Apple Creates a Stir in Michigan by Encouraging Legislatures to Proved Ipod to Every Student.

Several Michigan legislators took a funded trip to Apple Headquarters in California. The legislators returned and at least one of them suggested that providing an i-POD to every student in a Michigan public school was a worthy idea. I’m sure the students would not mind having one either … but why? Are teachers then going to distribute content in pod-casts or something? Give Michigan’s poor economy at this time, the idea was hardly well received and once it got out that Apple had funded the trip, the legislators decided to repay the costs of the trip. Maybe they need a pod-cast about ethics and every legislator needs an IPOD as well?

This is an interesting article suggesting that many successful websites work because of ease of use even though they are ugly. The article comes with some prime examples like Craig’s List. I have to agree, many of the sites where I have done repeat business are simple, and well, not all that over-designed or pretty. They lack margin shadows, fluid design, all the things people talk about when offering up design services.

Interesting stuff to think about — and it infinitely increases my job opportunities. I can do pretty — but I may be better at ugly! I do understand making things work. It’s one of my specialties and often people hire me to do just that, make it work. I repair their OS Commerce Shopping Cart, or fix a navigation bar, or make the WordPress Install start working again. I enjoy it and they enjoy it, usually enough to pay me if it isn’t a simple fix. One client recently told me I’m like duct tape in her tool kit. I consider that a compliment. Many feel that duct tape is mans’ best friend, but it isn’t pretty …

Changing topics, sort of, Matt Jordan writes a funny article on being a freelance web designer. Of course that isn’t so much a change because I was just talking about doing freelance work in the paragraph above. I do not hire myself out because I’m tired of the boss, I do it because to me fixing other peoples’ web problems is like a giant jigsaw puzzle. There is joy in seeing it all fit together. Unlike him, I enjoy chatting at some odd hour with a client or responding in a short period of time to an email that was sent overnight with the thought it might not be seen for hours. But it has never consumed me either, what he cautions against, because I control how much to take and when.

So I better get back to doing something ugly but functional for someone. After all, their web page is broken and I’m the one going to fix it.

A web designer who regularly subcontracts me to prepare various elements for pages they are working on hired me to do a Son of Suckerfish Drop Down Menu. The requested layout was a bit more complex than even the prettied drop down menu version on the site. My requested task involved the use of a background image, borders around the drop downs, and images that formed dividers between each main menu item to essentially make them look like buttons.

As is usually the case with this designer, they requested that my fix work in Firefox, Internet Explorer 6.x and Internet Explorer 7.x. So I went about drafting the proper xhtml and css to create the desired look and functionality. I tested it in each of these browsers and all went as planned. Read the rest of this entry »

Now this is cool! Earl Boykins is 5′ 5″ tall and weighs a mere 133 pounds, and yet he plays big in the NBA. I was checking out his site to see how big he was and come across his widget. Pretty cool thing to offer to your fans.

Want some inspiration for user-interface design? Read about the amazing backend and custom CMS done for the AIGA website over at Weightshift. This client-tailored solution is an inspiration to any designer or developer interested in user-interface design.

Read the rest of this entry »

Today I had to create a 404 page, and I wanted something a bit better than the drab, 1990s-version of the typical 404 page. Enter A List Apart.

This great article at ALA gives tips on creating 404 pages that help improve your site’s usability and create a friendlier user experience for your visitors. Among the tips:

• Don’t admonish the user
• Keep it minimal
• Incorporate javascript to tailor the 404 error based on how the 404 page was reached.

Check it out for specific javascript example and a more in-depth look at the hows and whys of creating a usable and friendly 404.

Horizontal centering in CSS is not particularly difficult. Vertical centering on the other hand can be difficult at time in my past experience. Here is a pretty good example of vertical and horizontal centering using only CSS. Note that some special “care” has been exercised to get Windows Internet Explorer to behave properly.