For regularly updated PROMISE information and events, please visit and bookmark:  http://www.umbc.edu/promise

 

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Related articles, posted by PROMISE AGEP

• Workshops for Grad Students, Sept. – Dec. 2013: Professional development seminars for graduate students: FALL 2013 (promiseagep.wordpress.com)
• About AGMUS (SUAGM in Spanish): http://newsismybusiness.com/exclusive-suagm-opens-maryland-campus-as-it-expands-across-u-s-overseas/
• PROMISE SSI 2013: http://promiseagep.wordpress.com/2013/06/21/promise-summer-success-institute-ssi-10th-anniversary-celebration-august-16-17-2013-in-baltimore/

For regularly updated PROMISE information and events, please visit and bookmark:  http://www.umbc.edu/promise

 

Please share our news! 

• Twitter:  @PROMISE_AGEP, #PROMISEagep
• “Like” on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PROMISEagep

Page down to the bottom of this website and +Follow/subscribe  for updated information.

Related articles, posted by PROMISE AGEP

• Workshops for Grad Students, Sept. – Dec. 2013: Professional development seminars for graduate students: FALL 2013 (promiseagep.wordpress.com)
• About AGMUS (SUAGM in Spanish): http://newsismybusiness.com/exclusive-suagm-opens-maryland-campus-as-it-expands-across-u-s-overseas/
• PROMISE SSI 2013: http://promiseagep.wordpress.com/2013/06/21/promise-summer-success-institute-ssi-10th-anniversary-celebration-august-16-17-2013-in-baltimore/

Computer scientists have developed a technique for reconstructing missing web resources from the context in which they appeared, just like archaeologists in the physical world

It’s our great pleasure to support active members of the Web design and development community. Today, we’re proud to present FlowType.JS that allows a perfect character count per line at any screen width. This article is yet another special of our series of various tools, libraries and techniques that we’ve published here on Smashing Magazine: LiveStyle, PrefixFree, Foundation, Sisyphus.js, GuideGuide, Gridpak, JS Bin, CSSComb and Jelly Navigation Menu. — Ed.

While working on an image-heavy site for Simple Focus, a couple of our designers, John Wilson and Casey Zumwalt, noticed how images always scaled perfectly. Pull the corner of the browser window and the images expand to fill the space. Push back the corner, they shrink and fall into place. The line length of hypertext, on the other hand, changes based on its parent element’s width, which has a negative effect on readability.

“Wouldn’t it be nice,” John asked, “if text worked more like images?” Casey assured him that it could, with a jQuery plugin, if only they could figure out the math.

“In a fluid layout, browser width and typographic measure are linked: the wider the viewport, the more characters per line.” – Trent Walton

Simple Focus is mainly a design firm, so like most programming ideas we have, we didn’t do anything with it. Then, a few weeks later, John was rereading Trent Walton’s article about fluid type and was inspired to try and figure it out.

An hour later, we had a working prototype and were kicking the tires internally. Within two weeks, FlowType.JS was fully-developed and ready to be sent into the world.

Here’s the process of how we got there:

Technically Speaking

FlowType.JS, when boiled down, is nothing more than some clever math wrapped in a jQuery plugin, with some options for controlling font sizes to accomplish a certain line length.

Let’s take a deeper look into the code to better understand what’s going on:

The Basic Math

As you will see below, it’s pretty simple stuff. First, we need to measure the width of an element in order to set a base number, which will be the key to the rest of the equation. Then we divide that base by a number that resolves to a reasonable font-size. For example, if an element measures at 1000px and we divided it by 50, we end up with 20px, which is a reasonable font-size.

Line-height is another simple equation based off the font-size. Let’s say we choose a line-height of 1.45 times the font-size for readability. This equation is easy: font-size multiplied by 1.45 equals the recommended line-height.

The Prototype

An initial prototype shows us the idea actually works:

    var $width = $window.width(),
    		$fontSize = $width / 50,
    		$lineHeight = $fontSize * 1.45;
    
    $(window).ready( function() {
    	$('element').css({
    		'font-size':$fontSize + 'px',
    		'line-height':$lineHeight + 'px'
    	});
    }
    
    $(window).resize( function() {
    	$('element').css({
    		'font-size':$fontSize + 'px',
    		'line-height':$lineHeight + 'px'
    	});
    });

If you were paying attention, you may have noticed that there’s one major problem with the code: the math is based off of the window’s width, not the element’s width. This causes problems with breakpoints where elements resize to a larger dimension and the text gets smaller while the width of the element became wider.

Improved Code

Revising the code to measure the element’s width instead of the window’s fixed this problem. During this simple update, we also decided to start including options for maximum and minimum thresholds for font-sizes and element width, since a very narrow column would cause the font-size to become too small to read. Read more about these thresholds.

Sharing the revised code here would make this article entirely too long as it includes several ‘if’ statements as well as duplicate code. Inefficient to say the least. With that said, at least it had options and worked well. But we’re focused on design, remember? So we wanted to get a little advice from some friends before we put something out there that could make us look like noobs.

A Little Help from Friends

Almost ready to launch, FlowType.JS was reviewed by several peers. Dave Rupert suggested we make sure it performs well by creating a demo page with several instances and lots of text. We put that together and held our breath, and fortunately it worked very well.

Then we asked Giovanni DiFeterici for his feedback. Giovanni surprised us by refactoring and condensing all the ‘if’ statements into two lines of code. In the end, the compressed version of FlowType.JS can be as low as 450 bytes. We also got advice from plenty of other generous friends on everything all the way down to spell checking the demo site.

The Final Code

The final code is phenomenally simple. A few options and variables set simultaneously, a base function called changes where all the magic happens, and two simple calls for changes. One sets the font-size on load and another to recalculate on window resize.

Take a look at the code here:

(function($) {
       $.fn.flowtype = function(options) {
    
          var settings = $.extend({
             maximum   : 9999,
             minimum   : 1,
             maxFont   : 9999,
             minFont   : 1,
             fontRatio : 35,
             lineRatio : 1.45
          }, options),
    
          changes = function(el) {
             var $el = $(el),
                elw = $el.width(),
                width = elw > settings.maximum ? settings.maximum : elw < settings.minimum ? settings.minimum : elw,
                fontBase = width / settings.fontRatio,
                fontSize = fontBase > settings.maxFont ? settings.maxFont : fontBase < settings.minFont ? settings.minFont : fontBase;
    
             $el.css({
                'font-size'   : fontSize + 'px',
                'line-height' : fontSize * settings.lineRatio + 'px'
             });
          };
    
          return this.each(function() {
             
             var that = this;
             $(window).resize(function(){changes(that);});
             
             changes(this);
          });
       };
    }(jQuery));

How It Works and Fallback

As you can see, the code applies the newly calculated numbers as inline CSS to the element that is selected. Because this new CSS is inline, it overwrites whatever you have set in your linked stylesheets, creating a natural fallback in case a user has JavaScript disabled.

You'll want to configure the settings based on the font choices you make since the math works out differently based on the size of the font you choose.

Implementation

FlowType.JS was built as a jQuery plugin, so getting started is easy. All you need to do is call FlowType.JS and configure a few settings based on your design.

$('body').flowtype({
     minimum   : 500,
     maximum   : 1200,
     minFont   : 12,
     maxFont   : 40,
     fontRatio : 30,
     lineRatio : 1.45
    });

Full instructions are on our demo site. If jQuery isn't your thing, one Github community member has already ported it to native JavaScript.

Nothing Is Ever Finished

We have more ideas for ways to improve the plugin, but we are treating it as an experiment first and foremost. It solves a common problem in Responsive Design where line-length and line-height aren't ideal between break points. Regardless, there have been some questions raised about FlowType.JS by many smart developers and designers.

One question that we've been asked is centered on typographical theory: should a design start with font-size or element width when optimizing text for legibility? I think the best answer is that it's a judgement call, that reading the text in your design is the best way to determine what's most legible. We've simply written a tool to help you accomplish what you want with your designs.

Another is about accessibility: doesn't this tool disable text zoom, thus making sites less accessible? We're aware of this behavior, but users are able to zoom beyond 200% and see font size increase. For now, simply remember to take your audience into consideration when designing with FlowType.JS.

Remember, like any utility, it's not a cure-all for the challenges of Web design. We're just trying to contribute a small idea to the Web design and development community and welcome feedback over at Github.

(il, ea)

© JD Graffam for Smashing Magazine, 2013.

Recently, a friend suggested that I write an analysis of news websites: what they’re doing right, and what they’re doing wrong. He suggested that the online news experience was too backward, and maybe a bit boring, and figured that they could make better use of AJAX and similar technologies to streamline content delivery and site navigation.

I was inclined to agree at first. I feel that, in many cases, newspapers are still trying too hard to maintain the physical newspaper experience, but with a sliding images approach. In doing this, they often restrict themselves to a familiar but somewhat limiting visual format. This trend also shows itself in some very poor UX decisions, such as almost illegibly small body text.

I know it’s been said before, but the web, as a visual medium, is fluid. It’s complex. It’s beautiful. And perhaps most importantly, it’s capable of so much more than many people realize.

So when we see how many major news outlets limit themselves, it’s disappointing in the light of what could be done by making more use of AJAX.

Or maybe not…

It all comes down to the mobile experience

More specifically, it all comes down to the mobile experience of the majority of mobile users. It would appear that many news sources are not taking these users into account yet. Sure, lots of news sources have put out a native app for Android and iOS, but lots of mobile users tend to download these apps, and then never, ever touch them again.

Many of us don’t go browsing the news sites for the sake of it on a regular basis. Most of us will probably click on a link provided to us by a friend, relative, or internet personality whose taste we trust. We’ll click, or tap, on links provided to us via social networks, e-mail, RSS feeds, or links inside other articles. These links will not take us to a given app, but to a website. Therefore, every news website should be mobile-ready.

So what’s the problem? Why couldn’t we upgrade these news sites with tons of cool stuff? iPads and the Galaxy Tablets have fully-functional web browsers, and decent processors, after all.

Even so, there are two big arguments for keeping news websites as minimal and technologically simple as possible…

Bandwidth

News websites, as a general rule, display lots of information on each page. The home page tends to be the worst offender, with the 3-5 most recent articles from each different topic vying for the users’ attention, complete with pictures and sometimes multiple carousels. Add extra JavaScript on top of that, and you’ve got a mobile browser that’s downloading a comparatively large amount of information.

Many mobile users browse these websites in places where there is no free wi-fi, and many cell-phone data plans have limited bandwidth caps. Add to this the fact that even on wi-fi, many tablets and smartphones seem to browse the web pretty slowly, and you’ve got a strong case for cutting down on the fancy stuff.

Not everyone has a fast mobile device

When my friend suggested that news websites could be made more UX-friendly with more AJAX love, I had to remind myself that he has an iPad. iPads are fast and smooth.

I was recently given my first tablet. It’s a Hipstreet Titan. I’ll give my fellow technophiles a moment to digest that fact, and maybe Google it, because that model is pretty obscure.

Being a cheaper tablet, it’s slower than the high-end tablets that everybody is drooling over these days. That’s just a fact. Another fact is that people who can afford cheap tablets and smartphones greatly outnumber those who can afford the drool-worthy tablets and smartphones.

Generic brands, knock-offs, and slow processors: this is what the vast majority of us will be using until mobile hardware gets cheaper.

On devices like mine, it’s not just the wi-fi that’s slow. Page rendering is slow, and JavaScript animations are choppy at best. Sometimes it’s a battle just to scroll up and down. Incidentally, news sites that are heavy on the carousel effects and myriad images are the worst offenders.

Some of the pain can be offset by finding the right browser for your device. On my tablet, that’s Opera Mobile. Even so, sites that are not optimized in any way for mobile devices will be irritating for the owners of cheaper models, and that’s not how you keep readers coming back for more.

So is there anyone doing it right?

Of course there is. While it would seem that most of the major news outlets are relying on native apps, a few brave souls made proper responsive websites.

The Boston Globe

This example is probably the obvious one due to its popularity. The unveiling of the Globe’s responsive design was much publicized and lauded within the design community, and for good reason.

Despite the sheer amount of information on the page, the design remains comparatively clean and uncluttered, with links big enough to tap on. Images are kept small and used almost sparingly.

The overall effect is that they’ve managed to make it look a bit like a newspaper and still make it work as a website. Their focus on typography and design clean of clutter and imagery makes the website a breeze to navigate through on my tablet, and yes, I can scroll up and down when I’m using my tablet.

The Onion

Although actually a pretend news site, the Onion’s layout looks very, very similar to the Boston Globe’s in some ways: three columns that shrink down to two, then one, etc.. Still, the approach works, and that’s what counts. My tablet can handle it. As of now, that’s the big selling point for any website.

Time Magazine

Time Magazine is not technically a news site so I’m not going to give it its own set of screenshots, but if you want to see another excellent use of the responsive three-column classic news layout, check it out here.

Breaking News

Breaking News completely abandons the newspaper visual metaphor in favor of an app-like approach. It’s essentially a fancy RSS feed reader, and the article titles link to other news sites, but their approach to responsive design could easily be adapted to any news organization.

I especially like the fact that, while they cater to mobile devices, they have not left desktop users out in the cold. On my 1600×900 pixel monitor, the design stretches from edge to edge without breaking.

So how do we make better news sites?

We start by taking better care of mobile users. It bears repeating that many people who read the news are brought to individual articles by external links. You cannot rely on native apps to provide a mobile experience for the casual reader. It just doesn’t work like that.

That’s not even mentioning the fact that while iOS and Android are currently the two most popular mobile platforms, they are not the only ones out there. People on somewhat older smartphones, or those who only have access to more obscure brands are largely left unserved.

If your service is about making information publicly available, then that information should be as platform agnostic as possible. Enough said. Once we’ve done that, we can talk about other kinds of innovation and improvement.

What do you consider vital for news sites? What’s your favorite news site, and why? Let us know in the comments.

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In a thought-provoking new op-ed in The New York Times, Erle Ellis argues that when it comes to global sustainability “overpopulation is not the problem.”

Ellis, an associate professor of geography and environmental systems at UMBC and visiting associate professor at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, writes, “Many scientists believe that by transforming the earth’s natural landscapes, we are undermining the very life support systems that sustain us. Like bacteria in a petri dish, our exploding numbers are reaching the limits of a finite planet, with dire consequences. Disaster looms as humans exceed the earth’s natural carrying capacity. Clearly, this could not be sustainable. This is nonsense.”

Such claims about “natural carrying capacity,” Ellis suggests, are based in a fundamental misunderstanding of the ecology of human systems, which assumes they have a natural equilibrium. Ellis instead argues, “The conditions that sustain humanity are not natural and never have been. Since prehistory, human populations have used technologies and engineered ecosystems to sustain populations well beyond the capabilities of unaltered ‘natural’ ecosystems.”

Read the full op-ed on The New York Times website and learn more in a follow-up guest post on the Dot Earth blog.

The man, Seamus Heaney

This man has been dead for just over two weeks. Why not take this opportunity, right now, to meet him?

Say Hello to Seamus Heaney. This guy is a poet. I know what you’re thinking.

Before you panic, shutting off your computer and screaming bloody murder, bare with me. He’s a master. He took words and transformed them into moments, and he did it so well that he got a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995. And, oh… won 17 other major international prizes and honors…while teaching at Harvard and Oxford…still not impressed?

Seamus Heaney was not just a great poet but he was regarded by some as the “greatest poet of our age” and the ”the most important Irish poet since Yeats“.

So… what made him so good?

Poetry tugs on those good ol’ heart strings. Heaney, like the best poets, wanted us to watch and feel with him. He wanted us to be appalled, to be inspired, by what we see through his words.

Most folks may not be familiar with Heaney’s brilliance because schools traditionally treat poetry like its only purpose is to accurately describe the woods (snowy woods, yellow wood, sorry Robert Frost). But words are personal and powerful. In the hands of someone like Heaney, poetry could be a weapon.

Between my finger and my thumb

The squat pen rests; snug as a gun.

- from “Digging”

Who knows, the next Seamus Heaney might exist right now, a young Syrian girl, documenting the most intense moments into reality on paper. Her words could change history, or at least, record it in the most human way possible. 

Will educators see the potential? Can poetry be a weapon? Do you still want to shut off your computer and scream?