2010 March Archive

Create a studio-style backdrop with CSS3

Sitepoint’s Web Design blog featured an article this week called Create A Studio Style Backdrop In Photoshop, which provides instructions for making a glossy, reflective surface effect, similar to what you often see in adverts.

As the title makes clear, the tutorial is for creating the effect in Photoshop – but really, the same effect is fairly easily achievable with some bleeding-edge CSS. That said, it won’t work in every browser, so currently it’s just a proof-of-concept piece.

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The importance of semantics on the web

We, as website makers, quite often advise our clients to avoid generic link text (read more,click here, etc.), and explain that more verbose descriptions help give context to users with screen readers. But using semantic link descriptions actually helps everyone.

I recently read Peter Morville’s fantastic book, Ambient Findability, which defined really well the motivation to use semantic descriptions for links: they give the target page aboutness.

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Aside

I’ve updated my Speaking page to include more conferences, more videos, and a little on my speaking requirements and preferences. I’m planning to cut down on the number of talks I give in 2014 (twelve is too many), but am always open to interesting offers and opportunities, so please get in touch if you’re organising an event.

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