Adobe MAX 2008: HTML/CSS + Fireworks

Designing Eﬀective
CSS & HTML
Websites in Fireworks
Adobe MAX Conference - San Francisco, CA - November 18, 2008

Hi. I’m Nathan Smith, a designer and
front-end developer at Viewzi.com

Today I’d like
to talk to you
about using
Fireworks to
design HTML
and CSS sites.

But first, let me
ask you this...

What is the
de nition of
a standard?

Standard: “Something
considered by an authority
or by general consent as a
basis of comparison; an
approved model.”
— Dictionary.com

Ajaxian.com word frequency

(via Wordle.net)

“
Standards exist for the benefit
of the web worker almost more
so than the end user, and by
following the best practices set
forth by the best people in our
industry, we ensure we are
equipping ourselves with a
versatile skill-set which we can
take into any environment.

— Mike Davidson Newsvine founder

http://www.mikeindustries.com/blog/archive/2004/06/march-to-your-own-standard

When it comes to standards,
it’s all about the distribution.

(non-metric countries)

United States - Liberia - Myanmar

Flash is a de facto standard
Mozilla holds a Guinness World Record for the most
software downloaded in 24 hours. On June 17, 2008
approximately 8 million people downloaded Firefox 3.

“In July 2008, successful downloads averaged
about 33 million per day, and successful installs
averaged around 18 million per day.”
— Emmy Huang Adobe Product Mgr

http://tinyurl.com/flash-stats

Macro vs. Micro Semantics

– Correct tags – ID, class names
– Accessibility – Microformats
– Attribute usage – Machine code
– Search Engines – HTML / XHTML

http://flickr.com/photos/leoffreitas/332360959/ http://flickr.com/photos/kennysarmy/2493464978/

Enterprise Corporations

– Stakeholders preview centralized PNGs
– Smaller file-size, storage goes further
– Maintain lower total cost of ownership

Agencies & Small Teams

– Rapidly move from prototype to design
– Test out FW PNGs directly in a browser
– Easily export PDF overviews for clients

Freelance Web Designers

– Integrate with multiple document types
– Display PNG comps via HTML mockups
– Less time spent switching between apps

“
As a general rule of thumb,
anything that can read JPG or
GIF files will usually support
PNG as well. Unlike the PSD
format used by Photoshop, PNG
files are readable by a variety of
freely available applications,
including the most important:
web browsers.

— Nathan Smith Front-End Developer

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/fireworks/articles/enterprise_it.html

Rough Wireframes

High Detail Design
http://www.bartelme.at/journal/archive/flow_wallpaper

FW now looks akin to its CS4 siblings

CS3 CS4

Visual Style Corporate
Guidelines Branding

HTML
CSS

Prototype form elements in Win/Mac

Create a vector based drawing

9-slicing
Example

Convert vector group to symbol

Use 9-slicing on symbol

Preserves the outer
corners and edges

Resize element without distortion

Widescreen!

The align Especially
panel is for doing
useful for animated
all sorts “Web 2.0”
of shapes Ajax GIFs

#rating_widget_hate,
#rating_widget_dislike,

CSS
#rating_widget_ok,
#rating_widget_like,
#rating_widget_love {
background: url(../img/faces.gif) no-repeat;
}

Sprites
#rating_widget_hate {
background-position: -250px 5px;
}
#rating_widget_hate:hover {
background-position: 0 5px;
}
#rating_widget_dislike {
}

#rating_widget_dislike:hover {
}

#rating_widget_ok {
}

#rating_widget_ok:hover {
}
#rating_widget_like {
}
#rating_widget_like:hover {
}

#rating_widget_love {
}

#rating_widget_love:hover {
}

Use grid guides to keep
items arranged properly

Slice + optimize
all your images

Image export is a time saver

More efficient than cropping

PDF export is quite handy

Great for client feedback

Export code with caution

Prototyping, not production

Code automation is okay, in moderation

http://flickr.com/photos/polvero/2656367141/

Bene ts of Frameworks
•Consistent coding style.
• Increases maintainability.
• Rapidly prototype ideas.
• Improvements made to core.
• Not re-inventing the wheel.

“Embrace Constraints”
css
– Mark Kraemer

All modern monitors support at
least 1024×768 pixel resolution.

960 is divisible by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,
8, 10, 12, 15, 16, 20, 24, 30, 32,
40, 48, 60, 64, 80, 96, 120, 160,
192, 240, 320 and 480.

The 960 Grid System is an effort to streamline
web development by providing commonly used
dimensions, based on a width of 960 pixels.

There are two variants: 12 and 16 columns,
which can be used separately or in tandem.

The basis of the grid is ideally suited to rapid
prototyping, but it would work equally well
for workflow in a production environment.

There are printable sketch sheets, Photoshop
and Fireworks templates, and a CSS framework
that contain identical column measurements.

The 12 column grid is divided into portions
that are 60 pixels wide, whereas the 16
column grid consists 40 pixel increments.

Each column has 10 pixels of margin to either
side, which stack to create gutters that are
20 pixels wide between each of the columns.

If today’s topic was JavaScript, I’d push...

Summation of Presentation
•FW = ideal for web design.
•Plays well with Adobe apps.
•Great for rapid prototyping.
•Efficiently export images.
•Write good code by hand.
•Homework: check out jQuery.

That’s a wrap. Keep in touch!
sonspring.com
twitter.com/nathansmith

Adobe MAX 2008: HTML/CSS + Fireworks

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Adobe MAX 2008: HTML/CSS + Fireworks