Designing your Site ::
Articles Pertaining to the Design and layout of your WebsiteCreating Triangles in CSS
Posted on :: Mar 9
I’ve come across a few techniques and tips in my career, while working at my last gig a co-worker pointed me to this technique. I believe this was originally discovered by the legendary Eric Meyer, but I couldn’t find much documentation about it on the web so I thought I would describe it here.
Why good checkout design is more important than trustmarks
Posted on :: Mar 9
Though they may help some sites, trustmarks alone are not the answer, and factors such as brand trust, price, usability and good design all combine to reassure customers about making a purchase.
The need for 'costly' security indicators, can be avoided with good cart / checkout design, and avoid the customer from being overwhelmed.
HTML 4 and XHTML 1 to HTML 5
Posted on :: Feb 20
HTML5 has several new block-level sectioning elements that we can use to give relevant parts of web pages more semantic meaning. These new elements are for ‘chunks of related content’—basically a logical section of the document:
Localized SEO :: Google Local Search
Posted on :: Jan 23
The growth of the internet and search engines has been changing the way that people find and research local businesses. In a recent study by comScore, 2008 was the first year that more consumers turned to search engines over the phone book as the first source for consumer research and information. The implications for this dramatic shift in consumer behavior is leading to a severe decline in yellow pages advertising and the increasing emphasis on Local Search Engine Optimization (LSEO) to provide visibility online for local and regional companies and services. The resulting challenge for many companies operating on a local and regional basis is how to create presence and visibility online with a limited budget and understanding of this growing field of Local Search Engine Optimization (LSEO).
SEO for Google
Posted on :: Jan 22
It is common for many companies to not only want to have the top search engine rankings on Google™, but to stay there as well. So what is a top ranking? In short, it means having your company show-up on the first page of the Google™ results page for any targeted search. This is because 90% of people will not look past of the first page of results when doing a search.
On-site SEO :: The Guide
Posted on :: Jan 8
In case you haven't been paying attention lately, there are two parts to SEO: on-site (optimization of the site itself) and off-site (link building). Today I'm going to give you the same checklist I've used to optimize websites.
If you follow the steps in this guide your website will be very SEO-friendly, and Developed Correctly. Many People fail to relaize that Properly Developed content, also assists or automatically optimizes your Website for SEO...It's True.Cross-Engine Keyword Richness
Posted on :: Dec 16
The importance of keywords and phrases in domains, subdomain, folders, & page names
What impact do keywords in the domain have on placement in search engines? How about if they are in the subdomain or only in the page name; or what if they are not there at all? Website Magazine looks at the top three search engines to determine if including keywords matters (and if so, where) in the fight for search result page real estate.
The search term we used to analyze the importance of search terms on placements was “Bakugan” – a Japanese anime TV series, popular children’s game/toy and movie. While not a immensely well-known term, the word “Bakugan” has a global monthly search volume on its own of five million with a low estimated cost per click (at Google). We’ve only looked at three pages (30 listings) of results on the most popular search engines (Google, Yahoo!, and Bing). What we learned (consider it the synopsis) is listed below.7 reasons why you really should learn jQuery
Posted on :: Dec 16
In the last 2 or 3 years, we have all experienced the comeback of javascript. A language cursed in many ways, for its lack of consistency across browsers, slow runtime performance and poor tooling (debugging). The revival of Javascript is hard to miss though, given the jungle of frameworks and effects libraries that are becoming available. Even browser manufacturers are jumping on this trend by delivering javascript engines that dramatically speed up javascript execution. Javascript "2.0" seems to be the fuel for the next generation of web applications.
For long I have more or less ignored this whole trend. Most developers have enough new things to learn already, and javascript is often not the top priority. The fact that there are a lot of different frameworks (MooTools, Dojo, Prototype, jQuery, etc) does not make it any easier either.
Below are my 7 reasons why you should learn a javascript framework, and that the best one to learn about is jQuery.
HTML 5 Event Attributes
Posted on :: Dec 15
Standard Event Attributes
HTML 4 added the ability to let events trigger actions in a browser, like starting a JavaScript when a user clicks on an element.
Below are the standard event attributes that can be inserted into HTML 5 elements to define event actions.
New : New event attributes in HTML 5.
HTML 5 : Tag Reference
Posted on :: Dec 15
HTML 5 improves interoperability and reduces development costs by making precise rules on how to handle all HTML elements, and how to recover from errors.
Some of the new features in HTML 5 are functions for embedding audio, video, graphics, client-side data storage, and interactive documents. HTML 5 also contains new elements like <nav>, <header>, <footer>, and <figure>.
The HTML 5 working group includes AOL, Apple, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Mozilla, Nokia, Opera, and many hundreds of other vendors.
Note: HTML 5 is not a W3C recommendation yet!
HTML 5 : The web is evolving
Posted on :: Dec 15
The web is constantly evolving. New and innovative websites are being created every day, pushing the boundaries of HTML in every direction. HTML 4 has been around for nearly a decade now, and publishers seeking new techniques to provide enhanced functionality are being held back by the constraints of the language and browsers.
To give authors more flexibility and interoperability, and enable more interactive and exciting websites and applications, HTML 5 introduces and enhances a wide range of features including form controls, APIs, multimedia, structure, and semantics.
Work on HTML 5, which commenced in 2004, is currently being carried out in a joint effort between the W3C HTML WG and the WHATWG. Many key players are participating in the W3C effort including representatives from the four major browser vendors: Apple, Mozilla, Opera, and Microsoft; and a range of other organisations and individuals with many diverse interests and expertise.
Note that the specification is still a work in progress and quite a long way from completion. As such, it is possible that any feature discussed in this article may change in the future. This article is intended to provide a brief introduction to some of the major features as they are in the current draft.
iPhone compatible multi-column CSS liquid layouts
Posted on :: Dec 11
I've put together a series of website layouts that use percentage widths and relative positioning, and they work with all the common web browsers including Safari on the iPhone and iPod touch. They're also 'stackable' so you can use multiple column types on the one page. This makes the number of possible layouts endless! Follow the links below for the demos and more detailed info:
The 4C’s of Web Failure
Posted on :: Dec 8
Website design and development are highly technical fields. But even the most seasoned professionals can sometimes completely miss the mark, creating sites that fail to fulfill their value-generating promise. And, more often than not, this failure is caused by a lack of low-tech strategic thinking and analysis.
In a rush to launch sites, we can forget to examine four foundational topics: culture, customers, cost, and complexity. When poorly managed, any one of these can become the root cause of Web failure.
In this two-part series, we will examine the 4 C’s of Web failure and how to avoid them to improve your chances of seeing a positive return on your Web development investments.New Google Analytics Code For Better Load Times
Posted on :: Dec 4
Google Analytics has recently announced a new asynchronous tracking code that can "optionally" be replaced with the old one.
The new code does not block the website while it loads which will improve the loading times.
It also aims to provide more accurate results as it can be installed inside
<head></head>tags (rather than before the</body>tag) and will be able to collect data from visitors that quit the webpage before it loads fully. This way, "any possible tracking errors from dependencies when the JavaScript not being fully loaded" are also eliminated.Detecting Mobile Browsers
Posted on :: Nov 30
It's becoming more and more common that Users are accessing your website from a mobile web browser (like that from an IPhone, Blackberry, Android or other mobile device). It's also becoming more prevelant that you need to start supporting and developing for the mobile platforms. But how would you begin?
Conditional Comments :: What they are & how to use them
Posted on :: Nov 24
One of the most common operations performed in a Web page is to detect the browser type and version. Browser detection is performed to ensure that the content presented to the browser is compatible and renders correctly. The browser type can be detected using many different techniques. Most methods of browser detection make use of script on the server or client.
This article introduces conditional comments, which offer certain advantages over scripted browser detection techniques.
Should Designers & Developers be held liable for Internet Explorer Design Bugs?
Posted on :: Nov 23
This is a question I'm posing to the wild Development Community becasue it seems more and more prevelant that Designers and Developers alike are being held accountable for Bugs and lack-of-interoperability especially when designing an developing Websites that are Standards-Compliant and are 'Web 2.0' compatible.
Internet Explorer, and its inefficient JS engine, is off in its own little world and forces web developers, designers, and programmers to make special exceptions when it comes to CSS and JS. Although its improved a little with the advent of its latest 8 version IE is slowly falling behind and yet people continue to use it because it comes with Windows...Designing Your Site for IE & Firefox
Posted on :: Nov 20
Hiding Styles from IE 6
It's actually really easy to hide styles from IE 6 but make them visible to standards compliant browsers. Use child selectors.
In one design I built, I created a two column layout that required margins and padding. This meant that I was hitting the box model differences when I viewed the page in IE 6. My first CSS style sheet for Firefox included a line like this:
div#nav { width: 150px; margin-left: 20px; }
This made the page line up perfectly in Firefox and Safari, but in IE the nav column was pushed over to the right too far.
So, I converted the line to use child selectors. The #nav div is a child of the body tag, so I changed the line to read:
body > div#nav { width: 150px; margin-left: 20px; }
Of course, doing this made the #nav div lose all it's properties in IE, so I needed to add in some IE styles to get IE 6 looking okay. I added this line to the CSS:
#nav { width: 150px; margin-left: 10px; }
The placement of this line of CSS is important if my page is still to look good in Firefox and Safari. The IE line needs to come first. Firefox and Safari will read that line and then it will be over-ridden by the body > div#nav selector lower in the document. IE 6 will read the first line and set the styles. It will then ignore the child selector, as it doesn't recognize them. When IE 7 comes along, it will act like Firefox and Safari.
By designing for a standards-compliant browser first, and then modifying your CSS to support IE's quirks, you spend a lot less time fiddling with the design and a lot more time actually designing.
Facebook for Business
Posted on :: Nov 18
Facebook’s not just for keeping tabs on friends and filling out quizzes — it can also be used as a highly effective business tool. It’s great for marketing your products, landing gigs and connecting with your customers.
Here are 32 ways to use Facebook in your business.
Browser Labs
Posted on :: Nov 18
A wonderful co-worker had intriduced me to this excellent tool online for assisting me in assuring that a site we're building renders properly in Internet Explorer, It's called BrowserLab.
BrowserLab provides web designers exact renderings of their web pages in multiple browsers and operating systems, on demand. BrowserLab is a powerful solution for cross-browser compatibility testing, featuring multiple viewing and comparison tools, as well as customizable preferences. Since BrowserLab is an online service, it can be accessed from virtually any computer connected to the web.
Why SEO Requires Ongoing Efforts
Posted on :: Nov 9
It can be expected to see a drop in some of your website’s rankings, just because search engines update their registries and re-evalutate the site. Consistency is one of the most important factors of SEO, and if there is a significant change on your website, Search Engines may consider the site as less valuable for a while.
IE 8 Need to knows...
Posted on :: Nov 9
Reports on IE8 Bugs, CSS 2 and CSS3 Display issues, IE7 Compatibility Mode and how to render your pages like IE7
SEO & SEM Tactics for 2010
Posted on :: Nov 3
As search marketers look ahead to 2010, there are two obvious situations: Some things will remain the same, yet more things will likely change. Straight from our most recent issue, Brian Lewis provides a sneak peak at the SEO and SEM tactics that will define 2010.
A CSS / JQuery Framework you can use...
Posted on :: Nov 3
Better quality and coherence coding inside a front-end team
Preset CSS classes, know where your going with highly reusable classes
A collection of some of the best jquery scripts
A solid cross browser compatible stylesheetA new project means getting JS plug-ins together, clean a CSS and restart. This framework is intended to be your project starter, and in most case, you can jump in the project right away with a solid css foundation. This is not really a CSS “framework” but more a website starter kit.
The framework is based on a 960px grid, but is very easy to manipulate to get the grid you want. It is however not intended to be used as a liquid grid.
This is a CSS/Jquery Framework you can use and build upon.
How to Mimic the iGoogle Interface
Posted on :: Oct 12
In this tutorial I'll be showing you how to create a customizable interface with widgets. The finished product will be a sleek and unobtrusively coded iGoogle-like interface which has a ton of potential applications!
This is a very long Tutorial. Includes source code download.Flash on Smartphones; Thanks Adobe
Posted on :: Oct 9
One of the drags of smart phones today is that they don't feature full support for flash (it's been using a lighter version up until now). Today that all changed as Adobe announced improvements to the Adobe Flash Platform at Adobe Max (Adobe's developer conference) which makes Flash on mobile devices a reality.
10 Steps to Generate More Leads
Posted on :: Oct 9
Is your website a lead generation machine?
For professional service firms and others engaged in complex sales processes, pushing users toward a shopping cart isn’t the primary goal. The main objective is to persuade visitors to contact you to generate leads for your sales team, to nurture those prospects and convert them into new and repeat business.
One of the best ways to ensure websites are producing the most possible leads is to evaluate your site from a visitor’s perspective. Follow these steps for numerous, qualified leads.Why Your Website is Your Most Powerful Marketing Vehicle
Posted on :: Oct 2
Clearly defining in very simple terms, the importance of internet marketing and the how website design and search engine optimization (SEO) are two interrelated yet very specialized disciplines for not only getting you noticed but also getting you the business you're craving.
Your website is probably your most powerful marketing vehicleThese days, more than 65% of people begin their search for a a service, product or information on the internet. Not only should you be there, but you should look good in comparison to your competitors’ websites. Prospective clients can and will compare so make sure you do a little competitive intelligence as you work on your site.Video Optimization?
Posted on :: Sep 18
If you're creating videos, hosting them on your website, and aim to optimize those videos for competitive search engine placement you'll want to pay attention to this one.
Google has advised that to maximize the chances they find the right markup on your video pages, you should check to ensure it appears in the HTML without the execution of JavaScript or Flash.
What is a payment gateway? And risk factors of online merchant accounts.
Posted on :: Sep 18
An Internet payment gateway is crucial for any online merchant account to facilitate the sale of capital and accepting payment for the same. This is called eCommerce. This process is like any sale made in a shop where a person buys a product and passes his card to make the payment.
The payment Gateway has made money transaction very simple, the customer does not have to make any tangible transaction but simply enter the card data in a secure online form. This data include the card number, name of the holder and the CVV number on the backside of the card. Payment gets debited from the card in few days and is credited to the bank account.
From a security point of view, the online payment gateways are quite safe, but the customer must be sure that he or she uses a site known. One could confirm of the security by looking at the URL starting after ‘https’. This is a beginning, but not a guarantee to prevent the site using your banking information for illicit purposes.
IPhone Development Tips
Posted on :: Sep 16
I've spent the last few days or so or so doing iPhone web development, and I wanted to look into what - if any - tweaks were available to on the iPhone web browser. I've found two things that I think are pretty interesting.
The first and simplest tip is working with the view port. (You may need to register at Apple in order to view that link. Two points off to Apple to requiring a login for simple docs!) The view port is a simple meta tag. Here is an example:
Designing Websites for Mobile Phones
Posted on :: Sep 9
Mobile web design seems to be something that most developers are avoiding. I have worked on a couple mobile websites, during this process, I have made some discoveries which I thought I would detail to help out others who may be jumping into mobile web design in 2009.
Google's PageRank Explained
Posted on :: Aug 31
From here on in, we'll occasionally refer to PageRank as "PR".
How Google Sitelinks are Created and Managed...
Posted on :: Aug 31
Google shows sitelinks for results when we think they'll be useful to the user. If the structure of your site doesn't allow thier algorithms to find good sitelinks, or they don't think that the sitelinks for your site are relevant for the user's query, they won't show them.
At the moment, sitelinks are completely automated. They're working to improve thier sitelinks algorithms, and they may incorporate webmaster input in the future.In-context vs back-end authoring
Posted on :: Aug 18
Most modern content management systems provide two different ways of editing site content: in-context editing and back-end editing.
While in-context editing is often seen as ’sexier’, each method has its strengths and weaknesses. This briefing will explore these two editing options, providing advice on when to use them in practice.
Open PPC Policy, Affiliate Marketing and E-Commerce
Posted on :: Jun 19
A recent ABestWeb forum thread has truly shocked me. Shocked I tell you! And I've become nearly immune to most everything, hardly blinking an eye in the face of even the most innovative techniques, trends and technologies that come my way. So what is that shocked me so greatly?
The Pia Jewelry affiliate program has an open PPC policy! This means that affiliates are free to bid on all terms, including brand terms. Pia believes this policy enables its affiliate to "better promote Pia products and therefore boost earning potential." You might want to take a deep breath as I'm sure you are equally shocked.
You might remember that back in April Amazon notified affiliates they would no longer be paying referral fees to associates sending users to Amazon through paid search (keyword bidding) practices. Allowing affiliates to leverage pay-per-click search engines is nothing new, but the debate continues about whether to allow affiliates the right to bid on brand related terms (which are often trademarked). Is it good business or misinformed marketing? A control issue or a strategic decision?Five PPC Landing Page Design Trends
Posted on :: Jun 19
If you are paying for clicks, you must ensure that the landing page where consumers end up post-click can convert. Impressions count more than ever when it comes to PPC landing page design so let's review what sites are doing right (and wrong) and perhaps even find some inspiration for our own PPC campaigns and the landing page designs they feature.
When you want to analyze what works best in PPC landing page design, you want to start with the most competitive terms. We took a look at ten landing page designs (only nine are featured as one was was ultimately just a parked page) to determine similarities and differences that the design concepts have. You might end up applying some of the techniques on your own site, but before settling on one, remember that testing is the only sure fire way to ensure that the right elements are available to convert your specific audience of consumers into buyers.
The keyword in focus (and of course the landing pages that result) are under the keyword "ringtone". Clearly our choice of keyword will influence the type of landing page designs that resulted. Expect the sites that bid on those terms to focus on acquiring a younger, more socially-connected, technology savvy audience.
Could you switch to Open Source?
Posted on :: Jun 19
Whether it’s down to the sagging economy or the slow but inevitable death of XP, I’m hearing from many people who are looking to jump off the Microsoft software bandwagon and pitch up with the FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) movement. But could you realistically move your home or business PCs over to open source software and make a 100% switch?
Heading Tags Explained
Posted on :: May 18
Heading tags are an integral part of SEO (search engine optimization).
5 Reasons to use css
Posted on :: May 18
Some useful and helpful reasons why to use CSS.
CSS Tips, Class or Div?
Posted on :: May 18
If your beggining CSS or even if you're not, this can be a bit challenging, and many a time i’ve heard people ask “But theres no difference, so which should I use ?”. In this short article I will explain the slight, but important, difference between the two.
The SEO Lifecycle
Posted on :: May 12
Analysis and optimization processes have to be formulated keeping your business in mind in order to create your web presence. Information on your market, competitors, customers that you need to attract, products and service that you would like to market using web provide a clear input to the designing process. It helps in fine-tuning your designs for the customers and the search engines.
Interactive web design and developement with search engine optimization assures you better page rankings and increase the number of visitors to the site. Realizing that Search Engine Optimization needs to be the objective of web development and implementation process, following are the key phases and process of an SEO life cycle.
The Web Site Development Process
Posted on :: May 12
Like the traditional software development, the process of web site development can also be divided into different life cycle steps. This can help to format the team effectively, and the standards and procedures can be adopted to achieve maximum quality. This article explains the steps of development which can be possibly arranged as a process of web engineering. This is just a guideline to help you, to know, how a process can be done. The steps may vary from application to application.
A system development process can follow a number of standard or company specific frameworks, methodologies, modeling tools and languages. Software development life cycle normally comes with some standards which can fulfill the needs of any development team. Like software, web sites can also be developed with certain methods with some changes and additions with the existing software development process. Let us see the steps involve in any web site development.
Domain names as part of SEO?
Posted on :: May 11
Domain Name selection is one of important and critical phase for your business and brand yourself. It have importance in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) especially if you target for specific keyword. Google always give more importance to site which domain name have such words.
Browser wars? The enterprise still loves IE6
Posted on :: May 1
This news may come as a shocker to the tech savvy folks in the house, but 60 percent of companies use Internet Explorer 6 as their default browser, according to Forrester Research. Meanwhile, your IT department spends a decent amount of time erecting barriers to prevent browser upgrades. Bottom line: Companies need a browser policy or they will risk productivity losses.
Converting Tables to a CSS Div Tag and XHTML validated layout
Posted on :: Apr 30
This is one very long tutorial/article. I know that many web designers, particularly those who adore table-based layouts will find this articles/tutorial especially helpful. I will be teaching you how to take your current website/layout created with tables, tear it apart, and put it back together using valid XHTML and CSS.
Here’s a bit of an overview of what we’re about to do:
a: Replace all tables with div’s
b: Remove any broken, or old invalid code.
c: Edit remaining code so it fits XHTML transitional standards.
d: Write a CSS file to style the new layout.Changing a Document's Text size with JavaScript
Posted on :: Apr 30
Sometimes the text size you've specified for your webpage isn't suitable to the viewer, depending on his browser configuration or OS. This useful script uses Dynamic CSS to let the viewer himself modify the text size of the page on demand, by clicking on an Increase or Decrease Font Size link. Now that's a kind of personalization your viewers may just appreciate!
Creating Expanding Images with JavaScript
Posted on :: Apr 30
We're going to make a simple script for folks who want to have an image expand onMouseover (to its actual size). This lets you display large images at a reduced size initially (aka thumbnail size), and have them dynamically expand when the mouse rolls over them. Installation is simple- install the script in the HEAD section of the page, then give your "thumbnail" images a CSS class of "
expand". These thumbnail images should have an explicit width/height attribute that's less than the actual image's dimensions, so the script has something to expand to.This Script is AJAX friendly, meaning imported content with images with the "
expand" class will be immediately recognized by the script.CSS MouseOver Effects
Posted on :: Apr 30
In this CSS Tutorial, I'm goin to show you that making a Mouse Effect, doesn't always need to use JavaScript.
Infact, the same overall effect can be achieved with the use of some CSS. This sample will be using 3 overall images: One for the regular state, one for the mouse over state and one for the clicked state.Why not tables? Is CSS really better?
Posted on :: Apr 30
A lengthy discussion on the ultimate value of pure CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) based layout over the use of tables has been taking place. Sometimes, living in the sheltered world of accessible and standards-based design, I can lose touch with the fact that many people out there simply don’t accept some of the same guidelines I work with every day?—?- and that this does not, in any way, mean that they haven’t given the subject a fair shot. Very good arguments have been made to defend each side.
On the whole, I think this discussion is an old, worn-out subject: those who won’t use tables generally don’t use them out of principle, and those who do use them out of pragmatism and a justified awareness that principles don’t build websites. I want to review the question once more, however, ignoring the entire question of principle.
Reasons Why CSS Is Superior to Tables in Website Design
Posted on :: Apr 30
Why is it that Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are superior to table-based layouts when designing a website? Some web designers swear that table-based layouts are better than CSS-based layouts, while others believe that table-based layouts are ancient history and XHTML combined with CSS is the only real solution to coding a web site’s visual layout. Since we’re one of those CSS die-hards, we’ve compiled a list of 13 reasons why CSS-based layouts are superior to table-based layouts.
The Top Ten differences between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0
Posted on :: Apr 30
I'm not a big believer in Web 2.0. Your opinion may differ, but the word "Web" is a fancy catch-all phrase for the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP, the protocol used for transferring information between a Web server and your Web browser) and the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML, the markup language that tells your browser how to display whatever text, graphics, etc is coming through the HTTP "pipe"). Over at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), there actually are versions of these protocols.
What is Web 2.0?
Posted on :: Apr 30
You’ve probably heard the phrase "Web 2.0". You may’ve even read some of the various definitions of it. And Web 2.0 does appear to mean different things to different people, so you would be forgiven for still feeling confused about the term.
Dynamic Drag’n Drop With jQuery And PHP
Posted on :: Apr 21
Drag’n drop generally looks hard-to-apply but it is definitely not by using JavaScript frameworks. Here is, how it is done by using jQuery & jQuery UI:
A Six Step Linking Building Plan
Posted on :: Apr 15
Much has changed in the world of link building. It's entirely true. Older strategies such as buy text links, and press releases and directory submissions. I am entirely convinced of it, and having used methodolies shown herein, I htink you'll understand these claims I'm making. None of of the aforementioned systems are as effective as the once were.
Here's what hasn't really changed, now that I've got your attention. Building successful link-building campaigns, gives you a winning edge on search cengine optimization.
AJAX Form Validation (AJAX Tutorial)
Posted on :: Apr 1
I got tired of Traditional Javascript based Form Validation, only because despite the fact they work well, they don't validate the content of the Feild Immediately. So I got tired of this, and built this off of the Prototype Framework.
The basic method is to attach to the form'sonsubmitevent, read out all the form elements' classes and perform validation if required. If a field fails validation, reveal field validation advice and prevent the form from submitting.Nice Form Fields (v2)
Posted on :: Apr 1
Everybody knows web forms. Each day we have to fill in some information in a web form, be it a simple login to your webmail application, an online purchase, or signing up for a website. They are the basic, and pretty much the only way of gathering information on the web.
You basically know a web form when you see one as they always look the same and they’ve kept this look over the years. Try as hard as you might but web forms can only change their appearance so much. Some may argue that this is a good usability feature, and I tend to agree, but there comes a time when you just need to style web forms so that they look different. How do you do that? Niceforms comes to the rescue!
IPhone Detection Scripts
Posted on :: Mar 31
With iPhones being all the rage these days, I am wondering if mobile versions of your pages might be useful. Viewing a site on an iPhone looks exactly as it does on your desktop. This is all well and good, but sometimes pages can be bloated with images, javascript libraries, and other markup that is not as important to your visitors. I am also a bit upset that the iPhone ignores the css media type of handheld. I wish there were an option to force Safari to render handheld styles as default, but I could not find any option for it. So I set out on a quest to find some alternatives for my iPhone experience.
File upload gotcha: PDFs get different mime types per browser
Posted on :: Mar 11
When you upload a PDF in IE, the file you receive has what I believe is the correct mime type: "application/pdf" however when you upload the same PDF file using the same code, in Firefox (tested in FF 2 and 3), the mime type is "application/download". I can't explain it. I have no idea why it's wrong. But it is, and consistently so. Could this be the one thing that is implemented correctly in IE and incorrectly in Firefox?
IE 8: Is your site compatible?
Posted on :: Jan 13
Internet Explorer 8's release to manufacturing in March looking like a distinct possibility, are Web site developers and owners really ready for Microsoft's next browser? Thousands of sites still aren't compatible with IE 8 -- including Microsoft.com.
Your E-Commerce Application may not work correctly...why?
Posted on :: Jan 13
The Button Element
Posted on :: Jan 13
Creating a consistent interface for your users is a constant struggle for every application designer. Building consistency on the web is especially tough because the visual rendering differences across browsers and operating systems are wildly different and almost arbitrary in what can and cannot be done. No where does this become more apparent than when you’re dealing with form elements and the biggest loser of them all in the battle for a standardized look is the infamous Submit button.