Dispatches From The Internets

A single platform

Another brilliant CommitStrip. My transcription follows.

Commit Strip: A single platform

A developer and his project lead are sitting next to one another.

  1. Programmer

    It sucks Uncharted 4 is only available on PS4

    …releasing AAAs on just one platform is unfair

  2. Project Lead (excitedly)

    Yeah I guess, but it must be awesome for Naughty Dog

  3. Project Lead (smugly)

    They only have to develop, test and maintain their software on one single platform

  4. Programmer (looking confused)

    I guess…

  5. Project Lead (emphatically)

    Everyone has the same processor, the same amount of memory, the same resolution…

    Just think about it…

  6. Programmer (shrinking)

    …I don’t want to think about it

Pan out to reveal the large table they are sitting at. It is littered with mobile devices.

  1. Programmer (getting up and turning to leave the room)

    Does anyone have a phone with Android 4.0.4?

  2. Project Lead (muttering to himself)

    Hmmmm…

The benefits of single platform development are easily reaped by developers, but they come at a cost to the consumer who doesn’t have the right device or specs and (moreover) it limits a project’s potential reach.

Aural UI of HTML elements

This is huge! Many thanks to Steve Faulkner and Léonie Watson for compiling this information!

Stop painting and have a Meaningful Interaction with me!

An excellent post from Dion Almaer on the importance of choosing the appropriate approach for the critical tasks of your web property. He dubs it “time to first meaningful interaction”. This is where progressive enhancement shines.

Do emails need to look exactly the same in every client?

No, they don’t. Progressive enhancement, baby!

Images will be blocked. Styles will be filtered. Tables will be munged. Instead of struggling to try to make emails look the same everywhere, let’s embrace their differences.

Must-have

Commit Strip: Must Have

For the non-visual among you…

Programmer sits at a computer with his back to a Project Manager

  1. Programmer

    Hmm, it’s quite a lot of work

    Contact form: 5 days

    Back-office: 8 days

  2. Project Manager

    OK, got it

Pan out to reveal Project Lead sitting next to programmer

  1. Project Manager

    I’ll send the customer the quote and I’ll let you know what happens

  2. Programmer

    OK, great

Zoom in on the Project Lead and Programmer

  1. Project Lead

    5 man-days for a contact form?? Are You kidding??

    It’s half a day at the very most

  2. Programmer (looking smug)

    You’re right…

    …But you’re forgetting the 4.5 days to test the new must-have framework

  3. Project Lead (smiling)

    Ha! Someone has to pay for it…

Sadly, this is so true.

Text for Screen Readers Only (Updated)

This post includes a few excellent ways to add context for “headless” UIs. I use quite a few of these approaches on this very site and they’ve proven quite useful.