In the following video on Web usability, I talk about how fancy images can actually hurt your web pages in terms of ease of use. Watch the video for details:
About Web Usability
Making a website more user friendly is a tricky thing, because often times what looks good (in terms of design) actually gets in the way of the user – beautiful graphic often times makes the page more confusing. So, the tricky part is to make it look good while keeping it simple.
My Web usability tips:
Pictures should NOT be links to click on.
Use text links that stand out.
Use icons and images that provide information about the links around it.
A really interesting question was emailed to me recently by someone that I will call ‘Rick’. Her real name was Jenny, but she wanted to keep that private:
I’ve been trying to make a decision about my career path and I wondered if you could offer me any words of advice?
I have a disability that prevents me from working on-site and I will need to work from home as a freelancer. I’m trying to find out which of these server side technologies will make me more marketable from home as a freelancer …
… Rick goes on to mention a few of the popular web programming languages that he is considering:
If you want to work from home, by far and away PHP is your best choice because it is the most widely used language and it is the language that you see small business use more often than not. After PHP, I would give Ruby a go.
… Actually, why not learn both!
🙂
Java and .NET are not great choices for stay-at-home freelancers because those technologies are more or less used by larger corporations that more likely than not, will want you to work on site.
In the following video, I go over what the differences are between a web designer and a graphic designer. I also give a few tips on how to judge whether or not to become a web designer.
WordPress allows you to schedule your post in advance so you can say, write up a bunch of articles and then schedule them to be published over a period of days (weeks or months .. whatever) while you are say … sitting on the beach.
🙂
The video (try watching in 720p and go fullscreen … it’s cool):
Actually, this very post was scheduled for publication the next day, while I was at the movies watching Avatar on the iMax.
… It could be, that you are watching this video at the very moment, that I’m actually watching Avatar and spilling my Coke on the person sitting next to me!
Web usability is a very important aspect in web design. In fact, there are web professionals out there who call themselves ‘usability’ specialist.
What is Web Usability?
This is basically understanding how a web page and a web site are made easier to use .. from the web surfers perspective. This is really, really important stuff because the less usable a website is, the less likely the site will be successful. For example, if you have very unfriendly (bad usability) shopping cart installed in your site, you would see sales drop off … sometimes dramatically.
… This is bad, because then your client couldn’t afford to hire you again!!
😉
In the following video, I show you a real life example of how simply moving a page widget over to the right of the page, had a dramatic impact. You will also see one of my old (circa 2004) web sites … ouch:
As is usual, Google is pushing the Web forward with their innovations in Web technology – this time around, we have Chromeframe, a plug-in that gives IE Chrome browser capabilities … that is to say, HTML5 ability.
From Google:
Enable open web technologies in Internet Explorer
Google Chrome Frame is an early-stage open source plug-in that seamlessly brings Google Chrome’s open web technologies and speedy JavaScript engine to Internet Explorer. With Google Chrome Frame, you can:
* Start using open web technologies – like the HTML5 canvas tag – right away, even technologies that aren’t yet supported in Internet Explorer 6, 7, or 8.
* Take advantage of JavaScript performance improvements to make your apps faster and more responsive.
My take on this:
I’m not sure how practical this is for most web designers, but for the adventurous sort, this maybe something to explore. For instance:
– how well does the plug-in work?
– how easy is it to install: could you convince your IE7 and IE8 visitors to install it?
– can you degrade Chromeframe implementations gracefully?
So, if you are beginner or you are a hard-core in-your-face, I got no time to waste working web designer – forget this post for now.
In 2004, many a wannabe-nerds (aspiring web designers) expressed their frustrations to me about learning CSS – and so I created csstutorial.net with the aim simplifying CSS for the common man and woman.
… I succeeded it seems:
Hi Stefan,
Your CSS tutorial was easier and more helpful than the official Adobe training session I attended a couple of years back.
Now I finally get it.
Thank you!
Geof
And I have hundreds more like this one.
Anyway, 2004 became 2005 and then 2010 and csstutorial.net wasn’t looking too pretty anymore. And so like all old timers, worn by the sun and the passing of years, it was time for a facelift!
WordPress behind the scenes
Not wanting to be a hypocrite, I walked my talk and used WordPress as the engine behind the new csstutorial.net web site – basically a new WordPress theme was created. We used WordPress ‘pages’ to replace the old static pages from the original site and now we have all the power of WordPress at our disposal moving forward.
… So yes, csstutorial.net not only has a new face, but a new engine as well. You should see new CSS related content their too … in the not so distant future. So check out the new site, and let me know what you think with comments here.
I’m a big fan of Flash and it has many uses .. one of them though, is NOT to create an entire website with it.
My top four reasons for not creating a Flash only website:
Limited search engine visibility.
Harder to update because you have to crack open Flash source files.
Harder to find Flash developers/designers than it is HTML/CSS nerds.
Apple’s iPhone and iPad can’t see Flash.
Learn from the past …
Back in the 1990’s, Flash only websites became a big thing for a while … then people realized that it was a bad idea, and the Web returned to traditional HTML and CSS based web sites. Let’s not make the same mistake.
Attack of the KILLER APPLE
Another fact that should make you reconsider Flash only sites, is that Apple is now in open warfare against Flash, where they will not let Flash work on the very popular iPhone and soon to be released (with much hype) iPad. That means that a Flash only website cannot be seen by millions of iPhone users.
Flash should only be used for:
Application development.
Only in parts of your HTML web sites – to do things like play video, audio or some other multimedia use.
This short article may piss-off some Flash maniacs … but what can I say, sometimes the truth hurts.
