Category Archives: 'Web design'
June 01, 2006 12:52 PM
Recently I added some cool icons to this site. I found that most of my visitors use a graphical web browser, so it makes sense to add graphics to the site to spice things up.
The graphics I used are png files. The icons show up great in Firefox and Safari. Unfortunately I did not test Internet Explorer for Windows until today. The graphics look horrible.
The background to the icons are supposed to be transparent, but in Internet Explorer 6.0 (what I recently tested) the background is gray. I found out recently that Internet Explorer does not support the alpha transparency that PNG offers.
This is not new information as it has been a known issue in the web design world. I will be changing the icons as soon as I can to display correctly in all browsers. I am hoping that the icons add a nice effect to the site.
2 Comments
May 11, 2006 4:24 PM
I finally received my invitation code to Google Analytics which was requested a couple months ago. After only using it for a few days, it has given me lots of useful information about the websites I maintain.
This tool is much better than the statistics page I was using before. I now have a better idea how to make changes to my websites based on visitor experience.
One thing I found interesting is that Internet Explorer for Windows is not the dominating web browser. Firefox is used just as much. Also, even though the majority of visitors use Microsoft Windows, it is not as dominating as some may think. There are several visitors who use Mac and even Linux.
I found about Google Analytics from a web design podcast I listen to regularly called boagworld.com. The podcast is done by two British gentlemen who have lots of good advice for anyone who manages a website on a daily basis.
The podcast does not take a technical approach, but rather a business approach. There are few technical issues discussed, but relates more to the practical use of business websites. An enjoyable and informative podcast. Anyone who needs practical advice on maintaining a company website, or any website for that matter, should listen in.
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April 06, 2006 5:12 AM
The design of this site is back up and no longer naked. I was starting to feel a draft.
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April 04, 2006 8:36 PM
Please do not try to adjust your screen, the site design is gone on purpose. This site is going naked all day on April 5. OK, so it is still April 4th (as of this writing). I thought I would go naked a little early.
Why is this site naked and where did the design go? I am participating in the first annual CSS naked day. This is to promote web standards and good semantic markup. This site should still function without the design.
I’m Naked!
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March 31, 2006 8:27 PM
I have recently been reading the book Web Standards Solutions by Dan Cederholm and it is a great book. Some of the information I already knew, but the book really gave a better understanding of why certain methods work best.
Today I took some time away from the book to do some needed cleaning and restructuring of code on this site. I like to read the book when I have a computer accessible so I can experiment with many of the concepts discussed. You may notice slight adjustments, or not. All that matters is that with my consolidation of code this site will load faster.
This book is one of many on web design that I am reading and learning from. I have also read a few chapters of another one of Dan’s books, Bulletproof Web Design. This book is great since it shows real-life examples of sites and how using web standard solutions would improve performance, maintenance, and cost.
It would be nice to hang out with the masters of this industry. I only wish I could go to An Event Apart Chicago.
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March 03, 2006 10:44 AM
I recently received more feedback on the redesigned ApplePickers website. Some good and some not so good. One in particular which was not so good regarded Netscape 6.2.3 running on Mac OS 9. Using this browser there are several problems accessing site content.
This opened my eyes to something I should have paid more attention to. Unfortunately in my current situation I am only testing the sites I create in current browsers on relatively current operating systems. Using web standards I know that much of my work is rendered nearly the same in most web browsers. However, there are differences.
In many cases Netscape plays by different rules. I understand that there are may people out there who are using outdated operating systems such as Mac OS 9 or Windows 9x and cannot use current web browsers. Part of me feels that I should not worry about these people. Some people are happy with their outdated web browsers since they probably go by the motto “If it is not broke, don’t fix it.”
On the other hand I feel that I am shutting out people who may use older browsers, especially Netscape. This may not be a huge deal, but what if the guy who gave me feedback never goes back to the website. Maybe he does not want to use a different browser or even upgrade his operating system. That is fine and have no problems with that.
In the future I will do my best to make my sites function on as many browsers and platforms as possible.
1 Comment
February 11, 2006 9:01 AM
Ok, well I decided to not post the beta link. I wanted to wait until it was finished to mention it. The link is the same and everything has been moved over to the new servers.
For the forum I installed phpBB to replace Ikonboard, which is what was being used prior to the redesign. Although the forum will not match the look and feel of the website, I have made the navigation similar so people know where they are. The navigation should be easier to use.
So if you are interested in the Mac and would be interested in seeing what ApplePickers has to offer then check out the website.
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February 06, 2006 12:24 PM
ApplePickers will soon move to a new web host due to cost. Because of this move I have been testing the site on the new servers. Since I have this time to test I am also taking advantage of this time to redesign the website.
The new design will have lots of changes. One will be the elastic text that this site now has. This means that Internet Explorer for Windows will now be able to resize text in the updated website. To do this you would go to View > Text Size and select the size of your choice.
The navigation structure will also be changed for the better. Web pages will have better organization. You will be able to find everything you want in either the main navigation or in the sub-navigation which will be located in the right column of some pages.
I would post a link to view the current beta site, but at the moment I have hit a wall. Somehow my style sheet file was deleted and I am currently working on getting that file restored. When that file is restored I will post a link.
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