You may have noticed a small grey box saying “Fonts from” in the bottom right of your browser window, which links to a page describing the fonts which are used on this site. This is part of the new Typekit service, which is able to implement a wide range of fonts into a website, giving designers more varied options when picking an appropriate font. (more…)
After lunch, Drew McLellan was up again to run through a Smashing Magazine style “10 Cost Effective Web Development Techniques”. Each one was a great tip about to optimise and streamline the development process and I won’t run through them all here but the ones that stood out were “Write a comprehensive project spec”, “Broadband is not a silver bullet” and “Use existing APIs”.
“Write a comprehensive project spec” refers to gaining as much information as possible about the project before starting work, in order to provide a clear goal which will help to plan out the project as well as saving time and reducing errors as the project progresses. Although it’s not possible to predict every outcome and situation which might arise throughout a project but having a clear spec will help to reduce the number of errors/problems down the line. Try to gain as much information from the client/project manager as possible by asking as many relevant questions as possible and by drawing out as much information as you can in order to make informed design and development decisions as things progress.
On Monday I attended the Future of Web Design tour when it rolled into Glasgow and thoroughly enjoyed it. This one day event was held at the Glasgow Film Theatre, and featured a range of talks on subjects as diverse as microformats, Silverlight and keyboard accessibility all of which were enjoyable as well as introducing new ideas and techniques.