SERVICE NOTES

If you’ve noticed that the web has recently gone wacky when using Internet Explorer, you can blame litigious companies, software patent lawyers, and even Microsoft for ruining a good portion of the web overnight.

I’ll explain what happened and why in a minute. It has a bearing on the design of your web site, and is one more reason to avoid using Flash and Flash-based navigation if possible.

(more…)

Ten performance-boosters you should use

1. Compression. By adding these lines to the .htaccess file in your web directory, you can save 50% to 80% of the time and bandwidth needed to deliver your pages:
   

   AddHandler application/x-httpd-php .html
   php_flag zlib.output_compression On

   This causes the server to compress HTML content as it is sent. Check your results using this compression tester.

2. Optimize Images. Use a good graphics program like Adobe Photoshop or ImageReady. Size your images appropriately, then use the Save For Web feature. Depending on the image, certain image formats will yield better size vs. quality ratios, so try them all, reducing colors or quality levels as needed.

(more…)

With a new web site or a redesign, the typical order of topics between most web designers and their clients follows this course: price, page counts, visual layout, artwork, text, search engine optimization, increasing traffic, revisions, maintenance, and the need to get more value from the web site.  This, of course, is completely backwards.

A move in the right direction

Before we can talk about money, either initial production costs or, ultimately, web-generated sales revenue, we need to turn things around. Let’s start with your site’s purpose so we can select the right content and presentation methods to achieve worthy and measurable goals.

Understanding your web requirements, desired execution level, and budget, begins with a simple planning exercise . . .

(more…)

Here’s proof that good design skills can span disparate mediums. This month’s website showcase is for Wurts Interiors, created by Wurts’s own interior designer, Debbie Cañedo. Wurts Interiors serves San Diego homes and offices with flooring, space planning, remodeling, and everything in between.

Their classy new site sports a light and easy to navigate style.  It wins a gold star for using standards-compliant XHTML (that improves its performance, accessibility, and search-engine friendliness).  And, unlike most “artsy” sites, it conservatively presents the Flash intro in a way that doesn’t make you wait before you can get to the main navigation links.  (I can’t fuss much about the non-optional Flash intro music.)

Easter Egg: If you have a 1600×1200 display, you might find a little something in the margin.

It’s rare to see a relatively small company launch an in-house designed website and hit all the right style and technical targets (because it’s really hard, I tell you!), so Wurts deserves accolades.