Category Latest

It’s been a while since I last posted to the blog here. A lot of things have happened in my live, both professionally and personally. I’ll cover the professional here.

In June, I started a contract gig at United Airlines as a HTML Developer. Hands-on, indeed. It has been an adventure and a great experience. Although I don’t yet write my own JavaScript, I’ve been engaged in working with JavaScript, calling on the expertise of others. I’ve actually written and worked with JSP more than JavaScript. This, from a front-end guy.

It has, although, placed my on an emotional roller coaster. A good chunk of it relates to my lack of control; being able to handle certain tasks on my own. And there’s the “things” that just drive you nuts (nope, won’t go into it).

When this gig is over, I will be a better web professional. Stay tuned. I promise to be more prolific with my writing soon.

Search engine optimization is an ongoing task that covers a variety of aspects of your website. One item of note is the relevancy of your landing pages. I’m not referring to search engine ranking, but meeting the expectation of site visitors when they first arrive on your site.

Here’s an exercise that can improve your website’s landing pages. The article assumes you have your site hooked up to Google Analytics. If not, stop reading, register the site and install the code.

Read More

Late last year, I wanted to verify thoughts I had on web design and the industry, specifically related to the web design process. I tapped my network at LinkedIn to poll. The results are definitely not scientific, as the questions were polled at different times, with different responders. Consider this just a quick check into the industry, not an all encompassing survey, like A List Apart’s Web Design Survey.

Read More

The topic of using text-decoration versus border-bottom for hyperlinks recently cross my mind. To be honest, I had never consider the effects and impacts of these two different implementations. However, since playing with these concepts, it has become quite an important usability item to me.

Read More

I evangelize about things that I’m passionate about. I’ve evangelized about the web and web design for over ten years. I attend web-related meetups and get really wound up about the topic.

Segue to the networking side of those same meetups. I stumble. Ok, I fall flat on my face. I typically find someone to introduce myself to, but it ends there.

Read More

I really don’t know the official term to describe this method. It’s not new, by all means. However, it’s a powerful method of using CSS code & classes effectively and efficiently.

Multiple CSS Classes

First, you may not be aware that you can use multiple css classes on elements. Example:
<p class="classone classtwo"></p>
Here’s where the power comes in. We can use these multiple classes to separate the structure from the “skin.”

Read More

Just learned of a great new web design podcast.

The Pipeline, hosted by Dan Benjamin, features interviews with leading designers, developers, writers, and entrepreneurs. The first episode featured Jeffrey Zeldman, designer, founder of ALA. I found this to be the best interview with Jeffrey.

Other shows feature interviews with Ryan Carson and Jason Fried, with more interviews to come.

Visit the web site to listen to individual interviews, or subscribe via iTunes.

My typical post center around sharing my knowledge and experience with other web professionals. This particular post will depart from the norm and cover the very important topic of diversity & respect in the web industry, specifically related to gender.

I recently attended the 200th episode of the Boagworld podcast. The podcast celebrated by spanning twelve hours with special guests; experts in their specific web-related field. As usual with the Boagworld podcast, there was plenty of banter, including a few music numbers and bad jokes, along with the valuable, motivating information. If you don’t listen to the podcast, I highly recommend it.

Read More

Early in my web career, say 2000, I was always told to limit what you emphasize. The theory is that the more you emphasize, the less something is emphasized. I remember debating with several content producers on this topic.

Read More

I recently had a bad experience at a local restaurant. So what does that have to do with web design?

My wife & I were told to view the carryout menu online. As we were physically at the restaurant, we attempted to view the menu on the restaurant’s website from our smart phones. That failed, due to the site being created solely in Flash.

Read More

It’s a new year, and it’s time to get back to work.

So why do your websites still read © last year or worse?

Most web site owners forget to update their copyright date. And it’s easy to understand why. For most sites, the footer, where the copyright date usually sits, is below the fold and in small type anyways. But for site visitors, it can communicate the freshness of a website’s content. So it doesn’t hurt to make sure this information is updated.

Read More

We are truly blessed.

No, I’m not getting religious. As a web professional, we here in Chicago are truly bless.

Read More

I just concluded a month long, onsite project for a mid-to-large sized company. The project was to consolidate several client-side applications into one web-based application for corporate & field employees. It was personally rewarding on several levels (besides financial). First, got to work with a company that has a seemingly great culture of teamwork and respect, of which I truly appreciate. I also had the opportunity to do some things graphically that I had not focused on before. Now don’t picture anything life changing here, just plenty of expanding rounded corner boxes, a logo, and an animated graphic (.gif) designed in Illustrator that involved 2-3D images. The final task was to create styles that would be implemented on an ASP.NET-based application leveraging ASP components & extensions. The latter proved to be an unexpectedly difficult challenge.

Read More

Well, the planets all lined up again. Which meant, my intent to redesign my personal website had to be placed on hold. Yet, moving off of a web host and getting things updated took precedence. So with that, here’s the latest website redesign.

It’s based on the wpFolio WordPress theme, with just a few customizations. I need to make more, but it’ll have to wait until time allows.

Stay tuned, more fun on the way.

My previous blog posts will remain on the WordPress.com platform for historical purposes.

View past blog posts (pre-Oct. 25, 2009)…