Sakai Style guide

[Mark Norton]

Aaron is right on target here. Developers love this kind of stuff. 
Anything that makes their job easier and makes the customer happier.

- Mark

Aaron Zeckoski wrote:

>This sounds like it is heading in generally the right direction for it
>to be useful for developers, however, I am not sure so I will lay out
>what I think you need for a style guide to be helpful to developers so
>they will actually use it.
>
>What developers need from a style guide:
>1) Needs to have general controls (like design patterns I think) laid
>out and also examples of full pages that cover the 80% use cases (I
>will call both of these "pieces" here)
>2) Every piece should include an html snippet as an example
>3) Every piece should include the recommended CSS styles OR (even
>better) the class tags OR a combination
>4) Widgets should be included which also have examples showing how to
>invoke them for the common display technologies
>
>Making the style guide readable and usable for developers:
>1) It should be available online and google indexed (probably in a
>wiki or editable online text of some kind)
>2) It should also be available as a PDF (maybe as an export)
>3) It should be "prescriptive" (to quote Colin), and should lay things
>out as being the right way to do things (people will ignore it if they
>really want to, however, it should presented as "the Sakai way" or
>something like this.
>
>The goals of the style guide related to developers:
>1) Demonstrate the consistent way to display "things" in a Sakai tool
>2) Demonstrate the correct way to form HTML which is accessible
>3) Demonstrate the proper CSS classes and styles to use
>4) Demonstrate the usage of widgets and where they are appropriate to use
>
>I would recommend taking the stuff Gonzalo started on his pages (HTML
>and CSS) and using that to bootstrap the guide. I forget the link but
>I will copy him and hopefully he will paste it.
>:-)
>-AZ
>
>
>On 7/2/07, Daphne Ogle <daphne at media.berkeley.edu> wrote:
>  
>
>>Hi there,
>>
>>I just ran across this definition of a style guide on the IXDA list:
>>
>>"Many companies provide a "Style Guide." This is often a few branding
>>standards (the logo goes there) combined with a number of general design
>>guidelines. The document is saved to a hard drive and promptly never
>>seen or
>>read by anyone.
>>
>>A standards guide is successful if the end user moves from one page to
>>another and has the experience that "Yes!  I have seen a page like this
>>before. And it works the way I expect." To have this happen we must
>>identify
>>the 10–20 types (roughly, could be more or less) of pages that
>>account for
>>85% of the pages that will be designed. We then create standard page
>>templates for each of these. It is like having good DNA in the system/
>>site,
>>which brings unity and sense to the end result.
>>
>>The guide is used in the building of actual HTML/CSS templates and in
>>making
>>sure that scope or feature creep does not muddle the clear design of the
>>system/site."
>>
>>Perhaps this could be useful in our conversations around design
>>patterns vs style guide.  This definition seems in line with previous
>>discussions that design patterns and a style guide compliment each
>>other.  The style guide informs visual styles and layouts while the
>>design patterns focus on types of interactions.
>>
>>Daphne Ogle
>>Senior Interaction Designer
>>University of California, Berkeley
>>Educational Technology Services
>>daphne at media.berkeley.edu
>>cell (510)847-0308
>>
>>
>>
>>[see attachment: "message0.html", size: 5027 bytes]
>>
>>
>>Attachments:
>>
>>message0.html
>>https://collab.sakaiproject.org/access/content/attachment/5a9ec30b-408f-4b01-803a-1bfa040b19cc/message0.html
>>
>>----------------------
>>This automatic notification message was sent by Sakai Collab (https://collab.sakaiproject.org/portal) from the DG: User Interaction site.
>>You can modify how you receive notifications at My Workspace > Preferences.
>>
>>
>>    
>>
>
>
>  
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>No virus found in this incoming message.
>Checked by AVG Free Edition. 
>Version: 7.5.476 / Virus Database: 269.10.0/887 - Release Date: 7/5/2007 1:55 PM
>  
>