The internet plays a huge role in my life, from a place to share photos and videos, to a career, to a means of communication linking me to friends and family all over the world.
Whether because they slow down the loading of the site, get in the way of what the visitor is looking for, or are often ignored as a type of ad banner, many websites would benefit from moving away from these…
Published on 25th August 2015
I finally got around to reading the submission details for the official WordPress Plugin directory this week and submitted a couple of simple plugins. They have now been approved and are available for free to anyone using WordPress.
Published on 21st August 2015
My erstwhile mentor in Brienz taught me throughout our years working together that if a website functionality is worth creating, it's worth creating so that it can be used in more than one project. Programme once, install many times. This…
Published on 20th August 2015
I'm not a fan of one-page websites, as a rule. But making sure that they load as quickly as possible goes a long way to making them acceptable.
Published on 17th August 2015
Website visitors can and do scroll the page to find what they're looking for. That doesn't make this scrolling action a good user interface design solution.
Published on 21st July 2015
Remembering my work in 2008 on Swiss t.v.'s Funky Kitchen Club.
Published on 10th July 2015
Facebook implemented Open Graph tags a long time ago, so that links from blogs and websites automatically pull in preview images and a summary text. That helps the viewer to see more about the linked page without having to click…
Published on 30th June 2015
The tourism organization for Lake Lucerne has just launched a great-looking new website. Modern design, nice typography, beautiful pictures and a simple navigation all add to the experience. But one small improvement could be made by adding a few…
Published on 30th June 2015
Using modules in front end web programming to allow more flexibility and more independence from site layouts for content elements.
Published on 29th June 2015
Holy moly. What a discussion we’ve gotten into over on Twitter about CSS specificity, BEM, and inheritance. I wrote yesterday that the idea is flawed and tries to work around problems which aren’t actually problems at all, but part…
Published on 24th June 2015
TYPO3 occasionally throws the following error message when attempting to connect to the MySQL database, blocking the operation of the website. The error also occurs when reporting is set to Production mode in the install tool. Uncaught TYPO3 Exception: #1: PHP…
Published on 24th June 2015
I came across the BEM (Block, Element, Modifier) technique for CSS coding today. On reading half a dozen basic introductions to the technique, I saw immediately that the concept is based on weak coding principles, not code simplicity and reusability.
Published on 23rd June 2015
When coming up with ideas for new websites or coming up with a use for a new design idea, the reason for the website or app is often on which slows the initial impetus for a designer or front-end coder.
Published on 19th June 2015
You start off with an idea, progress it to a concept, make a design, fiddle with it for too long, then turn it into a working prototype. If all goes well, then you’re in for a couple more rounds of…
Published on 31st May 2015
Using CSS pseudo elements to add diagonal borders and edges to the sides of block level elements.
Published on 10th December 2014
Google announced yesterday that it’s come up with a great new way of avoiding the need for website visitors to fill out the CAPTCHA; the ubiquitous “type the letters from the image into the following field” feature of many…
Published on 4th December 2014
If you have a social media account or an account at one of the photo sharing websites, you need to make sure that your photos are published using the appropriate license. Flickr allows you to offer your photos under a specific…
Published on 25th November 2014
Internet browser Safari has long been known for trying to make the web faster and faster. One of the ways it’s done so is by having a very strong browser cache – storing pages and files locally for as long as…
Published on 20th November 2014
A CSS Reset (or “Reset CSS”) is a short, often compressed set of CSS rules to reset the styling of HTML elements to a consistent standard. I've rolled my own; based on my own experience of CSS programming over the…
Published on 12th September 2014
The most useful website I've found to use over the past year for front-end web development is “Can I Use” by Alexis Deveria.
Published on 10th September 2014
If the terms of a piece of software prove not to be to your liking, then don't use it. No-one is forcing you to send messages over Facebook; there are many other options available to you.
Published on 3rd September 2014
Swiss railway company Rhaetian Railways has teamed up with Google to provide a “Street View” version of its iconic line through south-eastern Switzerland.
Published on 13th August 2014
Deactivating my Facebook account for a week was a great experience. Although I've chosen to return, I will be using the social media site with much less regularity and a much more filtered stream.
Published on 7th July 2014
Most websites are housed in so-called server farms, where their physical location is only important in as far as their protection and reliability is concerned. It’s quite possible to have a web server in the shed at the bottom of…
Published on 3rd July 2014
If you had a friend who cheated, abused your trust and did everything in order to profit himself, how would you react?…
Published on 30th June 2014
My first job in Switzerland was for a newspaper publisher, where I remained for seven years whilst co-developing a newspaper and website publishing system. Building on the basic experience I was gaining whilst making little blogs using b2/cafelog…
Published on 18th June 2014
I was at WordCamp Switzerland 2014 last weekend; a WordPress conference aimed at both content creators and developers. One of the many interesting talks on the day was by Stephanie Booth on the subject of blogging in a multilingual world.
Published on 9th May 2014
Pros and cons to password generation, authentication via email, and whether there are any options to get rid of passwords altogether.
Published on 9th May 2014
Laying out a page using percentage-based columns seems to be pretty easy. However, in responsive layouts, you’ll quickly run into problems if you don’t take legibility into account. The most obvious case is when the columns are predominantly text-based, where…
Published on 20th December 2013
Instagram is an “app” for smartphones, which allows you to snap a photo, apply a filter effect (if you like) and upload it to the Instagram service. From there, you can share the photos on Facebook, Twitter,…
Published on 12th December 2013
One of the key parts of developing a web design, promoting a project with a graphic design, or presenting an idea to a web client is showing them how the design will actually look. Until the requirement to support a…
Published on 27th November 2013
The first in a series of posts outlining the basics of how designers can plan layouts for the widest possible range of internet-capable devices.
Published on 20th November 2013
The term “responsive design” refers to the fact that a website is suitable for viewing on any device, from a smartphone to a super-sized t.v. screen. But is it actually important, nearly four years after the requirement became prevalent, that…
Published on 19th November 2013
If you’re reading this on the website (and not in an RSS reader or the like) then you’re seeing the new version of the website. Similar to the old one in general terms, but re-built (again) from the ground up…
Published on 15th November 2013
Lessons learned about working in the web whilst listening to the Big Web Show podcast. From keeping a project on track to dampening down your ego a little.
Published on 11th October 2013
Information about the technical solution I've implemented for the grid layout in my photo galleries here on the website.
Published on 2nd October 2013
One of my landscape photos is chosen for a 2014 calendar, complied from submissions from the Swiss Twitter community.
Published on 1st October 2013
Jeremy Keith highlights the dangers of placing your valuable data and creative efforts in the hands of larger companies, out of your control.
Published on 25th September 2013
The news story in this video highlights technical points which seem obvious to most mobile phone users, but which less tech-savvy people may easily overlook. If you take photos when location services are active on your phone, the photos contain…
Published on 13th August 2013
Back in 2011, the organizers of Bike To Work Switzerland approached my employer !frappant Webfactory to re-develop their website and the participants’ admin system. I worked with a third-party usability consultant to re-think and re-design the project, before I carried…
Published on 10th July 2013
