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lwsimon

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Posts posted by lwsimon

  1. Adult Bailout

    in Open Forum

    Posted

    The worst part is that it will become worse by way of the prolific profiteering, and rate cutting that the designers who deal with more adult content already face. So those nickel and dime proposals, and badly coded sites will pepper the net...

     

    So in the end we all suffer.

     

    Just some additional perspective.

     

    This is a *good* thing for people who are good at what they do.

     

    When badly coded sites become the norm, correct, efficient sites will be set apart in the consumer's eye. Web developers may become a dime a dozen, but good web developers will be worth their weight in gold. Successful sites - those with the money to spend - will be looking for a way to differentiate themselves. With their only face to the customer being their website, a well-run site will be at a premium.

  4. Who do you have to design for?

    in Beginners Web Design

    Posted

    I'm sorry, I have obviously either put this question in the wrong category or worded it wrong, or both!!

     

    What I was meaning to ask was I am planning on redoing my web site, and I want to redo it in CSS. I need to know what would be the best way of doing it for a similar finished look to the way it is now.

     

    I hope I have explained myself a little better.

     

    You should probably start your own topic for a question that complex.

  7. I'm torn, which Custom Search do you prefer?

    in Advanced Web Design

    Posted

    I think there are a couple of things that make it feel disjointed.

     

    First off' date=' is the thick black header. It feels a bit out of place. Second it the scrollbars - that tells me "this is from somewhere else" - I may be the exception to this, though.

     

    Finally, there is about a 200px gap of the right side of your search area.

     

    I don't think its a bad choice, to be honest - I'm just partial to search engines that output into your template. They are more trouble to set up, but feel part of the site because they *are* part of the site.

     

    One more, offtopic question - why is the "male" symbol on your page rotated 45deg clcokwise? I've always wondered that :)[/quote']

     

    Thanks Lyndsy for your thoughts! Ya, I didn't really like the black header either. I just quickly changed it from it's default blue color. Scrollbars - ya I see what you mean. 200px gap, hmmm - I don't have that on mine. But I'm going to keep looking for a free solution that out-puts the results on my page.

     

    The male symbol - I just thought it matched up better (with the female one), in the space they reside in, with it pointing down. I rotated it - just thought it looked better that way. Normally I'd say something immature like, "I don't do things because others say it should be done that way". But that idea directly goes against this whole post. So I guess that's not all-together true then - sometimes others opinions are important to me...

     

    I was just wondering if the rotation of the symbol was a statement of some kind that I wasn't getting, is all. There's nothing at all wrong with it, I still understood what it meant.

     

    If it helps, I'm viewing the site in Chrome 1.0.154.36. I tested in Firefox 3.0.5, and it shows the same -- just a space between the right edge of the text and the scrollbar.

  8. Accessibility in an internal environment

    in Web Accessibility

    Posted

    ADA is the best place.

     

    It is a matter of Discrimination. If they have a anti-discrimination policy then they are breaking it be the sounds of it.

     

    The State of Texas was sued as well as Oracle when three Blind Texas State Employees could not work with Oracle servers due to lack of software to support them in what was part of their job description.

     

    JAN (Job Accommodation Network) is a great place to check out I found a list of Supreme Court Cases. Jan's Accommodation Information by Disability: A to Z gives you an idea of what disabilities can be problematic and leads to links about how to help people with special needs, I used it to inform my boss about my disabilities. Here is JAN for Employers

     

    But yes, they need to be aware that knowingly creating anything that can cause current or future employees not to be able to do the job could be taken to court as discrimination. It is likely cheaper to do it right than try to fight it in court, even Target gave up.

     

    Yes, I see it that way as well. I'm pretty outspoken politically, and oppose any and all regulations requiring businesses to cater to people they don't want to. That said, it doesn't make sense to build an application in a manner that will cause issues for users, when creating it correctly is simply a matter of doing things the right way the first time.

     

    Also, I have HR's backing on this. I'm just looking for a way to diplomatically show the people building the software "this is why you should do it this way." I would rather change their minds than simply have someone tell them the way to do it right.

  9. I'm torn, which Custom Search do you prefer?

    in Advanced Web Design

    Posted

    I think there are a couple of things that make it feel disjointed.

     

    First off, is the thick black header. It feels a bit out of place. Second it the scrollbars - that tells me "this is from somewhere else" - I may be the exception to this, though.

     

    Finally, there is about a 200px gap of the right side of your search area.

     

    I don't think its a bad choice, to be honest - I'm just partial to search engines that output into your template. They are more trouble to set up, but feel part of the site because they *are* part of the site.

     

    One more, offtopic question - why is the "male" symbol on your page rotated 45deg clcokwise? I've always wondered that :)

  10. Accessibility in an internal environment

    in Web Accessibility

    Posted

    What's the pushback from IT? The time (and time == money) modifying things to adjust for accessibility?

     

    Not quite spoken like that, but essentially. I'm being viewed as a picky business partner, because I want them to build things correctly. I need to come back to them with an argument they understand.

     

    So far, the best I've found is a snippet from the ADA website:

     

    An employer is required to make a reasonable accommodation to the known disability of a qualified applicant or employee if it would not impose an "undue hardship" on the operation of the employer's business. Undue hardship is defined as an action requiring significant difficulty or expense when considered in light of factors such as an employer's size, financial resources, and the nature and structure of its operation.

  13. Who do you have to design for?

    in Beginners Web Design

    Posted

    I've run into this in the past, and will nearly flatly refuse to make such changes.

     

    If the customer insists that is what they want, then we have to go back to the contract. As they are asking me to deviate from what my business is known for, I will be unable to use their site as an example of my work. Using the site as an example is a form of compensation, so I must increase my rate significantly to compensate. In addition, I need to build in the time required to remove my tagline from the template footer. So, in short - I'd be happy to do that for you, but its going to cost you an additional $500.

     

    If I did not have the luxury of doing this (i.e., this was my sole source of income), I would make my recommendation, make it clear, in writing, that this decision was a design requirement by the site owner, and quietly remove my contact information.

  15. I'm torn, which Custom Search do you prefer?

    in Advanced Web Design

    Posted

    I would go with a hosted search solution.

     

    I've heard good things about Perlfect, which seems to be pretty commonly used these days, and in active development.

     

    I've used ht://dig in the past, and it works great. In fact, I'm using it now on a 30k page intranet. That said, it seems to be a dead project, so support would be an issue. I believe it also requires that you have command-line access and a root or sudo account, so you can add the indexer to cron. Alternatively, you could index manually when you change something.

  16. Site review

    in Peer-to-Peer Reviews

    Posted

    I don't speak Spanish, so I can't review the content - but the site itself looks nice. Very clean, and professional. I like the layout.

     

    Code is clean, but it has a transitional doctype. The homepage only has 4 errors when validated as strict - I'd clean those up, and change the doctype.

     

    The logo image is a .jpg, when it should be a .gif - that will make it smaller (so it loads faster), and will make it sharper. It has a slight fuzziness to me, but I doubt most people would notice. Some of the images in the page body with rounded corners are slightly "jaggy" - I didn't go into detail, but I'm guessing they're either .gifs, or you're using a rounded corners script. I don't personally like those, but they are common.

     

    Finally, the contact info in the bottom left is... unorthodox. I've never seen anything like it, and didn't know what it was. In Chrome/Safari, it doesn't have a cursor effect, so I didn't know it was clickable at first. I'd ditch the graphic and go with some text instead.

     

    Overall, superb. Anyone who knows me here will tell you that I pick at things, probably to a fault. I would say your site is in the top 25% of sites that I've reviewed on here. Good job!

  17. Making "mouseover" navigation buttons linkable

    in CSS

    Posted

    It worked! Thanks :)

    Some minor cosmetical issues however, and in the meantime I came across another solution which also seems to work:

     

    Home

     

    The above doesn't display the URL when hovering over the button, but I guess I can live with that.

    Your solution worked fine, but it breaks the appearance of the buttons' text as previously set up in the CSS code:

     

    .df_menu_head:hover{
background:        gray url(../images/button_mouseover.gif) no-repeat 0 0;
color:            white;
font-weight:    bold;
}

    (any idea why inserting code here puts a blank line in between each line-break?)

     

    The second issue is that when I click on the button a dotted white rectange surrounds it. I seem to recall having read about this issue somewhere and that there's an easy fix for it, but can't remember how and where. It might also be a browser issue for all I know.

    I was going to ask you what the disadvantage of using the other solution I found is, but I figured that one out easily: it won't let the user click on the button unless Javascript is switched on. At least for the rest of the navigation system it works if Javascript is off (all the buttons are shown expanded, which doesn't look nice, but it allows the user to navigate).

     

    So all in all your solution is probably the most user-friendly one. I'll see if I can reapply the code to sort out those issues.

     

    If you link them like this, you will also shut out any user who doesn't have Javacript. So - no mobile phone users, noone who has NoScript on Firefox, probably no users with severe visual impairment, etc.

     

    Are you prepared to lose up to 10% of your web traffic, depending on whose statistics you believe?

  22. Keeping track of client information

    in Business of Web Design

    Posted

    I just ordered an Eye-Fi and a cheap digicam because of you!

     

    I hate you. :)

     

    :P I'm not totally sure how a digital camera relates to Evernote (I'm assuming you were referring to me :P)... you'll have to explain that one.

     

    Evernote integrates with Eye-Fi, which is a memory card that connects via wifi.

     

    I'll be able to take a photo anywhere in my house, and it will automagically populate into Evernote over my wifi connection. The camera will be dedicated to that use.

     

    Once I get a decent smartphone, I'll use that - I have other uses for the Eye-Fi, and my wife needs a carry-in-her-purse-and-who-cares-if-it-breaks camera. Win-win :)

  23. Keeping track of client information

    in Business of Web Design

    Posted

    How are you guys keeping track of client information? For example' date=' I have a client for whom I set up numerous email accounts and I need to keep track of all the passwords. I was writing everything in my notebook, but it's getting to be too much. I guess I could set up a spreadsheet for each client (if I knew how...I've never worked with spreadsheets). I wish there were an application out there that were set up for this sort of thing.

     

    So, how do you do it?[/quote']

     

    I like Evernote (http://evernote.com/). I use it to keep track of client information, screenshots of sites I like, code snippets, random notes, etc. Extremely useful, and a program I couldn't really live without now. Everything is synced with the server, so I can access it online too, wherever I am (though obviously the usernames/passwords/etc. are stored in such a way that only I can access it).

     

    I just ordered an Eye-Fi and a cheap digicam because of you!

     

    I hate you. :)

  24. Keeping track of client information

    in Business of Web Design

    Posted

    I use text files in a TrueCrypt volume. The volume is only 1MB right now, so I just have a script that syncs it to my personal webserver daily, so I can access it elsewhere.

     

    YMMV on that though, my raw text may be a bit of a nerdy solution. You might try something like MindMap. I'm looking at EverNote now, and its looking pretty dang cool, too :)

  25. JS tutorial??? where???

    in Javascript

    Posted

    I don't believe Stefan offers Javascript video tutorials. Your best bet is probably to do a web search for Javascript Tutorials, or purchase a book on the subject.

     

    That said, it's probably best if you hold off on Javascript for now. Get a solid understanding of HTML and CSS first, and then move to Javascript.

     

    A firm grasp of HTML is essential before going off into Javascript. I would also recommend learning at least some PHP first, as well.

     

    Building a site is done in layers. First you generate the content, either by entering it manually, or having PHP build it dynamicly. Then you mark it up in HTML, so the browser knows how it is structured. Then you use CSS to tell the browser how it is supposed to look. Then you can use Javascript to make things look a bit nicer, or save the user some time. Javascript should never be the only way to accomplish something, as many users have it turned off, or are using a device that does not support it.

     

    Internet tutorials on Javascript are a mixed bag. Many of them are poorly written, teach you how to do things in a non-compliant way, and in some cases, outright lie. If you ever see a JS tutorial talking about "associative arrays", as if they exist, run away!

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