Blog you can’t dance to this...but you can try!

We've been working with Machinery for the last few months on The Partnership Movement – an upcoming book, website, and national initiative from Americans for the Arts. 

The site launches real soon. Go sign up now for updates on the book's release.

Depending on where you get your tech news, it's the web's shining knight in armor or Apple's opening salvo in the quest for worldwide domination. But, what exactly is HTML5? And what has it done for you lately?

HTML5 is simply the 5th version of HTML, the markup language used by web developers to tell web browsers how to arrange basic items such as images and text on a web page.

Technically speaking, HTML5 doesn't make animation, drop shadows, creative type or any of that jazz. Most of that eye-popping functionality comes from CSS3 and JavaScript. However, the latest version of HTML includes some excellent features that streamline development and deliver a better experience to users:

# Semantic Markup

HTML5 introduces new tags like <section>, <article>, <header>, and <footer>. While these tags function exactly the same as <divs>, they have enhanced semantic meaning, making websites more accessible to users with disabilities and open to content-aggregating applications.

# Geolocation

With permission, web browsers can send the physical location of your computer to a website you visit. This simplifies the development of sites that want to deliver location-based content and services.

# Local Storage

For a long time, developers have been able to store a small amount of user data in web cookies. HTML5 increases the amount of storage to up to 5MB per website – a much more workable amount. The data can pretty much exist for as long as necessary. Not to mention local storage can decrease the amount of communication needed with a server, so web applications can move faster.

# Audio / Video

It's not quite finished – there's still some squabbles over the exact details – but, this is a big one. HTML5 enables audio and video files to be embedded directly into web pages, no Flash players required.

This saves huge amounts of time for developers (not having to write a Flash player) and users (not having to wait for a Flash player to load). It also makes it much simpler to show videos on mobile devices that don't support Flash (see: the world-dominating iOS).

Finished or not, this HTML5 feature is helping to hasten the end of Flash and is catching on as a sensible, sturdy alternative for developing and delivering rich media content.

# Canvas

Canvas helps developers build a interface where users can draw graphics dynamically on a web page. This gives web developers the power to develop, among other things, web-based design tools and interactive games. The canvas API allows for keyboard and mouse interaction, motion, and 3D rendering – all while consuming less computer resources and less bandwidth than the same experience created with Flash.

Of course, all of this goodness still faces a high hurdle: widespread implementation.

In order for HTML5 to make a big difference, the major browsers must add support for all the new features (this is happening slowly), web users need to actually install the browsers that support HTML5 (this is happening even slower), and web developers have to redevelop their sites to take advantage of HTML5 (calm down, we're working on it).

It's common to have a squabble between designers, developers, and clients over something we've all been calling user experience (or UX). From our perspective, UX is not as subjective as it sounds.

Here are some UX principles and methodologies that make websites perform better and more enjoyable to use:

# No need to reinvent the wheel.

A computer science education often emphasizes the handling of "corner cases" -- the out-in-left-field, once-in-a-century problems that need to be considered because, well, they might happen once or twice. This is important in a lot of programming situations.

But, this concept doesn't translate directly to UX. User experience deals with "average cases" -- how the average web user would navigate, where she would click, how much space should be between rows so she can scan and scroll at a comfortable pace...

Building a user interface that feels familiar is far more important than adequately accounting for the possibility that one guy from Somewhere may be confused about how to print your website out so he can read it in the bathroom.

It boils down to a simple truth: the average web user expects a website that's easy to use just by looking at it. And accounting for corner cases should not come at the expense of making a website clear, direct, and familiar for the masses.

# Good UX is forgiving.

One of the things an inexperienced programmer learns very quickly (usually the hard way) is that computers are extremely demanding bosses. For computers, perfection is standard. If there's a single semi-colon out of place, the entire program could crash.

While design is inherently less rigid, interface designers also forget to forgive on occasion. The people using your website are going to make mistakes. User interfaces need to allow for some level of user error by enabling a user to change a typo in a shipping address, for example, or by politely indicating a missing required field.

The worst website is one where people become frustrated and click away. The best user experience is one that not only anticipates user mistakes, but also forgives and explains the mistake to the user so that he may fix it.

# White space will protect thee.

Ahh...

Beautiful, calming, white space. 

It...

- increases readability

- decrease eye fatigue

- creates more opportunity for contrast and isolation

- and makes room for clearer calls-to-action

It's possible (and all too common) to have too many buttons and too many boxes too close together that all compete for a user's attention. This is most detrimental in e-commerce situations where any confusion means less shopping conversions. 

So, take a deep breath, and give your visitors some space.

# UX is a really big deal (and may take some time).

If you pay any good developer to make your website, you're likely to get a fast, reliable, error-free site with an interface that feels like it was thrown together in 5 minutes. The obvious reason for this is that your developer probably threw together the interface in about 5 minutes.

Similarly, if you pay a good designer to make your website, you'll likely dig the look and layout, but feel the site is too poised or unresponsive. That's because your designer probably spent more time in Photoshop than working through the site as a web user.

In each case, website FAIL.

Good UX requires a unique collaboration between design, development, and testing teams -- where each works closely with the other to achieve a simple, solid and beautiful website.

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