Choke Web Development Framework 1.0

After years of thorough research I may finally present the Choke Web Development Framework 1.0, “Choke” or “CWDF” in short. Choke is an easy-to-use, easy-to-maintain, and future-proof platform for web design and development…

Published on November 13, 2007, filed under Development.

Dark Days for Germany

Yesterday, on the historically significant November 9, the German government approved a law that requires telecommunications providers to retain all customer communication data for a period of six months, and allows authorities to gain access to stored communications…

Published on November 10, 2007, filed under Everything Else.

3 Great Learning Strategies for Generalists

“Lifelong learning” sounds like some sort of buzzword, but it’s necessary to develop and progress, and awesome to cultivate. Mistakes are great, too, as they are accelerating the learning process, and this needs to be kept in mind…

Published on November 2, 2007, filed under Everything Else.

Qualities of Design: It Works and It’s Durable

Attempting to improve my simplified definition of design I’d like to point out another important attribute beside functionality, namely durability (or robustness). This means that a design that works may nonetheless be bad if…

Published on October 13, 2007, filed under Design.

User Agent Style Sheets: Basics and Samples

CSS manages the default formatting of documents through user agent style sheets, a cornerstone of the cascade. This means that a web browser doesn’t just present a line of text when it’s fed with an HTML document that has no styling information, but…

Published on September 22, 2007, filed under Development.

Cost of Solution vs. Cost of Problem

Problems cost money, and problems require solutions that also cost money. This is known in all industries, but in many cases, there is focus on only one side: What does the solution of the problem cost? This ignores the other side, the cost of the problem.

Published on September 20, 2007, filed under Everything Else.

Microformats Would Benefit From a Namespace

Microformats become more and more popular, accelerated by the questionable success of the nofollow microformat. However, those of them that mandate class names cause problems that could be avoided by using a “pseudo-namespace.”

Published on September 13, 2007, filed under Development.

7 Additional Ways to Focus on Users

Smashing Magazine just published my article on “20 (Alternate) Ways to Focus on Users,” and not only do I like to point to the article, I also like to extend it. A quick bonus level, so to speak.

Published on September 10, 2007, filed under Design.

The Art of Dancing in 1910 and Narratives of Time and Space

Information design time travel with several photos of Zorn’s ancient “Grammar of the Art of Dancing.” Featuring craftsmanship, small multiples, and, surprise, “narratives of time and space.”

Published on August 28, 2007, filed under Design.

Are You a Web Designer or a Web Decorator?

This has bothered me for for a long time. The topic popped up when I thought about art and design, and it had to be covered when Roger asked whether we were designers or developers—

Published on August 24, 2007, filed under Development and Design.

The 1,000 Dollar Comment Game

Finally, the remake of the infamous comment game. Easy money and link love.

Published on July 28, 2007, filed under Everything Else.

Interview: Me on Blogs and Blogging

Bruce C. Brown interviewed me for his forthcoming book, The Secret Power of Blogging.

Published on July 17, 2007, filed under Everything Else.

HTML: All Elements From HTML 1 to XHTML 2.0

A continuously updated index of all elements defined by the major HTML specifications.

Published on June 30, 2007, filed under Development.

Arguments for the “style” Attribute

The HTML Working Group is currently arguing whether to drop the style attribute. To encourage discussion outside the Working Group, here are the reasons I see to keep @style.

Published on June 27, 2007, filed under Development.

A Plea for Better Software: Provide Auto-Save

So far, applications rarely automatically and periodically save users’ work. They therefore fail to prevent unnecessary, frustrating, expensive loss of work and information. Since this isn’t just a but a critical problem, we need to encourage application developers and owners…

Published on June 25, 2007, filed under Development and Everything Else.

Load Time, the UX Factor: Facts and Measures

Load time of websites seems to remain our industry’s stepchild, but the vision is real-time surfing, not spending bandwidth improvements. There are still some facts and measures to consider when it comes to fast websites with a certain ease of use. Here are eight, to be exact.

Published on June 21, 2007, filed under Development.

WCAG, HTML, and CSS: Maybe the Standards Need a Break

The web development community worries about the development of WCAG, HTML, and CSS (about the latter since recently). These worries and the related criticism appear valid and legitimate, and there are things we could do.

Published on June 15, 2007, filed under Development.

Requirements for Website Prototypes (and Design Systems)

Best practices for website prototypes based on HTML, CSS, and DOM scripting, covering essential requirements from accessibility to universality, and including definitions, pros, and contras. Compiled from a recent presentation.

Published on June 9, 2007, filed under Development and Design.

Me on Czech TV

Czech Nova TV phone-interviewed me about The World’s Highest Website!

Published on May 14, 2007, filed under Everything Else.

Principles of Art, Design, and Decoration

Much thinking about design has led me to the conclusion that defining the terms art, design, and decoration can be pretty simple. Outlining their principles, at least.

Published on May 12, 2007, filed under Design.

10 Steps to Create a High-Quality Website

A quality website doesn’t fall from the sky, and it’s impossible to create in a few fast clicks. When setting up a website, one needs goals, content, structure, design, programming, and maintenance. What one needs is…

Published on May 10, 2007, filed under Development and Design.

On Updating a Book (Webdesign mit CSS, 2nd Edition)

I’m still working on the second edition of Webdesign mit CSS. And I can say: I like this work, though updating a book is more challenging than starting from scratch. It looks like less work at first, but that work is different.

Published on May 3, 2007, filed under Development and Design.

Revitalizing SUS, the System Usability Scale

About 20 years ago, John Brooke published the concept of a “System Usability Scale,” a “reliable, low-cost usability scale that can be used for global assessments of systems usability.” SUS is based on a Likert-scale questionnaire…

Published on April 23, 2007, filed under Design.

.htaccess: 7 Useful Ingredients (Plus Bonus)

This article features useful directives for .htaccess configuration files, based on my experience with a number of lightweight projects. It’s a pretty simple collection and you may be aware of some of these things…

Published on April 12, 2007, filed under Development.

The Problem With Link Blogs (Plus Five Link Blogs That Rock)

Link blogs suck because they don’t provide content. With few exceptions, link blogs suck because they jump on the back of people who actually create content. Link blogs nonetheless play an important role in the hypertext ecosystem…

Published on April 6, 2007, filed under Everything Else.