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Posts Tagged mdash

Use Icon Fonts to Create Lightweight, Flexible Icons

Dec 2

Posted by Admin in divKnowledge, Smiley Cat | No Comments

I love this post from CSS-Tricks about using icon fonts to create website icons. I’d never really thought about using this technique before, but it seems like a clever way to build considerable flexibility into how you present icons and symbols on a website.

As you can see from the example, it’s easy to customize their size and color which makes it simple to use them in various locations across a site — whether it’s in the header, the footer, or within the page content itself.

If you want to get started with icon fonts or need some ideas on the types of icons you can use, there are plenty of icon fonts available online. Here are some that are more useful for web designers:

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Should Web Designers Code?

Sep 19

Posted by Admin in divKnowledge, Usability Post | No Comments

To define is to limit.

– Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

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Improving Highlighters

Apr 10

Posted by Admin in divKnowledge, Usability Post | Comments off

I’ve just bought a box of new highlighters, and I noticed a nice design touch on the lid: the outermost edge is slanted, just like the felt tip of the highlighter itself.

6a935 highlighter Improving Highlighters

By closing the lid in alignment with the felt tip I prepare the highlighter for quick usage because I can begin using it the right way by looking at the lid—or even just feeling it with my hand—rather than having to check the way the tip is slanted every time I open it.

6a935 highlighter opened Improving Highlighters

I enjoyed the little touch but the designers could have gone further. The problem with this design is that the bottom edge of the lid is flat. This means that I can mount the slanted lid facing two directions, not just the one I want. If I put it on the wrong way it will not give me any indication of the slanting of the felt tip.

To solve this a forcing function

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The Embodiment Of Function

Sep 24

Posted by Admin in divKnowledge, Usability Post | Comments off

Form follows function—that has been misunderstood. Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union.

- Frank Lloyd Wright

To me, typeface design is one of the best examples of form that embodies function. Here, form isn’t just something extra, stuck on top of the underlying thing

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Font Smoothing

Aug 29

Posted by Admin in divKnowledge, Usability Post | Comments off

Webkit, the engine under the Safari and Chrome browsers, adds an interesting property to CSS called “font-smoothing”. You can probably guess what it does by its name. There are three different values you can use for it:

-webkit-font-smoothing: none;
-webkit-font-smoothing: subpixel-antialiased;
-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;

The

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My New Blog

May 8

Posted by Admin in divKnowledge, Usability Post | Comments off

I started UsabilityPost a couple of years ago with the purpose of creating an outlet which I can use to write about a subject I am passionate about. I focused on usability because the functional side of design is what interests me most and is something I feel is of most value to today’s designers.

I’m happy with the way the blog has turned out and will of course keep on writing…however, I oftentimes want to write posts on things which don’t really have much to do with design or usability. Unfortunately, I chose a very specific name for the blog, which is both, an advantage and a disadvantage. It’s clear what this blog is about just by looking at the domain, but at the same time, it limits the scope of what should be published.

So I think it’s time for a new blog. I’ve had it set up for a while but haven’t yet done very much with it. I’m going to fix that. To keep things simple, the new blog goes under my surname and is hosted at Fadeyev.net

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