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, and it includes everything you need to build great websites…

Post from November 13, 2007, filed under Web 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…

Post from November 10, 2007, filed under Everything Else.

3 Great Learning Strategies for Generalists

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

Post from November 2, 2007, filed under Everything Else.

Qualities of Design: It Works and It’s Durable

Attempting to improve my simplified definition of design—“design reveals”—I identified another important attribute beside functionality, namely durability (or robustness). This means that a design—be it physical or intangible—that works may nonetheless be bad…

Post from October 13, 2007, filed under Art and Design.

User Agent Style Sheets: Basics and Samples

CSS takes care of default formatting of documents through the concept of user agent style sheets, a cornerstone of the cascade. It 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 attached…

Post from September 22, 2007, filed under Web 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…

Post from September 20, 2007, filed under Everything Else.

Microformats Would Benefit from a Pseudo-Namespace

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

Post from September 13, 2007, filed under Web 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 may I point out the article but even extend it with a few additional methods. A quick bonus level, so to speak.

Post from September 10, 2007, filed under Art and 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.”

Post from August 28, 2007, filed under Art and Design.

Are You a Web Designer or a Web Decorator?

This has bothered me for for a long time, it popped up when I thought about art and design, and it had to get out when Roger asked whether we were designers or developers…

Post from August 24, 2007, filed under Web Development and Art and Design.

The 1,000 Dollar Comment Game

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

Post from 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.

Post from July 17, 2007, filed under Everything Else.

HTML: All Elements from HTML 1 to XHTML 2.0

Continuously updated index of all elements defined by the HTML 3.2, HTML 4.01 (covering all document types), XHTML 1.0 Strict, XHTML 1.1, HTML 5, and XHTML 2.0 specifications and drafts.

Post from June 30, 2007, filed under Web Development.

Arguments for the “style” Attribute

The HTML Working Group is currently arguing about dropping or keeping the style attribute. To encourage discussion outside the Working Group, here are the reasons I see to keep @style…

Post from June 27, 2007, filed under Web Development.

A Plea for Better Software: Provide Auto-Save

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

Post from June 25, 2007, filed under Web Development.

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 keeping up with bandwidth. There are still some facts and measures to consider when it comes to efficient websites with a certain ease of use. Here are eight, to be exact.

Post from June 21, 2007, filed under Web 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 only since recently). These worries and the related criticism appear to be valid and legitimate—there are problems with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines…

Post from June 15, 2007, filed under Web Development.

Requirements for Website Prototypes (and Design Systems)

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

Post from June 9, 2007, filed under Web Development and Art and Design.

Me on Czech TV

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

Post from May 14, 2007, filed under Everything Else.

Principles of Art, Design, and Decoration

Much thinking on design lead me to the conclusion that defining the terms art, design, and decoration can be pretty simple. Outlining their principles, at least. Simpler than I thought in school (anyone remembering these “what is art” questions?) …

Post from May 12, 2007, filed under Art and Design.

10 Steps to Create a High-Quality Website

A valuable source of information does not fall from the sky, and it’s impossible to create in a few easy clicks. In setting up a website, one needs goals, content, structure, design, programming, and maintenance. What one needs is expertise…

Post from May 10, 2007, filed under Web Development and Art 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’s more challenging than starting from scratch. It looks like less work at first, but that work’s different.

Post from May 3, 2007, filed under Web Development and Art 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…

Post from April 23, 2007, filed under Art and Design.

.htaccess: 7 Useful Ingredients (Plus Bonus)

Right on, here’ some helpful constituents of any decent .htaccess configuration file, based on my experience with quite a few lightweight projects. It’s a pretty simple collection and you’re surely aware of some of these things…

Post from April 12, 2007, filed under Web Development.

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

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

Post from April 6, 2007, filed under Everything Else.