Designing Web Forms
Web forms are often critical to our sites success. Forms are becoming even more prevalent now that web apps are becoming increasingly popular. Forms do not need to be a painful process for you or your visitors. This Months presentation will help guide you in the direction of successful, usable, and attractive form design.
- Date:
- August 18th 2010
- Time:
- 6:30
- Location:
- The Urban Hive 1931 H Street, Sacramento, CA 95811
→ Respond NowTags: Announcements
Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML
I still remember the first time I watched some plain text in Notepad turn into words on a webpage. I was entranced. Witnessing the transformation of letters and characters into colors, shapes and patterns is the stuff of magic to me. So I began to teach myself HTML and CSS.
It wasn't until I found the Head First book HTML with CSS & XHTML, however, that my ability to turn written rules and data into a vibrant, visual experience really took off. I've been a Head First fan ever since.
The Head First concept was dreamed up by Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates, and developed by Mike Loukides at O'Reilly Media. As they say in the Intro, "We know what you're thinking." The Head First series of books makes a point of turning on the "other" part of your brain—the creative, or figurative part—to learn a potentially dry subject. All of these books are giant, hands-on tutorials, or "learners," rather than pedantic recitals of logic. They are full of such things as "hand-written" notes, puzzles and games, talking people (and talking code elements!) and above all, intelligent humor.
My copy of HTML with CSS & XHTML was written by Elisabeth and Eric Freeman and published in 2006. This foundational book begins with clear and entertaining instructions for setting up the website projects that will be developed during the course. Each chapter builds on one of just a few practice projects, and each of those projects focus on a carefully thought out, practical set of experiences. When you finish the program, you will have created complete, basic websites using techniques required of most every project. And you will have done it with modern, validatable code and an appreciation of the value of W3C standards.
In spite of the upcoming switch to HTML5 and CSS3, I believe this book will remain a valuable primer for years to come. If you are way past this level of expertise, though, don't despair. Check out one of their many, more advanced titles: PHP and MySQL, Ajax, Ruby on Rails, and many more.
An entire section of my bookshelf is purple, the hallmark, Head First color, and yours may be, too, once you experience this learning concept in action for yourself.
Christine Golden, CLGolden Web Design & Development
June, 2010
→ Respond NowTags: Book Review
Black Screen Social
This month we are holding our first "Black Screen Social". Which is really just a fancy way to say that I have been too busy to actually prepare a topic.
A Black Screen Social is a night where we get together for our two hours to socialize, show off what we are working on, get some feedback, ask questions, but not have a specific topic on the agenda. I will be returning from vacation on Wed. and will try my best to attend the event. However, even in my absence I will make sure there is pizza and drinks available for those that show up.
- Date:
- July 21st 2010
- Time:
- 6:30
- Location:
- The Urban Hive 1931 H Street, Sacramento, CA 95811
→ Respond NowTags: Announcements
Intro to HTML5
A new epoch in application development is emerging as our traditional concepts of computer programs and web sites converge into rich, full-featured web applications. HTML5 is steadily becoming the standard toolset for building these applications and while some details of it are still being finalized, it is stable enough to start learning and using today. Micah Young will be presenting the basics of HTML5 and CSS3, including why we need them, what has changed, and how we can start using them right now. Micah will start with an overview and continue with plenty of working demos for your enjoyment. Including HTML4 to HTML5 code comparisons and some development tips that will get you started right!
Skill Level: No prior HTML5 knowledge is necessary but a solid familiarity with current HTML, CSS, and JavaScript is recommended.
- Date:
- June 16th 2010
- Time:
- 6:30
- Location:
- The Urban Hive 1931 H Street, Sacramento, CA 95811
Presentation Notes & Slides
Presentation slides available on Micah's site
→ Respond NowTags: CSS · HTML
jQuery For All
Peter Anselmo is back with another great presentation this month. Peter will do a crash course on getting up and running quickly with jQuery for you beginners out there. If your more advanced, don't worry as Peter will also be presenting more advanced topics like using selectors and wrapped sets, DOM manipulation, animations & effects, jQuery UI, AJAX and a segment on popular plugins for jQuery. This presentation promises to have a little something for everyone. So come prepared to learn.
- Date:
- May 19th 2010
- Time:
- 6:30
- Location:
- The Urban Hive 1931 H Street, Sacramento, CA 95811
Presentation Slides:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/32336793/jQuery-for-All
→ Respond NowTags: javascript
