Posts from Website Building
It's recently occurred to me that I've been doing Flash sites now for 10 years and have seen it come a long way since Flash 4, where I first cut my teeth on Actionscript, tweening, and pixel fonts. Over the years, I've seen and done many projects, some of which utilized Flash in very useful ways, while others had no business using it. Sometimes, a Flash implementation hurt the company, detracted from the site's purpose, and had poor results (all the while costing them more to build the site in the frst place). So in a world where too many companies want Flash websites and too few designers use Flash very well, here is a brief list of places that Flash currently does not belong (with very few exceptions): [Read More]
I was in high school in the mid-nineties when I first encountered the ever-expanding world of websites. At the time, I didn't realize that my future career would rely on this industry -- one which did not exist when I was in elementary school. Now in the year 2008, having created websites for over half my life, I look back and see how much websites have changed in the last decade and a half. At the same time, I can see how little they've changed as well, and I've realized that the internet as we know it today is only a teenager, with many years of growth still ahead. So in the vein of change, let's look at ten popular websites and their evolution throughout the last many years. (Note: All pictures can be clicked on to view a larger size.)
Apple Today / 5 Years Ago / 10 Years Ago
Apple has always championed solid design and simplicity and their websites have followed these axioms. Except for their early websites which (like everyone else) utilized the upper-left logo and left-aligned website, all their websites in recent memory have employed center-top navigation, ample use of Helvetica, and gridlike simplicity.
Continue on to the other nine sites by clicking 'Read More' below. [Read More]
In some ways, webpages have't changed a whole lot since HTML 4.0 came out almost ten years ago (an eternity in the world of technology). Sure, more designers have taken up residence online, improving the quality of web aesthetics and improving on CSS usage. And yes, server technologies have improved, along with programming languages to support more robust experiences. But all in all, from 2000 up until recently, we're seeing more of the same type of user interactivity. Enter the RIA -- the Rich Internet Application -- first coined by Adobe and now used broadly to encompass the new wave of web applications on the internet.
[Read More]
An excellent website takes a particularly savvy blend of both great design and great code. Because of this, you often find designers having to figure out code and developers trying their hand at design. Speaking as a developer who spent his university years studying among other developers, I can safely say that programmers are not designers. Thankfully, we were graded back then for having reusable code and proper OO methodology -- never for our aesthetics. But nowadays, one of the greatest assets a developer can have is a keen understanding of design.
[Read More]
Dearest Flash,
It's come to my attention that even in the past year, people have continued to be unkind to you, calling you useless, annoying, and the bane of a content-driven internet. I've heard that your reputation continues to be marred by certain miscreants who abuse you and say all manner of insult against you. It's not your fault that you've been mishandled and forced to do things that you were never meant to do. So I write this letter as a reaffirmation of my love to you, letting you know why I will continue to love and support you. [Read More]
So yesterday, we had an article outlining 5 reasons for not writing your own code. Of course, using open source or commercial software is not always possible, and often, can be outright senseless (does anyone really want to write their own forum when there are so many already out there you can customize well). So here are five good reasons for writing your own code: [Read More]
Just like most designers would rather create their designs from scratch, most developers enjoy writing all their code from scratch. When I first began blogging four years ago, even though plenty of blog software existed, I decided that it wouldn't be that tough to write my own blog software in PHP. So I did just that, and also began creating blogs for friends using the same software. Of course, once more people began to use my software, more feature requests and other issues arose, and support became a nightmare. So last year when I decided to build this site, I figured this time, if I just built the blog for myself, it could be a fun little project (especially since I now had four more years of experience and a new language to use -- .Net). As it turns out, although the project was and still is enjoyable at times, it's also been a timesink and a bit counterproductive. The jury's still out on whether writing this blog's backend was a good idea, but during this whole process, I've come up with 5 reasons not to write your own code (and instead, either use open source or purchase source code somewhere else if available). [Read More]
Often when people talk about productivity tips for freelancers, bloggers, or other web workers, they focus on "working smarter" and fail to address "working faster." You can gain a lot of speed productivity with new hardware, better software, or further education. But since these all cost a chunk of money or time, let's look at one of my favorite productivity boosters – shortcut keys. I literally use some of these hundreds of times in a given day. Note that they are all PC shortcuts (sorry Mac brethren, although I'm sure the Mac versions are about the same). Also, some of these shortcuts may depend on your software version or configuration. [Read More]
Even though sIFR has been around for a couple years, many web designers have still never heard of it, let alone use it. sIFR (or Scalable Inman Flash Replacement) allows you to use custom typography on your site by utilizing JavaScript, Flash, and CSS. While most people simply create images when they need a custom-type title, sIFR can dynamically create short text blocks using whatever font you want (while still rendering the text with a default font on non-Flash browsers). [Read More]
Back in the early 90's, as the internet was being shaped and HTML was still a foreign acronym to most, a "standards" organization known as the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) was formed. The purpose of the W3C was to develop certain standards for HTML to follow. This was vitally important because different vendors had begun creating their own versions of HTML with their own features. So the W3C worked to get all these vendors to agree on supporting the same set of components and principles. Fast forward to today -- the W3C is still setting standards for website coding, and although most sites do not conform completely to their standards, most follow them to some degree or another. [Read More]
If you've ever created a website for someone else, you've had to go through that painful process where the client submits edits that you feel are unnecessary, ugly, or just heart-breaking. You think to yourself, "Design is King," and wonder why the client can't understand that your original comp doesn't need any editing. But before you write off your client as a design-ignorant troglodyte, perhaps you should consider that there are many elements that you may hate, but they actually "work"... [Read More]
It's recently occurred to me that I've been doing Flash sites now for 10 years and have seen it come a long way since Flash 4, where I first cut my teeth on Actionscript, tweening, and pixel fonts. Over the years, I've seen and done many projects, some of which utilized Flash in very useful ways, while others had no business using it. Sometimes, a Flash implementation hurt the company, detracted from the site's purpose, and had poor results (all the while costing them more to build the site in the frst place). So in a world where too many companies want Flash websites and too few designers use Flash very well, here is a brief list of places that Flash currently does not belong (with very few exceptions): [Read More]
I was in high school in the mid-nineties when I first encountered the ever-expanding world of websites. At the time, I didn't realize that my future career would rely on this industry -- one which did not exist when I was in elementary school. Now in the year 2008, having created websites for over half my life, I look back and see how much websites have changed in the last decade and a half. At the same time, I can see how little they've changed as well, and I've realized that the internet as we know it today is only a teenager, with many years of growth still ahead. So in the vein of change, let's look at ten popular websites and their evolution throughout the last many years. (Note: All pictures can be clicked on to view a larger size.)
Apple Today / 5 Years Ago / 10 Years Ago
Apple has always championed solid design and simplicity and their websites have followed these axioms. Except for their early websites which (like everyone else) utilized the upper-left logo and left-aligned website, all their websites in recent memory have employed center-top navigation, ample use of Helvetica, and gridlike simplicity.
Continue on to the other nine sites by clicking 'Read More' below. [Read More]
In some ways, webpages have't changed a whole lot since HTML 4.0 came out almost ten years ago (an eternity in the world of technology). Sure, more designers have taken up residence online, improving the quality of web aesthetics and improving on CSS usage. And yes, server technologies have improved, along with programming languages to support more robust experiences. But all in all, from 2000 up until recently, we're seeing more of the same type of user interactivity. Enter the RIA -- the Rich Internet Application -- first coined by Adobe and now used broadly to encompass the new wave of web applications on the internet.
[Read More]
An excellent website takes a particularly savvy blend of both great design and great code. Because of this, you often find designers having to figure out code and developers trying their hand at design. Speaking as a developer who spent his university years studying among other developers, I can safely say that programmers are not designers. Thankfully, we were graded back then for having reusable code and proper OO methodology -- never for our aesthetics. But nowadays, one of the greatest assets a developer can have is a keen understanding of design.
[Read More]
Dearest Flash,
It's come to my attention that even in the past year, people have continued to be unkind to you, calling you useless, annoying, and the bane of a content-driven internet. I've heard that your reputation continues to be marred by certain miscreants who abuse you and say all manner of insult against you. It's not your fault that you've been mishandled and forced to do things that you were never meant to do. So I write this letter as a reaffirmation of my love to you, letting you know why I will continue to love and support you. [Read More]
So yesterday, we had an article outlining 5 reasons for not writing your own code. Of course, using open source or commercial software is not always possible, and often, can be outright senseless (does anyone really want to write their own forum when there are so many already out there you can customize well). So here are five good reasons for writing your own code: [Read More]
Just like most designers would rather create their designs from scratch, most developers enjoy writing all their code from scratch. When I first began blogging four years ago, even though plenty of blog software existed, I decided that it wouldn't be that tough to write my own blog software in PHP. So I did just that, and also began creating blogs for friends using the same software. Of course, once more people began to use my software, more feature requests and other issues arose, and support became a nightmare. So last year when I decided to build this site, I figured this time, if I just built the blog for myself, it could be a fun little project (especially since I now had four more years of experience and a new language to use -- .Net). As it turns out, although the project was and still is enjoyable at times, it's also been a timesink and a bit counterproductive. The jury's still out on whether writing this blog's backend was a good idea, but during this whole process, I've come up with 5 reasons not to write your own code (and instead, either use open source or purchase source code somewhere else if available). [Read More]
Often when people talk about productivity tips for freelancers, bloggers, or other web workers, they focus on "working smarter" and fail to address "working faster." You can gain a lot of speed productivity with new hardware, better software, or further education. But since these all cost a chunk of money or time, let's look at one of my favorite productivity boosters – shortcut keys. I literally use some of these hundreds of times in a given day. Note that they are all PC shortcuts (sorry Mac brethren, although I'm sure the Mac versions are about the same). Also, some of these shortcuts may depend on your software version or configuration. [Read More]
Even though sIFR has been around for a couple years, many web designers have still never heard of it, let alone use it. sIFR (or Scalable Inman Flash Replacement) allows you to use custom typography on your site by utilizing JavaScript, Flash, and CSS. While most people simply create images when they need a custom-type title, sIFR can dynamically create short text blocks using whatever font you want (while still rendering the text with a default font on non-Flash browsers). [Read More]
Back in the early 90's, as the internet was being shaped and HTML was still a foreign acronym to most, a "standards" organization known as the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) was formed. The purpose of the W3C was to develop certain standards for HTML to follow. This was vitally important because different vendors had begun creating their own versions of HTML with their own features. So the W3C worked to get all these vendors to agree on supporting the same set of components and principles. Fast forward to today -- the W3C is still setting standards for website coding, and although most sites do not conform completely to their standards, most follow them to some degree or another. [Read More]
If you've ever created a website for someone else, you've had to go through that painful process where the client submits edits that you feel are unnecessary, ugly, or just heart-breaking. You think to yourself, "Design is King," and wonder why the client can't understand that your original comp doesn't need any editing. But before you write off your client as a design-ignorant troglodyte, perhaps you should consider that there are many elements that you may hate, but they actually "work"... [Read More]
