Monthly Archives: February 2011
GUIs and Accessibility
Posted on: February 19, 2011 by Kevin Elko in Technology
Tags: development, usability, WWW
Web design is fundamentally different than just about every other branch of graphic design. Print design is static – when a designer prints out a finalized design, it will not change. The printed design will look the same to everyone that sees it. Web design does not have this luxury. Web pages are GUIs When we think of computers we often think of Windows, Mac OS, icons, start bars, menus, desktops and mice. These are all components of the graphical user interface (GUI). It can be difficult for people who have become accustomed to working with GUIs to imagine interacting with...
How the Web Works
Posted on: February 11, 2011 by Kevin Elko in Technology
Tags: development, WWW
The World Wide Web is revolutionizing the way we live our lives. It is a tool that most of us use multiple times everyday. It has become the first step for shopping, answering questions, getting directions, socializing, and even dating. Like many of the things we use daily (like your car or your television) the web is often taken for granted. People tend to overlook the time and effort that designers and developers put into shaping the digital world. Before we can really begin to explore the web as a medium, it is important to understand the technology that powers it. When yo...
The History of Typographical Symbols
Posted on: February 6, 2011 by Kevin Elko in Typography
Tags: glyphs, history, typography
Typography is a vast, deep subject. It spans nearly the entire history of mankind and is continually evolving. Written languages are constantly being mutated by shorthand, new technology, etc. and spawn a huge number of ligatures, logograms, symbols, and other glyphs. Below is just a brief look into the history of some of the more popular symbols. The ampersand The ampersand was originally a ligature of the Latin word et, meaning and. The ligature can be traced back to the first century, but the Roman ampersand we see most often today evolved sometime around the 9th century during th...