Articles Tagged with Opinion

Improving Your Process: Combating Burnout
Getting burnt out at work is possibly the worst thing to happen for any creative. Here are some things I try to do as soon as I discover I may be burnt out.
Why I Like (and Use) Reset CSS
The CSS framework debate has been reignited a bit. New topic: reset stylesheets. Personally, I prefer working with reset CSS, but a great number of people have taken to the opposite.
Improving Your Process: Maintaining Product Quality
As a Web designer or developer, it’s important to make sure that your products remain top quality, regardless of any speed bumps you may encounter.
Will Page Zoom Prove Relative Units Less Useful?
With browser manufacturers beginning to default to page zoom, will relative units be phased out?
Comparing Safari 3.1 and Firefox 3 Beta 4
I took a week to give Safari 3.1 a fair shot for Web development, here are my results.
Revisiting Progressive Enhancement in CSS
John Resig recently posted a bit on progressive CSS enhancement, which got me thinking a bit more about a post I wrote some time ago.
Improving Your Process: Client Communication
Although I’ve tried to optimize communication patterns in as many ways as possible, I’ve found that (like Web design and development) experience is the best thing you can do. Use your experience to alter the way you do things to improve your communication process both internally as well as with clients. Effective communication leaves much more time to do what we love to do, create.
Making and Breaking the Grid Book Review
While I have no formal education in design (graphic or otherwise) I do have a strong interest. I try to read as much as I can in an effort to self-educate myself on the subject. The latest piece I’ve completed is Making and Breaking the Grid, A Graphic Design Layout Workshop by Timothy Samara.
Validation Zealotry and Markup Exploitation
There were a couple of posts published within the past week which struck me as quite interesting. The first, published by Jeff Croft is an opinion piece regarding standardistas who feel the need to denounce invalid markup as an inferior product. The next, by Mike Cherim is based upon his fear that a listitis plague may be upon us.
The First Ever MBN Reader Survey
Please take a moment to fill out a quick reader survey regarding Monday By Noon via a new feature of Google Docs!
Being a Starving Graphic Artist Sucks Book Review
I think Being a Starving Graphic Artist Sucks by Jeremy Tuber is a fantastic resource for both new as well as seasoned graphic artists. There are many lessons taught which can really save you from having to learn them the hard way; which can be devastating to a new freelancer and his or her career.
IE8, Version Targeting, and the Ruckus it’s Causing
Last week was quite enlightening for Web developers the world over. With the release of A List Apart No. 251, including Beyond DOCTYPE: Web Standards, Forward Compatibility, and IE8 by Aaron Gustafson and From Switches to Targets: A Standardista’s Journey by Eric Meyer, the biggest debate of the year was sparked.
Designing Web Navigation Book Review
The navigation design for a website is a big deal. I surf the Internet, and it seems to me that everyone would be quite a bit better off had more Web designers taken the time to read a book like this. Site navigation is the primary way readers are able to interact with information presented in a website. Therefore, a site navigation deserves to have some serious thought behind it. Designing Web Navigation by James Kalbach is an extensive resource on this very subject.
Improving Your Process: Boosting Productivity
A common goal among people is to work hard, and to work smart. I try to keep this in mind as much as I possibly can, and I’ve got a strong interest in finding new and improved ways to work more rapidly and intelligently. With that comes a constant change in my day to day ‘routine’ (or lack there of), whether it be what time I get up, what I sit down at my desk and do first, or what I save for the end of the day.
Improving Your Process: Sitemaps and Design Preparation
I’ve found a new use for sitemaps. Even though they’re not sitemaps which are classic in the sense of the word, they have really helped our process on a number of projects, and the end product is better because of incorporation in the design phase.
Current Events: Accessibility Importance and Downloadable Fonts
A recent legal settlement against Target legally requires the corporation to have an accessible website. This is great news! The latest nightly builds of WebKit now support the @font-face CSS rule; an interesting update to a very popular rendering engine.
Mobile Web Design Book Review
I would absolutely recommend this book to any Web developer who is currently building websites. The mobile Web will continue to grow and it is important that professionals have a grasp on the pros and cons of the environment. This book is one of the few which focuses specifically on this subject, and in my opinion will become a staple read.
Regarding Unrest in the Web Standards Community
Some designers, developers, and those devoted to the Web have become frustrated with the rate at which the some agencies and organizations operate, as well as the true goals of said organizations. In this article I offer my opinion on the issue and ask for yours.
How to Retain Site Quality After Delivery
There are a number of ways for clients to make updates in various CMSs, but which is best?
Designing the Obvious - Book Review
Designing the Obvious can be put in same ring as the excellent resource Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability by Steve Krug, Defensive Design for the Web by Matthew Linderman with Jason Fried, as well as Prioritizing Web Usability by Jakob Nielsen and Hoa Loranger.
Improving Your Process: 9 Ways to Improve Yourself
Offering a short list of ways I feel can help you become a better designer/developer. In the spirit of the Improving Your Process theme as well as 9rules, I present: 9 Ways to Improve Yourself as a Web Designer/Developer. This list strays from the technical side of things and sticks to a more generalized overview of your process as a whole.
Taking Conditional Comments Too Far
Using conditional comments to include a version specific style sheet (or a bit of JavaScript) should be all the ammo you need to solve the problem of Internet Explorer.
Is Manipulating the DOM for Presentation Acceptable?
Is manipulating the DOM to include extra markup needed to desired design elements acceptable?
POSH: Semantic Markup for Driving Directions
Driving directions offer a lot of semantic data. This article takes the semantics of driving directions into consideration and offers discussion about how to improve structural markup of directions.
Are Sitemaps a Thing of the Past?
The goal of many Web professionals is to produce high quality work that makes the most of their medium. Products are designed to be both aesthetically pleasing as well as elegantly useful. There are many tools and techniques that can be used to make using any website that much easier to use. One thing I don’t find myself running across very often any more are sitemaps. Have sitemaps become a thing of the past?
Improving Your Process: Web Branding Style Guide
Branding is a very involved process that can really make or break a company image. A strong brand can help propel a client to the next level, while a brand that is lacking will hold it back from reaching full potential. A brand guide for the Web can be very helpful with the continuity of your design.
The Principles of Beautiful Web Design Book Review
I think The Principles of Beautiful Web Design by Jason Beaird is a great book to read for those who wish to start off on the right foot when it comes to Web design. It’s also a good read for designers who would like to research improving their current methods by reading a book written by someone who has excelled in the medium.
Thinking with Type Book Review
Effectively working with type is a craft in and of itself. Having the ability to use typography to solidify a design is something I hold in high regard as an admirable talent. There is a rich history behind the art of type and Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton goes to great lengths to describe much of that history.
Improving Your Process: Site Planning Guides
Sometimes improving your process not only helps yourself, it can benefit your clients as well. Using your time more effectively allows a client to receive more time and effort from you focused on enhancing the project as opposed to spending time resolving miscommunication. Site planning guides are a good way to use direct client input to help steer your project.
Linux Font Equivalents to Popular Web Typefaces
I have written before about my admiration for Web typography, and in that article I touched on the fact that many “Web safe” fonts can’t be applied to Linux. Linux distributions each ship with their own font libraries, but I’d like to focus on similar typefaces you can use within a font-family to help make your design bulletproof.
When Readers Choose to Use Their Own Style
User style sheets can sometimes interfere with author CSS. Most commonly, users don’t create their own style sheet due to the requirement of a working CSS knowledge. Automated scripts adding custom style sheets for users changes things up a bit, however.
Using SciTE with TextMate Style Snippets
SciTE is a very powerful and capable editor. Using a Snippets plugin developed by Mitchell, you’re able to mimic some of the functionality that has made TextMate as popular as it is.
Bulletproof Ajax Book Review
There’s a lot more to Ajax than the buzzword it has become recently. It has generated some serious usability and accessibility discussion to go along with all of the innovative applications it’s been involved with. Bulletproof Ajax by Jeremy Keith aims to start you off right with best practices surrounding this new technique.
Improving Your Process: CSS Techniques Part 1
This group of tips revolves around some CSS techniques I find myself using constantly. I’m sure you’ve heard of some, if not all, but hopefully something comes across as new and possibly helpful. This list consists of just a few ideas I keep in mind while developing, and there are more to come in future articles.
Source Order Can Create Usability Disasters
Source order is often overlooked, but can have disastrous effects on usability.
I Need to Pay More Attention to My Headings
Headings are semantically useful for accessibility, usability, and readability. They’re very important in outlining a document structure and thought should be put into their inclusion and use.
My Development and Design Process
Inspired by a post put together from Jonathan Snook, here’s a look into my development process.
DOM Scripting - Book Review
DOM Scripting by Jeremy Keith is a great resource for any Web designer/developer.
Abbreviation or Acronym? What’s the Difference?
Taking a closer look at the similarities and differences between ‘acronym’ and ‘abbr’
Admiration for Typography on the Web
It’s been said that Web design is 95% typography, and I can definitely agree with that. Many times a site design could be improved extensively with a quick change of a font-family. Keeping that in mind, how does one decide on a good looking font-family for their design? First and foremost, if you’re primarily […]
The Best Browser Extensions for Web Development
The Web Developer Extension and Firebug extension have proved to be most valuable to me when developing for the Web. Here’s an account of the features I find myself using every day in hopes that I can pass some information along to those who may not make use of these features.
Standards, Semantics, Accessibility, and HTML Email
You can love email, you can hate email. An opinion can vary from one extreme to the other when asking any group of people, but almost everyone using the Internet spends part of their day sending, receiving, and reading email. One thing that the majority can agree on is having a dislike for […]
Making the Best of Video Using Flash
Including any form of multimedia within a website has an ugly history behind it. Browser inconsistencies, required third party plugins, and the need for a proper codec made including multimedia a true problem. Even worse, it made it very difficult for any potential readers to successfully view your media. By far the […]
Prioritizing Web Usability: Book Review
Prioritizing Web Usability by Jakob Nielsen and Hoa Loranger is a really valuable resource for anyone in the business of Web. The statistical data backing up the entire book really gets their message across and I definitely recommend this book.
The Pros and Cons of the base Tag
The base tag can be both a good thing and a bad thing in certain circumstances… personally I prefer to define a ‘base’ URI using a different method…
Flash, JavaScript, and Providing Alternative Content
Providing alternate content is becoming increasingly important given the rapid advancement in Web technologies. Take the extra step and provide graceful degradation for your applicable content.
Defensive Design for the Web Review
Oct 16, 2006 by Jonathan Christopher product ★★★★ Personally, I’m a big fan of the thought process behind Bulletproof Web Design. The idea of creating a design that can withstand virtually any change — within reason — seems great to me. Beyond making your site design bulletproof, you can also do quite a bit […]
Helping Your User With tabindex
There are some tags and attributes within HTML that have been neglected and/or forgotten by many developers. There are many tags and attributes that you may have never heard of before, but could prove to be really useful in an upcoming project. tabindex Can Make Things Easier Many of the included tags and attributes within HTML […]
Taking Hold of your Submit Button
Coming up with a good method for marking up forms can be one of the more difficult things as a designer/developer. They have a tendency of looking awkward and ugly and can be the low point of any project you’re working on. There have been countless articles written and techniques developed with the […]
Spread the Word About Standards
Last week there was a great article written by Roger Johansson in which he wrote about Why Standards Still Matter. Shortly thereafter another article was written by Robert Nyman who also had a few things to say about The Web Standards War. Both articles give a refreshing look into the area of writing […]
Linux and Web Development Part 2
It has been over two months since my last writeup about using Linux for Web development. I thought now would be a good time to revisit that subject and write a bit about my findings after using the new operating system for a little while.
Partial Versus Full RSS Feeds
There are lots of pros and cons to offering a partial or full content RSS feed. I’ve recently decided to offer partial feeds in hopes of preventing content scraping. While that can solve a single problem, it may start a few more.
Book Review: Sams JavaScript
If you haven’t ever come across any of the books in the Sams Teach Yourself <Insert Technology> in 24 Hours, the idea behind them is this: Each chapter can be read in one hour, and there are 24 chapters in the book. Therefore you can theoretically complete the book in a total of 24 hours. While some people may be misled into thinking that they’ll learn what they want in a day, it’s really just a clever gimmick — and for the most part, it works.
Current Events: IE7 and Google
Catching up on some recent changes to Internet Explorer and a new Google search which takes accessibility into account with search results.
Creating a Useful Custom 404
Given this day and age of searching on the Web, it’s almost hard to find a legitimate 404 error page on any given site. It still happens from time to time, less likely from clicking a link provided by a search engine, and more likely clicking on internal links from within your own site. Some intelligent minds have come up with some really great and usable solutions for unwanted 404 errors.
Headings in the Right Direction
There are certain design elements that can make or break a project for me. One such element in my experience thus far has been headings. It may sound strange to many, but I think taking a worthwhile amount of time and devoting it to the proper implementation and styling of headings is a […]
Keeping Everything Tidy
As a developer, you should realize the importance of writing valid markup at all times. This gives your projects a solid base to work from and helps to ensure document longevity. A question that has been on my mind for some time is whether or not other developers feel the same way. […]
Jonathan Christopher
Monday By Noon
Albany NY 12210 USA