Category: Design

A hack, in CSS parlance, refers to exploiting a CSS parsing bug unique to a particular user-agent to deliver alternative style rules or declarations to that agent, usually in order to compensate for some rendering bug also unique to the targeted agent. In plain English, a hack means using one bug to correct another. CSS… Continue reading Swearing Off Hacks with Conditional Comments

While working on my impending comics-inspired site design, I’ve been rediscovering my old enthusiasm for drawing comics, and incidentally rediscovering some tips and techniques I haven’t put into practice in years. Most of my creative juices flow directly onto a computer screen, but there’s great satisfaction in the organic act of making marks on dead… Continue reading Inking A Straight Line

When writing or debugging CSS, it’s often helpful to describe a selector in plain English as a handy way to sort out things like inheritance and specificity, and just to better understand how the rules are being applied. If it doesn’t make sense when translated, there’s probably something amiss. Some examples: p, li { …… Continue reading Translating Selectors

Andy Clarke‘s latest editorial touches on the idea of regionally distinctive design. In a nutshell, design trends have always been tied to a particular country (over time becoming part of the national identity), but this doesn’t seem to be happening yet on the web. Can a medium without borders give rise to nation-specific visual identities?… Continue reading Designer Nation

I suppose I should have expected to get roasted on that last post. It’s what I get for dipping my inexpert toes into a hotly-debated pool. So I’ll clarify my position thusly: Yes, presentation should be separated from behavior. Yes, a form field achieves a state of focus through an event. Yes, events should ideally… Continue reading Browser Elitism Relapse

There’s been some recent discussion about the separation of style and behavior, ever since Derek Featherstone found the head of the nail and Jeremy Keith dropped the hammer. While I’m all in favor of keeping the presentation layer segregated from the behavior layer (and both kept apart from the structure/content layer), there seem to be… Continue reading I’m a Recovering Browser Elitist