Design Eye for the Usability Guy
Design By Fire has a fun Queer Eye inspired design make over for usability guru Jakob Nielsen's boring but practical Guidelines for Visualizing Links.
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MCU: Accessible Web Design Tip: How to make printable characters between adjacent links invisible.
Some older screen readers are unable to distinguish between adjacent links if there is no printable character between them. The W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 provides a priority 3 checkpoint to deal with this unfortunate behaviour of older screen readers:10.5 Until user agents (including assistive technologies) render adjacent links distinctly, include non-link, printable characters (surrounded by spaces) between adjacent links. The obvious place on a page where you can find several adjacent links to is on a horizontal navigation bar at the top or bottom of a web page. So how do you adhere to this guideline in situations where displaying a printed character in your navigation bar would upset your beautifully crafted design?This weeks tips shows a technique I have used on the Glasgow West End website (http://www.glasgowwestend.co.uk) to make the printable characters separating links invisible, by making them the same colour as the navigation bar background, postcards
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Custom List: Sponsored Links - Weekly
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The Top 10 Things They Never Taught Me in Design School

I had to post this article below. It was simply so spot-on with regards to the cold, hard realities of design work that I would have been in the wrong for now sharing it….

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Do reciprocal links still work?
Rumor has it that reciprocal links are not as effective as one way links. Some people in online discussion forums claim that one way links from a website to another site work far better than reciprocal links. Is this true and what do you have to do about this?
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Web Design Resources
All, 11th September 2003, Nigel Peck. This article provides short reviews and links to other resources on the Internet that feature information on Web Design, Internet Marketing and Usability.
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Can too many links hurt your website?
Many webmasters are unsure if too many links can hurt their website rankings. Others think that links to a brand-new site might be a spam indicator. How many links are good for a website? Should you wait before getting links to your site?
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Better Links for Better Ranking
The type, authority, quality, and quantity of links that link to your site is critical to great search engine placement. The Internet is based on links....
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The effect of outgoing links on your web site
While most webmasters are aware that incoming links are important to the success of a web site, many site owners don't know that outgoing links also have an impact on their web sites. Learn how outgoing links influence search engines and web site visitors.
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Google's new Sitelinks and your web site
Google recently started to include a set of links below some results to pages within the site. These new additional links are called Sitelinks. Read this article to learn how these links might affect your web site.
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Meet Penelope: Eudora and Thunderbird Join Forces for Email Software, and How Much it Matters for My Web Design Business
I learned in the Eudora discussion list this morning that my long-time favorite email program, Eudora, is going open-source. Mozilla's new Penelope project is born. This move also made me reflect on the critically important role of email software with a Web design business. Today's post covers Eudora's major move, the important role of email software, especially in my small Web design business, and some of the current email software options. (1059 words, 20 links, 1 image)
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Should you buy text links?
Many text link broker websites have appeared on the Internet. These websites allow you to rent links from other websites on a monthly basis. Is this something you should consider for your website? What can you expect from these text links?
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Website Testing: Conquering Cross-browser, Cross-platform Woes
As I was doing final cross-browser testing for a redesign of SKDesigns, my website design business, the design implementation was working quite well in nearly every mainstream browser for Windows, Mac, Linux, and even the Lynx text-only browser. Unfortunately, though, I found problems with three old or little used browsers, such as Internet Explorer 5.2 for Mac that destroyed the CSS-positioned layout. I toiled over how to best handle these browser bugs, especially since my upcoming Web design book -- currently in production at my publisher -- stresses the importance of usability, readability, and degrading gracefully for older browsers. Today's post covers part of my decision-making journey and choices of approaches for dealing with these CSS bug-riddled old and little-used browsers. (2731 words, 53 links, 5 images)
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Structure your menus by marking them up as lists.
A navigation menu is - if we are speaking structurally - a list; but it is rare to find a developer/designer who marks them up as such. I guess the reason for this is that designers don't want to have ugly big bullet points littering their menu's, or seemingly uncontrollable margins throwing out their carefully crafted layouts.So, is it possible to use the correct structural markup, and still make your menus look the way you want them to?A recent rash of articles and tools have appeared to demonstrate that the answer is a resounding yes; you can use CSS to style lists to look more-or-less any way you want.First, undermine your previous assumptions by visiting the Listamatic website to see examples of different list styles (with the CSS used for each): Then visit Mark Newhouse's Taming Lists tutorial to learn how to make your own: And finally - if you can't be bothered learning how to do it yourself - have a look at Accessify's new List-o-matic - where you fill in a few forms, and the List-o-matic tool does all the hard work for you: Why is this relevant to accessible web design?Using the appropriate markup for all the structures in your web documents is the first step towards making them accessible; web pages need to be accessible to the tools, i.e. the 'user agents' people use first, before they can be accessible to the people themselves. Using valid standards based markup means you have the best chance of your pages being understood by those intermediate 'user agents' (usually that means computers and web browsers to you and me).The tips archive is at: Weekly accessible Web Design Tips.Register for your weekly accessible web design tip.Feedback from Andrew Arch Andrew Arch, the Manager Online Accessibility Consulting, National Information and Library Service has been in touch with some valuable feedback in relation to some of my recent accessible web design tips.Re: How to make printable characters between adjacent links invisible:'I used this tip with many clients in the past - a good one for thedesigners who can get very precious about their 'masterpiece'.'Andrew sent the following comments for consideration: even some new speaking browsers (eg HPR) can't distinguish links clearlywhile reading (HPR is fine when you bring up a link list) unless there is a character between them what we have found people doing is using a graphic between links for design purposes - this is ok, but the alt text needs to be set to '
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Usability
Five new links: "Graphics on Link-Rich Home Pages", "Label Placement in Forms", "SAP Design Guild Articles", "Simplicity Demands Difficult Choices", and "Personable 'About Us' Page Lifts Ecommerce Conversions 30 Percent".
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Updated RSS Feed - Reminder
Just wanted to remind those of you still pointing your feed readers or links to this feed. The new RSS feed for design.Principles can be found here: http://resource.reh3.com/index.php/feed/
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Feb 11, Web Design und Marketing - Die Grundlagen des Internet
Was bedeutet Web Design und Marketing wirklich? Was ist ein Web Site Hosting Provider? Was bedeuet ecommerce web design? Hier finden Sie Information...
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The Business of Web Design

Can the rules of decent design in fact be broken without jeopardizing success? It is happening more times than people like to admit. Still, it is generally better to go ahead and make sure that your are up to spec whenever possible….

jeopardizing success money project wireframes Accountability

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Back to the Opening New Windows Issue?
Open New Windows for PDF and other Non-Web Documents is Jakob Nielsen's latest Alertbox article, dated August 29, 2005. Although he'd previously stated not to force links to open new windows, he now feels that you should indeed set links to open in new windows for PDF and other non-Web documents. Even after reading this new article, I still feel strongly about considering the website's target audience, letting the user choose, and avoiding accessibility problems. Today's post goes into why I feel that way and even includes an informal test to check out Nielsen's latest recommendation for yourself. (1195 words, 9 links)
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How to make client-side image maps accessible.
Although client-side images are preferred over server-side image maps - as equivelent text can be provided for each image map 'hot-spot' - server-side image maps are sometimes necessary, e.g. when the active regions of a client-side image map cannot be easily defined using an available geographic shape. In such cases the answer is to provide redundant text links relating to each link provided by the server side image map.The following markup example is typical of the code used to reference a server side image map.The web pages accessed by the clicking the mage map in the above example would completely hidden to someone using a screen reader or a text-only web browser, as there is no alternative way of accessing the links provided.An example of the server side image with alt attribute added and an alternative set of links to the same content:You then make the following links available at the foot of the page,

About Us
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Search engine insiders talk about links
On a recent search engine conference, Tim Mayer from Yahoo, Matt Cutts from Google and Kaushal Kurapti from Ask Jeeves revealed information on how these three search engines analyze links to determine the ranking of web pages in a public discussion.
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GAWDS new web design
The Guild of Accessible Web Designers (GAWDS) haver re-designed their website. The design was created by Phil Treble, who won the design competition as part of the launch of the Guild.
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Helping Those Impacted by Hurricane Katrina
Like many of us, I've been glued to the TV watching the latest news on Hurricane Katrina. The devastation is heart-wrenching. There's news all over the Web, of course, about what's going on, including weblogs popping up. Today's post includes a selection of helpful links of how to help and how to follow the coverage of this horrendous disaster. (314 words, 12 links)
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If you need help, ask an expert!
This weeks Accessible web design tip: If you need help, ask an expert!Where do you go when you have a question related to accessible web design? If you are like me, you probably spend too much time searching for, and then browsing through the many good accessible web design websites; hoping that one of them will have the answer to your current question. Search no more - this weeks tip is: if you need help, ask an expert. And you can now do that, by visiting a new discussion forum which is populated by some of the webs' most knowledgeable accessible web design experts. It is called AccessifyForum.com and it has been set up by Nigel Peck of MIS Web Design and Ian Lloyd of Accessify.com.The forum is already a busy 'junction' for experts and beginners alike. So don't 'sit on' that question a minute longer - ask, and you shall receive.The tips archive is at: http://www.mcu.org.uk/weeklytips/
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Web Design - The Importance Of Design Simplicity For Business Websites.
Search engines don’t care about Web Design. People do. While search engines will not index a website for its great layout, but for the content, people will forget the website that has nothing distinctive about it. No visual impact, no interest! Now, if you are a serious online entrepreneur and want to have a website that sends the right message to the visitors, you must know that there are some web design techniques simply inappropriate for a business website.
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Google's Matt Cutts talks about buying links
Being one of the main software engineers on Google, Matt Cutts knows best about Google indexing and quality control issues. Find out what he thinks about buying links.
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What Exactly is Web 2.0?
Many of you have probably seen references to 'Web 2.0' around the 'Net. Tim O'Reilly has taken on writing about what this term means in his recent article, What Is Web 2.0, Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software. It's not just a boring article defining the term or written so that only programmers would understand it, though. Tim's new article overviews how the Internet arrived where it is today, comparing the past with comparables today in a way that even a non-programmer like myself can understand. Today's post provides an overview of this fascinating new article. (389 words, 3 links)
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Inbound links and optimized content for your web site
The contents of a web page are important for the search engine rankings of a web page. Inbound links are even more important if you want to get high rankings on Google, Yahoo and MSN.
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May 18, Preise für Corporate Design & Print Design
Hier finden Sie eine übersichtliche Zusammenfassung unserer Corporate Design Dienstleistungen und die dazugehörigen Preise.
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My Upcoming Book on Essentials for Web Sites
I've posted information about my upcoming book at my business site's new section, New Book on Web Site Essentials. I'll update information there, especially when I can finally discuss it further, including referencing the title (hopefully soon!).[1] You can also sign up to be notified about when it will be available. It's currently in production via the publisher, SitePoint Books. You'll find more details and links in the complete post. (178 words, 11 links)
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How many link partners are there? How many are enough for a link campaign?
Exchanging links with other sites is a promising way to increase your Google PageRank and to draw visitors to your site. Good incoming links have a positive effect on your search engine rankings and they also bring targeted visitors to your website. But how many potential link partners are there, and what is a realistic goal for your linking campaigns? How many link partners should you have?
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How to get links from an authority site
Webmasters are always looking for ways to get inbound links from authority web sites. For improving search engine rankings, an incoming link from an authority site is worth more than an incoming link from an average site.
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This weeks accessible web design tip
Does your website use a table to place the navigation bar on the left hand side, and the main content on the right? If that is how your site is designed, it is no bad thing; visitors will instantly understand this design 'convention' and won't have to waste time trying to figure out how to get around your site. There is however a problem with this 'standard layout' for people using screen readers. Accessing a website using a screen reader is a 'linear process'; the text that comes first, gets read first - and if the navigation is the first thing on the page - that is what gets read. If your navigation bar contains a lot of links, that can mean a lot of wasted time before a person using a screen reader gets to the content of your page.I was recently reminded of a very elegant 'table hack' , while reading, 'Building Accessible Websites' by Joe Clark (http://www.joeclark.org/), that can help users get around this problem. Instead of coding your table in the conventional manner as in the example below:

Navigation menu

Page Content

You can use the following rather elegant 'hack' to ensure the content on your page is presented first, and the navigation second:

(put a single pixel gif here)	Page Content
The navigation menu goes here.

As you can see it uses a 'empty' table cell in the first row which is directly above the navigation bar, and then the content cell is in the right hand cell (the content cell spans both rows).You might need to study this for a second or two to figure out what is going on, but if my explanation doesn't help, have a look at the following page where it is covered in a little more depth: http://www.apromotionguide.com/tabletrick.htmlRegister for the weekly MCU accessible web design tip.
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Free Clip Art Role In Your Graphic Design And Web Design
Clip art is basically pre-made images that can be used to design any media. Of course, you can also create your own images instead of using clip art as clip art is something everyone has access to. However, the advantage with clip art is that you don’t have to spend time creating images to place on the website. You just have to get these clip art software that are available on the internet.
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When a link falls at the end of a sentence always put the full stop outside the anchor tag
Consider the World Wide Web Consortium Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), Checkpoint 10.5:'Until user agents (including assistive technologies) render adjacent links distinctly, include non-link, printable characters (surrounded by spaces) between adjacent links. 'Generally when trying to ensure that my web pages meet this particular requirement I'm thinking about navigation bars; I'm either marking them up as lists, or putting printable characters between adjacent links (if necessary I make them invisible via CSS). Unfortunately that isn't always enough to ensure a clean bill of health with regard to this particular checkpoint. It is easy - particularly on a page that gets updated often - to violate this rule in the bodytext of the page, e.g., when a sentence that ends with a link, is followed by one that begins with a link.The solution is to get into the habit of adding the full stop after the anchor tag; simple but effective. As web accessibility tips go - it's not the most significant one I've ever published. However, having adjacent links without a printable character between them, means your well crafted page won't pass WCAG Priority 1; and someone is bound to get in touch to alert you to that fact.LinksWCAG Checkpoint 10.5.
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Useful Tips for Effective Web Design
Here are some essential web design tips that every web site should follow. Design your web site by following these tips and I guarantee that visitors will have a great first impression of your site.
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Aftermath of London Attacks
First, Brainstorms and Raves is not and doesn't plan to be a weblog covering current events or politics. I'm compelled to write about Thursday's terror attacks in London, but my writings here cover how people are using the Internet, especially weblogs, to stay in touch, share stories, and write their thoughts about what happened. Read the complete post for links to quite a few interesting weblogs, photoblogs, and BBC pages with personal accounts. (872 words, 43 links)
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Custom List: The Titans
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Is link popularity really that important?
With the domination of Google and Yahoo on the search engine market, words like "link popularity", "link prominence" and "link reputation" have become buzzwords in the search engine marketing industry.Many webmasters try to get as many links to their website as possible and some companies even offer "1000 links to your website within minutes". But is link popularity really so important as many people want us to believe?
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Displaced, Injured Animals from Hurricane Katrina
I've seen so many scenes of stranded animals from Hurricane Katrina, including dogs holding on to tree limbs for dear life or stranded on rooftops or balconies all alone. There are countless displaced farm animals, wildlife, and beloved pets as a result of Hurricane Katrina. Please help or donate. Tonight's post provides links to several agencies for more information. (358 words, 7 links, 1 image)
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Guild of Accessible Web Designers Launch
A new organisation called the Guild of Accessible Web Designers (GAWDS) launched today. It is a an organisation designed to promote accessible web design standards and promote designers and developers who put those standards into practice.By seeking to give those organisations and individuals who practice accessible web design a comptetitive edge - accessible web design skills will become more desirable within the 'web design industry' - and therefore be adopted more widely.The Guild also aims to become provide support, education and eventually accreditation to its members - pushing up skill levels; thus making more sites accessible to more people.
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Behind the Scenes with Apache's .htaccess
Although I'm a designer and not a programmer or server-side specialist, for a few years I've used Apache's .htaccess to a limited degree for clients' websites, primarily for simple URL redirects and setting up custom error pages. Now that I can use Apache's .htaccess for my own websites, I've been immersed in learning more about how to use this powerful tool conservatively but effectively to redirect URLs and to combat spammers and bad bots. Today's post provides links to some of the online sources that I've found especially helpful. (3024 words, 91 links)
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New Website Tutorialism.com Offers a Free Social Bookmarking Service for Online Tutorials, Allowing Users to Submit Their Favorite Graphic and Web Design Tutorials
The new website at http://www.tutorialism.com is the first social bookmarking service for web design and graphic design tutorials. It enables users to submit online tutorials and articles they like and vote for them or interact with other members of the design community. [PRWEB Jul 13, 2006]
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Official Google statement: Can links to other web sites hurt your rankings?
Linking to other web sites can hurt your rankings if you link to the wrong web sites. A Google official has recently commented on bad neighborhood links and how they affect your web site rankings on Google.
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CSS Reboot
Is an "attempt to bring together Web professionals who design with CSS and standards in mind to launch their redesigns on May 1st." A good place to window shop for design inspiration. Drop a slice of humblepie in Adam's mailbox for me on the way out.
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New Color Scheme Tool
While there are certainly quite a few color tools available for creating color schemes and color matching, there's a new one out now by Genometri - GenoColor that takes a very different approach to creating color schemes. GenoPalette will help you create eye-popping color schemes, color combinations, match existing colors, fine tune colors, and calibrate colors. Read more about it, along with links to other helpful color tools, in today's post. (278 words, 7 links)
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Drupal & An Introduction to Open Source CMS Products

Speaking as a guy who is considering some new CMS options himself, I can see why Drupal is a good match for a number of individuals. More than likely going to go with WordPress myself, but regardless Drupal is still great….

Drupal Open Source CMS Products LAMP design

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Design Melt Down
A web resource about web design techniques. Hunt, Ben
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