Accessibility from the Ground Up

This accessibility thing sure is catching on. And it’s ready for prime time. Yes, Web accessibility is growing up.

May, Matt. Digital Web Magazine (2005). Design>Web Design>Accessibility

Accountability of Accessibility and Usability

Focus on your users, all of them. Learn from mistakes currently made on the Web. If a user can't fill out a form, they can't buy anything from your site. People turned away by unusable sites will probably try a competitor's site. Don't be the site that turned people away. Make your Web site as usable and accessible as possible. It's the business savvy thing to do. It's the right thing to do. If you don't, someone just might force you legally to do it or threaten to sue.

Pavka, Anitra. Digital Web Magazine (2002). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Usability

Adding Value through Search Engine Optimization

The easiest way to increase your added value is to do small things that have a large positive return for the company. If you’re looking to find something easy to do that has a large positive impact on your value, look no further than thinking about search engines and how your portion of a Web site can be optimized for them.

K'necht, Alan. Digital Web Magazine (2003). Design>Web Design>Search>Search Engine Optimization

The Age of Information Architecture

For the most part, information architects are communicators and strategists. While others merely tolerated the mishmash of responsibilities, they relished it. Designers often put up with having to write HTML but jumped at the chance to 'just do design.' Programmers were forced to meet with clients and work on strategy, but all along probably wanted to just write code. When these two ends of the spectrum split off, the empty middle was a perfect place to be. At the same time, there was an increased (but still hidden) need for information architecture. As the average web project process matured, more problems arose. Formal documentation was needed, business objectives were taking on increased importance, and, as the size increased exponentially, information organization became a much more important role. (The fact that this evolution took place during the 'dot.com fallout' is not insignificant, as this led to the placement of web projects under the same microscope as other business endeavors.) Some of these positions could be filled by existing disciplines; project managers, business analysts, and usability specialists transitioned from 'traditional' work and were added to web teams. Still, there was something missing. The connection between 'the big picture' (business strategy, high-level user tasks, basic structural architecture) and the nitty-gritty (categorization, labeling, bottom-up information hierarchies) often wasn't being made. This is where information architects fit in.

Lash, Jeff. Digital Web Magazine (2002). Articles>Information Design>Usability

Alien Typography

Many of the principles that the print typographer has learned and holds sacred, are no longer true when the medium is a neon sign, a television title sequence or a Web page. Text that is not printed on paper takes them into alien territory.

Gillespie, Joe. Digital Web Magazine (2001). Design>Typography>Online

Better Web Forms: Redesigning eBay's Registration

Even the smallest adjustments to a page's design, layout, and content can make a major improvement in the overall quality of the page. Taking a fresh look at sections of a site that have been ignored for a while can give you an entirely new perspective. By making small incremental changes and testing them against real world scenarios, we can more easily focus on continuous improvement without going back to square one every time.

Dimon, Garrett. Digital Web Magazine (2007). Design>Web Design>Forms>E Commerce

Building a Bulletproof Contact Form with PHP

The humble contact form: It's the cornerstone of nearly every website, from the humble personal blog right up to the corporate megasite--and a billion small business sites in-between. In the early years of operating a website, we were happy to put our shiny new email address out there for anyone to mailto, but the rise of the spammer has made us justifiably wary of publicizing our contact details--enter the contact form.

Pennell, Matthew. Digital Web Magazine (2007). Design>Web Design>Forms>PHP

Building with Rusted Nails

We can compare web design and development to the process of building a house or a structure. The development of every web site has a process that these craftsmen must follow in order to achieve the finished structure. These phases are generalized and somewhat vague at times, while some may even be grouped or varied in name, but they are all essential steps in each web construction.

Finck, Nick and Peter Fielding. Digital Web Magazine (2001). Design>Web Design>Workflow

The Care of Content: A Red-Pen-Wielder's Perspective

What is the world (wide web) coming to when even us blue-haired English teachers have something to say about the Net? After all, we're supposed to be consumed with the past--a time long before the binary code when writers still used quills, and men, unfortunately, wore tights. (Sorry for the visual.) Well, in defense of red-pen-wielders everywhere, I have to say that just ain't so. Technology, particularly that which furthers education, is our concern. And the Internet (yes, I just started a sentence with the world 'and') is a source of great conflict. On the one hand, it is a storehouse from which vast amounts of knowledge may be retrieved--it provides information that may otherwise be inaccessible. On the other hand, because of its nature as an abyss, it's an illimitable source for the plagiarist. So, ironically, something that should catalyze learning is actually, in a way, simply making it easier for students not to learn.

Blum, Daphne. Digital Web Magazine (2000). Articles>Education>Information Design

Client Side Load Balancing for Web 2.0 Applications

Load balancing increases the reliability of a web site by routing requests to other servers in the cluster when one of the servers is too busy or fails. There are many techniques for achieving load balancing. There is an approach to load balancing modern web applications that does not require any load-balancing hardware, and handles failure of servers more gracefully than round-robin DNS.

Zhu, Lei. Digital Web Magazine (2007). Design>Web Design

Collecting for Design

The habit of collecting, analyzing, designing, and innovating in this fashion is making me a more systematic and disciplined web designer. Through analyzing the best design patterns and techniques used by today's web design community, I'm able to more critically assess my own designs, and create new solutions to common interface challenges.

Smith, Matthew. Digital Web Magazine (2007). Design>Web Design>Methods

Composition and Usability

Since the advent of the Web, we've seen a myriad of design schemas evolve--from the simple navigation/content style of site to the cluttered portal. And as this evolution has progressed, so did the war between UI designers and usability experts. On one side, there are usability experts who want to make every website look exactly like Yahoo because users know Yahoo and so they will automatically know how to use the site. On the other side, there are UI designers who want to design entire sites in Flash and Shockwave just because it's cool. Overly dramatic? Well, yes, maybe a little--but it's not entirely a false analysis. Many UI designers that work with usability folk complain that their creativity is hampered, whereas many usability gurus complain that designers are confusing a site's user with their visual semantics. But are the goals of UI designers and the usability folk that far apart?

Cecil, Richard F. Digital Web Magazine (2000). Articles>Usability>Web Design>Semantic

The Delicate Art of (Web) Design Critique

Since I tend to hang around on various web-related mailing lists, I often see numerous requests for design critiques. Increasingly, this leads me to wonder about the process of critiquing other people's design. It's quite one thing to criticize someone's code; one can argue the merits or not of being a stickler about standards compliancy, or using CSS, or whatever. But design is more personal than writing code. (Writing on its own is also very personal, but that's not the topic here.) How do you constructively critique someone's work without being taken the wrong way? How do you accept criticism without feeling hurt or angry? Here are just a few ideas, gathered from observations and comments from others.

Itoh, Makiko. Digital Web Magazine (2000). Design>Web Design>Graphic Design>Assessment

Design for the Sofa

On my flight from Los Angeles to Hamburg I read in the Zeit, a well established German newspaper, that a major TV channel now from time to time displays a small BMW Z3 racing over the screen regardless of the underlying program or commercial. Despite the toy-like character of this idea, being part of a national advertising campaign, it can easily be identified as a 'TV-banner.' Very alien in the first place, not only because of the potential random competitive conflicts, it illustrates to what extent the perception of television has changed, and not only in the US. Taking a closer look at broadcast design one can see the influence of the web aesthetics in many places and can already assume the layer that will be used for graphics on the surface of the screen. Convergence happens not only on a technological level but also in terms of appearance. The idea that the mass-medium broadcast fuses with the web-connected personal computer is commonly referred to as convergence, and is becoming widespread.

Jenett, Daniel. Digital Web Magazine (2000). Design>Information Design>Web Design

Designing for Search Engines and Stars

Great search engine placement doesn't require you to sacrifice appealing design. While 'content is king' for high search engine rankings as well as overall site popularity, your imagination and creativity with designs can still reach for the stars. This tutorial provides a broad overview of ideal approaches, what can still work, and what you ought to avoid if search engine rankings are important. There are times when we forego the ideal for various reasons, so I'll try to steer you around the roadblocks on the way regarding graphics, Flash, frames, splash pages, and other potential perils. At the end of the tutorial are some resources for further exploration, too.

Kaiser, Shirley E. Digital Web Magazine (2002). Design>Web Design>Search>Search Engine Optimization

Digital Fashion

Design is the visual expression of thoughts and feelings, and combines rational and emotional conditions. In digital media the focus is shifted to functionality, primarily because the development is rapid and it takes a lot just to understand the options. This is as truer for users as it is true for designers. Once this phase is over and the standards are set, there will be a growing demand for more refined design solutions: projects that communicate and not just deliver information. Rationality rules at the surface, anything that turns the focus of the users awareness to something specific happens earlier and the motivation comes from the deeper levels of the soul. The whole fuzzy composition is very influential before the content is clearly rendered, if it ever gets clear at all; Sites are in the same situation as billboards, they have to grab the attention of the visitor in the first moment without having him to think about something specific. In a more and more competitive environment there is always an

Jenett, Daniel. Digital Web Magazine (1999). Design>Graphic Design>Aesthetics>Emotions

e-Tailer or e-Failure

I am personally calling this the year of the e-Tailer. I have seen more hype in e-commerce this year than in any other holiday season in the past including the year the almighty Amazon.com launched its e-commerce site. I consider myself an avid web user and I know what it takes to develop a full-fledged e-commerce site because I have been there in the trenches developing some of those sites in time for the holiday season. I have seen battles won and lost in as few as a week's time. Nothing turns me off more than a poorly constructed e-commerce site and this year, the numbers seem to be taking a turn for the worse.

Finck, Nick. Digital Web Magazine (1999). Articles>Usability>Web Design

Fast Cars, Fast Food, Fast Access

I tend to sit in my own corner and do what I enjoy doing without too much concern with the latest fad, style or trend. Yet, every so often I do look around the web to see what others are doing, and what, if any, benefit this might have for me. So it was that I came to pick up a copy of 'Flash Web Design, the art of motion graphics' by Hillman Curtis. On page 01:08, Mr. Curtis talks briefly about Multitasking Attention Deficit (M.A.D.), and that web motion designers need to be aware of it. The bottom line was, because of M.A.D. you need to communicate your message in 10 seconds or less.

Torrence, Parker. Digital Web Magazine (2000). Design>Information Design>Web Design

Flash Player 9: Bringing HD Flash Video to the Web

Moving from High Definition (HD) to FLV means a loss of quality. It is similar to moving a Photoshop high-resolution TIFF image to the JPG format--the loss in quality can't be avoided.

Green, Tom. Digital Web Magazine (2007). Design>Web Design>Multimedia>High Definition

Flash Usability

Those succeeding with Flash usually apply it as an element and mix it with other technologies or images such as streaming audio and video, GIF, JPG, DHTML, and CGI to name a few. Determine what elements you need on your site and study the strengths and weaknesses of each technology to determine which option would work best for each element. You're in good shape if you can use Flash without sacrificing accessibility, readability, navigability, usability, searchability, and ability to update.

Evans, Meryl K. Digital Web Magazine (2002). Design>Accessibility>Multimedia>Web Design

Form vs. Function: Finding the Balance

In 1896, architect Louis Henri Sullivan said, 'Form ever follows function.' His quote implies not so much the importance of function over form, but rather that the two are intricately intertwined and inseparable. The same idea can be applied to any type of design, be it industrial, web, print or product. The problem is that most designers fail to draw from Sullivan's words. We have all seen them: sites that either lack any evidence of form or fail miserably when it comes to function. I'm not just talking about those cute personal sites found on many free web-hosting sites--extravagant corporate sites are often just as guilty as any of them. While both types of sites have their place on the web, it is important to understand where each of them have failed and why.

Finck, Nick. Digital Web Magazine (1999). Design>Graphic Design

Review: High Performance Web Sites

Implement these techniques and your sites will be faster. They won't be just a little zippier--we're talking orders of magnitude here.

Pennell, Matthew. Digital Web Magazine (2007). Articles>Reviews>Web Design

How to Write Effective Mailing List Email

With every passing day, increasing numbers of people are becoming web designers. One of the main forums for communication among web designers, both beginners and experts alike, is the mailing list. Most mailing lists generate a substantial stream of useful, information-laden email, and the good ones enjoy a healthy gift economy. I'm subscribed to a small handful of web-related discussion lists, and the busier ones average 20-40 messages per day. My favorite list contains more useful information in a month's worth of postings than any best selling web design book. Even when I'm not asking or answering a question, I can follow fascinating threads, picking up useful tidbits, and build rich archives of searchable information. When I ask a question, no less than two or three expert answers will appear within a few hours. The people that read lists are often successful designers and busy experts in our field. Yet even the best lists have their share of problems. I could pontificate all day on the nature of interpe

Haughey, Matthew. Digital Web Magazine (1999). Articles>Writing>Online

The Human Experience

There has been a lot of talk about technology and human experience. Many people believe that technology is bad in the sense that it is making us more and more detached from humanity. The web has much to do with technology. Take cinema for example: films were once genuinely hand crafted and dealt with humanity. Today many films are all technology and deal almost entirely with technology.

Fox, Justin. Digital Web Magazine (2000). Articles>Human Computer Interaction>Technology

In Defense of Search

Jared Spool loves to slander search. He says 'searching stinks.' He proclaims it's 'worse than nothing.' He exhorts web designers to 'keep users from using search.' And he backs up these defamatory accusations with $3,000,000 worth of user research data. Is Jared right? Do his research results tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Is browsing better than searching? No, no, and no!

Morville, Peter. Digital Web Magazine (2002). Design>Web Design>Search