CodeGeek blog
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Responsive Web Design Techniques
Read more about Responsive Web Design TechniquesIn the always awesome 24ways.org (the advent calendar for web geeks) there have been three excellent articles on specific Responsive Web Design techniques so far this month. The first is by Jeremy Keith and discusses conditional loading of content for websites designed using Responsive Web Design techniques. The technique Jeremy describes allows you to have…
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Adobe Flash to the World: “I’m Not Dead Yet!”
Read more about Adobe Flash to the World: “I’m Not Dead Yet!”Flash isn’t dead. Adobe is continuing development of the Flash Player as well as Flex for desktop web browsers. Adobe’s recent announcement about abandoning development for the Flash Player for mobile web browsers has created a lot of confusion. Unfortunately this confusion will probably push people away from Flash faster than would have happened, or…
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Dealing with Disappointment
Read more about Dealing with DisappointmentLast week we lost a website development job less than an hour before the kickoff meeting with what would have been our latest new client. I hate losing jobs or projects. As the company owner, one of my most important responsibilities is to bring in new business. This has to happen regularly, consistently, reliably. As…
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3 Pranks from Google
Read more about 3 Pranks from GoogleI love Google’s pranks on April Fool’s day. Here are three I’m aware of (so far): OMG this is *awesome*. Couldn’t stop laughing: http://gmail.com/motion Ok, Google is topping themselves. Here’s a job listing for “autocompleters”! http://bit.ly/dMDZ3O Another: Go to Google.com, type “helvetica”. You don’t even have to finish typing! Must be those autocompleters they just…
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Responsive Images: Solving the Image Overhead Problem
Read more about Responsive Images: Solving the Image Overhead ProblemWhen implementing responsive web design techniques, one issue raised by detractors is that the largest image needed for any layout gets downloaded automatically resulting in potentially large bandwidth overhead – an undesirable side effect especially for mobile devices that may be using slower or expensive data connections. Here’s one solution: https://github.com/filamentgroup/Responsive-Images#readme The technique explained and…
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Just Say “No” to Speculative Design
Read more about Just Say “No” to Speculative DesignDoes your web design company do speculative design work? We don’t. What I’m talking about is creating potential website layouts to show a prospect how their new website might look during the sales process. It’s not uncommon in our experience for a prospect to ask for this type of work, especially when they are talking…
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Responsive Design: The Future of Web Design
Read more about Responsive Design: The Future of Web DesignWe’ve entered a new period of transition on the web, just after things seemed to be getting comfortable. I mean things were nice. We reached a least-common-denominator screen size of 1024px. (Good riddance 800 x 600!) All the modern browsers are using page zoom by default rather than text zoom. Designers could breathe easy and…
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Toward a Comprehensive Content Strategy for Websites
Read more about Toward a Comprehensive Content Strategy for WebsitesClients and Content Why does it take clients so long to put together content for their new web site? Because creating content is complex. More complex than it appears at first. Because everything takes longer than you think. Because we all get interrupted all the time and we don’t plan for it. Scenarios: Using copy…
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Web Browser Testing: It Doesn’t Have to Look the Same
Read more about Web Browser Testing: It Doesn’t Have to Look the SameA trend is clear in the web design and development world: web sites do not need to look the same in all web browsers. An Event Apart Boston 2009 “the design conference for people who make web sites” just wrapped up today, and that was a strong message from no less than four of the…
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Styling Visited Links in Websites
Read more about Styling Visited Links in WebsitesI don’t have a consistent approach to this yet… I’ve been hunting around today reading articles on different techniques for styling visited links on a web page. I agree with this comment on usability advantages of styling visited links differently from un-visited links, emphasis mine: “Visited links not only help users avoid pages they don’t…
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User Experience Gone Wrong – United Airlines Easy Check-in Online
Read more about User Experience Gone Wrong – United Airlines Easy Check-in OnlineWhile checking in for a United Airlines flight today using their web site Easy Check-in Online system today, I noticed they made an “improvement” to the check-in sequence. In the normal flow of reviewing seats, I was taken to this screen which “conveniently” offers me the opportunity to upgrade to first class at a cost…
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HooRay for User Experience!
Read more about HooRay for User Experience!Ron and I had the pleasure of attending Adaptive Path’s UX (User Experience) Week in San Francisco last month. As the title implies, this annual conference focuses on user experience which, as defined by mayhamandchaos.com, is a term used to describe the overall experience and satisfaction a user has when using a product or system.…