The White House published The Open Government Directive (PDF) “to direct executive departments and agencies to take specific actions to implement the principles of transparency, participation, and collaboration” in order to respect “the presumption of openness.”

The memo asserts these principles “form the cornerstone of an open government” and elaborates on the value of each:

Transparency

“promotes accountability by providing the public with information about what the Government is doing.”

Participation

“allows members of the public to contribute ideas and expertise so that their government can make policies with the benefit of information that is widely dispersed in society.”

Collaboration

“improves the effectiveness of Government by encouraging partnerships and cooperation within the Federal Government, across levels of government, and between the Government and private institutions.”

The Directive provides a clear timeline with deadlines for action to be taken by each agency. Key milestones include, but are not limited to, the following:

45 days

identify and publish online in an open format at least three high-value data sets … and register those data sets via Data.gov. These must be data sets not previously available online or in a downloadable format.

60 days

create an Open Government Webpage located at http://www.[agency].gov/open to serve as the gateway for agency activities related to the Open Government Directive and maintain and update that webpage in a timely fashion.

120 days

publish an agency-wide open government plan that will describe and enforce transparency initiatives and will improve public participation and accountability.

The section headings of the Directive provide a clear outline of the document:

1. Publish Government Information Online
2. Improve the Quality of Government Information
3. Create and Institutionalize a Culture of Open Government
4. Create an Enabling Policy Framework

Each section is increasingly inspiring. The first is a given. The second, in addition to being the goal of this blog, speaks to the ever-present need for government to strive to improve its level of service. The third section is novel and lofty as it strives to effect sweeping change across the Federal government in a qualitative way, calling for “lasting change in the way that Government works.” The fourth section provides the structure necessary for success in any large enterprise. To achieve these goals, the six-page memo is followed by a five-page Open Government Plan containing strategies to implement the Directive.

Norm Eisen and Beth Noveck elaborated on the importance of the Open Government Initiative in a blog post titled “Why an Open Government Matters”:

This new degree of openness is enabled in part by 21st century technology, which makes it possible for government to open its doors and databases more than ever before. From online listening tours and chats to web-based brainstorming by government officials with the American public, the White House and federal agencies are opening up the way they work to improve accountability in government and deepen our democracy.

But creating an open government – one that is committed to transparency and civic engagement – does more than promote accountability. Working in the open fosters collaboration between government, private industry, and the public to improve the lives of Americans in their communities.

Right in line with the principle of transparency is the Milestones page of the Open Government Initiative section of the White House site that highlights progress made by various agencies.

While I’m sure we all agree with the spirit of the Initiative, what challenges do you see in implementing this plan?

Every weekend, we recap our articles and round up other useful articles we read during the week on web design, development and Gov2.0. We hope you find them helpful. If you have article links you’d like to share, please post in the comment section.

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• Adobe and Open Government

  Adobe recently launched its Open Government initiative. As a tech giant, how can Adobe help government agencies to deliver their data to the general public?

From Elsewhere

• Obama Team Challenges Web Developers

  White House new media director Macon Phillips, deputy director Dave Cole, and creative director Nick Lo Bue announced plans to make WhiteHouse.gov more customizable and increase their usage of RDFa. Plus, the new media team is “working with the White House legal counsel to determine how to contribute that code back to the community” which means they would not only be using Open Source Software, but contributing to it.

  We covered their switch to Drupal and RDFa in our post Structured Meaning in HTML5. (via RDFa.info)

• Re-mapping the future for Ordnance Survey – making public data public

  UKPrime Minister Gordon Brown announced the Ordnance Survey, Great Britain’s national mapping agency, “will open up its data relating to electoral and local authority boundaries, postcode areas and mid scale mapping information.” He added “Today’s announcement responds to the demands for better use and access to data held by government. In this new world, smarter government is not an option but a necessity.”

• World Wide Web Foundation Launches Global Operations

  The W3C summarized the launch:

  World Wide Web Foundation was created with W3C’s support in September 2008, and focuses on advancing the Web as a medium that empowers people to make positive social and economic change. Web Foundation’s first two projects [...] are consistent with W3C’s own work to ensure that One Web is available to all, including work on mobile Web for social development, accessibility, and internationalization. W3C looks forward to collaborating with World Wide Web Foundation to further lower barriers to access and to promote the development of free and open Web standards.

• City of Fargo, North Dakota Must Have Accessible Web Sites under DOJ ADA Settlement

  “The US Department of Justice (DOJ) settled with the City of Fargo, North Dakota on November 16, 2009 under ADA Title II non-discrimination provisions. Among the various agreements, there is specifically a requirement ensuring that official City websites be accessible to persons with disabilities, including individuals who are blind or low vision.”

• Tim Berners-Lee on Government Data

  At the W3C Technical Plenary (TPAC) 2009, Tim Berners-Lee spoke to Anne van Kesteren, Lachlan Hunt and Marcos Caceres about his goal for governments to put their data on the web.

  (via Standards Suck)

If you come to Washington D.C. right now, chances are you will see big poster ads by Adobe. This is because Adobe recently launched their Open Government initiative. As stated on their web site:

As Washington takes steps to become more transparent, government departments and agencies are more openly collaborating with each other as well as the public. See examples of how Adobe technology and software are empowering the Open Government movement.

As a web designer and front-end developer working in government IT, I love the Adobe products that I use daily. However, I was surprised that Adobe built their Open Gov site entirely in Flash. Flash sites are not accessible or section 508 compliant. The best use of Flash for government web use now is to stream videos. Chris Foresman summed up the problem with Flash in his article on Ars Technica:

After just a cursory browsing, here are some of the usability and data accessibility issues we observed. You can’t select, copy, or paste any text. Your browser’s font override features won’t work, so you can’t adjust the font or its size to be more readable. Your browser’s built-in in-page search won’t work, and you can’t use the keyboard to scroll through the text. You can’t parse or scrape the data in any way; the design is fixed-width, so it’s not going to work well on different screen sizes; and browser plugins, like Greasemonkey, can’t adjust anything. Basically when it comes to text at all, if you don’t like the style or are visually impaired, you’re screwed.

Personally, I’m not anti-Flash. I believe in using the right tool for the job and Flash has its place. Rich media sites such as TV, movies, and gaming sites use it to offer their tech savvy audiences the best interactive experience. However for government sites, we need to make sure our sites are as accessible as possible to everyone out there. With the advancement in front-end development, many interactive elements can be done in pure HTML, CSS and unobtrusive JavaScript today.

The second issue is Adobe’s push for PDF format. Just about all government agencies use Adobe Acrobat to publish documents in PDF format. I have no problem with PDF for short documents. They’re printer friendly and accessible if done correctly. However, long reports can be a nightmare for both developers and the public who attempt to read them.

Clay Johnson from Sunlight Labs recently wrote a blog post titled “Adobe is Bad for Open Government.”

Take, for instance, H.R. 3200– otherwise known as “America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009″, a 1017 page healthcare bill from congress. Because it is primarily published in PDF, we’ve got to build a special parser for it– that bill– in order to represent it programatically. Or Carl Malamud’s IRS filings for 527 (stealth PAC) organizations: gigabytes of PDF files, all released by government. Government releasing data in PDF tends to be catastrophic for Open Government advocates, journalists and our readers because of the amount of overhead it takes to get data out of it. When a government agency publishes its data and documents as PDFs, it makes us Open Government advocates and developers cringe, tear our hair out, and swear a little (just a little).

Clay suggests instead of PDF we should use other formats such as HTML or XML. I prefer XML since many PDFs already are built off XML format. As for HTML, I can see several issues:

• Writing valid HTML code. Unless the people who create the files are up to date with W3C standards, we’ll end up with tons of poorly written HTML files. Many government sites are plagued with poor HTML already.
• XML offers a structured format that can be transformed using XSL into other, more specific formats such as HTML or PDF.

I recommend reading Clay’s article in its entirety, including its comment section. Recently, Clay and Rob Pinkerton, the Director of Adobe Government Solutions, appeared on the Kojo Nnamdi Show. They offered their views in-depth on Adobe’s involvement in the Open Government movement. The audio and transcript are available on Kojo’s site.

I am happy that Adobe wants to get involved with pushing government IT forward. However, they should study the constraints government agencies face. Document format and accessibility are two important issues given the amount of data to be presented to the public.

“Accessibility” is a big word. Everyone who develops Web sites – coders and content creators alike – should aim for full compliance, but the reality is that only the criteria in Section 508 are legally binding to government. For Web-based intranet and internet information and applications (§ 1194.22 ), this means sixteen criteria and the Adobe Open Government site does not meet them. Paragraph (l) states “When pages utilize scripting languages to display content, or to create interface elements, the information provided by the script shall be identified with functional text that can be read by assistive technology.” Unfortunately, there is text content in the HTML source of the page, but CSS is used to hide that content in such a way that it is not announced by screen readers (using “display: none“).

Adobe missed a valuable opportunity to demonstrate how Flash can be used in an unobtrusive and/or accessible way; if Adobe can’t make a Flash-based, 508-compliant site, why should we expect government developers – or any developers – to do so?

Update (12/3/2009): The Adobe Open Government site has been updated! The site still uses Flash to provide some background animations, but the content is marked up using HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

Every weekend, we recap our articles and round up other useful articles we read during the week on web design, development and Gov2.0. We hope you find them helpful. If you have article links you’d like to share, please post in the comment section.

ClearType☆Press

• Learn Online, Connect Offline

  Attending to web conferences is a great way to connect with our peers. Not only do we get to exchange ideas and the latest practices with our peers, we also get to expand our personal network. There are planned national/international events, as well as the informal ones held locally. Take advantage of them.

From Elsewhere

• New Drop Caps

  Mark Boulton commissioned his sister-in-law to create a set of custom drop caps for his blog and they provide a potent reminder of the power of typography.

• 40 years of the internet

  The internet just turned 40 years old! This article gives a great overview of how it began.

• A Roundup Of 25 Advanced CSS Tips And Tutorials

  A great list of CSS techniques.

• Mockingbird

  Mockingbird is a web based wire framing tool.

• Steve Smith on HTML5 and CSS3

  Another great speakers’ series from Carsonified.

• Javascript Objects 101

  Good explanation of OOP in Javascript.

• Mobile Frameworks and Development Tools for Creating iPhone Apps

  If you’re thinking about developing an Iphone version of your site, you may find this list helpful.

• Get started with Closure, Google’s Javascript Library

  A good overview of the new JS library from Google.

• Department of Justice

  Check out the newly redesigned website of DOJ! Nicely done.

• TED TALK: Stefana Broadbent: How the Internet Enables Intimacy

I can’t stress enough how important it is for web designers and developers to keep themselves up-to-date with the most current technology and best practices. Those of us who work on government websites have a very important job. Ultimately, what we do directly affects the effectiveness of our agencies’ web presence. Keeping our skills sharp is a challenge today because the web is ever evolving. Luckily there are a lot of good online resources.

Online resources are good for specific tutorials and technical references. However, I believe in the importance of meeting with other creatives and developers in real life. Personal contact is a much better way to exchange ideas and build up a network of people who share the same interests as you. I’ve even seen many friendships grow out of web conferences. Some of the more well known web events are:

• An Event Apart
• South by Southwest Conferences and Festivals.
• The Future of Web Design
• The Future of Web Apps
• Gov 2.0 Expo
• Gov 2.0 Summit
• User Interface Conference
• Advanced Common Sense Workshops
• Adobe MAX

Smashing Magazine recently published a very comprehensive list of the conferences around the globe. It’s worth checking out, and make sure you read the comment section too. If your agency has the budget to send you to these conferences as training, definitely take advantage of that.

Sometimes it’s hard to go even if we want to. There are factors such as time, budget and family affairs that prevent us from traveling across the country to attend some of these informative events. That’s why I suggest local Barcamps or Meetup Groups.

BarCamp is an international network of user generated conferences (or unconferences) – open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants.

The beauty of these locally held events is that the people you meet are close by, therefore making it easier to connect with them in the future. Also, if you do not see an event in your area, you can always initiate one yourself. The online tools make it easy. The last local event we attended was a blast. Check out our coverage on the Accessibility Camp.

David and I will be attending the November 14th event by Barcamp DC. We hope to meet many local designers, developers and gov2.0 people. And of course, we’ll be doing a full coverage of the event so you can read it here.

Do you have any other suggestions for connecting with your peers? Let us know.

Every Friday, we recap our articles and round up other useful articles we read during the week on web design, development and Gov2.0. We hope you find them helpful. If you have article links you’d like to share, please post in the comment section.

ClearType☆Press

• Structured Meaning in HTML5

  HTML4 provides limited ways to give meaning to content through markup alone. In this post, we examine Microformats that provide real-world design principles, RDFa which enables extensible vocabularies and the new Microdata features of HTML5. All three seek to combine machine-readable data with human-readable content.

From Elsewhere

• Advanced Photoshop Techniques

  Photoshop has a lot of features, but we tend to stick with the ones we’re familiar with. This article reveals some excellent tricks you may not be aware of.

• UnderCover – Detect Below the Fold Views

  This is a useful JQuery plugin that detects when the user scrolls pass the page fold.

• www.css3.info/

  This is one of the best sites to get information on CSS3, complete with examples.

• typegoodness.com

  As the name implies, you can find some nice typography inspirations on this site.

• Firefox 3.6 beta Available for Download

  The latest Firefox beta is out. Lifehacker lists the new features.

• Drupal Knows Best? The White House Debate Continues

  Whitehouse.gov switched to Durpal as its CMS last week. This article from Techpresident.com has some good links to the critics and supporters of this move. Tim O’Reilly shared his thoughts last week.

• FEC Launches Data Catalog

  www.fec.gov/data/ just launched its data catalogs that contain campaign finance information.

• Facebook Widgets

  If your agency is already on Facebook, you may find the widget page useful. It shows many ways to integrate Facebook into your page

• Entering Digital Age an Expensive Proposition for GOP

  A Breakdown of GOP’s spending on their web presence.

• Open Internet

HTML4 provides limited ways to give meaning to content through markup alone. In this post, we examine Microformats that provide real-world design principles, RDFa which enables extensible vocabularies and the new Microdata features of HTML5. All three seek to combine machine-readable data with human-readable content.

This past weekend, the White House switched their web site to Drupal. In addition to making news because it is using an open source stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP and Apache Solr for search) it is noteworthy because it makes use of the XHTML+RDFa doctype. This little-known spec is a W3C Recommendation (a “standard”) that enables authors to add semantic metadata – RDF, which is usually contained in a separate document – to their markup using attributes that are both machine-readable and human-friendly.

You Mean Like Microformats?

Microformats work as design patterns within the confines of HTML4 – using features such as the class attribute – but they rely on a pre-existing agreement between you (the author) and the author of the parser that consumes the markup. This agreement is in the form of a vocabulary for a particular type of information such as hCard for contact information: this is the name, this is the phone number and so on. But what if you want to include a piece of information that isn’t part of the microformat, like a TTY number? You’re stuck.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t part of the original vCard spec (upon which hCard was based) and while there is a “flexible method” to add custom types to vCard, you’re at the mercy of each parser whether it will detect your TTY number because you’re restricted to the vocabulary that has been determined by the hCard microformat. However, microformats are easy to use and provide a compact syntax if you’re publishing information that is covered by one of the many vocabularies provided. (Check out the great Getting Semantic With Microformats series by Emily Lewis to learn more about microformats.)

So What Is RDFa?

“One motivation for RDFa has been to devise a means by which documents can be augmented with metadata in a general rather than hard-wired manner. This has been achieved by creating a fixed set of attributes and parsing rules, but allowing those attributes to contain properties from any of a number of the growing range of available RDF vocabularies.”

RDFa (Resource Description Framework in Attributes), like microformats, enables you to add structured meaning to your markup. Unlike microformats, RDFa allows you to specify the vocabulary used to describe the data. The quotation above comes from the XHTML+RDFa Recommendation RDFa in XHTML: Syntax and Processing, which is a very technical document, so start with the RDFa Primer. It provides clear examples of how you can “express simple and more complex datasets using RDFa, and in particular how to turn the existing human-visible text and links into machine-readable data without repeating content.” Emphasis mine, for this is the key.

With the push for government to publish more data, why should the data have to live in separate formats for human and machine audiences? There is certainly a lot of information that is published in HTML (and XHTML served as HTML) that could benefit from structured markup to open it up to the web of Linked Data. In September, the W3C eGovernment Interest
Group examined these benefits in the Working Draft document Publishing Open Government Data.

In an interesting twist, the White House site previously used RDFa on their Copyright Policy page to markup Creative Commons license information, but now those attributes are no longer present, even though the page is using the XHTML+RDFa doctype. If you look at the root HTML element, you can see the following vocabularies being referenced using the “xmlns:” prefix (though unused): Dublin Core (http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/) and Common Tag RDF Vocabulary (http://commontag.org/ns#). Multiple vocabularies can be used on a given RDFa-enabled page and it is recommended to use a pre-existing vocabulary before you define your own.

What About HTML5?

Good question. As I mentioned before, XHTML+RDFa is a W3C Recommendation and RDFa is implemented in Drupal – a major CMS – and supported by both Google and Yahoo! to enhance search results. Just a few weeks ago, the HTML Working Group published a Working Draft of HTML+RDFa but there are still some big issues to sort out, due to the way XHTML+RDFa made use of the extensible nature of XHTML (remember the X?), particularly its use of XML namespaces and custom attributes; the goal is to add these attributes to HTML5. The Working Draft makes clear that it applies not only “to HTML5 documents in non-XML and XML mode [a.k.a. XHTML5], but also to HTML4 documents interpreted through the HTML5 parsing rules.”

But HTML5 Has Microdata

Currently, the HTML5 Working Draft contains a section called Microdata, which resembles microformats but uses newly-created attributes to embed “machine-readable labels” and “nested groups of name-value pairs” called “items.” HTML5 also defines a DOM API to extract an item’s properties. The current spec, which was published today, states that “using microdata means using a vocabulary” and even goes so far as to encourage authors to “to re-use existing vocabularies, as this makes content re-use easier” which sounds similar to RDFa. Yet the WHATWG chose not to re-use the syntax and grammar of RDFa. Jeni Tennison dove into the differences between the two in HTML5/RDFa Arguments and a commenter claiming to be Tantek Çelik (co-creator of Microformats) noted that Ian Hickson chose to model microdata on microformats instead.

The debate between microdata and RDFa continues now, even as Ian Hickson announced today that HTML5 is at Last Call, Last Call status only applies to the path of HTML5 within the WHATWG, not its path through the W3C HTML Working Group. Issue 76 in the HTML WG Tracker is still open regarding “Concerns about Microdata section and inclusion/exclusion of RDFa.”

Although the issue of microdata and/or RDFa continues, it is clear that HTML5 will provide a mechanism(s) for publishing structured, semantic data that is both machine-readable and human-readable. The White House site has the capability right now to publish such information. Which existing or future information do you expect to see?

Do you see yourself taking the extra steps to give structure to your data?

Every Friday, we recap our articles and round up other useful articles we read during the week on web design, development and Gov2.0. We hope you find them helpful. If you have article links you’d like to share, please post in the comment section.

ClearType☆Press

• Helpful Resources

  This article contains a lot of our favorite blog and resource sites on web design, development and social media. We will eventually create a Resource page and keep updating the links.

• What You Need to Know About Page Fold

  “Put everything above the fold, because users don’t scroll.” As web designers we probably were told this at least once by clients or managers. In this article we take a look at the no scroll myth, and how to design the homepage intro area appropriately.

From Elsewhere

• After Firefox 3.6 – New Font Control Features for Designers

  Some great font control features in Firefox 3.7.

• 10 Incredible JQuery Navigation Menus

  JQuery makes front-end a lot easier these days. If you happen to use JQuery on your site already, these are some great plug-ins to spice up the navigation menu.

• 10 secrets to staying informed about web design

  I’m a firm believer in reading design and development blogs to stay sharp. However it can get overwhelming sometimes. Paul Boag shares some great tips on how to read efficiently.

• Patterns for the Color Blind

  A great site for references when designing an accessible website.

• The Mystery of the CSS Float Property

  When switching to a table-less layout, using DIVs can be a bit intimidating. This article explains the Float attribute in great details.

• W3C’s New Accessibility Page

  W3C just redesigned their site, finally! Check out the new accessibility page.

• The Myth of Usability Testing

  While I think the title of the latest ALA article is somewhat misleading, there are is good information to digest. P.S. usability testing definitely serves its purpose, when conducted properly.

• Treating User Myopia

  Jeff Atwood shows an example of how users don’t see instructions designers put on the web. I do agree with him that users do read very little instructions. The key is to place the instructions at the right place.

• OpenInternet.gov

  If you’re interested in the topic of Net Neutrality, definitely check out the Open Internet site by FCC. Chairman Genachowski held an open commission meeting this week. Recorded live blogging and video available here.

• GovGuru.com

  This is a newly launched site that helps people to access government sites easier.

• The Future of HTML5 by Bruce Lawson

  Bruce’s presentation slides and examples of HTML5 elements can be found at carsonified.com

“Above the fold” is a graphic design concept that refers to the location of an important news story or a visually appealing photograph on the upper half of the front page of a newspaper. Most papers are delivered and displayed to customers folded up, meaning that only the top half of the front page is visible. Thus, an item that is “above the fold” may be one that the editors feel will entice people to buy the paper. Alternatively, it reflects a decision, on the part of the editors, that the article is one of the day’s most important.

For many web designers, the concept above the fold serves both as a guide and a hindrance. For newspapers, the area above the folding line should be reserved for most prominent content. In web design, this is the view-port area on the front page where the users see without scrolling. However, this area is often abused. Many clients or managers still believe that users don’t scroll, therefore the content below the fold won’t be seen by users. This misconception results in homepages crammed with links and unimportant content. Not only the homepage becomes aesthetically unpleasing, but also yields poor findability and usability.

Debunking the No Scroll Myth

Origin

Why do some people think users don’t scroll? This traces back to the web usability study conducted by Jakob Nielsen in 1994. The results made sense back then. Many users were new to the web or frequent usage of a computer.

Even Jakob Nielsen stated in another study three years later in 1997, that majority of the users did scroll due to familiarity with the technology.

In more recent studies, we have seen that most users scroll when they visit a long home page or a long navigation screen. This change in behavior is probably due to users getting more experience with scrolling Web pages.

That study was published twelve years ago.

Users Do Scroll

Today, the web has become an integral part of our daily life. The vast majority of users know when to scroll. Also, the technology today makes it easy for users to scroll, e.g. trackball on mice, multi-touch gesture on touch pads, etc.

Joe Leech from cxpartners recently published an article dispelling the no scroll myth, backed with some comprehensive usability testing data.

Over the last 6 years we’ve watched over 800 user testing sessions between us and on only 3 occasions have we seen the page fold as a barrier to users getting to the content they want.

I recommend reading his article in its entirety. The comment section is good too.

What Should be Above the Fold?

First, Where is the Fold?

It’s hard to define where the folding line is by a pixel number. This is because users have different sized monitors, and resolution settings. Even two users with the same monitor size and resolution, their browsers’ view-ports may be different depending on how many tool bars they have.

For example, I have my browser size set to 1024×768. Here are the two view-port heights depending how many tool bars I use. 560px for maximum toolbar usage while 680px for minimum.

I recommend around 600px as a guide for the folding line to be safe on the homepage, for your absolute premium content. However, also keep in mind that users may use mobile or other type of devices other than a desktop or laptop computer.

What Content Should be Above the Fold?

The more content you cram above the fold, the longer it takes the user to digest at first glance. This is very common among government sites, where the homepage is typically a labyrinth of links. Focus on the key content. Even though web sites differ in nature, the homepage should convey a clear message of what the site is about and what the top tasks are right away. A growing trend among the new government sites is the use of big highlight box for frequently updated news items, sections of social media links and other key task links of the agency.

Keep in mind, text links are not the only content. In fact, when the homepage is a big laundry list of text links, it makes it harder for users to find the right content. Many clients or managers insist on cramming everything above the fold because those links are important. In practice, when everything is important, then nothing is important.

Identify what you would like the users to learn, use and feel about the site on their first visit. Then pick those elements that accomplish your goal, and give them the most prominent visual treatment. This can be done through vivid imagery, big type and use of proper white space.

What to Put Below the Fold?

A better question would be “what to put between the fold?” As I mentioned earlier, the folding line is very arbitrary. In that gray area, it’s best to design visual cues that hint there are more content below. See this as a transition area.

In Conclusion

Users do scroll.

The concept above the fold should serve as a design guideline. When used properly, your site can provide immediate clarity to the users and invoke a positive feeling. Stack the content elements in the order from most prominent to lesser. Of course, do a thorough information architecturing during the design process, and conduct an A/B testing when the site launches.

If you’re a web designer or developer working on government sites, it’s very important that you keep up with the latest web design trends and development techniques. Our field evolves at a fast pace because of new technologies as well as tips and tricks to get more out of what we already possess, whether it’s a tool or a technique. The best way to learn is through reading helpful blogs and reference sites to get informed and inspired.

In this post we’re going to share some of our favorite sites. We hope you find them useful.

Design

Graphics

• Abduzeedo – rss
• Psdtuts – rss
• Web Designer Depot – rss
• Tutorial 9 – rss
• Photoshop Lady – rss
• PSDFan – rss
• Web Designer Wall – rss

Typography

• Hoefler & Frere Jones – rss
• DesignWorkPlan – rss
• I Love Typography – rss
• Retinart – rss
• Typedia

Logo & Branding

• David Airey – rss
• Logo Design Love – rss
• Brand New – rss

Infographics

• FlowingData – rss
• Information Aesthetics – rss

Inspiration

• A List Apart – rss
• Carsonified – rss
• For a Beautiful Web
• Substraction – rss
• Authentic Boredom – rss
• Jason Santa Maria – rss

Showcase

• DesignM.ag – rss
• Vandelay Design – rss
• Fuel Brand Network – rss
• Noupe – rss
• Smashing Magazine – rss

Development

Front-End

• World Web Web Consortium (W3C)
• Web Devout by David Hammond – rss
• SitePoint CSS/HTML/JavaScript Reference by Tommy Olsson and Paul O’Brien
• CSS Globe – rss
• CSS Tricks – rss
• Centricle: CSS Filters (CSS Hacks) (use with caution)
• Janko At Warpspeed – rss
• Web Dev & Design by Soh Tanaka – rss
• CSS Drive Community News – rss
• Nettuts – rss
• Script & Style – rss
• Opera: Web Standards Curriculum
• When can I use… – rss
• YUI Theater – rss

Q & A and Directory

• Stackoverflow
• ServerFault
• DZone

Usability & IA

• Usability Post – rss
• Function Form – rss
• Nick Finck – rss
• UX Booth – rss
• UX Exchange

Accessibility

• 456 Berea St – rss
• Section 508
• W3C Web Accessibility Initiative
• John F. Croston III – rss
• Joe Clark
• Jim Thatcher – rss
• WebAIM: Web Accessibility In Mind – rss
• Juicy Studio by Gez Lemon – rss

Gov 2.0

• GovLoop
• GovFresh
• GovZine
• Government 2.0 – rss
• WebContent.gov

See something we missed? Let us know in the comments!