We had a great turnout to hear Noel Jackson speak on transitioning from print to web design. Here are some notes from the presentation, thanks to Chris Martello:

Title: “New Media” - putting print in Context
- Delivery Methods are different:
- Print: Buy, read, pickup, consume, turn page for instant refresh
- Web: Search, click, type, read, consume; but there is a delay….
- Web just isnt on a computer: iphone, other phone, browser, etc.
- Web isnt just being “Read” it’s being used for handcapped, visual impaired
- What about the ‘fold’ on the web page? Above the fold…. ‘everything’ above the fold
- NO, everything does not need to be above the fold…
- How do you try to emulate print?
- Graphic design started In print
- Use ‘the grid’
- Practice good typography
- Vertical rhythm
- Design for your audience
- Us a proper line length
- What makes Web Design unique
- Semantics are as important as design
- Perfection does not mean everyone will receive the same experience
- Design for your environment
- Line length
- The browser (reading device) is in control
- Fonts, fonts fonts (cipher, and q-fonts ) look up fonts on web
- Transparency

“If you are OCD, stick with print!”

Perfection on the web = the best user experience
You don’t know what you are missing by using IE6-7 all the time!

- Design factors influencing Design Consistency Across Browsers
- Time
- Money
- User Experience
- User Environment
- PITA Factor / Your Soul
- Providing a graceful degradation for the browser (IE6)

There was an excited discussion about browser usage stats, and why folks won’t upgrade from IE6. 47% of traffic on WordPress.com is IE6 (due to corporate America, folks wont upgrade, etc.)

- The Web is easy to automate; Print forced continuous analysis and adjustment to design.

Check out Noel’s Art Direction plugin for WordPress, which provides the ability to add styles or JavaScript to each entry, without a lot of custom code.

Automation has eased content creation, but hindered design innovation on the Web
- Print has so much more control…
- Tough part is doing some of the same things on the web (since a lot of it is automated)
- Jason Santa Maria - Site example of a site that has same code base, but multiple looks and designs:
- Another great example, Just Watch The Sky

What is CSS?
Examples of what can be done with CSS: CSS Zen Garden.
To learn more about CSS: w3 schools.

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Congratulations to the following people for winning copies of web design related books from O’Reilly!
- Roger Rayle - Universal Design for Web Applications
- Todd Sneed - Designing Gestural Interfaces
- Brad Czerniak - The Principles of Beautiful Web Design
- Gerald Campain - Search Engine Optimization for Flash
- Samantha Sevick - Head First Web Design

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