Super Ginormous

Category: Web Development

Posts related to web design and development.

  • IE8 is here.

    Windows Internet Explorer 8 is here. This is the first launch of IE that I’ve been excited about in a long time. Why? With full support for CSS 2.1, it’s now a standards-compliant browser. (It also supports CSS 3.0 in a limited capacity.) Sure, it’s now one more browser to account for, but if your site works properly in newer versions Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Opera, etc… chances are it will work in IE8. If you’re unsure of how to fix any issues your site might have in Internet Explorer 8, but it works fine in previous versions, forcing legacy rendering is as easy as adding a meta tag:

    [html]

    [/html]

    OR, on a per-site basis, add the HTTP header: X-UA-Compatible: IE=EmulateIE7

    For more information, please see: Standards by Default: What Does it Mean?

  • Target Safari with CSS

    I recently ran across an issue with relative positioning in Safari. Luckily for me (and you), Dustin Brewer found a way to get Safari to behave:

    [css]
    @media screen and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio:0) {
         /* Add your Safari-specific styles here. */
    }
    [/css]

  • Microformats

    Last night I had the opportunity to talk about Microformats at the November RefreshAugusta meeting. To support the slides, I created a microsite with links to all of the sites mentioned in the slides. Hopefully you’ll find this useful. I’m also making the slides available for you to reuse/repurpose/remix under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License:

  • BaconTwits

    So, a couple of weeks ago Phil and I were joking around about bacon. (It’s a pretty common occurrence these days.) We came up with the idea of  raising money for a .bacon TLD (e.g. iaccidentallythewhole.bacon). Out of nowhere he suggests: twitterbacon.com. I thought it was brilliant. I got the domain. I started working on a site by myself, but couldn’t quite get it the way I wanted (or find the time to devote to doing it). So, I asked Emily Lewis and Jonathan Delaigle for their help. I came up with a design. Emily got the design implemented. Jonathan made it work.

    Without further adieu: bacontwits.com

    At some point in the near future, it’s our goal to package the site up into something others can take and build their own mashups from. Once we’re ready to release, I’ll make an announcement here, on BaconTwits and on Twitter.

    Enjoy!

  • International Browser Upgrade Day

    Let’s face it: as designers and developers, dealing with antiquated browsers sucks. That’s why I’m calling for an International Browser Upgrade Day. It doesn’t matter when we do it, we just need to do it.

    It’s official: August 27, 2009 will be International Browser Upgrade Day. and are assisting me in getting a site off the ground for it. More info will be made available soon. Mark your calendars.

    If each of us could convince at least one person in our (personal and/or professional) life to upgrade, imagine what we could do to accelerate the demise of browsers like Internet Explorer 6.

    We can do this.

  • Microformats

    If you’re interested in Microformats, do yourself a favor and head over to my friend Emily Lewis’ site A Blog Not Limited. I’ve been played with Microformats for a while, but these informative articles pushed me over the edge:

    • Getting Semantic With Microformats, Part 1:
    • Getting Semantic With Microformats, Part 2:
    • Getting Semantic With Microformats, Part 3:
    • Getting Semantic With Microformats, Part 4:
    • Getting Semantic With Microformats, Part 5:
    • Getting Semantic With Microformats, Part 6: hResume (coming soon!)

    I should also note that my site now incorporates hCard, hCalendar and hAtom. Microformats FTW!

  • WJS08: Managing Your (Personal) Brand

    These are notes I took during Brian Oberkirch‘s session on “Managing Your (Personal) Brand” at the 2008 Webmaster Jam Session on 3 Oct 2008. (more…)

  • Webmaster Jam Session 08 Wrapup

    I’ll be posting notes from Friday and Saturday within the next day or so. Wi-fi was spotty at times due to the number of devices trying to connect to the Loudermilk network, so I stayed unplugged for a majority of the conference. (It wasn’t critical for me to be on.)

    I’m really glad my coworkers were able to come. Josh and Phil walked away feeling more empowered and inspired to do better work. Jeff walked away with a greater understanding of what it is we designers do. Next year, I hope PowerServe can become more involved in the conference. We had fun with all of the folks who came out to hang with us at Fandangles on Friday night.

    I had a GREAT time and met lots of great folks, and made a lot of new friends. When the Webmaster Jam comes rolling around in 2009, I will definitely be there in some capacity.

    I’m not sure what the next conference I’ll be going to will be. I’m looking at the Future of Web Apps (FOWA) in Miami FL in February and South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) in March.

  • WJS08: Going Social with Chris Perry

    I’ll make more sense of these notes later:

    • People are trying to slap social stickers onto everything.
    • We need to blog. We need video. We need social networks.
    • If you’re not thinking about the whole picture, you’re just slapping stickers on your package.
    • Social media:wikipedia
    • Social Media is about people connecting.
    • Social Media represents huge collision of MSM change and social uprising enabled through new technologies
    • Pre-Filter > Post-Filter. Let the market decide what is important. Press becomes multi-media. And social media. Ex: BusinessWeek Outside the media establishment comes an explosion of sources. The formats have changed. Now blogs, video sites. Appealing content is brought to the forefront. Explosion of social networking. Word of mouth. Go from one source of content > through media ==> social platforms. Better news, advice from us versus brands.
    • Net effect: Open season on brand reputation.
    • Independent sites CAN rise to the forefront and conflict with brand objectives of companies.
    • Create a new architecturethat’s in sync with customer realties: a social architecture.
    • Readdress fundamental questions:
      • Business is socialising with purpose.
      • Don’t focus on stickers. Focus on IDEAS that stick and can be spread.
      • Politics and cause-related marketing offer a look into how this works today.
    • Example: Stand Up to Cancer.
      • Collab between top three networks, A-list celebs and much much more.
      • Conversation peaked at announcement. Tailed off afterwards.
      • Virtual standup: get ppl involved online. Create personalized call.
      • Find right points of entry to social network.
      • Based on ideas not platforms.
      • Make ppl part of the content.
      • Get ppl to participate. If they are part of the content, they will talk about the cause.
      • Triggered widespread conversation.
      • Personal relationships.
      • Twitter was a HUGE factor in spreading info on the cause.
      • Efforts trigger massive amount of momentum.
      • Need to have a design program.
      • Social OUTRANKS CELEBRITY.
      • Social media played key role in raising $100m for the goal.
    • Politics and online advocacy – Example: Barack Obama Campaign
      • Represents the tv station of tomorrow.
      • Moving from sound bites to sound blasts.
      • “YouBama: The Citizen Generated Campaign”
      • 24×7 social media that competes with and serves the press.
      • Channels fueled by new ideas and new contributors (Fact check video responses)
      • Twitter text updates. Media stunt. 62K followers. VP Announcement.
      • End game: mobilizing supporters, donations and votes. Obama “rocked the vote”
    • Rethink how you package your goods.
    • Social movement represents core v. fringe business.
    • Not just about the platforms. It’s about a new way of working.
    • Let people do the talking for you.

  • Death to IE6?

    Is the decision to end support Internet Explorer 6 premature or long overdue?

    There is no doubt that Internet Explorer 6 is the bane of our – web designers and developers – existence. Nathan Smith came up with ten great reasons in “Time to Drop IE6”. Dan Rubin offered “The Final Word on IE6”. 37signals, effective 10.1.2008, is phasing out IE6 support in its products. They all offer good reasons to end support for IE6. But we cannot ignore the reality of IE6: usage hovers around 25-30% as of 9.08 (1,2).

    Can we truly ignore IE6? Could you afford to turn away 1/4-1/3 of the customers that walk through your door? I’m guessing most clients would say no.

    So where does that leave us? Are we destined to support IE6 for years and years to come? I seriously hope not, but it all depends on your audience. If your site is catering to people most likely to be using modern browsers like Firefox 3, Safari, Opera, Camino, Chrome, IE7/8, etc., then it probably doesn’t matter if your site supports IE6. If your site trends towards a lot of IE6 users, well… you’re obviously going to have to support that browser until usage drops below a tolerable level. At which point, it would then be wise to make a decision on whether to support it any longer. (We have these same conversations regarding minimum browser resolutions to target.) The client and the client’s audience and what they are using on your site is what dictates what you should be designed for.

    The idea of using ‘web standards’ isn’t so that designers can make kick ass designs that only the most bleeding edge browsers can render. Rather they’re more about making content viewable in any browser, regardless of its age.

    The logical decision, then, is to use progressive enhancement in designs. If a site visitor is still using IE6, they should be able to see, at the very least, a “low-fi” version of your site. If there are only minor issues preventing a layout from rendering properly in IE6, take the time to write some conditional CSS targeting the browser, and fix it.

    The challenge with progressive enhancement lies in educating a client that there will be variations in the design presented to site visitors. For some clients, variations are unacceptable. For others, they’re likely not going to care.

    Maybe by March 2009 the browser share will change radically, and IE6 usage will drop to record lows. But I’m staying realistic. I might not like IE6 or the extra work it requires to support it, but it’s too early to start ignoring it completely.

    Footnotes:

    1. w3schools – Browser Statistics
    2. w3Counter – Global Web Stats