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
