development since 3200 BC (cuneiform)—the very architecture of visual communication. As such, it is our responsibility to become proficient in the use of type as a method of communication, a means of expression, and an element of usability.
Intended primarily for typographic beginners, the goal of this workshop is to:
- Provide a basic vocabulary with which to discuss typography
- Give a historical overview of typographic evolution
- Instill a foundational understanding of how type works in print and on screen
- Demonstrate the implementation of type with contemporary web technology
- Elicit an appreciation of, and passion for, well-executed typography
Sitting in the Driver’s Seat: creating production-ready CSS
CSS 3 has handed the keys back to designers. With a syntax and structure that speaks our language and a fine-grained level of control, it empowers designers to not only prototype in the actual medium, but to contribute production-ready code. The days of pointing at the screen over the developer’s shoulder and trying to explain how something needs to shift three pixels are over. In fact, much of the JavaScript currently employed for simple UI behaviors can be replaced with well-architected styles. Take the driver’s seat, and make the CSS your UI specification document.
This workshop is intended for intermediate designers interested in gaining more control over their team’s final product. As a participant, you will:
- Familiarize yourself with the tools you’ll need to integrate with your development team.
- Learn how Object Oriented CSS (OOCSS) can lead to cleaner, more maintainable code.
- Discover how to replace heavy-handed, inefficient JavaScript with CSS-driven behavior.
- Get started on your own library of CSS components.
