Thanks Vince, David, Barney, and others for your constructive thoughts and suggestions. I would think this is certainly the best forum to discuss when and why we use certain CSS3 features. I didn't consider Mr. Laasko's response to be a slide against my designs at all. We're all professionals and I just figured it was a general guideline.
The input is great and I'll be sure and cite each of you in the post. 1. I hadn't considered the "re-purposing" of text shadow for the engraved effect, but that's great. So use text-shadow for text-shadows, not effects- especially ones that aren't cross-platform friendly? 2. text-shadow on body copy is another one. So…. use text-shadow for presentational text, not body copy? 3. I'll admit that when transforms and transitions became supported, I abused them. So, don't use them for the score interactions? 4. Animations are definitely becoming popular, and I'm wondering if and when Animations should be used as a part of the core UX. Should animations be reserved for games or specific and expected interactions? On my own site, I'm using an animation to fade in the content when the page first loads. Would that be an abuse? So would it be good to establish (as part of my central thesis of the blog post) that the shinier parts of CSS3 are good for enriching the design, but not the core UX? Therefore, Text shadow, animations, and transitions are best when they aren't paired with :hover, :focus, or :active. <signature id="paceaux"> Frank M Taylor </signature> On Feb 19, 2012, at 2:49 AM, Barney Carroll wrote: > Hiya Frank, > > One of the things that really irritated me when browser started > supporting text-shadow was those clever clogs who figured out how to > use a lighter colour outset and a darker colour inset shadow to > produce an engraved effect on all their body text. I suspect most of > these people were Mac-based designers, since it often made text > illegible on Windows. > > Having said that the fad has had its time in the sun and people tend > to stay away from text-shadows in body copy. > > Transitions are generally abused the same way these days – they're > getting mainstream recognition and people implement them all over the > place because it's fun. > > Elliot Jay Stocks' idea of transitioning all layout metrics on > viewport resize [1] is definitely a fun trick, but in practice the > effect is neither conducive to better user experience nor > aesthetically pleasing. This trick is being used all over the place > now – even Gmail does it. > > Transitions on hover is the other popular thing. CSS already handles > the representations of an object under multiple states – why not > animate that transition? The why is because we can, and animation is > nice. But in practice I've found people want instantaneous feedback > from their actions – by and wide, hover, click and focus are not going > to be strange new experiences users will wonder at – if there are > usability cues that assist their journey, they will want them > instantaneously. Animation for core UX like that can become unsettling > noise which distracts and hinders the user. > > But these are ultimately kill-joy arguments rooted in vague > unsubstantiated opinions on minor usability concerns. > > [1] http://elliotjaystocks.com/blog/css-transitions-media-queries/ > > Regards, > Barney Carroll > > [email protected] > +44 7429 177278 > > barneycarroll.com > > > > On 19 February 2012 03:06, Ghodmode <[email protected]> wrote: >>> On Fri, Feb 17, 2012 at 5:14 PM, David Laakso >>> <[email protected]>wrote: >>> >>>> On Fri, Feb 17, 2012 at 12:08 PM, Paceaux <[email protected]> >>>> wrote: >>>> Howdy all,\ >>>> >>>> I'm writing a blog post on inappropriate or tacky uses of CSS3.</trimmed> >>>> >>>> --- >>>> >>>> Oh, my... how easy. >>>> Try writing a blog post on appropriate uses of CSS3. And live up to it >>>> on your own site... >>>> Best, >>>> ~d >>>> PS Do you have a CSS question? >>>> >>>> >>>> Chelsea Creek Studio >>>> http://ccstudi.com >> >> On Sat, Feb 18, 2012 at 1:53 PM, bill scheider >> <[email protected]> wrote: >>> Ouch :) >>> >>> -- >>> Wisdom tells me I'm nothing. Love tells me I'm everything. Between the two >>> my life flows. >>> -- *Nisargadatta Maharaj* >> >> Ya David, I gotta admit, that was kinda harsh. At least offer the guy >> some constructive criticism instead of an unexplained jab at his site. >> >> I think his site (http://frankmtaylor.com) looks pretty good. Take >> that with a grain of salt... Being more of a coder than a designer, >> I'm notoriously bad at design. e.g. http://www.ghodmode.com >> >> Besides that, he's asking for examples of inappropriate use of CSS3. >> I'd say that counts as an on-topic CSS question. >> >> As to the original question, I was going to give >> http://mothereffingtextshadow.com as an example of (intentionally) bad >> CSS3 text shadows. However, the site doesn't seem to be functioning >> for me right now. I'm still putting it here because the problem might >> be just me. I have a flaky internet connection. >> >> -- >> Vince Aggrippino >> a.k.a. Ghodmode >> http://www.ghodmode.com >> ______________________________________________________________________ >> css-discuss [[email protected]] >> http://www.css-discuss.org/mailman/listinfo/css-d >> List wiki/FAQ -- http://css-discuss.incutio.com/ >> List policies -- http://css-discuss.org/policies.html >> Supported by evolt.org -- http://www.evolt.org/help_support_evolt/ > ______________________________________________________________________ > css-discuss [[email protected]] > http://www.css-discuss.org/mailman/listinfo/css-d > List wiki/FAQ -- http://css-discuss.incutio.com/ > List policies -- http://css-discuss.org/policies.html > Supported by evolt.org -- http://www.evolt.org/help_support_evolt/ ______________________________________________________________________ css-discuss [[email protected]] http://www.css-discuss.org/mailman/listinfo/css-d List wiki/FAQ -- http://css-discuss.incutio.com/ List policies -- http://css-discuss.org/policies.html Supported by evolt.org -- http://www.evolt.org/help_support_evolt/
