Copying is the way design works || Matthew Ström: designer & developer
A people’s history of copying, from art to software.
Designers copy. We steal like great artists. But when we see a copy of our work, we’re livid.
Link tags: copy
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Top 5 things to review in an Accessible Design Review - Hassell Inclusion
Considering how much accessibility work happens “under the hood”, it’s interesting that all five of these considerations are visibly testable.
- Think about accessible copy
- Don’t forget about the focus indicator
- Check your colour contrast
- Don’t just use colour to convey meaning
- Design in anticipation of text resizing
A short history of body copy sizes on the Web
A look at the trend towards larger and larger font sizes for body copy on the web, culminating with Resilient Web Design.
There are some good arguments here for the upper limit on the font size there being too high, so I’ve adjusted it slightly. Now on large screens, the body copy on Resilient Web Design is 32px (2 times 1em), down from 40px (2.5 times 1em).
203221 – Web Share API: should prefer URL to text when both available
That unusual behaviour I wrote about with the Web Share API in Safari on iOS is now officially a bug—thanks, Tess!
Bruce Lawson’s personal site : Structured data and Google
Bruce wonders why Google seems to prefer separate chunks of JSON-LD in web pages instead of interwoven microdata attributes:
I strongly feel that metadata that is separated from the user-visible data associated with it highly susceptible to metadata partial copy-paste necrosis. User-visible text is also developer-visible text. When devs copy/ paste that, it’s very easy to forget to copy any associated metadata that’s not interleaved, leading to errors.
HTML Symbols, Entities, Characters and Codes
For all your copying and pasting needs:
A delightful reference for HTML Symbols, Entities and ASCII Character Codes
“Designer + Developer Workflow,” an article by Dan Mall
Dan compares the relationship between a designer and developer in the web world to the relationship between an art director and a copywriter in the ad world. He and Brad made a video to demonstrate how they collaborate.
Nick Jones - Interface Prototyper / Designer
A really interesting and well-executed portfolio site, utterly let down by the tone of this demeaning and insulting piece of copy:
WARNING: Do not proceed if you suffer from vertigo or if you find experimental interfaces offensive.
(Pssst: copy is also interface.)
Joe Coleman
Joe’s site is very clever …but is it as clever as Jon’s?
Fullstopnewparagraph — Freelance copywriter | London
Jon’s site is very clever …but is it as clever as Joe’s?
Functional Minimalism for Web Design
According to this, the forthcoming Clearleft redesign will be totally on fleek.
Life plus Linux: Look before you paste from a website to terminal
The (literally) hidden dangers of copying code snippets from the web and pasting them into the command line.
This cautionary tale backs up a small tip I heard for getting to understand how found code works: deliberately type it out instead of copying and pasting.
Let them paste passwords - NCSC Site
Ever been on one of those websites that doesn’t allow you to paste into the password field? Frustrating, isn’t it? (Especially if you use a password manager.)
It turns out that nobody knows how this ever started. It’s like a cargo cult without any cargo.
First Time User Experiences
Krystal’s excellent annotated collection of onboarding examples.
Everything is a Remix: The Force Awakens on Vimeo
The newest Kirby Ferguson video looks at remixing through the lens of the newest Star Wars film.
Use the words normal people use
When you’re struggling to write something that sounds clear and sounds human (two of the essential basics of a good blog post, I’d argue), just use the words normal people would use. The best way to find out what those words are is to try talking the thing through to someone who doesn’t know anything about it. Remember what you just said, then write that.
Nicole Fenton | Interface Writing: Code for Humans
The text of Nicole’s excellent talk on writing helpful, human microcopy.
Writing for everyone.
Slides of really great practical advice on writing clearly.
The Hole in Our Collective Memory: How Copyright Made Mid-Century Books Vanish by Rebecca J. Rosen in The Atlantic
Copyright correlates significantly with the disappearance of works rather than with their availability.
Screenshots of Despair
The existential angst of unfeeling feedback.