Links Are a Promise
This short advice I give anyone writing website content turns out to contain a number of important lessons about how people use websites and how we can serve them best.
Understanding Web Design
My Web Developer Search History Last Week
Some developers have been sharing a week of their work-related search history to show how often we all have to look things up. (The answer: a lot.) Here’s mine.
Why Privacy Policies are Hard to Read
A good podcast episode has me thinking about what it says that most privacy policies are complicated and hard to use.
My Web Design Must-Read List
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the what helped me learn my craft. This post shares many of the sources that have helped me learn everything I know today and the websites I follow to stay up to date.
The Limits of the Web’s Width
A website’s design determines the width of text and, subsequently, how easy it is to read. That limit and the lack of “solutions” means filling a wide browser screen is nearly impossible. But maybe that’s ok.
“Engaging” “Interactive” Websites & The Pepsi Challenge
As a web designer, one of my jobs is to understand people’s design preferences before I put pencil to paper and mouse to screen. Looking at other websites as examples of design is important but provide misleading reactions when it comes to make decisions. Using Example Sites to Guide Design Projects Looking at examples of … Continue reading ““Engaging” “Interactive” Websites & The Pepsi Challenge”
Final Thoughts on Codeacademy’s Learn JavaScript Course
This is post 2 of 2 in the series “Learning JavaScript” After sharing some thoughts a while back as I got started with Codeacademy’s Learn JavaScript course, I wrapped things up yesterday. Then I cancelled my subscription. Let’s start with the good stuff first though. The Good Parts of My Codeacademy Experience I was motivated … Continue reading “Final Thoughts on Codeacademy’s Learn JavaScript Course”
Thoughts on Starting Codeacademy’s Learn JavaScript Course
This is post 1 of 2 in the series “Learning JavaScript” One of the hardest things as a freelancer is keeping your skills up. This year, I’m trying to invest time getting better at the JavaScript programming language. While I’ve tinkered with JavaScript for years, I’ve never been comfortable with it and have usually turned … Continue reading “Thoughts on Starting Codeacademy’s Learn JavaScript Course”
“A 5 minute change.”
Even when making a change to a website is fast, the startup and wrapup work adds a significant amount of time. Here’s why.
Conservative Design & Development in “The inaccessible web” [link]
A while back, I wrote about how I’m a “web conservative.” Recently, I was reading “The inaccessible web: how we got into this mess” by Mischa Andrews, and it perfectly described what I was getting at: When clients and executives and developers and — anyone, really — talk about digital innovation, do they always mean it? Or is ‘innovation’ also used to … Continue reading “Conservative Design & Development in “The inaccessible web” [link]”
What Makes Websites Expensive?
Websites can be really expensive or really cheap. Do you know what the difference is? It can be hard when you don’t understand the technical requirements to build a feature. Here’s an attempt at summarizing some things to watch out for.
How Websites are Like Porches (A Metaphor from CSS Tricks) [link]
How building a porch is like building a website.
The Digital Divide, Smart Phones, and Website Performance
The New York Times published a troubling-but-not-surprising article today on the effect of the “digital divide” on school children in the United States.
SEO for Humans Redux [link]
Google has guidelines for webmasters about the technical and content requirements sites must follow to stay in their good graces. You’ll probably be surprised how obvious their recommendations are.
Website Projects Are Like Pizza
It’s hard to get a good cheap website. To understand why, think of website pricing like making a pizza.
WordPress for All: Formatting Accessible Content
Saturday, October 24, 2015, I was at McCaw Hall at Seattle Center, presenting at WordCamp Seattle: Beginner Edition about web accessibility’s importance for all website users and four specific techniques that beginning WordPress users could implement on their sites.