A LIST Apart: For People Who Make Websites

No. 241

July 13, 2007

Unlearn a web interface design convention that causes users grief, and learn how to create a scrolling, fixed/liquid hybrid layout without using JavaScript (not that there’s anything wrong with it).

Never Use a Warning When you Mean Undo

Are our web apps as smart as they should be? By failing to account for habituation (the tendency, when presented with a string of repetitive tasks, to keep clicking OK), do our designs cause people to lose their work? Raskin’s simple, foolproof rule solves the problem.

Conflicting Absolute Positions

All right, class. Using CSS, produce a liquid layout that contains a fixed-width, scrolling side panel and a flexible, scrolling main panel. Okay, now do it without JavaScript. By chucking an assumption about how CSS works in browsers, Rob Swan provides the way and means.

A List Apart explores the design, development, and meaning of web content, with a special focus on web standards and best practices. Explore our articles or find out more about us.

Editor’s Choice

originally ran: November 23, 2001

Reading Design

With so many specialists working so hard at their craft, why are so many pages so hard to read? Unabashed text enthusiast Dean Allen thinks designers would benefit from approaching their work as being written rather than assembled.