Archived posts, October 2005

Search Engine Ranking Factors

A comprehensive list of factors that affect the search engine ranking of a site.

Posted on October 1, 2005 in Quicklinks, Search Engine Optimisation

Keep website navigation simple

Website navigation is a tool that should be kept simple to enable visitors to use it properly.

Posted on October 1, 2005 in Accessibility, Quicklinks, Usability

People stick to default values

Default values are used far more often than their relevance suggests.

Posted on October 1, 2005 in Quicklinks, Usability

Accessibility Challenges Survey

Got a specific accessibility-related challenge that you’d like to tell others about?

Posted on October 2, 2005 in Accessibility, Quicklinks

Kaffesnobben: My coffee blog

A blog about coffee shops, books, machines, beans and pretty much anything related to espresso-based coffee.

Posted on October 3, 2005 in Site news

Standards for Web Standards wanted

A call for a unified way of promoting web standards.

Posted on October 4, 2005 in Quicklinks, Web Standards

Dreamweaver and web standards

A book about web standards, semantics, and accessibility for Dreamweaver users.

Posted on October 4, 2005 in Accessibility, Quicklinks, Web Standards

Top ten web design mistakes, 2005 edition

Jakob Nielsen’s list of the worst web design stupidities that make the web harder to use in 2005.

Posted on October 5, 2005 in Usability

PageRank Explained

An article on the basics of Google’s PageRank system.

Posted on October 6, 2005 in Quicklinks, Search Engine Optimisation

Calculating CSS 2.1 selector specificity

Two different explanations of how to calculate the specificity of selectors in CSS 2.1.

Posted on October 8, 2005 in Quicklinks

Maintaining CSS files

How can we prevent stylesheet files from becoming too difficult and time-consuming to maintain?

Posted on October 9, 2005 in CSS, Quicklinks

CSS 2.1 selectors, Part 2

Part 2 of 3 in a series of articles explaining the selectors available in CSS 2.1.

Posted on October 10, 2005 in CSS

Form accessibility and usability

Examples of techniques that improve usability and accessibility of web forms.

Posted on October 10, 2005 in Accessibility, CSS, Quicklinks, Usability

Are invalid attributes valid?

A discussion on whether invalid HTML attributes may be acceptable under some circumstances.

Posted on October 11, 2005 in Quicklinks, Web Standards

Public sector websites and web standards

Mass validation of public sector websites in the United States and Sweden. The result, as expected, is not good.

Posted on October 12, 2005 in Quicklinks, Web Standards

Safari nightly builds

Nightlies of WebKit/Safari are now available as binary downloads straight from Apple.

Posted on October 13, 2005 in Browsers, Quicklinks

Stop using CSS hacks now

Still using CSS hacks for Internet Explorer? Kick the habit now or you’ll be sorry.

Posted on October 13, 2005 in Browsers, CSS, Quicklinks

Popup-free form help

How to provide help for fields in web forms without using popup windows.

Posted on October 15, 2005 in Accessibility, JavaScript, Quicklinks, Usability

Overflow problems in Internet Explorer

Dissection of bugs that can occur with oversized content in Internet Explorer for Windows.

Posted on October 16, 2005 in Browsers, CSS, Quicklinks

Fixing the dirify function in Movable Type

A solution to the buggy character substitution that Movable Type performs when converting post titles to URL fragments.

Posted on October 17, 2005 in Movable Type

Dagens recept – a food blog

My latest side project is a food blog with daily recipes.

Posted on October 17, 2005 in Quicklinks

Want to work with me?

We have a job opening for a web standards and accessibility savvy web developer/designer.

Posted on October 18, 2005 in Quicklinks, Web General

Are HTML and CSS easy?

HTML and CSS are not as easy as some people like to think. They are easy to get started with, but very difficult to master.

Posted on October 18, 2005 in (X)HTML, CSS, Web Standards

Top ten weblog usability blunders

Usability problems are not only found on commercial websites - blogs can also be difficult to use.

Posted on October 19, 2005 in Quicklinks, Usability

Why is Firefox adoption slowing down?

Has Firefox spread as far as it is going to spread? If so, why, and does it matter?

Posted on October 19, 2005 in Browsers, Quicklinks

Apple updates PowerBook and Power Mac G5 models

Higher resolution displays, longer battery life, Quad-core CPUs, new PCI architecture.

Posted on October 19, 2005 in Mac, Quicklinks

About using CSS hacks

Whether you are using CSS hacks or conditional comments, keep an eye on what happens when IE7 is released.

Posted on October 20, 2005 in Browsers, CSS, Quicklinks

Google, SEO and using CSS to hide text

If you use CSS to hide text for legitimate reasons like increasing accessibility or usability, make sure that it cannot be mistaken for spam.

Posted on October 21, 2005 in CSS, Search Engine Optimisation

Flock: a new web browser

Yet another web browser. Flock is based on Mozilla and has some new and interesting features.

Posted on October 21, 2005 in Browsers, Quicklinks

Mac users clinging to Internet Explorer

How can we help Mac OS X users understand that there are many better web browsers available?

Posted on October 23, 2005 in Browsers, Mac, Quicklinks

Character references in HTML and XML

Everything you need to know about numeric character references and character entity references in HTML and XML.

Posted on October 23, 2005 in Quicklinks

CSS 2.1 selectors, Part 3

Part 3 of 3 in a series of articles explaining the selectors available in CSS 2.1.

Posted on October 24, 2005 in CSS

Colour blindness simulator for Mac OS X

A very handy little application that provides a real-time simulation of various types of colour blindness.

Posted on October 25, 2005 in Accessibility, Quicklinks

Job opportunities in Stockholm, Sweden

Phil Sherry is looking for some local people to work on a web project in Stockholm, Sweden.

Posted on October 25, 2005 in Quicklinks

Building better HTML forms

Many useful tips for increasing the usability of web based forms. I do have a few reservations about some of the tips.

Posted on October 26, 2005 in Accessibility, Quicklinks, Usability

The ultimate multi-column CSS layout

Fully flexible source order of columns, equal height columns, and vertical grids - all in the same layout.

Posted on October 26, 2005 in CSS, Quicklinks

Tips and techniques for mobile web design

Covering two approaches to designing for mobile devices: handheld stylesheets and mobile-specific sites.

Posted on October 27, 2005 in (X)HTML, CSS, Quicklinks

Minimum and maximum padding and margin wanted

Being able to set the minimum and maximum values for margin and padding would be very handy for liquid layouts.

Posted on October 27, 2005 in CSS, Quicklinks

Requests for sIFR 3

What do you want to see in sIFR 3? Let the developers know, and you might get it.

Posted on October 28, 2005 in Quicklinks, Typography

RNIB Media Briefing on Accessible PDFs

Mike Davies’ notes and recollections from a media briefing on the topic of PDF accessibility.

Posted on October 28, 2005 in Accessibility, Quicklinks

New Zealand government websites and web standards

A look at how well government websites in New Zealand adhere to web standards.

Posted on October 29, 2005 in Quicklinks, Web Standards

Ethical search engine optimisation gone wrong

A story of what can happen when a client brings in an SEO consultant to improve search engine rankings.

Posted on October 30, 2005 in Quicklinks, Search Engine Optimisation

Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 Review

Dreamweaver 8 seen through the eyes of a hand coding web standards and accessibility fan.

Posted on October 31, 2005 in Web General

Developing maintainable CSS in a team environment

Some guidelines to make developing and maintaining large CSS files in a team environment easier.

Posted on October 31, 2005 in CSS, Quicklinks