HTML5 Pacman
This is a great example of what HTML5 can do. The programmer built a Pacman game using HTML5. He admits that it's a work in progress, but it's a great proof of concept. He says that he uses localStorage, HTML5 Audio, Canvas and @font-face to get the job done.
As far as I'm concerned, that's another win for HTML5. Go check it out and come back here to share your comments.
Stop the ride. I wanna get off.
Change. I change my clothes, my son's diaper, my mind - often multiple times a day. Heck, change is so intertwined in our lives that we make changes on the way to work; radio stations, lanes, MPH, etc. Our lives and the world around us is in a constant state of flux.
So then, how do you stay on top (never mind the cutting edge) of an industry that is constantly changing?
The web design industry is built on change. On one hand, it's great. Yesterday, we had to use Flash in order to have a dynamic website. Today, we can use better JavaScript like JQuery to do it. Tomorrow, we will use HTML5. Truly without change, our art, our passion would grow stale. However, it can be seriously dizzying!
I just read a retrospective article a few weeks ago about design trends for 2009. Then today, I read one about design trends of 2010 so far. Wait. I just got the hang of the "look" for 2009. Crap. I won't "get" 2010 for at least another 6 months. I know I said it just a moment ago, but I feel like the room is spinning.
Since I am spinning in circles, that takes us back to the beginning: "How do you stay on top of an industry that's constantly changing?"
Well I think that it will be different for each person. However, for me that involves a lot of research and reading. I have a short list of sites that I visit when I'm in need of some inspiration. Probably the one site I visit most often is Smashing Magazine, though. I also have been studying up on not only the more obscure features of CSS2, but am starting to dive in to CSS3. It won't be long before it will be the new standard and all browsers will support it en masse.
More importantly for me though, is that I start doing. I will look at a design that I admire and try to reverse engineer it. I figure out how the interactive elements work and what it takes to make them work well. I look at the design and try to replicate it with my own touch. I dissect the CSS so I can get an even better grasp of how it is affecting the layout and styling of the site.
Unfortunately, I haven't found a way to stay on top of the wave or even get ahead of it. I don't know if I ever will. I don't know if that's really important, though, either. For me, it's constantly a process of self improvement and discovery. That's why I love this industry so much. That is why I love my job so much. I get a chance to learn something new every day. Moreover, I get to do something that's challenging and in the end, very rewarding.
So, ya - this changing industry can be dizzying. But, it's also a small picture of the world around us. I suppose if you have a hard time accepting change in your daily life, then you probably don't want to consider web design. However, if you can embrace the change for what it is; a daily challenge to improve yourself and give back to others, then you'll do just fine.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go change another diaper.
Flash vs HTML5
The battle between Flash and HTML5 has been heating up lately. There's a lot of debate not only by the people who know what goes into Flash and HTML5, but also from the general public.
You can't really surf the web without catching an argument about how Flash is bloated and overall crap and that HTML5 is the savior of the interwebs. Gizmodo, Crunchgear, and Endgadget are just a few sites that talk about the subject. However, now you have Apple going head to head with Adobe in the last few months. First when the iPhone came out, it was annoying that they didn't allow Flash on it. However, most people forgave Apple because they figured that, well, it's a cell phone and other manufacturers make the rules to govern their phones, why not Apple? Then Apple rolls out the iPad. (side note, I've played with one and I still think it's an oversized, overpriced iPod Touch.) Anyway, the iPad doesn't support Flash. Rather, Apple is trying to push their codec, H.264. They've been using it for the last few years to encode video files for the iPod Touch and iPhones. It's a good format, but hell, there's better out there. So, here's the disturbing thing; Apple's show of obstinance is actually winning them ground! You've actually got website owners willing to ditch Flash just so their site will work on that POS iPad. I find that utterly rediculous! Why should we, the web developers bow to Apple's wishes? Personally, I don't necessarily like Flash en masse. It has it's merits in certain situations, though. However, when one company is trying to bend the rules to their favor, that's when we should all stop and take stock of what's going on here. I mean, rather than everyone bowing to Apple, why not push back and say, "nope, we're not going to give in to your closed system".
Okay, I'm sorry, I can tend to rattle on and I have a few gripes with Apple lately so, I'll try to keep on course.
Anyway, like I said above, Flash has it's merits. Personally, I don't like building entire websites out of Flash. Primarily because they can't be read by search engines and therefore it's much more difficult to correctly optimize them. I think HTML5 is great and if you've seen some of the demos out there, it's really impressive. Heck, never mind the demos, take a look at YouTube. Yup. YouTube is now all HTML5. However, I don't think that HTML5 is 100% our answer to a smoother web surfing experience. Granted, I think it's a big piece of the puzzle. However, I think the responsibility lies squarely on the shoulders of web developers to stop building shitty sites and to start doing it right. They need to quit cutting corners and put in the time, hard work, and effort to make a site great using whatever technology that site requires. Too many people pigeon-hole themselves and refuse to grow beyond what they're comfortable; be it Flash, HTML, or other.
As I've said before, I'm not a huge fan of Flash. However, I'll use it if I have to. I have a client that wanted a full Flash website. So, knowing it's SEO limitations, I built a Flash landing page (my thoughts on those another time) and built the rest of the site using jQuery. The site is interactive like she wanted, but it now works well with SEO techniques. So ultimately, she really is the big winner here.
Anyway, if I can leave you with just one thought, it would be this; HTML5 is Friggin' awesome and Flash is bloated. However, in order to build a web surfing experience that is interactive, exciting, and smooth, we need to leverage all of the technologies. Moreover, it's not up to big companies to decide for us what that will look like.
Let’s take a minute to talk about HTML5
HTML5 has been the buzz on the interwebs for a few months now. HTML5 will be the savior to a world of bland websites, lame markup, and Flash animation. The last part is what really excites me. Sure, Flash is sexy as hell when it's used right, but it's not so good for SEO. There are work arounds and hacks, but why would you want to do that when your code can natively support animation?
The bummer is that the web isn't ready for HTML5. Actually, Internet Explorer isn't ready for it. As web developers we all know that Microsoft makes their own rules with Internet Explorer. We're having to hack our code so that it works in that damn browser all the while Firefox 3, Safari 4, and Opera 10 all support web standards set up by W3C, including our wonderful CSS (oh, and CSS3 is in the pipeline, too!). So, if you want to use HTML5 code, you have to hack it with JavaScript so that your CSS can be read. If you're interested in reading about that hack, checkout this article at sitepoint.com.
With all that said, I am excited about HTML5 because it provides logical structure to your code. For example, the tag for your physical header will be <header>. You can have multiple headers on your page. So you can have a header for your sidebar for example. The sidebar will be called <aside> and your navigation area will be <nav>. It all makes perfect logical sense and to a type A person such as myself, it brings much happiness to my world.
So, what does HTML5 look like? Take a look at Google Wave. They're starting to implement the tech. Say what you will about Google, but at least they are helping advance the industry. Want a chance to play with it now? Take a look at this page: http://htmlfive.appspot.com/. Finally, if you want to see the HTML5 demo that totally blew my mind the first time I saw it, check this out: http://9elements.com/io/projects/html5/canvas/. Sure, it may not be sexy like Flash right now, but give it some time to mature. The beauty of that last demo is that everything; the animation, the music, the mouse interaction is all with HTML. No JavaScript, Flash, or any other crappy antiquated animation tools.
So while the naysayers don't like HTML5, I say that it's the future of the web and frankly, I can't wait for it.
Other reading: Smashing Magazine write up and PDF of the markup.
