Blogging and all that malarkey

A collection of screenshots displaying examples of microcopy in web application design. Microcopy is tiny copy (often shorter than a sentence) that helps clarify, explain, reduce commitment, or otherwise assuage someone when performing (or considering) a task. Curated by Annett-Baker and Joshua Porter.

Ambling around a five storey bookstore in the Jinbocho area of Tokyo today, in the computer section I stumbled across a Japanese translation of my Transcending CSS and CSS Best Practice by Miki Ofuji.

First a disclaimer. I smoke cigarettes. I know that they are bad for me will probably kill me early or make me ill, but I for now at least I choose to smoke because I like something they give me physiologically.

Tomorrow I leave for Japan, taking For A Beautiful Web‘s Advanced CSS Styling workshop to Tokyo and then presenting an edited version of Walls Come Tumbling Down at   Web Directions East 2009 .

Relly Annett-Baker on first draft copy for CannyBill

Now that our For A Beautiful Web workshops calendar is closed for the year, it was time to push live a redesign of that site with a focus on my new DVDs. This was a chance for me to play, both with HTML5 and CSS transforms and transitions to spice up the interface.

Web forms often ask visitors for non-essential information, but long and complicated forms can hinder a sales or sign-up process. Wouldn’t it be cool to give users the option to hide these optional fields at their own discretion. (This entry was originally posted in 2004 and has been updated in 2009.)

If you’ve been looking to buy any (or all) of my three new For A Beautiful Web DVDs (Designing With CSS, Designing Web Accessibility and Designing With Microformats) from Amazon.co.uk, you’ll have noticed that they are not listed. Here’s why.

In praise of the chrome logos and lettering affixed to vintage automobiles and electric appliances — those unsung metal emblems and badges that are overlooked, forgotten, damaged, lost to time or the dump. (source)

Before we send over our design files to the chaps at CannyBill, first a run through of the browsers that we have tested in the new design and some musings about what browser testing actually means today, in the face of an ever more diversified browser and device landscape.

Hard man Dan Cederholm — I’d like to post here more often — not just to fill up bits and bytes, but to write again. Remember when blogs were more casual and conversational? Before a post’s purpose was to grab search engine clicks or to promise “99 Answers to Your Problem That We’re Telling You You’re Having”. Yeah. I’d like to get back to that here.

— I’d like that too. I have to admit that I really miss blogging as it was in 2005/6 and since I restarted And All That Malarkey in earnest, I’ve loved writing on it.

A fascinating look at Relly Annett-Baker‘s process of writing copy for CannyBill and finding its voice.

With the first phase of the CannyBill redesign process drawing to a close, I would like to say a huge thank-you to the CannyBill team for encouraging a public, open design process and to everyone who has commented and tweeted their helpful suggestions.

When is it the right thing to do not to attempt to reinvent a well established, tried and tested design pattern or convention. This question has come up while I have been designing the CannyBill prices and plans page.

It’s not everyday that I get to work with a client that completely gets why it’s important to push the progressive enrichment boundaries by using HTML5 and the kind of advanced CSS styling that I teach at my workshops. Luckily, the CannyBill team do more than get it. I’d like to share a little of the HTML5 and CSS that I’m using for this project.

Relly Annett-Baker guests on And All That Malarkey.

Liked most of my projects these days, I’m designing the next iteration of front of house site in a browser rather than making static visuals of page layouts. I know I’m in danger of sounding like a broken record, but I genuinely do find the process to be faster and better at scoping ideas and demonstrating them to clients. So I thought I’d share the start of this process and the files that I use.

After two weeks on the CannyBill redesign project (one of which I spent traveling to Chicago for An Event Apart), it time for deep breaths as I talk about my design of the home page for the new CannyBill front of house site and ask for your thoughts and suggestions.

Say goodbye to the browser-specific properties and hacks cluttering your files and say hello to lean, mean CSS. With eCSStender, when you write the rules, browsers pay attention. From the kilted Aaron Gustafson at An Event Apart Chicago.

I have to confess that when I’m designing, I often don’t take too much notice of a company’s peers or competitors.

While open to the public redesign projects have lately been popularised by Mark Boulton Design‘s work for Drupal and by Happy Cog‘s work for Mozilla, it’s rare to find a commercial company involved in an open project.

Ooops! The Stuff and Nonsense Theatre Company have printed 20,000 flyers with my URL on them by mistake.

I have plans for this typeface.

Last Friday I recorded a video interview with Ryan Taylor. In it I talk about my first job (making My Little Ponies), web design and conference speaking.