Ultimate IE 6 Cheatsheet

I hate it. But the fact remains that Internet Explorer 6 is still being used by a significant number of people. I’ve vowed to close Imp Designs to celebrate the day IE 6 market share drops below 5%, but until that happy day we’re stuck with it. Here’s a link to an awesome site filled with documentation about how to deal with this standards hostile steaming pile of $#%!!

Ultimate IE 6 Cheatsheet

Ultimate htaccess Guide

We manage over 120 websites over at Imp Designs. There’s always some reason to fiddle with the .htaccess files… redirects, URL rewrites, password access… all sorts of web server activities can be managed by modifying the .htaccess file. This site is the best all in one place references I’ve found.

Ultimate .htaccess Guide

NEWS FLASH! Clicking in a Website Isn’t Evil!

An awesome article on UX Booth explaining that usability isn’t tied to how many times you click, but to how simple the click choices are to make. Long live simple interfaces!

Stop Counting Clicks!

Bad Web Layouts and How to Avoid Them

Excellent little article with examples of widely used but bad web layouts. Better yet, concrete examples of alternatives to these ‘in the rut’ layouts.

Bad Layout Conventions

One Stop OSX Ruby Environment

I just got a new laptop, and Jerrod has convinced me to load everything fresh instead of using the migration tools to just copy over all my stuff from the old laptop. A royal pain in the ass, but considering the old laptop is seven going on eight years old and has remnants of four operating systems upgrades it’s definitely the correct strategy.

I’m playing catch-up with the ninja on this ruby thing. The link below contains a list of gems and associated software that the author claims will probably have a life span of around 6 months, so don’t expect this list to be relevant for much longer. Still… a great starting point for setting up a ruby on rails development environment on the mac.

Giant Robots' Rubyist Setup Guide

Eye Candy Rocks

Some web pundits, most notably Jakob Nielson (who I refuse to link to), claim that design impedes usability. This is frequently rolled out as an excuse for ugly ass websites which work despite their visual shortcomings (Myspace anyone?). Reminds me of when the first band I was ever in would say, “We play this cover song, but we play it our way because we don’t want to just play it like the original.” Truth was, we couldn’t have played it like the original if our lives depended upon it. I suspect something similar is true when I hear someone say that they know their site is ugly, but boy do they get good ranking on Google. Truth is, their site doesn’t have to be ugly… they just don’t have the design skills to make it look nice.

Below is an article that points to studies that show that design does matter. According to the studies cited in the article attractively designed things just plain work better. I love it.

In defense of eye candy.

Let the Countdown Begin

Soon, my long suffering friends…. soon. IE 6 is not long for this earth and personally I couldn’t be happier. The list of companies announcing an end of support for IE 6 include ExpressionEngine and 37 Signals, the makers of Basecamp. Thanks to Jerrod for pointing me to this article on the joy of coding sites after the demise of Internet Explorer 6.

10 Cool Things We’ll Be Able To Do Once IE6 Is Dead

Call To Action Button Tips

I’ve discovered an awesome usability-centric website while surfing Smashing Magazine. The site is the UX Booth and it focuses squarely on designing more usable web pages. 

The article below has a bunch of useful tips on creating effective call to action buttons. 

Call to Action Buttons

Git Yer Ruby On!

There’s an awesome this-is-what-it’s-all-about article at Smashing Magazine describing in fairly non-technical language what Ruby on Rails is all about. Our company has been using RoR for custom web development for a while now. Our latest Ruby creation is a registration app that was built for Valley Metro. Start to finish (including planning, meeting with the various stakeholders in the project, scoping, wireframing, testing and execution) in 12 days.

Getting Started With Ruby on Rails

Awesome CSS Cheat Sheet

Here’s a link to a dang handy quick reference for CSS. This version includes a visual reference to the box model and lists all selectors and properties.

CSS Cheat Sheet

Pitfalls of Large Organization Sites

We have several clients that fall into some of the traps outlined in this article on Smashing Magazine.

My favorites are 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7.

10 Harsh Truths About Corporate Websites

Measure Twice, Cut Once

My grandfather, Rueben Payne, taught me the age old lesson of carpentry—measure twice, cut once—as part of a bigger lesson about planning and being sure of your actions before undertaking them. A bit of planning and careful consideration before doing always helps conserve resources and increases efficiency.

In web development, wireframes and site outlines are the two measures before the cut. We include a line item in our proposals for planning and it’s amazing how often clients wish to skip this step. It’s happened so frequently, we’re considering changing our proposals to just include the planning with the coding.

Below is a link to an article on wireframing techniques and goals. If you’re a fellow web developer or a potential client, read this article to gain an insight into the power of a well constructed wire frame.

20 Steps to Better Wireframing