Enhancing CSS Instruction with Objective Typography
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Karl Stolley
- Associate Professor of Information Technology and Management
- Illinois Institute of Technology
- stolley.co
- kstolley@iit.edu
Main Finding
The typographic grid makes CSS instruction systematic. Students learn to visually and mathematically verify the right-hand side values of CSS properties.
Poster Details
Problem
- Compared to HTML and JavaScript, CSS is an unstructured free-for-all
- CSS instruction can devolve into a sight-seeing tour of properties and their effects
- Values for CSS properties are often selected without any reasoned basis
Solutions
- The rules of objective typography provide external, consistent constraints on a handful of basic typographic properties
- Students begin by assessing a typeface for its most readable size at a given viewport, starting with mobile scales
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Students then establish a typographic grid via a
line-height
value that is repeated throughout the stylesheet
Conclusion
- Anecdotally, students are better prepared to implement more advanced CSS
- Formal research and assessment is needed to objectively determine the approach’s efficacy