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Content Tagged with opinion + design
Time to Drop Web Standards?
A discussion on the future of web standards.
Building 3D Flash Sites that Work
In this post I will describe some of the technical constraints to be aware of when building 3D Flash sites, then I will give examples of recent sites that are doing 3D right.
Freelancing in a Recession
Tips on surviving a recession when you are a freelancer. Its not all doom and gloom in fact it could be the best of times
Keys To Web 3.0 Design and Development When Using ASP.NET
Even as I study (ever so slowly) for MCPD certification for my own reasons while I'm at home (spare me the biased anti-Microsoft flames on that, I don't care) I'm finding that Microsoft end developers (Morts) and Microsofties (Redmondites) alike are struggling with the bulk of their own technology and are heaping up upon themselves the knowledge of their own infrastructure before fully appreciating the beauty and the simplicity of the pure basics.
Case Study: Poor Web Usability and Design
An brief overview of some of the web usability and design issues with Sourceforge.net's landing page..
7 Ingredients Of Good Corporate Design
It’s hard to define design. We have a broad range of definitions to choose from: design refers not only to graphic design, but to design strategy, too. It is used in a variety of industries, such as engineering, architecture and Web design.
Top 7 Stock Photo Sites for Web Designers
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. And in design in general and web design in particular, this is very often the case. Finding that image that just gives your layout that extra bit of style can often make or break a design.
Why Web2.0 Must Go
It's time that developers and web-based businesses realize that the term Web2.0 is doing more harm than good. For years now, the meaning of Web2.0 has been derided and debated while all along it has quietly acquired a meaning that colors the efforts of countless entrepreneurs and developers as something unwelcome and harmful. Read the post if you'd like to know what the meaning is, and PLEASE consider the proposed alternative!
Five CSS design browser differences I can live with
Web designs need not look exactly the same in all browsers. I know that's a topic I have written about and spoken on a fair amount before, but somehow I'm always amazed by the reactions that I get when the subject comes up.
The Usability Problems of useit.com
Jakob Nielsen has written some damn smart things about usability, and his work has probably done great things for the web in general. You hate to beat up on a guy like that, but c’mon, it is beyond ridiculous to me to be a self-proclaimed god of usability and have a site as awful as his. I’m not the first one to say it, and I won’t be the last. (Great article on a group makeover from 2004) People have been talking about it for years. Jakob even acknowledges it himself:
5 Simple Tips on Improving UI
When it comes down to it, User Interface design is perhaps the most important aspect of a software/web application because it is what the end-user interacts with. Regardless of how robust and efficient your back-end code is, if the UI is confusing to navigate in, your application will have trouble being successfully adapted by the client-base. Having a good UI is more than having excellent graphic design; it’s about finding a balance between cool looking graphics and a simple approach to navigation and interaction with the product.
Top 7 Most Cliché Stock Images Used in Web Design
Sometimes clients ask us to implement ‘not-so-unique’ elements into our designs and sometimes it seems almost impossible to convince them otherwise, however, hopefully this post can suggest some reasons why not to use the old web design stock imagery clichés.
How to Make Your Website Insanely Popular
Years of web development work has lead me to these eleven steps that will go a long way towards making your website insanely popular.
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Building Web Sites
I'd like to share a bit about the tools I recently used to build a new travel website, MuchaCostaRica.Com I launched this week with two partners. Actually, this entire post is a thinly veiled attempt at getting some Google juice over there, but if you're interested in building websites and better tooling, read on.
How Friendly Will a URL Ever Be?
Is natural language taking over, and are all attempts to improve URLs futile? Has the slow progress of the regulating bodies meant that we’ve had to find a better solution? Of course, some URLs are clever slogans themselves and add value to a product, but it seems that most are arbitrary identifiers, obfuscated by acronyms, abbreviations and dots, dashes and other de-humanised elements.
An Open Letter to You, Webmaster
I’ve recently been contacted by your customer with regards to my web services. They mentioned that they were unhappy with your work and would like for me to create a new website for them. I’m writing this letter to thank you!
Designing a CMS Architecture
When faced with the alternative between an off-the-shelf CMS or a custom development, many companies pick solutions like ezPublish or Drupal. In addition to being free, these CMS seem to fulfill all possible requirements. But while choosing an open-source solution is a great idea, going for a full-featured CMS may prove more expensive than designing and developing your own Custom Management System.
StackOverflow is SpiritUnderflow - A plea to not deprioritise content and spirit
I must confess back in the mid 90s I was an avid usenet user. Over the years I have watched the overall development community online interaction landscape changing (mailing lists, web based forums, blogs, wikis, blog aggregators, voting systems etc.). While each change seemed a little questionable at times, these have brought in a tremendous vibrancy in the developer interactions even though I still feel like composing a Usenet GaGa song (just like Freddie Mercury did the Radio Gaga thing). While I wondered as each change was introduced, what it implied, I never felt strongly enough about it to speak loudly. Till Now.
30 Creative Website Headers
An inspirational mini gallery of excellent examples of website headers that make a strong first impression.
Using form labels as text field values
"When designing you sometimes have limited space to put and display all of the form elements. Recently that happened to me and when I was trying to squeeze in a simple newsletter form to a 120px wide area (plus a limited height). I realized that some of the elements will have to go. The obvious solution was to get rid of the labels and put only the form text fields. How will the users know what are the text fields for?"
Drop IE6 Support — Give People a Reason to Upgrade
If you spend hours hacking your site to work perfectly in IE6, you're taking away any incentive from slow adopters to drop their old browser. Drop IE6 support on your site or app and give people a reason to upgrade.
Google Chrome Drawbacks (for lazy developers)
If as a user and software engineer I am nothing less than aroused by Google Chrome release after reading the brilliant comic (Google Chrome Comic) they are using as presentation, as a mere nitty-gritty developer I am somewhat worried about the fact that we'll have to bitch with yet another browser in order to produce cross-browser web apps.
An open letter to Google Chrome from a Web Developer
The more I think of spending time with my family and friends,you guys come up with a new browser or a variant of an old one :Good Bye FireBug. Hello IE8 Developer Tools.
My favourite 10 things about the new IE8 developer toolsThe Biggest Difference Betweeen Desktop And Web Development
Desktop development, the game of the bygone era, and the Web, which is the default platform for new applications nowadays, differ in a lot of ways. To an extent that they can be considered to be opposites of each other in many ways. Naturally, desktop development and Web development too differ from each other radically.jQuery.com Site Redesign
We’ve just pushed out a brand new site redesign (for jQuery.com and all its sub-sites). This has been a long time coming and it feels great to get it out the door.Why I Am No Longer Supporting IE6
In the recent relaunch of my site, I gave it some thought and made some decisions about supporting IE6. I'm not going to support it. Not on this site and not on others that I have a say in. I'm not talking about leaving my site unusable for IE6 users - they just won't get as good of an experience. I'm not alone with this decision. Read on to see why I am no longer supporting IE6.3 Simple Ways to Add Creativity to Our Web Work
Creativity is an important aspect of a web worker’s life. From creating original designs to composing an apologetic letter to a client, we need to include a dose of creativity that gives additional value and originality to our work. Inspiration may not always be at our side and, even if it is, we still risk coming off as predictable if our clients or audiences are too familiar with our work. In other words, there’s no “oomph” factor.7 Reasons Why You Should Pursue Your Own Projects
A look at why freelancers should be doing some things own their own for themselves in addition to client work.Why outsourcing sucks ?
Most of you don’t even need to read this post to know why outsourcing your software development work to cheaper countries may not ultimately help you. You already know why.5 Useful Coding Solutions For Designers and Developers
We would like to start with 5 advanced elegant coding solutions and ask you if you are interested in this series and would like to have more similar articles. Please let us know what you think in the comments to this post. Now let’s dive in. You should probably have some CSS-knowledge already before starting reading this article.PHP Code: Top Ten Security Vulnerabilities
Below follows the top ten security vulnerabilities that might be hiding in your PHP code.The 5 Worst Website Designs in the World
We often read and write articles showcasing the latest, best and most visually inspiring websites on the internet but we tend to forget those on the opposite end of the scale. In order to spread the love to the aesthetically unfortunate, here is an overview of five of the most terrible website design crimes on the net as discovered through the list of least victorious sites on CommandShift3.Top Ten Web Typography Sins
While many designers have been quick to embrace web standards, it’s surprising how often the basic standards of typography are neglected. Here are ten deadly sins to avoid in your web typographyStandards-based corporate web development
My last project for my previous employers has gone live so here’s a long discussion about the totally redesigned website for the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). This isn’t to congratulate myself for some stunning new CSS techniques (there aren’t any), nor to solicit your admiring gasps at the beauty of the visual design (it’s rather corporate) but because I think it’s an interesting example of how one small web team tried to square the circle and attempt to use Web Standards and accessible methods in a highly conservative corporate environment.