March 9, 2010
I’m always eager to dive into a project that presents a new, or otherwise unique, challenge. In this case, Mark Reeves at Reeves Design House created a visual design based on a grid of ten rectangular boxes — consistent across the whole site. This might seem fairly simple, but from a coding standpoint it can be tricky. It’s a balancing act between absolutely positioning multiple content boxes and ensuring that the content can grow vertically without disrupting the grid system. One more tricky requirement from the client: Can it be built in such a way that “non-techies” can maintain the content? Sure, why not! So, this site is another fine example of using WordPress as a CMS. I’m continually amazed how far we can stretch a simple blogging system to the limit in order to provide a client-friendly solution to a common problem in an extremely short amount of time. Take a look at the Linde Lee, Inc. site and have a look around. The site includes some great photos of their showroom at the spectacular Infomart just north of downtown Dallas.
Categories: Accessibility, News, Web Standards, WordPress
February 3, 2010
I’m excited to announce the launch of a site for Dr. Karsan, a facial plastic surgeon in the Dallas area. It’s a pretty straightforward site built with PHP, XHTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It’s clean, functional, usable, and accessible. Yet another beautiful design by Mark Reeves at Reeves Design House. Take a look at the Dr. Karsan site and see what you think.
Categories: Accessibility, News, Web Standards
September 29, 2009
Over the past several months I’ve been working with Glide Design — an Austin-based web site design firm — on a number of interesting projects. We’ve been building the sites with WordPress which is a great solution for a lightweight CMS. I’ve had a lot of fun working on these projects and learning as much as I can about how to extend WordPress into more than just a simple blogging system. They’re not only easy to build but clients also appreciate the simplicity of the admin interface which allows them to maintain their own site content. The following three sites are a sample of the projects I’ve been working on recently. Each one had its own fun challenges and rewarding learning opportunities. Check out Triton Custom Homes, Urban Moto Shop, and Water to Thrive.
Categories: Accessibility, Ajax/Scripting, News, Web Standards, WordPress
September 17, 2009
This is the third post (of three) discussing the topic of Ajax. If you haven’t already done so, you might want to go back and read Part 1 (general introduction, definitions, and history) and Part 2 (development sandbox with examples). Now that I’ve covered the basics of Ajax and implemented some demos, I’d like to address the issue of Ajax accessibility. Does the use of Ajax necessarily exclude people with disabilities? Does Ajax cause a roadblock for search engines (search engine optimization) and mobile devices? Are there ways to improve the accessibility of Ajax and JavaScript-enhanced websites?
As I’m writing this, I’m wondering what kinds of accessibility concerns there are in the sandbox demos I included in Part 2 of this series. Did you notice some issues as you were trying out the demos? Perhaps I’ll have to put them to the test in a more formal manner… but that’s a task for another day (and another blog post). In this post I’d like to discuss some general accessibility issues and possible solutions that are available to web developers today. It’s by no means an exhaustive list or a definitive hands-on guide, but hopefully it’s a good starting point for further research.
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Categories: Accessibility, Ajax/Scripting, Resources, Web Standards
September 13, 2009
This is the second post (of three) discussing the topic of Ajax. In case you haven’t already done so, you might want to read Part 1. It’s not essential, but it will provide some general context and a roadmap of the three blog posts.
Now that I’ve covered the basics about what Ajax is and is not, I’d like to spend some time playing around with some actual Ajax code. I’ll go ahead and say up front that there’s not much original here. I’m not professing to be an expert Ajax programmer (or hard-core JavaScript programmer, for that matter). Using a home improvement analogy, I’m not trying to build my own hammer, screwdriver, or copper tubing from scratch; I’m holding the tools in my own hands and trying them out to see what each can do. In other words, I’m exploring the use of readily available Ajax and other JavaScript components in my own server environment.
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Categories: Ajax/Scripting, Resources, Web Standards
August 29, 2009
Lately I’ve noticed a huge variance in the usage of the term Ajax. So I’ve decided to take some time to explore the topic and share my findings in a few blog posts. In this first post, I’d like to share some info from the original blog post that defined and popularized the new interaction design approach. I’ll include some historical details, various definitions, and even a few technical bits and pieces thrown in for good measure.
In the next post, I’m going to create a development sandbox to jump in and have fun implementing some popular examples in a controlled environment. I’m hoping to create a repository for my own future use as well as document competency in this area of web development. I’m not planning to reinvent the wheel here… there are a ton of great resources already available. I’m going to poke around and see what’s out there and then put together my own simple demos. Admittedly, some of the demos will be true Ajax (according to the original definition) and some will follow the more general purpose definition which I’ll call “animation effects” created with a combination of JavaScript, CSS, and other technologies. There are some great JavaScript frameworks, such as jQuery, Prototype, YUI, and Dojo, that dramatically simplify Ajax (and pseudo-Ajax) development. I’ll include a variety of examples using some of those frameworks as well.
In the last post, I’d like to explore the topic of Ajax accessibility. Is it true that Ajax creates websites that can’t be accessed by people with disabilities? Does Ajax hurt your website’s search engine ranking? Can Ajax be implemented in an accessible way? I’m not completely sure, but I’m hoping to find out! The Web Accessibility Initiative has created a development suite called Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) to help with accessible Ajax solutions. I’m really excited about ARIA’s possibilities, so I’ll spend some time exploring it as well.
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Categories: Accessibility, Ajax/Scripting, Resources, Web Standards
July 27, 2009
I’ve been working on a site that requires both English and Spanish content. The user interface elements, such as the primary navigation, copyright statement, and form labels, need to be bilingual as well. The client needs the ability to update all of the content (and write new blog entries) themselves, so early on I decided to use WordPress. I’d read that WordPress can handle multilingual sites, but I wasn’t clear on how that worked exactly. Also, I don’t speak Spanish – which means I can’t provide my own translations – so I needed a solution for that as well. I considered using something like Google’s Language Tools for little things like labels, but I’ve always been suspicious about whether I’m using the preferred form of translated bits of text like “Search” and “Older Entries” and many others.
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Categories: Accessibility, Multilingual, Resources, Web Standards, WordPress
July 23, 2009
Once in a while a project comes along that makes you stop and think about how you’ve been doing things for a while. This project is like that. There’s nothing really revolutionary about it – a typical webzine created with WordPress and a few plugins – but it did provide some interesting opportunities to dive deeper into the inner workings of using WordPress as a CMS. The fantastic (and incredibly flexible) visual design was created by Mark at Reeves Design House. This was a truly collaborative effort where we both explored that fun question “what if we did it like this” from start to finish. I should also give thanks for a receptive client who was willing to let us explore a bit while we tried to figure things out as we went along. Such a rare and exciting environment for any designer/developer.
Here are a few of the WordPress plugins we’re using: Ad-minister, Advanced Search, Category Icons, and cforms II.
Take a look at the Life Content site. It’s in its infancy, as far as content goes, so be sure to check back often to see how it grows in the next few months. Subscribe to the RSS feed to track its progress in your favorite feed reader.
Categories: Accessibility, News, Web Standards, WordPress
July 4, 2009
I’ve been using WordPress for a little over a year now. Like most people, I’ve always thought of it as a simple blogging system… and that’s about it. It works really great for blogs (like this one), but a few months ago I used it to build a job listings site for one of my clients. Ever since that time I looked for additional creative uses for WordPress. Recently, I’ve been exploring the idea of using WordPress as a general purpose content management system (CMS). I’ve done a bunch of research, reading, and experimenting over the past few months. In this post I’d like to document some of my findings: sites of interest, handy documentation bookmarks, useful plugins, etc.
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Categories: Multilingual, Resources, WordPress
June 8, 2009
For the past year or so I’ve had the pleasure of working with the great folks at the Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT), based in Fort Worth, Texas. They’ve been building an online system to encourage sharing, collaboration, and publication in the biodiversity research community. In their own words, “Atrium is a technology platform for revolutionizing biodiversity information management by enabling researchers and organizations to share, synthesize, manage and publish biodiversity data in a collaborative, online environment. Atrium provides a broad range of tools for research organizations as well as an unparalleled, open-source framework based on industry standards which facilitates the development of powerful applications and tools for the biodiversity community.”
I worked with BRIT to improve the front-end code integrity, usability, and accessibility of the system. It’s an extremely complex system with over 325 PHP-based templates. It was a wonderful opportunity and I enjoyed every minute of my small contribution to the huge project. The majority of the site requires registration, but several sections are available to the general public. Take a look at the Atrium Biodiversity Information System.
Categories: Accessibility, News, Web Standards
