Resources for CSS Layouts & Accessible Websites & Good Design
These are some of the best resources for learning the whys and how of accessible design:
- Dive Into Accessibility, a free book on web accessibility, for web designers http://diveintoaccessibility.org/
- http://www.alistapart.com/ Especially: List of CSS Tricks
- Layout Reservoir http://www.bluerobot.com/web/layouts/
- CSS Layout Techniques: for Fun and Profit http://glish.com/css/
Benefits of CSS Layouts and Well-structured XHTML
Using XHTML and CSS to improve your search engine ranking!
http://www.alistapart.com/stories/seo/
"Using H1 through H6 accordingly" for the subheadings of your websites, you can "let the search engine spiders know they are of importance. But don’t forget to use one or two of your keywords in the title—otherwise it won’t make a difference either way."
For print or screen!
You can assign CSS for either screen or print. Though there are known bugs with this feature. This tutorial talks about solutions to these problems:
CSS Beyond the Browser: Going to Print
http://www.alistapart.com/stories/goingtoprint/
"Say no to ‘printer-friendly’ versions and yes to printer-specific style sheets. CSS expert Eric Meyer shows how to conceive and design print style sheets that automatically format web content for off-screen delivery. Includes tips on hiding inappropriate content, styling text for the printer, and displaying the URL of every link on the page."Back to top
Advanced CSS Issues
The Box Lesson at The Noodle Incident offers some advanced hackery to try and get more control over layout. But I think it is better to be flexible, and not try to control too much. If you see little hacks and tricks, it might be best left to the hackers and tricksters.
Fluid Thinking By Peter-Paul Koch says "graceful degradation and liquid design are both subsets of fluid thinking".
"So we've got plenty of tools for complex workarounds... but can't we keep it simple?
The simplest way to avoid box model problems is to make sure they don't matter much. If your box has a fixed width, a 5px padding and a 1px border, Explorer will show it 12px smaller than the other browsers. If the design is fluid enough to accommodate this difference you don't need to worry."
As a general resource the Style Guide for the Branch Libraries of the New York Public Library are helpful in showing basic XHTML and some style sheets for reference.
http://www.nypl.org/styleguide/
Web Page Design in General
Keep It Simple: "a call to keep web design and web development as simple as possible."
Natural Selections: Colors Found in Nature and Interface Design by Luke Wroblewski. This article references http://www.visitdublin.com/
Sitemaps and Site Indexes: What They Are and Why You Should Have Them by Chiara Fox
Sitemaps and site indexes are forms of supplemental navigation. They give users a way to navigate a site without having to use the global navigation. By providing a way to visualize and understand the layout and structure of the site, a sitemap can help a lost or confused user find her way.