Website Designer India

How to analysis of web site

2007-11-17T01:50:00.000-08:00

How to analysis of web site

Check from how many time site is online

How many page rank in different pages

Log report analysis (to find out problem and traffic from your web site)

How many pages in google and msn and yahoo.

Check meta tags, and if it is not good then try to Improve it

Find broken links and move it or fix it

Try to make page name as per services in page (Web page optimisation)

Use keywords as per High traffic

Create descriptions and keywords with minimum words and maximum keywords and various combinations, and use high traffic keyword first.

Read company profile and try to use keyword centric words

Understand product and make creative content for product with various combination of keywords (like if you sell Isubgol then use Psyllium word it will more emphasize your product)

Understand proper product features

Understand product related market

Is your product viable with current market or current time or current trend?

Understand your product competitors and make strategy to fight them

Techno Infonet Gujarat Pvt Ltd

How to Move pages from google cash

2007-11-17T01:48:00.001-08:00

Redirect with 3 to 4 second, use title tag “Page move”, it must haven’t no content, no meta tags, google will understand that pages are moved, and it will remove from google cash.

Example : meta http-equiv="refresh" content="4;URL=movedpage.htm"

Techno Infonet Gujarat Pvt Ltd

How to optimize Image?

2007-11-17T01:47:00.000-08:00

How to optimize Image?

• Use image name as a keyword, like web_design_india_bg.jpg
• Google images and yahoo images are also big factors to get leads or business, so don’t aware with this point

Techno Infonet Gujarat Pvt Ltd

How to Create Site map?

2007-11-17T01:41:00.000-08:00

How to Create Site map?

Check how many web pages are in google

Upload that pages only which are updated with content, don’t upload all pages on server

3 Types of site maps HTML, PHP/ASP, XML

For static and small sites use HTML site maps

For dynamic and big sites like portal use PHP/ASP sitemaps

Xml site map direct submit in google (it saves our server bandwidth)

Sitemap haven’t duplicate link like if my navigation have 4 links and it repeated in sitemap page content then its wrong (we don’t want to confuse google crawler)

Sitemap on big portal or big sites

Sitemap Link must want in first raw or first table (before home link)

In Big portal or big sites, sitemap wants update with news pages daily basis

Sitemap page must haven't more then 100 links in 1 page, after that create sitemap1.html, sitemap2.html, sitemap3.html etc….

On sitemap.htm page must have updated links, rest of links after that sitemap1.htm (in short updated links are in first page)

If you have problem in more sitemap pages then just put main links, and rest of all link submit with xml sitemap in google, it will saves your server band width (but submit every updated pages daily)

In XML sitemap 1 page have maximum 50,000 links or file size 10kb, after that create new sitemap page and submit it in google and yahoo

Techno Infonet Gujarat Pvt LTD

Techno Infonet - Web Designer India, Offshore web design india

2007-08-30T01:06:00.000-07:00

One Stop IT Solutions

Immaculate Designing

INDIA- 29August, It was a revolutionary change in IT industry as Techno Infonet (http://www.technoinfonet.com/) a leading web designing firm launched a new advance Web Site with creative features.

It was a radical stride by Techno Infonet towards current and potential technologies by integrating them in company’s website with a touch of creativity.

Techno Infonet (http://www.technoinfonet.com/) was inaugurated with the aim of providing quality work in IT field. Techno Infonet is leading web designing company at India with over 10 years of experience, have worked for over 1000s of websites. With the technical and creative staff

“Techno Infonet (http://www.technoinfonet.com/) with the base at India is a professional Web Designing Company. Our Website Designers focus on quality features of Website Design, E-Mail Marketing and Multimedia Presentation. Company confers a Logo Designing and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) in order to enhance the overall look of the Brand.”

-Pranav Maniar
Director

Techno Infonet (http://www.technoinfonet.com/) provides an excellent reliable web designing services at affordable prices with quality parameters. Nevertheless it provides ultimate and unique solutions to all online business as per their needs. Techno’s efficient technicians and management team can work effectually on any projects regardless of its size.

ServicesTechno is IT based company providing all kinds of Web Solutions Including:

Web Designing
Web Development
Web Redesigning
Web Hosting
Corporate Identity
Multimedia Presentation
E-Mail Marketing
E-Commerce
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)

Techno provides complete support based on 24x7 atmospheres and helps every customer individually and works as per their requirements for the better performance of their company and to come up with a new and unique presentation in the market through Internet.

With our supportive approach system, we try to help our customers effectively on each and every single issue related to their business. Our work enhances client satisfaction and it helps clients to meet their objectives.

Techno Infonet (http://www.technoinfonet.com/) has the creative talent to meet your requirement and Techno is the surety of Creativity and Uniqueness.

Techno Infonet Email Marketing Press Release

2007-08-30T00:58:00.000-07:00

Ahmedabad, India, August 30, 2007 –

Techno Infonet (http://www.technoinfonet.com/) has designed and launched brand new software for E-Mail Marketing. The Software is designed such a way which makes the E-Mail Marketing easy and hassle free. …As per the industry specialists the software has a user friendly interface and also confers the new and improved HTML editor. The software allows user to create and manage an unlimited number of members and also provide the facility to upload personalised text or HTML templates. As per the director of Techno Infonet the main benefits of the software is its functionality. The software has unique facility of reporting which includes individual member reports, forward tracking, Demographic analysis, Bounce back tracking, subscription management, open and click through tracking and link tracking, nevertheless it also allow user to schedule the campaign.

Techno Infonet SEO PRESS RELEASE

2007-08-30T00:52:00.001-07:00

Ahmedabad, India, August30, 2007 – Techno Infonet (http://www.technoinfonet.com/) has achieved higher rankings in major search engines for its customers on high density key words.

Techno Infonet (http://www.technoinfonet.com/) a leading website designer in India has diversified its business in the field of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). SEO is one of the fastest growing fields. Search Engine Optimisation is a process to improve a Webpage ranking on a search engine. Techno Infonet has recently achieved higher rankings for its customers in major of the search engines such as Google and Yahoo on high density key words.

Techno Infonet (http://www.technoinfonet.com/) has successfully accomplished SEO work for “Globetrotters Travel Clinics”. Globetrotters has obtained 1st rank in various search engines even in the competition of millions. Techno Infonet has also assist UK based “Techno Consultancy”, a leading web designing company and “Vastu” a leading interior designer to achieve elevated rankings on Google and MSN on various eminent keywords.

Safari browser for Windows

2007-06-12T07:22:00.000-07:00

One of the problems that any Windows-based web designer faces is how to test any newly created website on an ding (i) the use of cross browser testing websites, for example ; (ii) asking your Apple Mac mates to look at the website; and (iii) ignore the issue if only a small % of your website visitors use Mac/Safari.

You could also take the view that testing in a web standards-based browser like will identify any significant problems...and, as a result, another web standards-based browser like Safari should be fine. I think I have used all these options at various stages!

About Author :
authorUrl : http://www.cvwdesign.com/txp/article/224/safari-browser-for-windows
To read more articles on: based browser, web standards, significant, based web designer

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SEO Centric Web Design

2007-06-12T07:07:00.000-07:00

Often, web design theory has got it backwards.

A web site is often conceived as an entity which reflects the company who publishes the web site. A mission statement, given form. The reality is that people don’t care about mission statements, they care about seeing their own reflection. Or “it’s not about you, it’s about me”.

In no environment is this more true than on the web. The web is a two way communication medium, and the control of that communication, unlike, say, a film, rests not with the director, but with the user. The back button is only ever a click away.

For this reason, web design that places too much emphasis on what the publisher wants to say is doomed to irrelevance. The publisher does not have the upper hand when it comes to controlling the flow of web communication, yet a lot of web design theory assumes this as a given, mostly because web design is based on print publishing.

What are the most successful computer applications? Email. Word processing. Spreadsheets, Games. What are the most successful web sites? Amazon, Ebay, Google, MySpace. The history of computing is all about user-centric empowerment.

The way to do web design is to base design around users, specifically their wants and desires. People’s wants and desires should drive the design process, and structures imposed for other reasons will be less successful. This goes beyond usability. Web design should be, fundamentally, about listening to and addressing people’s problems.

This is where SEO-centric web design comes in.

As many SEOs know, people are broadcasting their needs and problems. Every second. They are using keyword queries in search engines to tell the search engine what they need. We can “listen” to these needs by using keyword research tools.

Once we discover the language people are using to describe their needs, we can then build pages, architectures and copy, using their language , and addressing their problems, thereby creating a website that is an accurate reflection of the people who will use the site.

For example, a search engine doesn’t see hierarchy, and most users don’t care about it. Every page is effectively a “home page”. Once people land on a page, they are at the start of the funnel which should quickly and effortlessly lead to desired action, which is the point at which you meet their needs. “Desired action” is often defined in terms of the desires of the publisher, but it’s even more useful to view it in terms of the desires of the visitor.

At this point, some readers will surely be thinking “but people don’t come to my site via search engines”. It doesn’t matter. The site should address people’s problems, and search engines reveal the language people use to do define and frame their problems. Web designers should not ignore this valuable information. Rather, this information should be integrated into the design process.

It is a Google centric web. Google achieved this feat by placing the user first.

SEO should be at the heart of the design process, not something bolted on at the end.

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To read more articles on: design process, information , designers, search engines, web design

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The CSS working group is irrelevant

2007-06-12T06:56:00.000-07:00

Back in March, Google hosted the CSS working group for a three day meeting.

At the time, we were just starting with the HTML working group, and the openness of the WHATWG over the past few years was just starting to be adopted by the HTML working group, after several months of pushing for it in the W3C (mostly in secret, though my own posts on the matter were all public, as were a few others).

One of the things I brought up in the CSS face-to-face meeting was the problem of the CSS working group not being open. Many of the members of the CSS working group have a mentality that view the Web community (such as those who e-mail the www-style mailing list) as a resource, not as potentially equal members of the community. Of the forty or so members of the working group (those subscribed to the secret internal mailing list), only a dozen subscribe to the public list. This actually makes it harder for members of the group to try to be more open — when someone posts a proposal to the public list, there's a good chance that the majority of the members of the working group will miss it. During the meeting, I opined that if the group continued along in this direction, the group ran the risk of becoming irrelevant; two of the other members suggested that the group was already irrelevant. Sadly we were in the minority.

The CSS working group right now is chronically dysfunctional, as most close observers have noticed.

A great example of this is the difference in how the WHATWG got a blog and how the CSS working group set one up. In the WHATWG, the idea was floated for a while, and then one day someone volunteered to run it, and the blog was up and running within hours. Anyone (literally anyone) can post to the WHATWG blog (there's a moderation step that we added to deal with the spammers, but all it takes now is to get onto IRC and ask for the post you wrote to be published). The CSS working group, on the other hand, has been discussing how to set up a blog, and what the first entry should say, and what tool to use, for over two months! Nearly every phone call (the group has weekly teleconferences) for the past nine weeks has had the blog discussed at some point.

The blog was finally made available last week. To post, you have to be a group member. The first post can be summarised as follows: the CSS working group members don't want to bother going out of their way to get feedback on their specs; instead, people should post their comments on CSS to the public CSS mailing list (despite the fact that most CSS working group members aren't subscribed to this list). The blog post then goes on to apologise for the blog's existence, and claims that the blog's aim is to reach the people who won't subscribe to the public mailing list (the working group itself, maybe?). The post doesn't make it clear how the blog is expected to reach this wider audience, since the blog has no comment feature.

Another example of the problems of the CSS group is visible on the W3C's Technical Reports page. The group's primary deliverables are specifications. The last candidate recommendation published by the group was published in 2004. That was the Basic UI module, which was Tantek's baby (he has since left the group). Meanwhile, drafts like the Backgrounds and Borders draft, which has had big parts implemented by Safari for months, and small parts implemented by Mozilla for years, have iterated several times but make no public process (the backgrounds and borders draft was published in 2005, but the internal draft was last modified in February of this year).

Meanwhile, CSS2.1, the working group's most important deliverable, keeps getting tied up, with the group discussing irrelevant details and some members repeatedly reopening old resolved issues. The W3C process doesn't help much here either; the group actually tried taking CSS 2.1 to Candidate Recommendation stage recently, but was blocked by the W3C management over an issue which was already present in CSS2. (In all fairness to Tim, the issue he raised is one which was already raised by several other people, but which the group had dismissed. I actually agree with him that it should be resolved. The group has since resolved to change the spec in a way that continues to leave the issue undefined, but at least it no longer contradicts what Web browsers do.)

The group is also supposed to work on test suites. I had volunteered to work on the CSS 2.1 test suite, but due to lack of time, I bailed on that last year (Google mainly employs me to work on HTML5; any test work that I do is done in my free time, which is mostly spent near aquariums now). Since then basically nothing has happened.

Being public would expose a lot of these problems, forcing the working group to act more responsibly. It would also allow people to contribute — as specification editors, as test suite editors, as reviewers, as community leaders, and in other roles.

But to be honest, the problems go even further than what I've described above.

The CSS specs show their age; they come from a time where specifications were much vaguer than those of the modern day. Someone really needs to do to CSS what the WHATWG has been doing to HTML, defining everything in detail, explicitly, with strict and clear normative conformance criteria, taking implementations into account, defining things like quirks mode. (The WHATWG community refers to such a hypothetical project as "CSS 5", as a reference to the way the current WHATWG specs define HTML5, XHTML5, and DOM5 HTML.)

The CSS working group also doesn't really have the nimbleness needed to respond to threats to the Web platform like Silverlight. We need things like flowing-to-shapes, automatic declarative transition animations, gradients, filters, styling of form controls, and so on. (The WHATWG is already handling some related, non-presentational, things, like client-side SQL databases, video, and rich controls.) We need these things this year, in enough detail that they can be implemented. An open group can iterate much faster than a closed group. With an open group we can get test implementations, feedback, tests, and discussion straight away, instead of waiting months and then pulling back the curtain and presenting a fait accompli, at which points comments are perceived more as a pain than a help.

One way to address this would be for the WHATWG to start a "subproject" to address CSS, while we wait for the W3C CSS group to learn from the W3C HTML group and become open. The biggest problem would be finding editors who would be willing and capable of doing the incredible work of rewriting CSS from scratch.

About Author :
authorUrl : http://ln.hixie.ch/?start=1181118077&count=1
To read more articles on: CSS group, implementations, feedback, tests, nimbleness, potentially, presentational,

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Interesting: Apple’s Website Redesign

2007-06-12T06:50:00.000-07:00

I actually found the various design upgrades to Apple’s website as interesting as the WWDC Keynote. Someone’s been hard at work over there.

One of the slickest items is how the search bar in the upper right corner behaves much like OS X’s Spotlight. It’s also live updating, so as you type strings in the field, the results change in a drop down, complete with thumbnail images.

Several pages have a static image, horizontal scroll treatment, kind of like Cover Flow but without all the crazy animations. It does present the subjects covered in the page in a nice visual manner. Note the slight transparent reflection, as if the products were photographed on a glass table.

The sidebars are made up of collapsing areas to minimize the amount of information on the page. A click has the titles slide away to reveal the contents. Nice idea, and the animation adds a touch of class.

Clicking on thumbnails brings up a larger image, not unlike the JavaScript “Lightbox” plugin used on many sites. But what’s really slick is the large image size takes your browser window size is taken into account. There’s also a diffuse shadow around the large image, really making it seem like it’s hovering over the page.

All in all, cool stuff, and possibly an even better redesign than the other Web 2.0 ones I’ve seen recently. I might actually say Safari wasn’t the only thing Apple updated to 3.0.

About Author :
authorUrl : http://www.webomatica.com/wordpress/2007/06/12/interesting-apples-website-redesign/
To read more articles on: animation, better redesign, transparent, horizontal, really making, reflection

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SEO - Should search engines matter in your campaign?

2007-06-12T06:31:00.000-07:00

Today, I had a small epiphany related to SEO/SEM/Internet Marketing. Whatever you call ithigh as possible in the SERPs. The theory is a little offbeat but please bear with me. I’m sure many SEO purists will flame this, but hey, it’s only a theory. (I’ll call it SEO from here-on in), I mean in terms of getting as

The Theory

OK, here goes. When going about your next SEO campaign do something radical. Imagine, if you will, that Search Engines don’t exist. Just think of your Users’ experiences. Bizarre and suicidal are words which may be in your mind at this moment. Take the following statements into account, though.

The Search Engine’s primary function is to serve useful and relevant results to the user. The results that deliver satisfaction.

The website in question has a similar primary function: To give the User the information they are seeking. To satisfy the user.

These two statements are very similar, showing that the Search Engine and the User have similar goals. In essence, the Search engine is trying to deliver usable websites to the User. Anything else is simply wasted space. So wouldn’t it be interesting if Search Engines jiggled their algorithm and highly weighted usability/satisfaction.

Doesn’t SEO Cloud This?

So, back to SEO. With a highly demanding SEO campaign it is very easy to slip into the mentality of tailoring the website for Search Engines. Biasing the website a lot towards Search Engines will essentially mean that you are driving a wedge between the two statements above. All the hard work you think you are doing could be putting a strain on the User’s satisfaction. A loss of site satisfaction and who knows, a loss in SERPs placements.

But Search Engines don’t really detect usability at the moment

OK, this is up for debate. But I believe that Search Engines place most of their efforts into ranking websites based upon statistics - essentially their algorithm. I cannot see a way (besides mass user testing and feedback - costly) that the Search Engine giants can measure Usability and Satisfaction at this time. (Any ideas on this are more than welcome.)

So you could say that at this time, the theory doesn’t lend any solutions to the SEO company.

So how could we use this theory today then?

Using similar principles to the above and a fresh mentality, one could use the following questions to improve SEO and usability at the same time.

Is the new feature/code/idea beneficial for the user?

Will it help my SEO campaign?

If the answer to (1) is No, then go onto something else. If it’s Yes for (1) and (2), get it going!

Think of the effects

OK, not all SEO companies think solely about a website in terms of SEO. It would be farcical to claim this. The good companies focus on SEO but take into account the fact that websites cannot be over-optimised and the experience cannot be made poorer to accommodate SEO.

But imagine if all websites were made using the theory of usable sites encourage SEO instead of Let’s SEO it with regards to nothing else. Websites, and the Internet as a whole, would fast become a more enjoyable, satisfying experience regardless of whether it helped in the SERPs. Only good can come out of it.

And over to you

I’d really love to hear your thoughts on the above. Do you agree with the ideas put forward? Is this merely a hypothetical world?

About Author :
authorUrl : http://fadtastic.net/?p=391&akst_action=share-this
To read more articles on: SEO companies, optimised, good companies, Search Engine, accommodate SEO

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Top-down web product design

2007-06-12T06:10:00.000-07:00

One thing I’ve explored often is how many web-based applications fail because of a lack of proper planning. One thing that I haven’t stressed enough though, is that proper planning doesn’t always mean spending months on end thinking about every single detail, but actually thinking about things in the right order.

Traditional feature-centric design

Usually developers start planning applications by thinking of everything they want it to do - and let’s face it, it’s pretty easy to get excited: since you’re getting some functionality in, you might as well do all the other hundred cool things too, right? Well, wrong.

Getting excited is great, but it may just as well hinder the application development process. Focus slips, pretty soon you’re trying to solve all the world’s problems. You may have heard of scope creep - this is just the same, but it’s your fault, and is definitely avoidable.

Top-down product design

The solution is actually quite easy although it may seem odd if you haven’t done it before: design interface first, then underlying code. Result: no functional slippery slope - you know exactly what you need to build to accommodate the UI functionality. As a side benefit, you get to have something you can experiment with as a prototype sooner, which means you can get more input sooner and iterate over it.

Give it a try on your next project - your developers will love knowing exactly what they need to build, and your designers will love not having to design that new page for the brand new functionality that just crossed your mind.

About Author :
authorUrl : http://blog.webreakstuff.com/2007/06/top-down-web-apps/
To read more articles on: developers, functional, experiment, development, Traditional feature

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Web Design Workflow and Process Comparison

2007-06-12T06:06:00.000-07:00

This blog is intended as a resource for professionals that are responsible for the long-term planning of a website (How to find out if you a at your company). While not a Web Design blog, web strategists need to make decisions, dictate budget, or approve web design projects. A client recently asked me for some resources for Web redesign for their website, well actually, they wanted to know of some firms that do this, I have started a voluntary list, but realize there’s quite a few steps that occur before and after dealing with a web design services company.

A Comparison of various Web Design Processes:
It’s interesting to note the differences in Web Design process (which is arguably different from from a variety of different industries and focuses.

About Author :
authorUrl : http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2007/03/19/web-design-and-worflow-process-comparison/
To read more articles on: Web Design, Web Design process, different industries, professional, Comparison, design services

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Apple and Intuitive Design

2007-06-12T05:58:00.000-07:00

I noticed the other day that Apple has released an for thewhich regulates the sleep light so that it does not shine as brightly at night as it does during the day. Now, I don’t have an iMac, but I do have a PowerBook. However, I recently moved my desk into my room, and was shocked to discover that when closed, the sleep light on my machine is bright enough to make it hard to fall asleep. After a bit of experimentation, I realized that the sleep light shines about 3 times more brightly when the is closed than when it is put to sleep with the screen open. This is the kind of intuitive design that Apple is known for, and a huge reason why I am so devoted to them as a brand. What are some of your favorite little things in Apple products?

About Author :
authorUrl : http://theappleblog.com/2005/07/25/apple-and-intuitive-design/
To read more articles on: experimentation, intuitive design, Apple products, shines, machine

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6 Tools for Web Design

2007-06-12T05:39:00.001-07:00

Today I came across an article with a few ‘tools’ for web design and frankly, I thought it pretty lame and unexciting. There were 2 things on there that I felt were actually good information, Color Schemer and Typetester. The other, information was either lame (a “handy dandy” notebook) or untrue (”Mountain Dew“).

So, here are 6 tools that I find to actually be useful. A few of these apply to web design as a whole, while others are more mac related.

w3Schools.com - I’m still shocked on a daily basis by the number of people that don’t know what the w3 is or have ever heard of w3schools.com. The w3 is basically the governing body of web standards. They are the people that define what is XHTML and CSS. Now, what is w3Schools? It’s free, complete documentation for all things web. If you don’t know your

subversion - Subversion is amazing, to say the least. Once you go “version control system” you can’t go back. Basically, subversion is a way to keep all of your sites (or your blog theme, etc) backed up and versioned. You install subversion server on your computer or a remote server, and then check in your site to the server. Then you can checkout your site to your webserver and always have an updatedable, but also revertable site. If you break your design, roll it back to the last time you checked it in. Want to move webhosts? It’s as easy as 1 command. And want to update your site to that new design you’ve been working on, “svn up” and your good-to-go. For a great tutorial on installing subversion, check out this great tutorial from Hivelogic.

Textmate - Put down Dreamweaver and step away from the handholding. Seriously people, it’s really not that hard, and you’ll make so much nicer sites because of it. Textmate is a god send for web site designers. Yes, you’ll have to code by hand, but you can also post to your blog, get live updating previews of your code, and use the aforementioned subvesrion, straight from inside Textmate. And, with code competion and bundles, a well experienced ‘mater can type 2 or 3 characters and complete entire lines of code.

Firefox - Ok, this one seems like low-hanging fruit, but if you add Firebug, Web Developer, and Colorzilla to Firefox 2, you have one sweet testing/debuging environment. Firebug is like sending Firefox to medical school, seriously slice and dice capabilities. Web Developer extesion is like buying one of those nice big red Snap On tool chests full of tools, and shoe horning it into your browser and Colorzilla is just that, a color picker as powerful as Godzilla. I can’t imagine doing webdesign with out these great little pieces of kit.

Safari from O’Reilly Publishing - Safari from O’Reilly is amazing, that’s about all I can say. If you can’t tell, I’m big on documentation, and Safari is like having a bookstore in your computer. You can search through hundreads of REALLY REALLY great books (sorry about the caps, Safari gets me hot). My favorites on there are Bulletproof Web Design, The Zen of CSS, and Eric Meyer on CSS.

About Author :
authorUrl : http://theappleblog.com/2007/02/27/6-tools-for-web-design/
To read more articles on: environment, subvesrion, Web Design, Web Developer, designers

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The Professional's Guide to Link Building

2007-06-12T05:30:00.000-07:00

40 pages, text and images, available in MS Word, OpenOffice & HTML format. This complete guide to link building includes the basics of evaluating link quality and value along with over 50 unique strategies for link development. These are the same strategies SEOmoz employs with our clients to attract high quality links to boost rankings at the search engines and relevant, direct traffic.

About Author :
authorUrl : http://www.seomoz.org/articles
To read more articles on: evaluating, link building, quality, complete guide, strategies, relevant

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Social Media Marketing Tactics

2007-06-12T05:21:00.000-07:00

Jane Copland walks through 30 major social media websites and how marketers can leverage these for links, branding and control of search results. Naturally, she supplies her sharp Kiwi wit and deft sarcasm to help make the journey of reading the piece even more enjoyable.

About Author :
authorUrl :http://www.seomoz.org/articles
To read more articles on : social media, search result, Naturally, branding, supplies, Marketing

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8 Web Design Tactics to Help You When You're Stuck

2007-06-12T05:11:00.000-07:00

Web design can be incredibly frustrating. You'd think that with the infinite possibilities of what-goes-where it'd be pretty easy to land a design that works, yet somehow we've all been stuck before: working hour after hour on a design that refuses to look right. Throwing away pixels like they're going out of style.

These 8 tactics are what I use to get out of that sticky spot.

Design from the inside out
This is some of the best advice anyone ever gave me about web design. A lot of designers start off a design by focusing on the header. Often times what's inside the page is what makes it look good; the header is supplementary. Try leaving the header alone for awhile and working on some elements in the body, you'll be surprised at how much easier it is to design a page once you've got a solid body going. The next time you're designing a header with no body imagine yourself adjusting a tie in front of the mirror, but being completely nude. (yikes)

Sketch something
My whiteboard is my salvation. Pencil and paper works too. I read an article years ago by a designer who would draw dozens of little 2x3" mockups in his spiral notebook before even opening up a graphic design program. It helped him identify where elements were going to be placed and what options looked best . The best part of creating mockups this way is the speed at which you can burn through possible layout ideas. Sketch something, scribble it out. Sketch something else, scribble it out. Do this ten times and you've probably got a fairly decent idea of how to the page should come together. I've used a few wireframe applications like but I've still found myself to be my most efficient while bathed in the saucy aroma of whiteboard markers.

Seek inspiration offline
If you've paid attention to anything design related in the past two years then you've no doubt seen a few of the countless CSS galleries and design showcase websites that popped up. These are excellent sources of inspiration, but sometimes a bit of offline media can be just what you need to spur some fresh ideas. Open up a newspaper or magazine, go to the grocery store and look at the packaging, watch a television ad. Pay attention to things that are applicable to your design such as typography, color, and element placement. Ask yourself questions like "What is it I like about this magazine ad?" and "What is about this packaging that just works?" There's a lot you can learn from observing traditional media. A few years ago a co-worker of mine lent me a book full of Russian posters and print ads from the 1920's. The lessons learned from looking at some of the material were invaluable - I was particularly impressed by how they were able to cram a ton of information into a tiny area but kept it from appearing too "busy."

Learn to let it go
Ever make a button that looks ridiculously awesome but just doesn't belong in your design? You put so much effort into your ridiculously awesome button, you'll go to great lengths to make it work. You'll bend the laws of space and time to make that goddamn button look right in your page.

Learn to let it go. Save the button and file it away. Although you've lost this battle, you'll soon have an arsenal of ridiculously awesome buttons you can use in designs later on.

Step away from the computer
We've all heard this before: If you're having a difficult time with something, leave it alone for awhile and come back later. It'll probably be easier after you've had a bit of a break and your mind has settled. Regarding web design, I've noticed this always plays out in a certain way: If I'm hating a design I'm working on and I shelve it for a few days, a lot of the time my reaction upon returning will be "Holy crap that's fantastic!" On the flip-side, I'll often toil away long into the night working on what looks like the best design I've ever created. The next morning I'll look at it again and cringe at the horrible abomination I've created. The moral here is to give your design some space.

Be absorbent

No art is born in a vacuum. Learn to effectively pinpoint what it is you love about other designer's work and incorporate it into your own. Don't steal designs, but don't deprive yourself of external stimuli either. Become better at identifying why you love the way something looks. When I come across a design that blows my mind, I try to pick it apart what aesthetically makes it tick.
is a good example. Sure, it looks wonderful, but why? Personally, I love the way the designer has taken a very modern set of shapes and applied them against a vintage medium: Cartoonish bubbles and clouds that appear to be cut out of distressed paper. When looking at this design I ask myself: What could I do with textures like that? What is it about those shapes and icons that look so remarkable?

Don't be a one-hit-wonder
Try to avoid using the same techniques over and over again, even if you've done really well with them in the past. Gradient rectangles are my crutch - I have a terrible habit of using them whenever I feel like a design isn't working. "This design sucks...I'll add a rectangle with a gradient fill!" The result is usually something that I'm unhappy with because it looks the same as all my previous work. Try imposing yourself with silly rules, such as "No drop shadows today" or "2D elements ONLY." Locking yourself out from certain design habits forces you to learn new ones. My happiness as a designer coincides with my ability to produce something that looks great but is different from anything I've done before.

Seek input from others
This is a tricky one. There are so many ways to especially when the wrong kinds of people are involved. Be careful who you ask and find people who can provide constructive criticism. I've seen many great designs die at the hands of aesthetically-challenged secretaries who have printed a few corporate bake-sale flyers in the past and consider themselves to EXPERTS at all things design. If anyone ever tells you that your design doesn't "feel right," or that they "just don't like it," you might want to look elsewhere for input. Find someone who can tell you specifically what's wrong and how it could be improved. Grow some thick skin, too. Don't assume every criticism is an attack on your work of art. Roll with the punches.

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authorUrl : http://www.seomoz.org/blog/web-design-tactics
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Your Future is in the Hands of Your Website Provider

2007-06-12T05:02:00.000-07:00

How many car dealers really think ahead when it comes to internet marketing? My experience tells me that most dealers are right here, right now personalities. While that may be OK for right here, right now, it's inevitably going to hurt them down the road.

I spent the past weekend attending two birthday parties for family members. Saturday was a surprise 60th birthday celebration for my aunt, and Sunday was a party for her granddaughter's 1st birthday. Looking at a lot of old photos put together in a slideshow presentation which eventually moved toward recent photos, it reminded me how much things have changed in the last 60 years....the last 30 years....even the last 3 years. I found myself imagining what sort of party the one year old will have in 59 years. Some sort of virtual reality display based on home videos where guests are able to "be there" for the 1st birthday? Brain implants so they can experience being there? The way technology changes, it's probably well beyond what anyone can even imagine at this point, but you get the idea that it's going to be different than this past weekend.

As a website company that specializes in independent car dealerships, our typical clients don't need a lot of the bells and whistles that some of our competitors offer....yet. Our business model dictates that we provide only those tools that are needed by our core client base. Someone who is relatively new to internet marketing and/or technology in general does not want to be overwhelmed with products they don't use or understand. As a dealership grows and puts more emphasis into an internet department I believe the average dealer will want these extras. The way I see it, there are thousands of dealers across the country. Some are ahead of the curve and some are behind the curve. Our company's role is to get the "behind the curve" dealers up to speed. At the same time we do this, the curve continues to move, and we as a company need to evolve and adapt.

A few years ago videos on dealership websites were rare. This is a perfect example of a technology trend that's growing and becoming closer to par for the course. While our early dealers did not even consider such things for their sites, we're starting to get more dealers who are. As a reputable web design company it's our obligation to advance the technology with the times. Complacency may not kill a company, but it shortchanges that company's clients.

Whether you have an existing website provider or you are searching for one for the first time, it's important to consider how progressive the leaders of that company think. One company may fit your needs today, but if they maintain the status quo, chances are they won't meet your needs for very long. Choose a web design company wisely, and although I know most car dealers don't like to think about the future, doing so when it comes to the technology side of your business is one of the best moves you can make.

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authorUrl : http://onlineautodealer.blogspot.com/2007/06/your-future-is-in-hands-of-your-website.html
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Ugliness, Social Design, and the MySpace Lesson

2007-06-12T04:45:00.000-07:00

I’ve been attempting the impossible: trying to get a clear picture of the whole MySpace/Ugly issue.

But before I continue, if you haven’t seen Ze Frank’s Piece on Ugly, go watch that. In it, he says:
“Ugly when compared to pre-existing notions of taste is a bummer. But ugly as a representation of mass experimentation and learning is pretty damn cool. Regardless of what you might think, the actions you take to make your MySpace page ugly are pretty sophisticated. Over time, as consumer-created media engulfs the other kind, it’s possible that completely new norms develop around the notions of talent and artistic ability.”

In addition to Ze’s point of view there are several other viewpoints floating around. Here’s a quick summary:

MySpace succeeds despite its design

MySpace is poorly designed and succeeds despite that. It got into the social networking space early (some say first - which is entirely untrue - Friendster and others were there years before) and captured the “market” before anybody else. As a result, its design doesn’t matter, because its success depends on something else.

MySpace users just have bad taste
This assumes we can objectively judge design to some extent: that MySpace really is ugly. (I assume this in The MySpace Problem) This argument goes further, however, and suggests that those who use it must have bad taste. Do MySpace users have bad taste?

The success of design depends on whether or not it is used, and MySpace is super-used so it must be well-designed
This is the argument I want to make. It’s a difficult argument to make, however, as the visceral reaction to the ugliness of MySpace is just so strong. We so easily equate ugliness with bad design that we cannot separate usage from our own opinion, even if we aren’t the ones using it! However, if we accept that good design as that which is used, then we have to accept that MySpace is well-designed.

Many have asked: Could MySpace look better? I think that’s the wrong question. The right question is: Why does it work?

Do you think Steve Jobs says at the end of the day: “Well, our stuff is well-designed…who cares how many people use it?” Probably not. While he might not need 80% marketshare to sleep tight, he certainly needs Mac users to continue to buy Macs…there is a threshold of use that Apple needs to stay solvent. It may be only 5%, but in terms of the entire population who buys computers, 5% is a few billion dollars.

Design is All About Use

Design all about use. Most web sites exist to be used (and many to make money) and if yours doesn’t have people using it then it’s not designed well. This is not just a usability/geek way of viewing design. Many successful designers feel this way, including famous ones.

You can’t predict what people will like. I never, never, never would have been able to design MySpace, because I wasn’t in the position that Tom & Co. was in to react every day to their audience, who demonstrate over and over that they want their web pages to look like their bedrooms.

It may be that this is only a phenomenon in social networking sites. That’s OK, but we certainly can’t take the lessons we’ve learned creating other types of sites and apply them there without serious consideration.

Visual vs. Social Design

One distinction we can make is between the visual and social design of MySpace. The visual design, though it communicates what it needs to (”this is your social life”), is objectively ugly as it doesn’t follow nearly any established visual design principles like balance, symmetry, and harmony. That’s OK, as far as it goes. But the design of the social element of the site, the community aspects like the appearance of Tom as a friend in every profile, is amazing. Little touches like that make people feel right at home, as does the site’s ability to react to its audience quickly. This is great social web design. Bad visual design. Good social design.

There’s a new term: social web design. I’m using it nowadays to refer to the social aspects of design: community, persuasion, motivation, social interaction, influence, authority, etc. These things aren’t always apparent in the interface, but are just as real as a submit button. If your friend uses MySpace and uses the email widget to ask you to join, that’s a win for the design…social design.

Social aspects affect people as much, maybe more, as the interface itself. (update: Brian Fling over at Blue Flavor is having similar thoughts)

Reframing the Debate

MySpace is the ultimate site when it comes to reframing the debate in terms of user experience, usability, and most importantly what matters to users. In the world of user experience its all about figuring out what matters to users, and the MySpace example (and most of the teenage world) is a true enigma for us all. That’s why MySpace is so damn interesting…because we don’t understand it! And that’s why it’s such a good example of understanding users, because most people who do that for a living (usability folks, designers, interface hacks) have few preconceptions about the service (or negative ones) because they don’t use it, don’t understand why people do use it, and don’t want to use it. In most other applications designers have preconceived notions because they’re familiar with the domain in some way. Not so on MySpace.

However, if you can accept that MySpace is so successful because of something they have done in their design (as opposed to chance), you have to accept that they’ve done an excellent job…so far.

The MySpace Lesson

Will MySpace continue to rock? Probably not, as teenagers are as fickle as New Englandthat’s the point. They have to react, to evolve, with their audience, and the outcome probably won’t look like a “designer” would have planned. That’s the MySpace Lesson. weather. What will MySpace have to do to stay successful? I don’t know, you don’t know, and

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Can Design Change the World?

2007-06-12T04:39:00.000-07:00

That’s the question being asked (and answered) at DesignCanChange.org, a pro-bono site built by smashLAB, a Vancouver-based design firm. (viagong szeto)

There’s a lot to like at this site. Not only do they provide excellent visuals that explain the concepts of climate change, but they also candidly address the impact that design has on the world. They also gives tips on how to take action.

Beautiful, inspired work.

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Five Principles to Design By

2007-06-12T04:26:00.000-07:00

Technology Serves Humans.

Too often people blame themselves for the shortcomings of technology. When their computer crashes, they say “I must have done something dumb”. If a web site is poorly designed, they say “I must be stupid. I can’t find it”. They might even turn to a book for Dummies to get it right.

This is horrible! People should never feel like a failure when using technology. Like the customer, the user is always right. If software crashes, it is the software designer’s fault. If someone can’t find something on a web site, it is the web designer’s fault. This doesn’t mean that the designer has to hang their head in shame…they should see this as a learning opportunity! The big difference between good and bad designers is how they handle people struggling with their design.

Technology serves humans. Humans do not serve technology.

Design is not Art.

Art is about personal expression. It is about the life, the emotions, the thoughts and ideas of the artist. It matters very little what observers do, their activity is not required, only their appreciation. The practice of Art doesn’t require them. It is a necessary activity for the artist, and the artist alone.

Design, on the other hand, is about use. The designer needs someone to use (not only appreciate) what they create. Design doesn’t serve its purpose without people to use it. Design helps solve human problems. The highest accolade we can bestow on a design is not that it is beautiful, as we do in Art, but that it is well-used.

Unlike Art, Design is always contextual. It matters when a design was created because of the context of its use: what problem is it supposed to solve? And for whom? At what point in time? This is why design is so related to technology, because technology changes so quickly, so must our designs. A design that worked ten years ago might not even be worth considering today. History is littered with wonderful designs that are no longer necessary.

Great Art, on the other hand, is always in style. We appreciate Michelangelo’s David even though we could recreate a million of them because it was the toil and expression of a single man. That will never fade. Great Design is dependent upon the age in which it is made and the problem which it is meant to solve. But not Art. Art is timeless.

The litmus test. When people enjoy Art, they say “I like that”. When people enjoy Design, they say “That works well”. This is not by accident. Good Design is something that works well.

The Experience Belongs to the User.

Designers do not create experiences, they create artifacts to experience. This subtle distinction makes all the difference, as it places the designer at the service of the user, and not the other way around. This doesn’t rule out innovation, it doesn’t prevent a designer to leap beyond what is accepted as state-of-the-art. It just means that the experience of a design doesn’t happen simply because the designer says it does, it happens when a user actually reports it.

The ultimate experience is something that happens in the user, and it is theirs. They own it.

Great Design is Invisible.

An interesting property of great design is that it is taken for granted. It works so well that we forget that creative effort was involved to bring it about. Sometimes, like with the lowly spoon, the object is so simplistic that it seems obvious, and we disregard that at one point in history it wasn’t. Other times, like with the automobile, the object is so sophisticated yet easy-to-use that we’re blinded to the fact that millions and millions of human-hours went into getting it to this point. That’s a shame…every great design has a rich history. And every design has behind it a designer or designers who tried to make the world a better place by solving some problem or another.

Bad design is obvious because it hurts to use. It is awkward, difficult, and complex. In a great irony of the world, bad design is much easier to see than good design. It raps us on the head like a bully. Because of its success, great design is often invisible.

Simplicity is the Ultimate Sophistication.

As Saint Exupery said, “In anything at all, perfection is finally attained not when
there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away.” Simplicity is treading a line: knowing what to keep and what to throw away…it comes across as magic when it works, because none of the complexity is transferred to users…only simplicity. That is the highest achievement for a designer.

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authorUrl : http://bokardo.com/archives/five-principles-to-design-by/
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5 Newsletter Writing Tips

2007-06-12T04:21:00.000-07:00

Are you considering adding a newsletter to your website but need some newsletter writing tips to get you started?

Do you have concerns like: How much of my time is this going to take up? How long should each email be and how many emails should I send out in total? What if I no longer have anything relevant to say? Can I keep up the quality of my newsletter over a certain length of time?

The first thing that you must remember is to always offer some interesting and useful information. You will no longer have any subscribers if you do not. Next, you will want your newsletter to remain fairly short. These days, people are inundated with emails, so they will appreciate it if you send them something that they can quickly scan and then put to good use.

Put some thought into the best possible format for your emails. You will want a model that can be easily reproduced week after week. To make your job simplier, you can choose any one of the following newsletter writing tips as your standard format or you can combine them, whichever. The final choice is yours.

1. Tip of the Week

Come up with at least 24 tips on your main topic. You could brainstorm a specific topic and get enough content for at least 6 months of weekly newsletters. When you focus on your area of expertise this should not be a problem. You will find it best to do this by (a) explaining the problem and then (b) offering a tip that will solve the problem. The length of each email should be from 150-500 words.

2. Top Ten

This format is easy to create and it works. For example, if you are an expert in health and fitness you could give advice on the “Top Ten Health and Fitness Tips”,”Top Ten Tummy Flattening Techniques”, “Top Ten Weight Loss Tricks for 2007″. Be sure not to go over board with the word length, just a few sentences for each tip will be fine, not half the page.

3. Three Ways to…

Finding ten ways to do things can sometimes be a little challenging. A quick newsletter tip is to provide only three tips instead; it is much simpler and can be alternated with the “Top Ten” format.

4. Before and After

Just like the “Tip of the Week” format, this tip introduces a problem and then immediately provides a solution. The “before and after” format does however work better with case studies as this is one way of interacting directly with your clients.You can ask them to send in details of something in their possession that requires a makeover; such as a website page, an article, their wardrobe etc, and then you can present them with your solutions.

Or you can ask for “before and after” examples from your readers who have been able to do this themselves, and with their permission show them to your other subscribers. (If you are using text only format for your newsletter, then you can include a link to your website page which has the photos on it). This especially works well if your newsletter is related to health and fitness - the photos will motivate your readers when they see the changes of others through diet and exercise, even weight training.

5. Checklists

Are you trying to learn something new? There is nothing quite like the checklist format to make sure that you do not leave out any steps along the way. Checklists can really save loads of time and your readers will appreciate getting one. All you will need to do is write a short introductory paragraph, make your list and then close with some final tips. You can base the whole of your newsletter on the checklist format, or you can just present one on occasion as a change from the regular newsletter format.

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authorUrl : http://www.wnwdesign.co.uk/wordpress/archives/535
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Beyond the SEM Bells and Whistles

2007-06-12T04:18:00.000-07:00

There’s a lot more to search engine marketing than examining the pros and cons of all the hot new Google AdWords services.

True, that’s often the most fun and interesting part, which explains why that’s what you read about if you follow online marketing news and blogs. But just as every trial lawyer has a support team of associates and paralegals burning the midnight oil, every successful SEM campaign must a team of experienced production specialists and coordinators that make it happen.

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authorUrl : http://www.wnwdesign.co.uk/wordpress/archives/category/internet-marketing/
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Is Google PageRank Still A Valid Marketing Tool?

2007-06-12T04:13:00.000-07:00

The Google PageRank Toolbar in SEO circles is a hotly debated item, as are most issues dealing with Google. Some say it’s useless, others say it gives you a general overview of your site’s standing in Google. Regardless of who is right, this Toolbar shouldn’t be ignored nor worshipped, just closely watched.

The Google PR Toolbar is a simple tool you can download and place on your browser. When you surf the web, this toolbar will give you Google’s PR or Page Rank for that particular site or page. Google ranks all web pages from a scale of 0 to 10. This Toolbar is more like the Richter scale than an ordinary scale. There’s a big difference in the rankings as you go up and they are not proportional.

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Using Social Media Marketing To Promote Your Specialist Information Website

2007-06-12T04:03:00.000-07:00

Before I get started, it is worth defining social media. It has become a widely used and abused term that means different things to different people.
My definition of social media is:

‘online technologies and practices that people use to share their opinions, insights and experiences with each other. Information can be shared as text, images, audio or video via blogs, message boards, wikis, RSS, podcasts and social networking sites’.

At the heart of social media is the ability of individuals to interact with other people so that they feel involved and part of a community. A big part of this phenomenon is the activity of finding, sharing and recommending products, services, events and experiences to like-minded people. This is where social media crosses over with marketing.

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Quick Link - Create Your Own Social Network with Ning

2007-06-12T03:56:00.000-07:00

From time to time I will be posting quick links to sites that I think iwebis readers could benefit from. I will not be doing any kind of review with these ‘quick link’ posts. However, these quick link posts will probably be the topic of reviews in future articles.

Quick Link for today is Ning.com. Ning offers anyone the opportunity to create their own social network and/or join any of the many networks they have listed. It’s free to join and create your own social network.

I was first introduced to this site by A Brewster Smythe. She has created a network for Blog Writers and Artists.

Ning is an interesting website that I am likely to get involved with. If you haven’t noticed already, I like social networking ;).

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Search Engine Optimization

2007-06-12T03:50:00.000-07:00

The Importance of Anchoring Incoming and Outgoing Links

Don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS feed. You can also Subscribe to iwebis by Email Thanks for visiting!I always knew that anchoring text links were important but not until I read a recent post by Jennifer Slegg, a Search Engine Optimization consultant, did I understand why it was so important. Jennifer’s post […]

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urrently browsing: Web 2.0

2007-06-12T03:46:00.000-07:00

Don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS feed. You can also Subscribe to iwebis by Email Thanks for visiting!
If you haven’t already noticed Web 2.0 has created a new look for the internet. Much of the website design has taken the direction of a 3-D shinny look. Not sure if this look is just […]

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Defining Social Media

2007-06-12T03:39:00.000-07:00

I read a very interesting article today regarding the definition of social media. I suppose I should have been clear of the definition before I dedicated this blog to follow it’s changes but who is ever really clear about the definitions related to much of the internet (web 2.0 anyone?). The article I read on the MediaPost Publications’ Online Spin, authored by Joe Marchese gave social media a deffinition that was easy to understand but surprising.

According to his article Wikipedia defines social media as such: describes the online technologies and practices that people use to share opinions, insights, experiences, perspectives and media itself.

Joe Marchese adds to this definition by including non-internet related media such as ‘America’s Funniest Home Videos’. From what I understand of his definition, social media has more to do with the ’social’ part of the phrase than the ‘media’ part. He seems to suggest that simply the ’sharing’ of content, whether it be social networking (MySpace), reference (Wikipedia), news sharing (Digg) or video sharing (YouTube).

ANY TYPE OF MEDIA CAN BE SOCIAL MEDIA — and eventually all media will be social media in the most literal definition. This will have serious implications for media companies and advertisers alike, so it is important that we are not dismissing social media as the user-generated portion of the Internet.

Now I find it interesting that a group of people sitting around a table were able to come up with a definition of social media without asking the rest of us what we thought of it.

..everyone seems to have a very different opinion on what social media means. Once everyone had a dialogue on an agreed definition of the term..

The Internet seems to be good at having someone create a word/term/phrase and then the rest of the world try and define it because somehow the definition go lost ??. Or I suppose it could be that the word evolves with the changes so we are constantly having to redefine it. Whether you agree with the definition or not this is one groups take on it. You can find the full article here.

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Five, plus One, Steps to Successful Website Development

2007-06-12T03:35:00.000-07:00

To successfully create a website that fulfills your goals, a thorough web design and development process is required. Each web design company may have their own preferences to steps in the process, while some on the other hand may not have any. Just keep in mind that the more the web company knows about your business the better position they are in to make suggestions.

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Branding Your Emails

2007-06-12T03:28:00.000-07:00

You wouldn’t forget to place your company’s letterhead, with logo and address, when sending someone a letter would you? So why would you not add it to your emails?

Conduct a small experiment. Take a quick look through the many emails you receive on a daily basis and calculate the number of emails that have a distinct letterhead, image, style or anything that separates itself from others. Is it not surprising how many lack that distinction? Now think about the distinction and impression your email would have if you added a simple letterhead to your email messages.

For the same reasons you spent time and money creating your company’s paper based letterhead, why wasn’t your first thought to design “eletterhead”?

As email replaces regular mail, designing a letterhead for your email helps reflect your company’s brand image, just like those old paper based letterheads did.

Create an email template to reflect your company’s image. Here are a few thoughts when developing and implementing your eletterhead:

Create a well-designed email template. Something simple and memorable that reflects the brand’s values without overpowering the email message.

Ensure consistent use of that template by everyone in the company.

Set guidelines for template use within your organization, such as; subject lines; signatures; font choice; and content emphasis in a consistent, brand-led manner.

Create a backup template for recipients whose technology can’t read the fancy edition.

Add important contact information, such as first and last name, telephone number and website address at the least.

Remember your brand is not merely your logo; it’s every consumer touch point. That includes e-mail. Think about how many business emails you send daily, why not take advantage of its branding power.

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authorUrl : http://blog.9thsphere.com/blog/?p=6
To read more articles on: template, email template, designed, designing, simple memorable,

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Branding Canada Works!

2007-06-12T03:19:00.000-07:00

A client of ours applied search engine marketing to promote online courses across North America, noticed lower Canadian conversion rates compared to the American numbers.

We suggested splitting up the campaign, and the landing page by country, and adding some Canadian identity factors - including a Canadian flag, changing the State/Prov. field to only Province, removing all the US states in the drop-down menu, and lastly removing the Country field option for testing purposes. Although we wanted to test each item on its own merit, as good marketing practices suggest, the client opted for incorporating all the changes at the same time.

An hour of web development resulted in an amazing 400% increase in conversion. Looks like Canadians are more inclined to provide personal information when they know it’s being provided to a Canadian company.

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authorUrl : http://blog.9thsphere.com/blog/?p=28
To read more articles on: development, web development, marketing , search engine marketing, campaign

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So you want to do a meta-analysis...

2007-06-12T03:15:00.000-07:00

Meta-Analysis software helps investigators evaluate evidence gathered during multiple medical studies. Users of their CMA product (Comprehensive Meta Analysis) can more easily work with data in disparate formats.

CMA was designed to help researchers synthesize quantitative evidence across studies. It was funded by the U.S. NIH under their SBIR research grant program. The company describes the need for its CMA tool this way: "Meta-analysis is the statistical procedure for combining data from multiple studies. Decisions about the utility of an intervention, or the validity of a hypothesis, cannot be based on the results of a single study, because results typically vary from one study to the next."

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authorUrl : http://www.evidencesoup.com/canopener/technology_for_healthcare/index.html
To read more articles on: multiple studies, single study, quantitative , researchers, Meta Analysis

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Heat maps provide solid evidence for web page designers

2007-06-12T03:10:00.000-07:00

So much has been written about how to do web design: What graphics will attract more people to your site? What navigation schemes make it easiest for people to find what they're looking for? But information architects and designers have struggled to formally measure the effectiveness of one approach over another. Now and are providing some useful evidence.

Researchers at the group have published a study showing that users often read web pages in an F-shaped pattern: Two horizontal stripes followed by a vertical stripe. They used eyetracking visualizations to produce heat maps such as the two shown here: This is solid evidence of the importance of content layout on any web page. I found it especially interesting how often a left-hand column is overlooked, relative to content in the center or on the right.

Can we get more evidence? Of course there are lots of things a heat map can't tell you: Is your terminology self-explanatory? And even more worrisome: What information are you not providing, but should be? Information architecture isn't 100% evidence-free, but it could use some more rigor. The highly regarded article explained this very well. They described how they developed the successful Y! pattern library -- but nevertheless could not establish a way to rate patterns based on evidence of their effectiveness.

"We looked at several possible ratings: Importance of adherence, Strength of evidence, and Quality/Usefulness/Clarity. Both “importance of adherence” and “strength of evidence” were borrowed from the standards put together by the National Cancer Institute and available at . (Ed. note: Holy smokes, these guys are trying to do evidence-based web design!) We settled on “importance of adherence” as our only rating. Its purpose is to describe how important it is for a designer to adhere to the pattern when designing Yahoo! products. In a sense, it’s describes, “how important is this behavior to the Yahoo! brand?” We abandoned “strength of evidence” as a rating after consulting with the Design Research team at Yahoo!. The design research group was at a loss for how the patterns could be evaluated against existing evidence (both conducted at Yahoo! and researched on the web) in a systematic and affordable way." Oh well, at least they tried.

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authorUrl : http://www.evidencesoup.com/canopener/2007/06/heat_maps_provi_1.html
To read more articles on: consulting, Information , research group, Design Research, designing, web design

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Whitespace

2007-06-12T03:00:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, as in web Newspapers , it’s difficult to add whitespace because of content requirements. Newspapers often deal with this by setting their body content in a light typeface with plenty of whitespace within and around the characters.

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authorUrl : http://www.alistapart.com/topics/design/graphicdesign/
To read more articles on: whitespace, Newspapers , web Newspaper, content requirement

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12 Steps to Better Web Design

2007-06-12T02:48:00.000-07:00

Whether writing server-side, client-side, or regular-old-markup, you need to develop some debug muscles. Errors are an incurable side effect of human programming, and when they pop on your screen, you can probably hear your bank account draining. Become an adept debugger and you’ll write cleaner apps, in shorter time.

Bigger Debuggers in 12 Easy Steps

Considering how much time we all spend debugging, it is ironic how rare a topic it is in books and conversation. So how does one become a better debugger? Hopefully, the twelve guidelines I’ve compiled here will help you squash bugs faster, smarter, and with more authority.
1. Organize your code.

Let’s face it, building websites isn’t rocket science. If you’ve been at it for 6 months, you’ve probably developed some sort of methodology. All sites share common elements, pay attention to what they are and re-use code as much as possible. Organize your code and includes so you know where everything is.

The W3C is pushing standards that separate content from structure; you’ll find adopting this philosophy helps when debugging as well. Some general guidelines:

- Code once, include often. I’ll say it again, organize your code so you know where everything is. Strive to have no duplicated code on your site.

- Externalize client-side scripts.
Put all CSS and JavaScript into external includes. Your pages will load faster, as the scripts will go into the browser’s cache. Also, you’ll be able to disable all your JavaScript or all your CSS more easily. Resist the temptation from the darkside, never code CSS inline or write javascripts willy-nilly through your pages. You’ll be happy later when you want to either turn it all off, or export it to another project.

- Refine it.
Every website gains features through the development cycle. When a complex project reaches the 75% complete zone, it is usually begging, pleading, and bleeding for a rewrite. Try to take the 2, 3, maybe 4 days it will take to go back through your code and refine it when it feels out of hand. Don’t be the type of a developer that has an FUNW folder for an inbox. Try to build in as much scalability as you can from the start.

2. Isolate and identify the problem.

This is the key to all debugging, and a close cousin of code organization. The problem code block must be identified, and identified quickly. If you’re debugging-while-developing (DWD), you know the first place to look is the code you were just working on. If you’re debugging-while-updating, or wading through someone else’s work, isolation becomes more difficult.

- Trust no-one.
Your first suspect should be the machine you’re testing on. Is the error totally bizarre? Does another, known to be working page serve OK? Computers crash all the time, and test boxes that kick more errors than successes all day will tend to crash more. If you test on a *nix box, you probably find this paragraph funny. If you’re on Windows, reboot your test machine at least once a day.

- Believe the error message.
If you’re reasonably sure your machine is stable, look for clues in the error message. It’s funny how those messages make sense afterwards, isn’t it? Line numbers in error messages are almost always wrong, but are invariably the best place to start looking. Head backwards from the line number reported, and check the nesting of that segment. When you can’t find the error, comment out sections of your code until the error stops popping. Then cut and paste the problem block into a separate template for surgery.

3. Validate your code.

Make the validator your home page. Writing valid HTML of some flavor is an excellent first step in error prevention. If you’re new to validation, start with 4.01 Transitional. There are also many standalone tools available, the W3C maintains a list here.

4.View the source code.

When you’re working server-side, many times you can find problems faster by viewing what came out, rather than looking at what went in. Check the output, test variables using HTML comment blocks, or use a simple JavaScript alert to dump server-side variables. If you’re dealing with a variable that changes throughout the page, output it several times.

Be the layout master, not the master layouter.

When dealing with a layout problem, first determine if it is an HTML or CSS problem.

- View it naked.
Try disabling CSS, that is, if you have it in external files.

- Preview in many browsers.
Test in whatever browsers and resolutions are appropriate throughout the entire project. Don’t wait until the very end to discover your client’s V.P. uses AOL 2.0 on an Amiga with a 13″ monitor. HTML with syntax errors usually renders inconsistently across browsers, so if you see this behavior, inspect your HTML. Repeat step 3, and make sure your HTML validates.

Man-handle forms.
Everyone hates forms. If you don’t, you haven’t done enough multi-page checkouts yet. Bulletin boards everywhere are crawling with people having form trouble, and it’s almost always related to bad-HTML or a misnamed field.

- Dissect the form elements.
Break down the form into small chunks until you find the problem. If you’re using the POST method, does the page even submit? How about with one variable? Same for the GET method, can you pass at least one variable and have it show in the URL of the target page?

- Name fields sensibly.
If the form fields correspond to table columns in a database, use the same names for both, or adhere to some naming convention. Always build and debug server-side validation before introducing any JavaScript validation.

7. Write clean queries.

An extremely typical data-driven website scenario: You write a query in whatever, and then try to output the results. Sounds fine, but how often do you actually test the query output in its entirety? A good cabinetmaker measures twice, and cuts once. Most programmers measure a little, and hack it with an axe until it fits.

- Isolate the SQL.
Cut and paste your SQL into its own template and run it there. Can you output anything? Write a function in your favorite server-side scripting language that auto-dumps complete result sets for you, so you can test them before you try to output them on your pages.

- Declare all columns.
Never write SELECT all FROM table, name your fields explicitly. Even if you need every column in the table, naming them will help your templates become self-documenting.

- Run it at the source.
Websites usually connect to databases through ODBC or some other method. At the first sign of trouble, run the query in its native program if possible.

8. Organize your variables.

Keep your local variables in a structure or array. If you store all your local variables in one object, it is much easier to dump their values onto the screen as a whole, which is an invaluable tool when debugging.

- Keep your ducks in a row.
Every server-side language has a method for outputting complex datatypes. Store your local variables in an array or structure so you can dump them onto the screen. You might create a special footer, triggered by a URL variable, which dumps your local variables. Never put this sort of code on your live server.

- Avoid reserved words.
RTFM and find out what the reserved words for your favorite languages are. Errors caused by reserved word misuse are difficult to diagnose, prevention is the best medicine.

9. Proceed slowly, preview often.

When you first started coding, you probably previewed every H1, and scrutinized every images Typically, the more experienced programmers become the more code they’ll write before previewing.

- Go slow.
Try to find a comfortable amount of coding before previewing, so that you have a manageable chunk to work through when there’s a problem. In my checkered past, I have painted houses for money. I once worked with a guy that seemed to move in slow motion, but at day’s end he had always done the most work.

- Work methodically.
Whether you like to bring all elements of a site to the same point simultaneously, or like to finish each section as you go, decide what you’re going to do and stick to it. Do the hard parts first, and save the easy stuff for when you’re sick of the project.

10. Mirror your test and production setups.

If you’ve ever uploaded files to the server with a local path unchanged, take off your left shoe and eat it. The feeling is right up there with sitting in the Principal’s office, or locking your keys in your car.

- Mirror the server setup.
Though not always possible, the advantages of having the same physical drive and folder setup as your production box are huge, and can save you hours of heartache and sweat drenched ftp sessions.

- Use absolute paths.
Consider using absolute paths as much as possible. Avoid using the base tag, as it will inevitably lead to disaster. A long long long time ago, I uploaded a site with a base tag set to 127.0.0.1. Can you guess what happened? Everything seemed fine when I tested the uploads, because the live site was referencing my local machine. Whatever you do, don’t mix absolute and relative paths choose one and avoid the other.

11. Work like a debugger.

Make your work environment work for you. I like to hog as many machines at once as possible, coding on one and previewing on the others.

- Keep your reference books handy.

- Make sure you have video games and sugar water within reach.

- Tell noisy people to shut their pie-holes.

Nothing clears a room like great music. If Sun Ra doesn’t drive them out, I highly recommend Charles Ives’ Fourth Symphony.

- Become an alt-tab, or alt-arrow ninja.
Windows does a nice job of keeping track of your recent selections, so tabbing between your editor and browser(s) is a quickly learned skill. Soon you’ll be tapping: alt-tab, ctrl-r, alt-tab, rinse and repeat. And if you’re GUI-ridden, use your keyboard to navigate drop-downs in your programs, it’s faster than playing with your mouse.

12. Don’t waste time, take a break, ask for help!

Don’t spend more than 5 minutes trying to fix something (unless you’ve really done it this time).

- Take a break.
Work on something else for a while, work on nothing for a while, beat your head in with a hammer, and come back to the problem later.

- Don’t go it alone.
Sometimes a fresh set of eyes can pick up a missing semi-colon faster, so don’t be afraid to ask for help when you get jammed. If you work alone, find a mailing list or bulletin board you like.

Flex Those Debuggers

Hopefully, this article has gotten you to think about how you debug, which may in turn get you thinking about how you construct your web applications. As programmers, we feed our bottomless curiosities with small victories, and fuel our fires with the burning cinders of lift-off catastrophes. So get out there, write a whole heap of errors, and be proud when you bomb the whole server.

About Author :
authorUrl : http://dominickgatto.com/wordpress/?p=38
To read more articles on: JavaScript, programmers, resolutions, developing , account draining, applications, debugging-while-developing

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Testimonials

2007-06-12T02:42:00.000-07:00

I should really have a customer testimonials page on this site, but I don’t so instead I post them here in the latest news section. I’ve had a few ‘colourful’ comments and testimonials from various clients recently so though I would share them with you.

The first is from Gareth Powell after seeing the work I had done in setting up his health and longevity website (it isn’t quite live yet so I won’t link to it from here).

Alan
It is 2.47 am in the morning and I had to have a look… It is the Mona Lisa, the Sistine Chapel, the gardens at Giverney and The Marmitton Museum in Paris. I love it to little pieces. More in detail tomorrow when I am awake and sane. What I would like, later, when you have the time, is to do exactly the same to another two sites. More on that when I awake from an opiated sleep.
Regards to you family,
Gareth
PS I think you some sort of a genius.

The next is from the owner of the website I have built for the South African and Rhodesian Military Engineers.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for the patience you have shown to date. You have been more than outstanding in every way. I’m sure there will be more to come as I have great ideas for the site and I hope you will be there to help me along with this fine venture we have undertaken together.

As you can also see there is much interest in the site and this is due in no small way to your effort and input. All the mails I get are complimentary to the excellent product we have today. Never in my wildest expectations did I expect what I have today. The four corners of the world are responding.

And finally a quick one from David Riche of who I deal with on a daily basis and have loads of e-mails that I could choose a testimonial from, but this one that I received yesterday jumped out at me and prompted me to write this post…

Alan
That is AMAZING! You are a fri**ing genius!

Getting good feedback makes it all the more worthwhile for me, even if I do have to censor some of it!

About Author :
authorUrl : http://pixelwave.co.uk/news/2007/03/16/testimonials/
To read more articles on: testimonial , complimentary , excellent product, outstanding , longevity website

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Google Web Traffic Stats Updated

2007-06-12T02:39:00.000-07:00

Around this time last year I posted an article about I’ve been using this service (along with other Stats Analysis programs) since then for my websites and Google have just updated the interface of their Google Analytics program.

The new interface is a definite improvement. As far as I can tell there isn’t any new functionality or any new features but the new interface makes finding and analysing your websites traffic stats easier than ever. The visual interface helps you to monitor trends and see how advertising campaigns etc have affected traffic to your website.

About Author :
authorUrl : http://pixelwave.co.uk/news/2007/05/17/google-web-traffic-stats-updated/
To read more articles on: visual interface, improvement, functionality, Google Analytics

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Dynamic Flash Photo Gallery Website Templates

2007-06-12T02:36:00.000-07:00

Dynamic Flash are now available from our website template shop.

These flash driven website templates provide easy to use and eye-catching websites for all sorts of photographic or image galleries within your website and come complete with a built in Content Management System allowing you to control the images and text shown within the galleries.

Ideal as a complete off-the-shelve solution for your portfolio.

About Author :
authorUrl : http://pixelwave.co.uk/news/2007/05/03/dynamic-flash-photo-gallery-website-templates/
To read more articles on: shelve solutio, templates , website template, photographic, Content Management

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Website Design for Artist in Wales

2007-06-12T02:31:00.000-07:00

Pixelwave Web Design is pleased to have started work for a new local client.

Kumar Saraff, an artist based in Mid Wales has just commissioned Pixelwave Web Design to design and build a website that will allow him to showcase some of his work. I have just started the process and will soon be presenting him with some design concepts for him to comment on.

Following this Pixelwave Web Design will build the website and then instruct him on its use as well as advise on Search Engine Optimisation and website promotion.

In addition to containing some static pages about Kumar and the background to his at, the bulk of the website will be based around an image gallery where his artwork will be displayed. Kumar will have complete control over this gallery using an online. allowing him to organise and add new artwork as and when needed so keeping the cost of to a minimum.

We are hoping that the site will go love by the end of May.

About Author :
authorUrl : http://pixelwave.co.uk/news/2007/04/04/website-design-for-artist-in-wales/
To read more articles on: Search Engine Optimisation, Web Design, image gallery, website

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eCommerce website design for local designer

2007-06-12T02:03:00.000-07:00

I’ve recently started work here at on a new project for a local graphic designer.

The designs this new company create are specifically for sports and active wear and will be sold on various items of clothing including top quality ‘T-shirts, hoodies and a wide range if other items under the brand name of Slick Activewear.

Pixelwave Web Design are currently in the process of building a fully featured online eCommerce system allowing Slick Activewear to showcase and sell their products online. The system will have all of the usual shopping cart features and will allow Slick Activewear to easily update the products and categories themselves as well as track orders, stock levels and much much more from within an easy to use Administration panel.

Pixelwave Design has been working in close collaboration with Slick Activewear on the design and layout of the website, which will feature some of their own artwork. So far their catalogue includes designs within the following categories:

Biking
Climbing
Diving
Equestrian
Open Air
Snow Sports
Wave Sports
White Water
Slickwear

Watch this space for more news on this exciting new website.

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authorUrl : http://pixelwave.co.uk/news/2007/05/31/ecommerce-website-design-for-local-designer/
To read more articles on: brand name, themselves , Design , products online, Administration

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Web Design Books

2007-06-12T01:53:00.000-07:00

I’m always reading books about. As well as manuals and reference books on various coding languages I also enjoy those books about the general principles surrounding aspects such as accessibility, usability, standards compliance and anything else related to peoples use of websites.

I often buy my books through Amazon and have had a set up for several years using the Amazon database for its contents. This website was only ever really thrown together for my own use and to allow me to become familiar with a script for generating such online shops. It had served its purpose and I had all but forgotten about it, but I was reminded of it today, took a look and decided to re-design and rebuild it from scratch.

Amazon now have a nice easy to use aStore system that allows such sites to be built in next to no time, so rather than working with a complex script I just used their system this time (I have set several sites up using the system for clients already). It isn’t as configurable as a more bespoke script, but its ease of use more than makes up for that. You also have little control over the look and layout of the content fed by Amazon, but Amazon know what they are doing so using their layout is probably a good thing.

Anyway, now that it is up and running I guess I should buy some more books!

I have of course been working on clients projects today with a few updates to some general maintenance issues for and some updates to the website.

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authorUrl : http://pixelwave.co.uk/news/2007/06/11/web-design-books/
To read more articles on : projects, maintenance, re-design, configurable, accessibility, usability, general maintenance

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Looking For Advice (Webmaster)

2007-06-12T01:31:00.000-07:00

I have just purchased a cool domain name that I want to make active in July.The problem is I have no idea how to run html.When I try to learn it I get confuzed very easily.

If I payed someone like between 200 to 300 us dollars for someone to just design the site what kinda site would I get?

If I payed 200 monthly to maintain the site what would I get?

I would prefer to have a webmaster...I wanted to work with someone outside the united states but it's looking very unlikely that will happen.

Any help or feedback is appreciated..Thanks.

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authorUrl : http://forums.devshed.com/web-design-help-2/looking-for-advice-webmaster-444514.html
To read more articles on: domain name, appreciated, run html, webmaster, cool domain name
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Just Starting Out Hosting

2007-06-12T01:29:00.000-07:00

Hey guys how’s it going.?

Well I decided I am gonna try to setup just a very small hosting business.

But I don't know where to start with some kind of cpanel for my cx's I am just looking for something that I can use for a while just until I can get used to everything before I decide to purchase something like cpanel or something like that.

So I am just asking for some suggestions on what cpanel type programs there are out there that I can use for the time being any help will be much appreciated.

Anything free would be even better.

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authorUrl : http://forums.devshed.com/web-design-help-2/just-starting-out-hosting-451109.html
To read more articles on: hosting , suggestions , programs, business

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CSS Layout

2007-06-12T01:28:00.000-07:00

A major promise that came with the launch of CSS was that we would no longer be forced to lay our sites out in tables, and would instead be given complete control over the positions and dimensions of page elements. For the most part, this has been fulfilled.

You have probably been irritated in the past by the inability of your browser to render your page exactly as you had wanted. Table structures aren't the most flexible of page layout devices, as they weren't really designed for this purpose. Now however, with the release of the CSS-2 spec, and some reliable browser support in the current generation of browsers, you have a new and much improved option

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authorUrl : http://www.yourhtmlsource.com/stylesheets/csslayout.html#floatingelements
To read more articles on: designed, page layout, CSS-2 , CSS, flexible
page

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Using PHP and PostgreSQL together

2007-06-12T01:27:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of the Internet age, many Web sites were based on Perl applications, which were using the CGI interface. With the help of the CGI interface, it is possible to use every programming language for generating HTML code on-the-fly.

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authorUrl : http://www.webdotdev.com/nvd/content/view/1077/1/
To read more articles on: element information, programming, generating HTML, applications

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5 Time-Saving CSS Tips

2007-06-12T01:23:00.001-07:00

What you probably already know

Remove default padding and margins. Write semantic markup and use HTML elements for what they were intended. Float this, clear that. Use if you like. Tables are for tabular data. Avoid excessive DIVs. Validate. Use hacks but don't rely on them. Install the Web Developer Toolbar. Understand the box border model. Validate some more.

What you probably don't know

Notice how readable that is? You can clearly see the hierarchy of elements that you're styling. If you were to come back to this CSS later you'd know exactly what elements you're working with without even examining the HTML.

2. Create swatch CSS classes

Think of a swatch as a color from your palette. I usually define two swatches that contain colors that are prominent in the site. In Mingle²'s case, these are green and orange and they are defined as .swatch1 and .swatch2. These save me time because I don't have to constantly look up hex codes to apply to elements when I want them to be a different color. There's probably a bit of contention here: one could argue that colors should be applied globally and creating swatch classes is paramount to defining the colors inline. For instance, an

I completely agree with this method of applying style to elements, however I've found that in addition to defining color this way there's always a need for swatch classes when you're writing markup whose only inherited CSS properties are those defined as a base. In other words, you're writing HTML and it doesn't have a CSS specifically assigned to it, instead it's simply using the CSS that is used site-wide. This blog entry is a good example, I want to add green and orange to some text but I don't want to have to write extra CSS specifically for that purpose.

3. Create a class for copy or create a vacuum class

Many CSS tutorials advocate adding this to the top of your CSS file:

This removes all the default padding from elements so you don't have to keep removing default spacing from elements to achieve pixel-perfect positioning. I agree with this, but you'll soon discover that written copy (and I mean copy in the sense of sentences, paragraphs, lists, etc) looks pretty awful without any formatting. I do one of two things: I either apply spacing and other formatting to my container element where copy typically falls, or I create a CSS class specifically for copy that I apply when necessary. If you do end applying spacing and formatting to your container class, make sure you create a "vacuum class" that strips out default margins and padding. This is useful when you have a mixture of written copy with elements that need to be positioned where margins and padding would create a headache.

4. Create a base .CSS file and add additional .CSS files when needed

Mingle² uses a file called default.css that contains CSS properties that apply globally or are shared across every page. If a page or section of the website has additional needs, I create a link to another CSS file that contains properties for that particular section. Viewing a blog entry on this site, for example, requires default.css as well as blog.css.

5. Assert Ctrl

The Web developer toolbar has several keyboard shortcuts that can speed development up quite a bit. The four that I use the most frequently are:

ctrl+shift+f = Display element information (hit ctrl+shift+f then left-click on an element)

ctrl+shift+h = Validate HTML (via validator.w3.org)

ctrl+shift+c = View CSS

ctrl+shift+y = View CSS information (hit ctrl+shift+y and then left-click on an element)

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authorUrl : http://mingle2.com/blog/view/5-really-useful-css-tips
To read more articles on: element information, default.css, contain propertie, CSS classes, border model

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What Is This?

2007-06-12T01:21:00.000-07:00

This example page shows all the four types of positioning that are available in

CSS 2.1:

static (main content)
relative (drop cap in block quotation)
absolute (the sidebar to the right)
fixed (header, footer, left-hand menu)

All of the CSS is contained within the page, so all you have to do to see how it's done is to select "View source" in your browser.

It will only work fully in CSS2-compliant browsers like recent versions of Opera, Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer 7. Users with Internet Explorer 5.5 or 6 for Windows will see a slightly degraded version, because those browsers do not support fixed positioning. The rendering in Internet Explorer 5 for Mac is quite

bad (but fixable).

Fixed and Absolute Positioning

Both the header (fake logo and page heading) and the footer (copyright statement) have fixed positioning, at the top and bottom of the screen, respectively. If you scroll down the page you will see that the content and the sidebar will scroll, but the header and footer will stay in place - unless you use

Internet Explorer 6 or older.

The fake navigation menu on the left also has a fixed position, so it will remain in place when the page is scrolled. The sidebar to the right, on the other hand, is absolutely positioned and will scroll along with the content.

In older Internet Explorer versions the menu is positioned absolutely (via a conditional comment). It will move along as you scroll, but that's the only difference: graceful degradation.

Relative Positioning

In order to show how relative positioning works, the block quotation below uses a floating and relatively positioned drop cap. By floating it to the left it we create a drop cap and by using relative positioning we can nudge it upward and to the left and create a cut-out effect.

The containing block in which the root element lives is chosen by the user agent. (It could be related to the viewport.) This containing block is called the initial containing block.

Note, that this example doesn't work in IE5/Mac.

Containing Blocks

The most important thing when it comes to absolute positioning is to know your containing blocks. In this page the sidebar doesn't have a positioned ancestor, so its containing block is the "initial containing block", i.e., the viewport.

The menu on the left is positioned, so it becomes the containing block for any absolutely positioned children. The links in the menu contains absolutely positioned spans, which are normally hidden. When you hover over a link (or tab to it) the description in the span appears below the menu. (This doesn't work in Internet Explorer 5/6.)

Z-Index

If you look at the page source you will see that I have set z-index:1 for the header. Why?

The header, sidebar, menu and footer are all positioned, and they occur in this order in the markup. They have the same containing block (the viewport) which means they belong to the same stacking context.

Without the z-index setting for the header, the sidebar will slide on top of the header as you scroll down the page. This is because the sidebar appears after the header in the markup and they are both in the same stacking context.

By increasing the z-index for the header I can put it in front of the sidebar, so that the latter will slide underneath the former as you scroll. Note that I don't have to use a ridiculously high value like z-index:100; it just needs to be slightly higher than zero.

I could also have achieved a similar effect in this case by setting z-index:-1 for the sidebar.

Accessibility

Looking at the CSS rules in the page source, you will see that all important positions and dimensions are set with em as the unit. This means the layout will not fall apart if you increase or decrease the text size using your browser's built-in functions. Actually, it will fall apart eventually, when there isn't enough room for the centre column, but it should survive enough text enlargements to be accessible for the majority.

Some of the techniques demonstrated on this page are not very usable in the real world. Internet Explorer 5.x and 6 do not support fixed positioning, which makes that useless for public web sites.

There are also some usability issues: because of the lack of support for fixed positioning in the hitherto most popular browser, we are not used to "sticky" headers, footers and menus. Most users probably expect everything on the page to move upward when they scroll down.

Still, for specialised applications (like company intranets) where you know that everyone will have a modern browser, it could be feasible.

The main purpose of the page is to show how the concepts of positioning in CSS 2.1 works, anyway.

Oh, and the markup is valid HTML 4.01 Strict and the styling is valid CSS 2.1 (with four warnings that can safely be ignored).

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authorUrl : http://www.digital-web.com/extras/positioning_101/css_positioning_example.php
To read more articles on: usability, applications, specialized, CSS rules, containing block, CSS2-compliant

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Internet Explorer 8 Details

2007-06-12T01:20:00.000-07:00

Some more Details regarding Internet Explorer 8 have been released.. here is what we know..

According to Microsoft, Internet Explorer 8 will focus more on security, ease of use, and support for web standards such as XHTML 1.0, CSS 2.1 and improved Ajax and RSS support. Its also rumoured that IE 8 will support so called Microformat. Small tags in the HTML code that can be read differently by various software. Microformat tags can for example be used by calendars or contact lists. The same technology is also likely to be used by Firefox 3.

Internet Explorer 8 will most likely also feature better customization and adjustments to the interface according to the user.

Internet Explorer 8 is due sometime 2008.

It seems that Microsoft is trying to improve the low popularity of Internet Explorer, where version 6 didnt get a proper update for several years, wheras Opera and Firefox are constantly developed, and are more secure and stable. That said, Internet Explorer 7 still got some nice touches as well, including a very effecient phising protection.

So, whats you take on Internet Explorer 8? What is needed to make it on-pair with the competition?

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authorUrl : http://connect-utb.com/cutbforum/viewtopic.php?p=131#131
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CSS Support in Email Clients Still Pretty Poor

2007-06-12T01:19:00.000-07:00

CSS2.2

The early pace of CSS development was pretty impressive. First proposed by Hakon Lie in Oct 1994, CSS1 became one of the first W3C recommendations in Dec 1996. Nipping at its heals, CSS2 became an official recommendation in May 1998, just 18 months later. By June 1999 the first 3 draft modules of CSS3 had been published, and in their ground breaking book published that same year, Bert Bos and Hakon Lie postulated that CSS3 would arrive sometime in late 1999.

Over 7 years later, and we’re still waiting. This begs the question, what went wrong?

For a recent conference, I decided to do a talk on CSS3. While researching all the cool CSS3 features modern browsers support, I became intrigued why things were taking so long. I started reading up on the W3C, how it was structured, how you became a member and exactly who was on the CSS working group. I started speaking to existing members and invited experts, reading blog posts from critics and people who had resigned, and looking at every bit of public information I could find.

Organisations pay thousands of dollars to join the W3C, and in return get to set the agenda on forthcoming technologies. While most of the companies involved are eager to shape the future of the internet in a positive direction, they all have their own agendas. Some obviously want to build better browsers, while others are worried about backwards compatibility and engineering problems. Some organisations have a vested interest in technologies such as SVG, while others are more concerned with opening the web up to different platforms like mobile phones and TV. By paying to be a member of the W3C, companies are able to get some of the brightest minds in the industry working on the issues important to their business, and who can blame them?

CSS3 has been in development in it’s current form since early 2000. There are currently 5 modules in “Candidate Release” status, and a further 6 are in “Last Call” status. This sounds good, until you realise that the selectors module was in “Candidate Release” as far back as 2001, and got rolled back to “Last Call” in 2005. Some of the current modules are set to be rolled back, while other modules like the “Box Model” module haven’t been touched since 2002. Of the 40 or so modules, only the TV profile and media queries modules are nearing completion. Lucky us.

There are various reasons why this is taking so long. Many of the issues are technical and can’t be avoided; problems when testing, issues with backwards compatibility and bugs with browser implementation. However there also seems to be a lot of politics involved. Discussions are getting bogged down in the same old arguments that occur time and again, priorities have been given to the wrong areas, and companies have been pursuing their own personal agendas.

Despite being broken down into separate modules, the scope of CSS3 is vast. As well as trying to look at the needs of the current web, the W3C are trying to anticipate the future. One of the big issues is internationalisation, which brings up problems most of us haven’t even heard of before. Tibetan style text justification anybody? Also with the project taking so long, the W3C are working in a constantly shifting environment. What may have been true about the web back in 2000, may not be true today, next year or in the next decade.

My fear is that the W3C has bitten off more than it can chew, and this is having a negative effect on the web. We currently live in a world of live texture mapping and rag doll physics. And yet as web developers, we don’t even have the ability to create rounded corner boxes programmatically. The W3C are so concerned with shaping the future, I’m worried that they may have forgotten the present. Forgotten the needs of the average web designer and developer.

I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and wonder if we need an interim step. If CSS3 is as big and complicated as the development timeline suggests, maybe we need something simpler? Something that gives us designers and developers the tools we need today, and not the tools we need in five or ten years. Maybe we should take all of the immediately useful parts of CSS3 such as multiple background images, border radius and multi-column layout. Maybe we should take all the CSS3 properties, value and selectors currently supported by the likes Safari, Opera and Firefox. Maybe we should take all of this information and build a simpler, interim specification we can start using now. Maybe, just maybe, it’s time for CSS2.2?

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authorUrl : http://www.andybudd.com/archives/2007/05/css22/index.php#more
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Are we really a “web design company”?

2007-06-12T01:18:00.001-07:00

A lot of times in conversation the subject of our company, our “competitors” and what we do is brought up over and over in terms of “web design”. Yes, one of the services we offer our customers is web design or rather a comprehensive work flow of web development but we are not a “web design company”. We chose the name SpinningSilk Multimedia for a reason. We firmly believe that small businesses, organizations and individuals wanting to promote themselves should not restrict themselves to one form of communication. We believe that a well produced and organized web site is critical in this day and time and it’s also one of the most cost effective means of reaching a mass audience but web searches do have their limitation.

If you look through our site notice that we also offer services related to print design, digital portable media and photography. Not only do we use a lot of the same tools in the development process but I can tell you from our own experience that combining different forms of media and networking strategies are more effective that relying on just one, especially for individuals, small businesses and organizations.

Have you noticed that newspapers, magazines and TV are not staying in their media namesake? I find it very interesting that our local newspaper now has video on its web site, radio talk show hosts now are offering podcasts and streaming video of their show and some magazine have their own TV show and vice versa.

One important reason for this strategy is the audience is rarely tied down to one location. As much as I love the ease of use of the Internet I enjoy the portability of magazines or books for instructional purposes, I love following a related web forum while I watch a popular TV show like Heroes, 24 or Lost but most important nothing beats good face to face communication and the ability to offer others a business card, brochure or note-card with your web address on it.

We never design or develop any of our products in a bubble. Consistent branding between logos, print material, web sites, etc. is crucial to promoting your product or service.

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authorUrl : http://www.spinningsilkmultimedia.com/are-we-really-a-web-design-company/
To read more articles on: design, logos, print material, web sites, Internet, small business, especially design

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Web design and CSS books

2007-06-12T01:17:00.000-07:00

I am reading two excellent books at the moment. Firstly, The Principles of Beautiful Web Design by Jason Beaird and secondly The Art and Science of CSS by Cameron Adams, Jina Bolton et al. I have only completed a few chapters so far but both books have nice layouts and seem easy to read.

For comparison, I pulled a copy of the first edition of Build Your Own Database Driven Website by Kevin Yank from my bookshelf. This was the first Sitepoint book that I bought and it's fair to say that the design and layout of the two recent books is a vast improvement. I still learnt a lot about PHP and MySQL from the Kevin Yank book though.

One good thing about both books is that the publisher Sitepoint provides a sample chapter for download before you buy. This is a great idea ... and I'm sure it helps sales. I was persuaded by the Art and Science download because it has a detailed explanation of CSS layouts for forms.

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authorUrl : http://www.cvwdesign.com/txp/article/223/web-design-and-css-books
To read more articles on: Web Design, CSS Design, design layout, great idea,

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Creating Thumbnails Using the CSS Clip Property

2007-06-12T01:16:00.002-07:00

Creating Thumbnails Using the CSS Clip Property

One of the least used properties in CSS is the Clip property. Clip is part of the visual effects module of CSS 2.1 and its job is to place a visible window on top of an object that is being clipped. It is useful for clipping images and creating thumbnails without having to create additional files. This trick can be used to create square thumbnails, or to create other varieties of thumbnails without actually duplicating files on the server. Here is the rundown.

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authorUrl : http://www.dzone.com/links/creating_thumbnails_using_the_css_clip_property.html
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CSS2.1 Integration & Dean Edwards IE7 script

2007-06-12T01:16:00.001-07:00

Well, it's about time we started integrating more CSS2.1 properties into our development, if no one makes a heavy push for it now, it'll probably be 5 years before CSS3 gets commonly used. I know many are fed up with old browsers and already have made the switch pretty much saying 'to hell with IE6'; but that's not really helping anything since the end user will just notice that the website they have open looks like crap, but never care to find out why.

Pushing an upgrade

Being well aware of the fact that IE6 is still the dominant brower (5/1/07) there are certain things I've started integrating into sites I develop that I hope, will convince some people to at least upgrade to IE7, or make them aware that there is an upgrade available.

First off I use a conditional comment to display a banner at the top of each page, letting IE6 users know that IE7 is out there and give them a link to download [example of IE6 message (view it in IE6)].

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authorUrl : http://www.csskarma.com/articles/css21.php
To read more articles on: CSS3, banner, develop, integrating, development

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Is it time for CSS 2.2?

2007-06-12T00:47:00.000-07:00

As most designers and developers who use CSS on a daily basis know, it’s been a while since a new CSS Recommendation was released. There are several possible reasons for it taking so long, something Andy Budd brings up in CSS2.2.

While I agree that the W3C’s process is way too slow, I don’t think we can lay all the blame on the W3C. Browser vendors are a big part of the problem. Especially one of them (you-know-who).

Of course there are many neat features in CSS 3 that I would love to be able to use now, but just imagine for a moment that all browsers had full support for CSS 2.1. They really should, considering how long they have had to implement it. Don’t you think that would be a great first step forward, and that it would open up for completely new approaches to designing with CSS?

I do. So I think the first thing is to get CSS 2.1 fully implemented. How to make you-know-who do that, I have no idea.

In the meantime, some people could form the 2nd Generation CSS Samurai and write a CSS 2.2 specification in the hopes that it will be adopted, or at least put some pressure on the W3C and browser vendors.

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authorUrl : http://www.456bereastreet.com/archive/200705/is_it_time_for_css_22/
To read more articles on: designer, features, developer, CSS 2.2 , specification

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