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Every day, about the same time, when I go out to breathe some fresh air I see the same thing: a mother taking her child from school. It wouldn’t matter if this child was like all, but she isn’t.
Obviously this child suffers. She can’t walk like all of us, I see the mother almost dragging her gently to cross the road. The child can’t talk either. All I hear are sounds, something between talking and crying. I can’t name from what she suffers of and it doesn’t matter at all.
The mother looks around her to check if anyone’s watching. Calm down, nobody’s watching.
There mustn’t be a single person in this world who doesn’t feel his heart stop for a moment when he looks at them. There mustn’t be a God who lets such things happen. But they do happen. Imagine, you could be that child or even worse you could be this mother.
If I was politician, I would try to do something to make their life easier. If I was a doctor, I would try to lift some of their burden off. I am neither a politician nor a doctor. And I think it would make me a better man, if I could create a website to help this children forget all this miserable life for a second. It sounds silly, I know.
“The complete manual of Typography” written by J. Felici is a great book for those people who want to start with the basics of typography and move on. The book explores typography in depth and it can be used as a reference as well. Web designers and graphic designers are the main groups of people who would care about it, but the subject is practically open to anyone.
The book is divided into two main chapters. The first one has to do with the basics of typography e.g. differences between fonts and typefaces. It also covers the evolution of typography through time.
The second part of the book examines the correct use of typography and it covers all details about it.
Typography is a kind of art and technique at the same time and it is interesting to see how things have changed through centuries depending on the use. For example, Garamond, a typical typeface for everyone who uses a computer, was born in the 16th century because of people needs to create a more legible and at the same time elegant type. Garamond, changed the way people used typography and it remains unchanged and heavily used until nowadays.
If the previous paragraph feels a bit geeky, I must add that “The complete manual of Typography” involves a series of practical guidelines which can be applied anytime to our designs. Kerning and manual kerning, leading (or line-height, if you prefer), the differences between serifs, sans-serifs and slab serifs, the aesthetics of ligatures are only a few subjects this book covers.
“The complete manual of Typography” is one of the best on the subject and it is highly recommended to anyone who likes or has to work with typography. It is also cost-effective via Amazon ($32).
As time passes by Flash websites become less and less found among the ones we browse every day. It doesn’t impress me. Even if sometimes we don’t know the exact reasons why we still suspect this is the way it should be. However, there are companies or professionals who want to be represented in the Web by a Flash website. We need to tell them why this is not good.
When you ‘re hungry you can’t wait
Imagine someone who hasn’t eaten all day and it’s almost midnight. He’s hungry. He doesn’t care about the fork and he doesn’t care whether the food is warm or not. The same way a Web user appetites for real content. A Flash website makes him wait because it needs time to load or because effects prevent him from exploring the content.
Even worse, some users don’t even have the Flash plugin installed. Then they go somewhere else to find food.
When you ‘re hungry you don’t want to be fed by someone else
Imagine the same hungry visitor. He obviously doesn’t want to be fed by someone else. Web users want to control the interaction with a website and they expect certain things. Flash websites subtract control. We need to realize the Web is much different than TV or cinema. Interaction makes the difference. In the past we didn’t care that much about interaction. Not now.
According to this, even the “Skip intro” buttons are not good enough. When animation is not an ad is rarely important. People visit websites to explore the content, not the animation.
Who can take the responsibility and leave users with disabilities outside? Have you ever tried to make the text bigger in a Flash website? It ‘s impossible. Theoretically, each Flash website should be go together with an HTML one.
What about SEO?
SEO becomes much more difficult in Flash websites. Actually a Flash website can never be optimized the way an HTML one can. Come on, we ‘re living in the era where SEO is a king and it can determine the success or the failure of a website and a business. You just can’t ignore this.
Designing in Flash is a difficult thing
Flash is software which becomes more and more complicated by time. Adobe clearly evolves Flash not for simple websites. Web games maybe? Videos? Mapping? You bet.
As a result creating a really stunning Flash website takes a lot of time and effort and this should keep mediocre developers away. It’s very rare to find a great Flash website and now imagine how much it would cost. 5 times a similar one in HTML. Why not? Now does the user experience is 5 times better than the one in an HTML website? I doubt. This is a problem which can’t be solved in my humble opinion.
The alternative…
is AJAX of course. Certain effects or solutions in usability are everywhere not only because AJAX is a trend but also because we needed to address issues a better way. As a result we had to discover new means of interacting with websites and JavaScript happened to be handy.
What is even better is the fact solutions in AJAX tend to focus on the user not on the developer. It must be one of the most promising things which happen in the Web nowadays.
Painted in red in the past (due to the communist authorities), a multicolored city now, Prague is still a marvelous place to visit. I ‘ve been there for almost a week and I wish I could stay more.
Prague could be shortly described as a huge museum. Every single building of the center of the city carries some history. If someone could take a long journey through Middle ages, Renaissance, the 20th century and of course the present times he wouldn’t leave Prague out of his itinerary.
Huge castles, complicated coats of arms, churches and a river, Vltava, which scissors the city compose the view. Prague is a place where art lives and it fascinates everyone, even people who don’t care about music, architecture, sculpture or painting.
A city to live
I am really impressed by the public transport system of Prague. Countless trams can take you practically everywhere in minutes, there is an effective, though relatively old, metro, and a lot of buses which move silently through the city.
There are also huge pavements so people can walk and enjoy the sightseeing. Drivers respect walkers and tourists are treated even better. Czech people are polite and friendly. The love to help you and most of them can speak English.
Of course Czech people know the historical importance of their city. And they exploit it. It was great to see that they preserve their culture but it was not so good to feel you have to pay all the time in order to visit even the less important museum.
What I won’t forget
Actually, it is not easy to forget anything in this city. But if I had to keep 3-4 things forever in my mind that would be:
The book is divided into two main chapters. The first one has to do with the basics of typography e.g. differences between fonts and typefaces. It also covers the evolution of typography through time. 
I am really impressed by the public transport system of Prague. Countless trams can take you practically everywhere in minutes, there is an effective, though relatively old, metro, and a lot of buses which move silently through the city.