10 Tips to Create a More Usable Web
June 4th, 2009
My First usability article came out today on Web Designer Depot
“10 Tips to Create a More Usable Web”
Don’t get me wrong, I like writing about CSS, but this was a nice change of pace. Anyway, Let me know what you think!
Quick Tip #1 – Image Replacement
May 28th, 2009
Problem
Image replacement can be easily abused; but when used properly (like replacing logo text) it’s a great resource.
Image replacement without extra markup usually means setting text-indent:-9999px on your link. And this works great great. But in a lot of browsers it leaves a focus outline that runs way off the page to the left on [...]
Twitter and the Downfall of Social Networking
May 17th, 2009
One of the great things about the folks at Twitter is that they really stick to what they’re good at and they let the community define what they want out of the service. So much so that they’ve responded with some really great community-driven Twitter services.
MySpace
The downfall of MySpace started when users were given too [...]
Usable Accessibility
April 14th, 2009
Many times focusing on standards and guidelines puts the focus on the technical aspects of accessibility, and the human interaction aspect is lost. This problem can be avoided by adopting the broader definition of accessibility as a guiding principle. Instead of focusing only on the technical aspects of accessibility, it is important to recognize that [...]
Form Security with Autocomplete
April 10th, 2009
I was looking through my blog this morning because I could have sworn I already wrote this post. I know I’ve had this conversation with Phil Nash of Unintentionally Blank. But I guess I never wrote it down? Oh well…
One of my pet peeves when filling out a form is when I click in the [...]
Analyzing Home
April 8th, 2009
The “Home” link has been a staple on almost all of the Web sites I’ve made in the past 5 years, but lately I’ve been wondering how important it is.
I heard Steve Krug at An Event Apart Boston 2007 talk about how the “home” link should always be list first in your navigation, but do [...]
Using .htaccess to Prevent Bandwidth Theft
April 2nd, 2009
Every once in a while Google Analytics will turn up a peculiar behavior where you can tell someone is linking directly to an image hosted on your Web server. Sometimes it can be for good reasons like giving you credit for a project, or make sure files are synced up (cross-domain projects); but it’s usually [...]
Web Standards and the Shower Curtain
April 1st, 2009
Have you ever bought shower curtain rings and wondered if there were enough in the package to fit your shower curtain? Probably not.
Why is that?
Its because the shower curtain industry has standards, just like the standards we’re trying to implement on the Web. At some point in the process of creating shower curtains, an industry [...]
SXSW Notes pt. 5 – Presenting Straight to the Brain
March 31st, 2009
the brain has lots of distractions
peple have different learning styles that need to be looked at
Research
there’s no research that says using templates & bullet points are the best way to present
Book: Multimedia Learning
we have assumptions about communications that we can send info and someone will receive it without a problem
Types of learning
no learning
fragmented learning
meaningful learning
usually [...]
SXSW Notes pt. 4 – Managing “Expert” Clients
March 23rd, 2009
Making your clients feel good
they call this the honeymoon phase
meeting the team
making a good 1st impression
spend time outside the office
finding out how they like to work
bonding with the client
Refining you approach
how do you like to work
how do the like to work?
staying flexible
Setting the ground rules
establish a baseline relationship
make sure you’re clear about what’s happening with [...]
