Ease, Power, and Cost
Many people know the Free/Cheap/Good trade-off, but I think there’s a similar Ease/Power/Cheap one. Understanding it helps people make better and more-informed decisions about their projects.
Understanding Web Design
Thoughtful Forms and Interfaces [link]
Last week’s post discussed how some practices and people—mostly straight white men—can blatantly make women feel unwelcome in the technology sector. This week’s post links to two articles about much subtler ways in which website interfaces themselves can marginalize people.
WordPress & Taxonomies: Part 3, Custom Taxonomies
In the third and final part of this series, I briefly cover the basics of adding “Custom Taxonomies” to a WordPress site and offer some useful tips on how to get the most out of them.
WordPress & Taxonomies: Part 2, Categories & Tags
The second part of the “WordPress & Taxonomies” series brings us to “Categories” and “Tags,” the two default taxonomies in WordPress and two frequently misunderstood features.
WordPress & Taxonomies: Part 1, Taxonomies & Terms
“Taxonomy.” That’s a weird-looking, poly-syllabic word that might be a bit scary, but you’ve seen them and used them all over the web. Learn what they are dive into this three-part series on taxonomies and WordPress.
Email Addresses and Spam on Websites
After my recent post on contact forms and email addresses, I tackle the issue of spam and “hiding” emails in hopes of avoiding it. After trying various security measures, I’m pretty cavalier about it all.
There is No Web Page
Old technologies and desktop publish have led many people to think of editing a web page as if it were a single piece of information, stored in one location, and edited in one place. It’s not.
On “5 Minute” Bug Fixes and Project Time Estimates [link]
Setting a timeline for a project or task is a constant part of the work I do. Unfortunately, it’s also a major headache and I have yet to master the art of consistent accurate time estimates. Read these fun stories to get an idea of the types of errors that can lead to seemingly never-ending projects.
A Plugin to Require Alt Text in WordPress?
Alternative text for images is one of the easiest things to do in WordPress to increase accessibility, and yet it’s frequently overlooked. How could we fix that?
Post Formats Are Coming! (Post Mortem: Never Released.)
There’s a drastically-improved feature coming in WordPress 3.6 that I honestly believe could change how we blog. Seriously. Take a moment to learn a bit more about post formats and why I think they’re so great..
Intuitive Means Familiar
Think about it. There’s nothing “intuitive” about using a mouse. It’s a piece of plastic that you move around on a flat horizontal surface to effect the position of this tiny arrow on a vertical screen. And yet we use “intuitive” to describe technology all the time. Why is that and what can we do instead?
Trusting Your Plugins
It’s a big scary world out there, full of monsters, ghosts, faceless multinational corporations, and WordPress plugins THAT HAVEN’T BEEN UPDATED IN TWO YEARS!!! OH THE HUMANITY! Take a moment and review why you need to be careful about what plugins you use.
Pruning Your Plugins
WordPress plugins are amazing. They’re one of the biggest reasons I use WordPress: Every time you install WordPress, you have a world of free and cheap plugins that make WordPress better—as long as you use good plugins, that is. But even the most amazing things are best in moderation.
When Should Nonprofit Websites Go Responsive? [link]
Have you heard of “responsive design?” It’s the practice of making a website “respond” to the screen size of the device viewing it in order to provide a better viewing experience. It’s kind of all the rage, but when is it actually a good idea?
The Skinny on Microsites [link]
I’ve been intrigued by the concept of microsites for a long time. For those of you who haven’t heard of microsites before, I’ll quote from the article I’m linking to: A microsite is a mini-website, generally two to four pages, focused on a specific topic or campaign. These mini-websites are usually graphic-heavy and have very … Continue reading “The Skinny on Microsites [link]”
“The Fold” [link]
Laptops fold in half, but that’s not really what “The Fold” is about when it comes to designing websites. In doing some research about it for a client, I found this article and wanted to share it.