digiwebs Matthew Pennell January 22, 2008 at 9:03 AM Add to Delicious or Add to My Yahoo! Readers of the venerable A List Apart will already have read about IE8’s new version targeting (and Eric Meyer’s accompanying opinion piece) — and the announcement has elicited quite a few heated reactions, collated here for your convenience: Microsoft’s own announcement drew both positive … Read more
As browsers get better and better, creating layouts with CSS becomes easier and easier. A reliable workhorse in CSS layout options is the float property. Floats are not the only choice when it comes to creating layouts, but they are popular because they survive the unpredictability of designing for various screen sizes, resolutions, and browsers as well—or … Read more
Welcome back to our two-part series on Application Programming Interfaces: APIs. If you’re not familiar with what APIs are—or maybe you are but you’re still not sure what all the fuss is about—then I’d recommend starting with part one of this series: APIs and Mashups For The Rest Of Us. This time around, we’ll dispense with … Read more
PNG, GIF, and JPEG The PNG image has been widely overlooked by the web design community—and mostly for good reason. Until recently, it hasn’t been possible to take full advantage of the format and have it work reliably in all browsers. But, with proper PNG support in Internet Explorer 7, and some handy JavaScript and … Read more
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 … Read more
Any cascading style sheets (CSS) newbie will have heard about it, right? CSS positioning—absolute this and relative that. Perhaps you have some vague idea about what it is, but are afraid to try it yourself. An element with position:absolute is removed from the document flow, which means the rest of the document acts as if the element … Read more
The next time you work on an intranet project, whether for private- or public-sector organizations, ask your client or manager about branding. Usually, the answer will be another question, “Why do we need to worry about branding?” After all, this is an internal site, for employees only, or—in the case of extranets—for contractors and partners, … Read more
As a writer, I often make screenshots to accompany my tutorials, blog posts, and articles. But, sometimes, static screenshots aren’t up to the job of clearly illustrating a point. You’re likely to find that the neighbor starts the lawnmower in the middle of your voice recording session. Or, on playback, you discover your bad sniffing … Read more
Nick Finck February 25, 2007 at 12:24 PM Add to Delicious or Add to My Yahoo! The age-old debate about gender diversity at web conference has kicked back into full swing again which spun a wider debate about gender diversity and even ethnicity in the industry as a whole. Here are some recent posts on the topic: Gender … Read more
Nick Finck February 17, 2007 at 12:00 PM Add to Delicious or Add to My Yahoo! As someone who helps co-organize WebVisions every year and with my experience in speaking at conferences (not that I am an expert at it) I am often asked for advice on presenting at conferences. There are thousands of sites out there that provide … Read more
When I first began programming with JavaScript, I created my variables and then encapsulated any functionality I needed to reuse into a function. As my tasks got more complicated and as I started learning object-oriented programming in other languages, I began to see the benefits of applying that to JavaScript. In JavaScript, a function is … Read more
Long promised and way overdue, mobile technology is finally moving beyond telephone calls to become a fundamental of our technology-infused lives. In fact, mobile could very well transform how we gather and use information. But beyond the hype rumors and billions of investment dollars in the mobile industry lies a simple concept: mobile devices, which … Read more
Programming Localization You might usually have the luxury of working on a site or application in just a single language, but there will come a time when you’ll have a project that must be done in two or more languages. This is where localization comes in. Localization, often referred to as “l10n” (the 10 represents … Read more
When I started this column, part of my motivation was to write about tools to empower Web designers—techniques they could take away and apply immediately. I’ve written an article on how information architecture can be a natural progression from Web design and two articles containing short lessons to help new information architects be more effective on the job. My … Read more
Former Columnist Birthplace: Baltimore, Maryland, USA Employer: Freelance Title/Role: Web Developer and Consultant Personal Web site/Portfolio: snook.ca Memorable Quotes: “Anything is possible. It’s just a matter of how much time or how much money.” Digital Web Articles Powering the Web with HTTP Published on June 28, 2005 Variable Scope for New Programmers Published on October 17, 2005 … Read more
In developing Web applications, as in life, it is important to understand the basics. With that thought, let’s cover one of the most basic components of the Web: the hypertext transfer protocol, or HTTP. HTTP Why did you just get disconnected? Simply put: HTTP is stateless. Using HTTP, a request is made by the browser … Read more
Nick Finck June 24, 2005 at 8:09 AM Add to Delicious or Add to My Yahoo! So today at Gnomedex Microsoft will be announcing extended support for RSS. Read that carefully, we’re not talking about better support for RSS, we’re talking about an extension to RSS. They want to be able to do e-commerce via RSS. Yes, … Read more
Freelancing for an extra thick wad of greenbacks to pad your back pocket is every Web designer’s dream. Wrangling up your own clients, managing the entire creative process and collecting your due reward is a great accomplishment, and the process can be more fulfilling than the daily grind of a full-time job. Yet, it can … Read more
Columnist Birthplace: Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Employer: American Electric Power (AEP) Title/Role: Senior Interactive Designer/ Creative Director Personal Web site/Portfolio: http://www.ari02.net Memorable Quotes: “When principles of design replicate principles of thought, the act of arranging information becomes an act of insight.” Edward R. Tufte ” Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the … Read more
Nick Finck February 5, 2005 at 11:57 AM Add to Delicious or Add to My Yahoo! It appears that the entire first edition of Information Architecture for the World Wide Web by Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville (AKA “The Polar Bear Book”) is now all online for your reading pleasure right here. I still have a hardcopy of the … Read more
Nick Finck December 15, 2004 at 8:53 PM Rather than posting about my web predictions for 2005 or rambling off a list of products or tools you must have, etc. I have decided that this year I will post a list of things you should have or be doing on your web site or Intranet. … Read more
Nick Finck November 14, 2004 at 6:52 PM Add to Delicious or Add to My Yahoo! Since the browser stats that we posted in October seemed to raise a lot of eyebrows. Well, while checking my browser stats out this month I was pretty shocked at the results. I think you will have to see this to believe … Read more
Former Columnist Birthplace: Amsterdam, the Netherlands Employer: self Title/Role: freelance web developer personal Web site/Portfolio: http://www.quirksmode.org/ Memorable Quotes: “Keep it Simple” Digital Web Articles Forms, usability, and the W3C DOM Published on May 30, 2003 Keep it Simple Published on August 26, 2002 Fluid Thinking Published on October 2, 2002 Client-Centered Design Published on October 23, 2002 Simplicity vs. … Read more
Nick Finck September 3, 2004 at 12:14 PM Add to Delicious or Add to My Yahoo! Ok, so I have done some deep researching about “how many is too many” (as far as links and information bits on a page) and I thought I would share some of this with the Digital Web Magazine readership. Most of … Read more
Looking Back It wasn’t so long ago that dotcom startups, new media, and break-out Internet companies were pushing their name on the general public through various print ads, massive public banners, radio and television spots, as well as ridiculous and outrageous publicity events. All of these advertising methods proved an effective way to get their … Read more