TL's CSS sandbox

About this page

This my work homepage, a place for presentations and writings, and information about projects I've worked on. Equally important, it's a place to pursue my interest in CSS, experimenting and learning.

If the page seems broken, you're likely looking at it in IE, which hasn't been updated lately to keep up with CSS developments. You might consider using a more capable browser such as one of the Mozilla-based browsers (Netscape 7+, Firefox), a newer Mac browser such as Safari, or Opera. You'll gain functionality and avoid some of IE's notorious security flaws.

CSS

As you might guess, this page is designed with CSS stylesheets. There are two stylesheets with two different looks you can choose. If you are using Netscape 7+ or FireFox, you could change the styles by going to "View" -> "User styles," then choosing a style other than 'Basic,' the unstyled version. Or click here. Boxy or Open.

Some CSS links:

  1. Eric Meyer. His css/edge page is well worth studying.
  2. A List Apart. Great site for web designers with lots of tips on using CSS and other web standards.
  3. CSS2 reference. I use this all the time.
  4. CSS Zen garden. Shows how stylesheets can make the same page look very different.
  5. Listamatic. Make your lists using the CSS-driven examples here.
  6. CSS Positioning. Excellent article on the CSS float property, with a link to an equally good article on the CSS position property.
  7. Alex Robinson's CSS page. Some pretty cutting edge stuff here.

Navigation

Some resources for Website navigation:

  1. "Don't make me think," chapter 6, Navigation
    Best treatment I've seen so far. According to Krug, every web page except the home page and forms should have the following navigational elements:
    • Site ID (what site is this?)
    • Page name (what page am I on?)
    • Sections (What are the major sections of this site?)
    • Local navigation (What are my options at this lever?)
    • "You are here" indicators (Where am I in the scheme of things?)
    • Search (How can I search?)
  2. Is Navigation Useful?, from Nielsen's Alertbox. Main points: People focus on content. Most navigation is overdone. Don't link to all sections of the site from all pages. Do link to the home page and to levels of hierarchy above the current page and to related content.
  3. Yale Web Style Guide chapter on navigation. Good overview of the topic.
    Summary: navigation should provide context, where I am, where I can go and what I will see when I get there. Navigation should be predictable and consistent, and help the user understand the organization of the site. Provide 'Next page' and 'Previous page' links where appropriate. Link back to the home page.
  4. Cascading versus Indexed Menu Design Tested three menu layouts: categorized index page like old Gateway, and horizontal and vertical (on left) menus where mousing over a category caused more choices to be revealed. Results: people found items more quickly on the categorized index page and expressed more satisfaction with it.
Map of library locations

Google Custom Search of the University Libraries