IGeLU 2014
The Primo graphical user interface
Matthias Einbrodt, university of Bolzano

Relatively small library. Live with Primo since 2011, one of the early adopters, so live in Jan 2013. New interface was developed and will go live soon.

• First had custom stylesheet but it became too big and difficult to maintain. We're aware that users don't wait longer than 2 or 3 seconds on a webpage for it to load
• Broadband not very performing so not helping

So solutions:

• Reduction of http requests
• Only loaded one dontfile
• Didn't use css images
• Rewrote css from scratch using dynamic stylesheets, media queries, object oriented css, variables, nesting, mixins, etc.
• Produce LESS files which are less numerous than css
• Advantages of dynamic stylesheets language: you can break down into parts
• Creation of central configuration files

Downside: Changing the css is very time consuming

Object Oriented CSS

• don't repeat unnecessarily
• code reuse
• separation of structure from skin: build instructions (structure), then build the outside look (visual features) so that means define a base class so whatever the context/containers is, the content/properties shouldn't change
• iFrames create problems, no control over those elements,