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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
SXSW Notes pt. 3 – CSS3
March 20th, 2009
This panel had representitives from each vendor (not apple) and they each took turns showcasing the upcoming CSS3 support in their browser. MOZ nth-child selector color module [opacity, rbga] border-image border-radius box-shadow * word-wrap:break-word * font-adjust @font-face @media queries ( @media(width:22em){blah} -moz-transform: skewX(20deg); -webkit-transform: skewX(20deg); Future from MOZ width calculations new layout systems for user [...]