Cameron Moll has moved from EM-based sizing to pixels, arguing that all modern browsers have switched from text resizing to page zooming as the main scaling tool. Let’s hope it’s tables next!
Archive for the ‘Web’ Category
Coding like it’s 1999
25th June 2009Nice strapline idea
24th April 2009
Spotted over on BAM’s website – each item is a link.
Using IE6? Get f_cked.
20th March 2009
Joe Lifrieri, an up-and-coming web designer of note, has decided to vent his frustration at IE6 by creating a number of, ah, “interesting” IE6-only landing pages for his website.
Sitecore code reviews
25th February 2009Some of the most common Sitecore coding pitfalls.
PNGs in IE6 Redux
9th February 2009Yet another technique for getting PNG transparency working in Internet Explorer 6. Emerging late last year, this latest piece of JavaScript-based trickery leverages IE’s flawed implementation of VML — as opposed to the more traditional image filter exploit of previous PNG/IE6 hacks.
It’s already being touted as the new defacto solution, even though it’s still in its infancy. We should use this from now on when trying to get full PNG alpha transparency working in IE6.
IE 8 fully standards compliant? These reports would suggest otherwise…
5th December 2008This article makes mention of Microsoft’s claim that IE 8 is fully standards compliant, and hence a lot of sites don’t look right when viewed using it…
*smiles smugly *
But it mentions that one of the sites looking mangled is the BBC site.
Now this works absolutely fine with Firefox 3, which scores very highly on the Acid3 test.
Just makes me wonder which set of standards IE 8 will actually be compliant with.
Progressive enhancement with CSS
24th October 2008A good article by Aaron Gustafson on A List Apart about progressive enhancement with CSS.
He describes a way of giving older browsers a set of basic styles, rather than giving them no styles at all (which is what we currently do). This was the topic of Jon Hicks’s talk at FOWD, and I thought it was quite interesting then too.
By linking to stylesheets in different ways, you can target different browsers. You use a straight-forward link to a stylesheet that only includes type information. All browsers get this and can mostly render it fine.
You then use the @import directive which cuts out the crappiest browser to feed them a stylesheet with the layout information, where typically most problems occur.
This is, effectively, a way of progressively enhancing the styles you feed a browser.
Seems like a nice idea in theory and something we should adopt on new sites. The only real issue I can see is that the more stylesheets you have, the slower the site becomes as more assets need to be downloaded. According to Yahoo, this has a major impact on a site’s speed.
Opinions please!
What can we expect from Visual Studio 10?
30th September 2008Microsoft is not yet saying when we can expect the next incarnation of Visual Studio, but it has let out a few of the details. What glorious future awaits us, then?
Microsoft employee Jeffrey Schlimmer blogged about some of the changes for VS10, which would include:
For VS10:
- A new Windows Presentation Foundation-based (WPF) text editor
- More “modern,” with more of a WPF look and feel throughout the suite
- Smaller in size (in code and data) than Visual Studio 2008
- More reliable and modular
For some time “later”:
- Visual Studio Tools for Applications (VSTA) used for macros, plus other “end-user extensibility” improvements
- The ability to create more add-ins in managed code
- Full WPF shell
- Extensive support for the parallel framework for multicore hardware
Though interestingly enough, he has since removed his original blog posting…
Reliability improvements are always good, and I look forward to VS being able to harness our multicore machines and hopefully build and compile significantly more quickly. If anyone can elaborate on how (or even if) WPF can help us, comment away!
Meanwhile, Noah Coad (gotta love that name) has mentioned multiscreen support, including dragging tabs out to their own locations on another monitor Nice!
Melbourne Airport
30th May 2008I had a look at the official Melbourne airport website.
They have a few interesting things:
- An interactive airport map (I don’t think it’s particularly well implemented. I’m sure we could do better though). This could have a place for BIA particularly around car parking.
- The homepage has a ‘travel times’ bump, updating traffic news of how long it takes to get from the airport to the city and back. Perhaps not so applicable to BIA, but might be for other airports in the future.
- Live flight radar lets you keep track of every flight that goes to or comes from Melbourne.
Interestingly, they don’t make a big thing out of destinations, or special offers. I wonder why? Do you think the airport business is different in Oz?
Car websites fail ‘The Thurling Test’
6th May 2008I am thinking of replacing my car in the next 6-12 months, so have begun the process of research. So far I have spent time on the following sites: Ford, VW, Honda and Toyota. After about an hour of hunting around all of these sites I was ready to throw my laptop out of the window in frustration. Here’s a list of some of my gripes:
- VW and Ford kept crashing in both Firefox and Safari.
- Excessive use of Flash and Java on all of the sites… too slow!
- Usability; I wanted to find a good interior photo of all the cars I am considering. This was not an easy task, and in some cases I failed completely!
- The photography fails to show the level of detail I would like. Lots of “on location” shots of the cars cruising in the South of France…I just want a pic of the boot!
- Video on the Ford site didn’t work properly; even in IE! Other sites don’t seem to be exploiting the potential of video.
- The typography (esp on Ford) left a lot to be desired…even to my untrained eye.
- None of the sites have even begun to experiment with Web 2.0…blogs, user generated content etc (from what I could see)
- etc.
I know Jon is a big fan of the VW site, but personally I found it too clever for its own good. Come the end I was yearning for a simple, elegant, CSS site (with the odd bit of Flash and AJAX). I wonder if any of the car makers will be brave enough to realise that on the web, less is (normally) more?
P.S. Do any of you petrol heads out there know if Toyota have discontinued their Previa range of MPVs? Can’t find it on their site.
Pete Fairhurst
Jonathan Waring
Andrew Arnott
Chris Thurling
Iwein Dekoninck
Matt French
Kate Thorpe
Laura Fletcher
Dave North
Bonny Colville-Hyde
Nick Raven
