Where web design is heading? - Daddy, Daddy I need a new computer!! - What for? - Mainly for web browsing and communicating with friends? - What it should be like? - It must have at least dual core 3GHz CPU and 4GB of RAM!! - ???? $$$$$ Trends in design & optimization In 2010/2011 Janusz Kowalczyk

Agenda HTML 5 UX Accessibility Ubiquity Simplicity & minimalism Optimization Security Design tools

HTML 5 What's new: Canvas Media support Say goodbye to Flash and Silverlight :) Off-line database storage Drag-and-drop Not (yet) in specification Geolocation Web SQL Database / a local SQL Database Indexed Database API

UX – User eXperience UX – what's that? User experience is subjective and focuses on the use It's all about HCI (Human-Computer Interaction) Three main factors that influence user experience User's state System properties Context of use (situation) Why follow those rules? Higher revenues through increased sales Increased user efficiency and satisfaction Reduced development costs Reduced support costs

Accessibility Who & How: WAI - Web Accessibility Initiative WCAG - Web Content Accessibility Guidelines WAI-ARIA - Accessible Rich Internet Applications What for ? There are 1.3 million disabled people in the UK who are available for and want to work (*) Speech synthesis and/or control Keyboard and touchscreen control * - Source: Office for National Statistics Labour Force Survey, Jan - March 2009

Ubiquity Where: Tablets Mobile handsets E-book readers Touch screen devices Game consoles Why & How: Improve accessibility for people with disabilities Key-press navigation Adapt layout and content to “new” media types: 'horizontalism', monochromatic displays etc. CSS media queries

Simplicity & Minimalism How: Simple message Lots of white space Strong typography Surprising colour schemes Why? Focus attention Emphasize differences Easier to remember Improve accessibility

Optimization My 4 best tips Sprites / Animated PNG / SVG Unobtrusive Java Script (DHTML) CSS & JS Compression Graceful degradation & Progressive enhancement Why use them? Decrease costs Speed-up page loading time Improve user experience Improve accessibility Future Proof

Optimization 1/4 Sprites / Animated PNG / SVG Why use them? Web browser spend 5-38%of the time to download HTML and 62-95% loading images, scripts, CSS Decrease the number of requests by 10 or more Decrease page load time Save money

Optimization 2/4 Unobtrusive Java Script (DHTML) Separate functionality from page structure/content and presentation Avoid cross-browser incompatibility Progressive enhancement (support user agents that may not support advanced JavaScript functionality) Best practises Capability detection DOM Scripting (avoid browser-specific extensions) Follow JavaScript programming best practices Why follow those rules? Scalability Accessibility (i.e. for devices with slow CPU) Better compatibility

Optimization 3/4 Java Script & CSS compression 21% of Alexa Top 1000 have CSS greater than 100K 42% Don’t GZIP CSS – GZIPed files are usually 5x smaller Web browser spend 5-38%of the time to download HTML and 62-95% loading images, scripts, CSSs Why use compression? Save money on new equipment and bandwidth Improve user experience Decrease page loading time

Optimization 4/4 Graceful degradation Browser backward compatibility Support user agents with no JS or proprietary plug-in Gracefully degrade: ”Menu Rollovers”, Forms etc Progressive Enhancement Basic content & functionality should be accessible to all browsers Provide enhanced features with unobtrusive JS Respect end user browser preferences Why? Better accessibility SEO (search engine optimization) Improve UX

Security Common Attack Methods: XSS – Cross-site scripting Rigorous input validation SQL injection Escaping Use object-relational mapping Use parameterized statements Tabnabbing Disable fav icons Buffer overflow Impersonation attacks - malformed cookies Social attacks / Malware / Banners etc

Design tools Libraries / Frameworks –Jquery, YUI, Mootools, GWT etc. IDEs / Source code editors –IDEs: Eclipse WTP / Aptana Studio / Zend –Editors: Notepad++, EditPlus Testing tools –Browser built-in debuggers –Selenium / Firebug

Questions ? Sources: css-tricks.com – page content loading time statistics blog.endpoint.com – Sprites and their impact stubbornella.org - Top 5 Mistakes of Massive CSS Wikipedia – web related information anybrowser.org – Graceful degradation & PE webtips.dan.info – Graceful degradation & PE