LocalType is a personal journal authored by Christopher Harrington. In it you will find articles on design, information architecture, computer industry trends, photography and occasionally food. I will only write about what I know, and I will only write if I have something new to bring to a discussion.
This site is written as Valid XHTML and CSS. If something looks funny in your browser, I suggest downloading a browser that supports web standards. I suggest either a Gecko derivative or a KHTML derivative, before submitting a bug report.
Twiggy
This design, “Twiggy”, echoes the tall slender model of the 1970s, but with a modern contemporary minimalist flair. The design will draw your eye to the important parts of the page. First, the very large, bright orange title will let you know what you are reading. The space will allow you time to get comfortable before reading the body copy. The sidebar is meant to fade from view so you can concentrate on the main body text. Should you be interested in the contents of the sidebar, the links change from a cool light grey to a bright, legible orange.
While there is no site-wide style switcher, the entire design becomes larger when you increase the font size. If you find the type too small, this may be an option
Text
The body text is set in the very screen-friendly Lucida Grande for Mac users, and the good, but less optimal Gill Sans for everyone else. Those who fail to have Gill Sans will see Verdana, failing that Trebuchet, failing that Helvetica, and finally Ariel. Surely someone will have one of the above.
Links in articles are bright orange. When the mouse hovers over a link, an underline is displayed. Most links have additional information associated with them. Pause your mouse over a link to get the information. For example, links that are also titles of articles will show the article’s excerpt when moused-over.
Acronyms have a dotted (or dashed for IE users) line under them. When you place the mouse over the acronym, the cursor will change to a question mark, and display the definition of the acronym.
Sidebar
The sidebar is a place for content related that particular page. For example, you may find links to additional articles in the same category. The sidebar also contains external links that I find interesting. Perhaps you will as well.