2009

My Year in Cities, 2009

From Amsterdam to Berlin to Cardiff… all the way to Zurich. The same procedure as at least last year.

Published on December 23, 2009, filed under .

SUS: How to Easily Grade Your Site’s Usability

The System Usability Scale (SUS) is a Likert scale-based questionnaire to grade the usability of systems, which John Brooke created back in the 80s. SUS results yield a score between 0 and 100, with 100 indicating “best” usability…

Published on November 27, 2009, filed under .

HTML/CSS Frameworks: Useful, Universal, Usable, Unobtrusive

A high quality HTML/CSS framework needs to have four attributes: useful, universal, usable, and unobtrusive. The four U’s.

Published on November 18, 2009, filed under .

The 3 Ground Rules for Writing HTML

The fundamentals every web developer should know: on respecting syntax and semantics, avoiding presentational and behavioral markup, and leaving out everything that is not absolutely necessary.

Published on October 27, 2009, filed under .

Product of the Environment

Philosophy, live from Zurich airport.

Published on October 23, 2009, filed under .

HTML, CSS, and Web Development Practices: Past, Present, and Future

Articles with a title consisting of more than 15,000 characters don’t need an introduction.

Published on October 15, 2009, filed under .

Website Optimization Measures, Part VII

In this episode: Unquoted attribute value syntax, q elements, Google Friend Connect, feed styling, work/life balance. Served in no time.

Published on October 6, 2009, filed under .

“HTML 5” or “HTML5”?

It’s “HTML5,” not “HTML 5,” declares the most recent post on the WHATWG blog. A seemingly trivial matter, yet it’s inconsistent.

Published on September 11, 2009, filed under .

The True Advantage of CSS

Despite CSS being around for a long, long time, there are still some myths around it. Reading Mike’s post on CSS evangelism again I couldn’t only relate to Mike’s concerns, I also felt reminded of…

Published on September 8, 2009, filed under .

My Top 15 Android Apps

This is a serious post, not one of those “the 1,000 best blah” ones. I think. I’m an Android user for a bit longer than December 2008, and I love my HTC Magic as much as the HTC Dream (aka G1)…

Published on August 12, 2009, filed under .

Diagnostic Styling Reloaded

Eric cultivated the concept of “diagnostic styling,” meaning using CSS to track down problems within HTML documents. I’ve been working with diagnostic style sheets for general quality assurance…

Published on August 1, 2009, filed under .

WDR #3: Optional Tags, Unquoted Attribute Value Syntax

The Web Dev Report, issue #3.

Published on July 29, 2009, filed under .

Microformats, Key Flaws

I like the idea behind microformats, but I’m still not convinced of the way that idea is brought to life. I see three major flaws that appear to make microformats stand in their own way.

Published on July 16, 2009, filed under .

XHTML, RIP

Let’s end this week of morbid posts: The XHTML 2 Working Group is expected to stop their work end of 2009. “Today the Director announces that when the XHTML 2 Working Group charter expires as scheduled at the end of 2009…”

Published on July 4, 2009, filed under .

“handheld” Media Type, RIP?

Website authors don’t use handheld as it’s barely supported; mobile device manufacturers don’t support handheld because it’s barely used. This is kind of the situation I think we’re facing, and it’s a problem.

Published on June 30, 2009, filed under .

Let’s Make The Web Faster

Two weeks after my last outcry regarding slowness on the Web there’s a more proactive response: Google launched code.google.com/speed, subtitled “let’s make the Web faster.”

Published on June 24, 2009, filed under .

Maintainability Guide

Maintainability is important in order to deal with change. Good maintainability means making change easier and more affordable, and avoiding change that is not necessary…

Published on June 17, 2009, filed under .

Punctuation Cheat Sheet

Developing and working with international sites is an interesting challenge, not just because of right-to-left contents. Typographically, there are differences between many locales. To improve punctuation in Google translations I’m using a localization aid…

Published on June 3, 2009, filed under and .

CSS: The Maintenance Issue #1 and How You Can Avoid It

The biggest—as most unnecessary—maintenance issue in web development is, as my recent research shows, style sheet naming and integration. Web developers use inadvisable style sheet names and inadvisable ways to integrate style sheets that force them…

Published on May 27, 2009, filed under .

The Result of Maturity Is Simplicity

“Finally, it doesn’t lack some irony considering that web design gets often enough protected by the credo ‘the end justifies the means’ and pragmatism’s paid homage to. The question is whether you’re talking about unhealthy, sanctimonious pragmatism or—”

Published on May 26, 2009, filed under .

Notes on XML, Elements, and Attributes

Knowledge of the design of markup languages is something I consider beneficial for my job as a web professional. A few notes on XML design, inspired by internal and external documentation.

Published on April 23, 2009, filed under .

Why CSS Needs No Variables

CSS variables and constants are one of the top features web developers are asking for in web development fora, magazines, blogs, and on W3C’s www-style. Following a concept written by Daniel Glazman and Apple’s Dave Hyatt, the WebKit rendering engine…

Published on April 1, 2009, filed under .

The Stupidest Style Sheet Name Ever

The last name you want to pick for your style sheet is “style.css”. Why is “style.css” such a poor CSS file name? The main reason is maintenance…

Published on March 25, 2009, filed under .

CSS: Style the Non-Obvious

One of the qualities you have to acquire as a web developer is to see the non-obvious, and to use that skill to your code’s advantage. Let me explain by two simple examples.

Published on March 18, 2009, filed under .

Presenting… the Google Shoe

They finally arrived, long longed for Google shoes, in this case the “Google j9t” model based on the Adidas ZX700. They’re not for sale but I might share the configuration I used to design them. The “Google j9t” may only be worn for dynamite fishing and important launches.

Published on March 16, 2009, filed under .

If you like what you see here, check out 100 Things I Learned as an Everyday Adventurer for how to try everything, and Journey of J. for what it’s like to travel the world for one and a half years.