Archived posts, April 2009

Don’t use the title attribute for essential information

The title attribute can be used to provide advisory information about an HTML element, but do not use it for essential information since not all users will notice the title text.

Posted on April 7, 2009 in Quick Tips, Accessibility

Accessibility is more than “possible to access”

Making web sites and web applications accessible is more than making them possible to access - it also means making them usable.

Posted on April 9, 2009 in Accessibility, Usability

Making accessibility more real

Even if you do not have a disability, there are some things you can do to gain a better understanding of the obstacles some people with disabilities run into on the web.

Posted on April 14, 2009 in Accessibility

Do not create empty links

Always make sure that any links you create have actual text content, or they will be unusable to some of your visitors.

Posted on April 15, 2009 in Quick Tips, Usability, Accessibility

Professional front-end engineering explained

An excellent presentation of what it means to work as a front-end developer, and how important our work is to the overall health of the web.

Posted on April 21, 2009 in Web Standards

Let your links look like links

Don’t make your users waste their time by hiding links. If you can’t stand the look of blue and underlined links, there are other ways of making them obvious. But do not rely on colour alone.

Posted on April 22, 2009 in Usability, Accessibility

Using an XML declaration triggers Quirks mode in IE 6

If you use an XHTML doctype with an XML declaration, Internet Explorer 6 will switch to Quirks mode and use an incorrect CSS box model.

Posted on April 28, 2009 in Quick Tips, CSS, (X)HTML

Use the fieldset and legend elements to group HTML form controls

Only use the fieldset and legend elements to group logically related form controls, always use both elements together, and keep legend texts short.

Posted on April 30, 2009 in Quick Tips, Accessibility, (X)HTML