A List Apart

Last updated
A List Apart
Type of site
 Webzine (electronic periodical publication) [1]
Available inEnglish, Arabic, Italian
Created by Jeffrey Zeldman
URL www.alistapart.com
RegistrationNone
Launched
  • 1997 (as a mailing list) [2] * 1998 (as a webzine) [3]
Current statusOnline
ISSN 1534-0295

A List Apart is a webzine that explores the design, development, and meaning of web content, [2] with a special focus on web standards and best practices. [3]

Contents

History

A List Apart began in 1997 as a mailing list for web designers, [2] moderated and published by Jeffrey Zeldman and Brian Platz. [1]

Founder's notes, by Zeldman:

In 1997, web developer Brian M. Platz and I started the A List Apart mailing list because we found the web design mailing lists that were already out there to be too contentious, too careerist, or too scattershot. There was too much noise, too little signal. We figured, if we created something we liked better, maybe other people would like it too. Within months, 16,000 designers, developers, and content specialists had joined our list.

Editing was the key. Many members submitted comments and topics each day; we dumped the dross, published the gold, often selecting pieces for their thematic relevance to one another. Through editorial cultivation, we rapidly grew an intelligent and insightful community. [4]

Zeldman transformed A List Apart into a web magazine in 1998. [3] Noting that among the then existing web magazines, David Siegel’s High Five advocated graphic design and Wired’s Webmonkey taught web technologies, he observes:

Both magazines were great, both subject areas vital. But to me they were parts of a larger whole, incorporating writing, structure, community, and other bits nobody had quite put together. Then, too, no web design zine of the time seemed to grasp or value web standards the way I and my peeps at The Web Standards Project did. [4]

The web site has had three major visual designs. The original, designed by Zeldman, featured custom club-flyer style graphics that accompanied each article. In early 2001, this design formed the basis of the site's conversion to one of the earliest CSS layouts on the web, [1] establishing its reputation as "one of the leading sources of information and advocacy for CSS design and layout." [5] The first major redesign, by Jason Santa Maria in 2005, featured a softer color palette. It also included Cascading Style Sheets by Eric Meyer and introduced custom illustrations by Kevin Cornell. [4] The most recent update to the site, launched in January 2013, features a black-and-white design scheme by Mike Pick. It continues to prominently feature Cornell's illustrations, but takes a "content first" approach to design by reducing the presence of almost all brand and design elements in favor of article content.

A List Apart: The Web Design Survey

From 2007 [6] to 2011, A List Apart annually surveyed the web design and development community and presented its findings in a series of reports. These reports claimed to be the “first true picture” of the profession of web design as it is practiced worldwide. Topics covered include salary; title; educational background and its effect on salary, job satisfaction, and title; workplace discrimination by gender, age, and ethnicity; and more. Tens of thousands of respondents around the globe participated each year. The magazine provides anonymized raw data with each findings report so that readers may crunch their own numbers, verify A List Apart's findings, or conduct their own investigations.

International editions

An official Arabic edition of A List Apart [7] was launched on January 18, 2010. This is an authorized A List Apart publication, and was its first international edition.

Since then, an Italian version [8] has launched as well.

See also

Related Research Articles

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A HTML editor is a program for editing HTML, the markup of a web page. Although the HTML markup in a web page can be controlled with any text editor, specialized HTML editors can offer convenience and added functionality. For example, many HTML editors handle not only HTML, but also related technologies such as CSS, XML and JavaScript or ECMAScript. In some cases they also manage communication with remote web servers via FTP and WebDAV, and version control systems such as Subversion or Git. Many word processing, graphic design and page layout programs that are not dedicated to web design, such as Microsoft Word or Quark XPress, also have the ability to function as HTML editors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeffrey Zeldman</span> American entrepreneur and web designer

Jeffrey Zeldman is an American entrepreneur, web designer, author, podcaster and speaker on web design. He is the co-founder of A List Apart Magazine and the Web Standards Project. He also founded the design studios Happy Cog and studio.zeldman, and co-founded the A Book Apart imprint and the design conference An Event Apart.

XSL-FO is a markup language for XML document formatting that is most often used to generate PDF files. XSL-FO is part of XSL, a set of W3C technologies designed for the transformation and formatting of XML data. The other parts of XSL are XSLT and XPath. Version 1.1 of XSL-FO was published in 2006.

<i>net</i> (magazine) Internet magazine

net was a monthly print magazine that published content on web development and design. Founded in 1994, the magazine was published in the UK by Future plc. It was widely recognized as the premiere print publication for web designers.

Web standards are the formal, non-proprietary standards and other technical specifications that define and describe aspects of the World Wide Web. In recent years, the term has been more frequently associated with the trend of endorsing a set of standardized best practices for building web sites, and a philosophy of web design and development that includes those methods.

The CSS Zen Garden is a World Wide Web development resource "built to demonstrate what can be accomplished visually through CSS-based design." It launched in May 2003.

A spacer GIF is a small, transparent GIF image that is used in web design and HTML coding. They were used to control the visual layout of HTML elements on a web page, at a time when the HTML standard alone did not allow this. They became mostly obsolete after the browser wars-fueled addition of layout attributes to HTML 2.0 table tags, and were mostly unused by the time Cascading Style Sheets became widely adopted.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grid (graphic design)</span> Used in graphic design to guide objects

In graphic design, a grid is a structure made up of a series of intersecting straight or curved lines used to structure content. The grid serves as an armature or framework on which a designer can organize graphic elements in a rational, easy-to-absorb manner. A grid can be used to organize graphic elements in relation to a page, in relation to other graphic elements on the page, or relation to other parts of the same graphic element or shape.

The Web Standards Project (WaSP) was a group of professional web developers dedicated to disseminating and encouraging the use of the web standards recommended by the World Wide Web Consortium, along with other groups and standards bodies.

Tableless web design is a web design method that avoids the use of HTML tables for page layout control purposes. Instead of HTML tables, style sheet languages such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are used to arrange elements and text on a web page.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Progressive enhancement</span> Web design strategy putting emphasis web content first

Progressive enhancement is a strategy in web design that puts emphasis on web content first, allowing everyone to access the basic content and functionality of a web page, whilst users with additional browser features or faster Internet access receive the enhanced version instead. Additionally, it speeds up loading and facilitates crawling by web search engines, as pages' text is loaded immediately through the HTML source code rather than having to wait for JavaScript to initiate and load the content subsequently, meaning content ready for consumption "out of the box" is served imminently, not behind additional layers.

WYMeditor is an open-source WYSIWYM text editor written in the JavaScript programming language for editing content on web pages. It is based on the jQuery JavaScript framework. It differs from other embeddable text editors such as FCKeditor and TinyMCE in that it concentrates on the semantics and meaning of content leaving out visual details. Unlike WYSIWYG editors, it explicitly shows the XHTML structure of content to the user.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Institute of Graphic Arts</span> Professional organization for design

The American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) is a professional organization for design. Its members practice all forms of communication design, including graphic design, typography, interaction design, user experience, branding and identity. The organization's aim is to be the standard bearer for professional ethics and practices for the design profession. There are currently over 25,000 members and 72 chapters, and more than 200 student groups around the United States. In 2005, AIGA changed its name to “AIGA, the professional association for design,” dropping the "American Institute of Graphic Arts" to welcome all design disciplines. AIGA aims to further design disciplines as professions, as well as cultural assets. As a whole, AIGA offers opportunities in exchange for creative new ideas, scholarly research, critical analysis, and education advancement.

Designing with Web Standards, first published in 2003 with revised editions in 2007 and 2009, is a web development book by Jeffrey Zeldman. The book’s audience is primarily web development professionals who aim to produce design work that complies with web standards. The work is used as a textbook in over 85 colleges.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Holy grail (web design)</span> CSS programming trick for dividing a web page into three columns

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Responsive web design</span> Approach to web design for making web pages render well on a variety of devices

Responsive web design (RWD) or responsive design is an approach to web design that aims to make web pages render well on a variety of devices and window or screen sizes from minimum to maximum display size to ensure usability and satisfaction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rachel Andrew</span>

Rachel Andrew is a British web developer, author and speaker. She is an Invited Expert to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) CSS Working Group, Google Developer Expert, and a former member of the Web Standards Project. She is the editor-in-chief of Smashing Magazine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jen Simmons</span> Web designer and developer

Jen Simmons is a graphic designer, web developer, educator and speaker known for her expertise in web standards, particularly HTML and CSS. She is a member of the CSS Working Group and has been prominent in the deployment of CSS grid layout. She worked as a developer advocate at Mozilla and later at Apple.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blue Beanie Day</span> Holiday created in 2007 to promote web standards

Blue Beanie Day is an annual international celebration of web standards which began in 2007. It was originated by Douglas Vos and popularized by Jeffrey Zeldman, the author of Designing with Web Standards. The commemoration, which is accompanied by web developers sharing photographs of themselves in blue beanies, seeks to raise awareness of web design features such as progressive enhancement and accessible, semantic markup and "fight Web Standards Apathy". Users use the hashtag #BlueBeanieDay, change their social media avatars to show themselves in blue headgear, and share information and links to content promoting the open web and online accessibility. The origin of the name of the holiday is the image of Jeffrey Zeldman on the cover of his book wearing a blue toque. Over the years, the Blue Beanie Day also became an action day for web accessibility, for which the correct use of web standards is a basic requirement.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Gomez-Palacio, Bryony; Vit Armin (2009). Graphic Design, Referenced: A Visual Guide to the Language, Applications and History of Graphic Design. Rockport Publishers, Inc. Page 114. Accessed May 2, 2012. ISBN   9781592534470
  2. 1 2 3 Gardner Susannah; Birley, Shane (2012). Blogging For Dummies. Wiley Publishing Co. Page 363. Accessed May 2, 2012. ISBN   9780470230176
  3. 1 2 3 Zeldman, Jeffrey; Marcotte, Ethan (2010). Designing With Web Standards. New Riders. Pages 53-56. Accessed May 2, 2012. ISBN   9780321616951
  4. 1 2 3 Zeldman, Jeffrey (August 22, 2005). "A List Apart 4.0". Alistapart.com. Retrieved May 2, 2012.
  5. ↑ Shafer, Dan (2004). HTML Utopia: Designing without Tables Using CSS . Victoria, Australia: SitePoint. p.  82.
  6. ↑ Delahoyde, Steve (October 18, 2007). "A List Apart's 33,000 Designer Strong Look at the Web". Mediabistro.com. Archived from the original on January 21, 2013. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
  7. ↑ "A List Apart Arabic". Arabicalistapart.com (official website). Archived from the original on January 20, 2010. Retrieved May 2, 2012.
  8. ↑ "Italian A List Apart". Italian A List Apart (official website). Retrieved Feb 21, 2013.
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