Anna Ullrich : design

“Sadistic” Web Developers Taunt Internet Explorer 6 Users

Anna — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 21:59:28 GMT

There’s a good article on CNN.com today titled “Web citizens trying to kill Internet Explorer 6”, about web developers going on the offense to get users of IE 6 to upgrade their browser. I was hoping to see Expression Web MVP Morten Rand-Hendricksen’s own website Stop Living In The Past mentioned in the article, but the article only mentions http://www.ie6nomore.com/ and http://www.bringdownie6.com/, although there are many more sites out there devoted to squashing IE6.

Web developers are naturally motivated to kill IE 6 primarily because it would make their jobs much easier. At the same time, the phrase “job security” always comes to mind when I hear web developers complain about this or that browser quirk they have to troubleshoot in order to perfect their client’s website. If getting a website to look consistently across multiple browsers was as easy as web developers wish, the job market for developers might shrivel up! ;)

Out of curiosity I opened that CNN article in SuperPreview, comparing the page as it appears in FireFox 3 with the page as it appears in IE 6, to see how well the CNN web developers did in accounting for IE 6 readers. Pretty darn good. The content is all readable, that’s most important, but there are big shifts in the layout; guess it’s time to get back to work CNN web developers!

In case you’re wondering, the title of this post is inspired by a quote in that CNN article from a post by Mark Trammel of Digg, which reads “Giving them a message saying, “Hey! Upgrade!” in this case is not only pointless; it’s sadistic.” True, true …

Give up CSS layouts and use tables

Anna — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 05:39:30 GMT

The clock is ticking ….

http://giveupandusetables.com/

( Thanks to Janko Jovanovic for making me aware of this site )

Test your sites in different versions of Internet Explorer (Part 2) – Introducing SuperPreview (BETA)

Anna — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 22:40:00 GMT

My earlier post Test your websites in different versions of Internet Explorer has received a lot of hits since posted it and so I'm really pleased to submit this follow-up post on a new feature developed by my Expression Web team called SuperPreview that helps with the same problem.

Rather than repeat what others have already written about so far, I'll just post links to their reviews and our articles on SuperPreview:

http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/03/19/microsoft-superpreview-website-tester/

http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/03/microsoft-announces-superpreview-for-ie-browser-testing/

http://www.istartedsomething.com/20090318/expression-web-superpreview-cross-browser-testing/

http://blogs.msdn.com/xweb/archive/2009/03/18/superpreview-technology.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/xweb/archive/2009/03/18/Microsoft-Expression-Web-SuperPreview-for-Windows-Internet-Explorer.aspx

http://expression.microsoft.com/en-us/dd565874.aspx

http://www.designisphilosophy.com/microsoft-expression-web/introducing-expression-web-superpreview-cross-browser-testing-at-your-fingertips-20090318/

Video interview with Erik Saltwell from the Microsoft Expression Web team:

http://visitmix.com/News/Expression-Web-SuperPreview

Download the free public BETA version of SuperPreview here:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/6/8/568F0D28-0434-4794-B7FC-FB293BCC98FB/SuperPreview_Trial_en.exe

New forum at Smashing Magazine

Anna — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 08:52:14 GMT

Smashing Magazine has launched a new forum:

http://forum.smashingmagazine.com/

And they’re giving away web-related books to randomly selected registered forum members this Friday, Feb 13, 2009:

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/02/09/smashing-forum-launch-and-books-giveaway/

If you get in early, you can get the username you want as I did…I got the username Anna :)

Separating the wheat from the chaff: Script & Style helps you find the best web development articles

Anna — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 10:18:00 GMT

The Community Server control panel for my blog purports to show me what site a person was on when they clicked a link and came to my blog. Looking at the panel tonight, I noticed many hits coming to my post “Test your websites in different versions of Internet Explorer” from scriptandstyle.com where my post was included in the queue. So I thought I’d return the love and blog about Script and Style where web developers, web designers, markup monkeys, etc. can submit links to articles they think are interesting and are about “the latest and greatest in XHTML, CSS, and javascript.”

The submissions are all moderated behind the scenes to ensure only good stuff is posted. The latest links to articles include the following:

From webdesignfromscratch.com: This article shows you how to use CSS floats to achieve any column layout, while keeping your most important content highest on the page.
From CSSGlobe.com: New version of the Easy Slider plugin for jQuery is here. It features auto slide, continuous sliding, multiple sliders on one page and more…
From new.uxmatters.com: Beyond Usability: Designing Web Sites for Persuasion, Emotion, and Trust - The next wave in Web site design is persuasive design, designing for persuasion, emotion, and trust. While usability is still a fundamental requirement for effective Web site design, it is no longer enough to design sites that are simply easy to navigate and understand so users can complete transactions. As business mandates for Web site design have grown more strategic, complex, and demanding of accountability, good usability has become the price of competitive entry. So, while usability is important, it is no longer the key differentiator it once was.

And of course my post on testing websites in different versions of Internet Explorer. Good stuff !

Test your websites in different versions of Internet Explorer

Anna — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 02:33:00 GMT

[Update March 18, 2009 - see my new post about a new feature called SuperPreview for testing your website in multiple versions of IE: http://blogs.msdn.com/anna/archive/2009/03/18/test-your-sites-in-different-versions-of-internet-explorer-part-2-introducing-superpreview-beta.aspx . Now back to the original post ....]

Many web developers that I know rely on multiple physical machines or virtual environments to test their websites in different versions of Internet Explorer. Seems to be one of the most time consuming tasks that a web developer does…not just tweaking their markup to ensure cross-browser compatibility, but also the manual process of pulling up each page of their website in different browsers, browser versions, and on different platforms to boot.

Some alternatives exist for testing your website in different versions of Internet Explorer, including:

IE Netrenderer - http://ipinfo.info/netrenderer/
I just discovered this one today while reading some threads on the tcwebpros.org discussion alias, and am surprised I haven’t heard of it before. It has one of the easiest to use interfaces and fastest results for this type of online screenshot service. Just go to their website, insert the URL you want to test, select the version of Internet Explorer that you want to test in, and click Render. Here’s a screenshot of their website showing the Microsoft Expression homepage as it appears on Internet Explorer 6 – wow, the site looks perfect!
r
IETester - http://www.my-debugbar.com/wiki/IETester/HomePage
I found out about this application from Chris Coyier who apparently develops on a Mac and uses IE Tester to check the appearance of his sites on different versions of Internet Explorer. Seems reliable but I can’t help but wonder about the fidelity of it compared to viewing a page in the browser itself.
And last, and yes least, on my list is Browsershots http://browsershots.org/
I say “least” because the process is just too slow and that gets frustrating, especially when you wait and wait and the screenshot has failed or something.

Do websites need to look exactly the same in every browser?

Anna — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 03:00:52 GMT

…depends on who you talk to.

If you talk to a visual designer, such as the person who develops web comps in Photoshop but doesn’t know their way around web page markup, the answer is probably YES. If you talk to the client that is hiring the web developer to build the website, the answer is probably YES. But if you talk to a web developer, the one who knows what it takes to address all the quirks and differences of interpretation in browsers and devices, you’ll probably get a different, more realistic answer: It’s impossible!

I came across the following website which purports to have the answer to the question “Do websites need to look exactly the same in every browser?”

http://dowebsitesneedtolookexactlythesameineverybrowser.com/

That website’s answer?

Hmmm, who’s right? :)

P.S.

I looked up the domain registrar info for that domain name and it is registered to Dan Cederholm of http://www.simplebits.com … a guy who knows a little something about developing for the web :)

Easy discount for An Event Apart Web Design Conference

Anna — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 01:55:26 GMT

If you plan to attend An Event Apart this year and you are on Facebook, you should join the Designing with Web Standards Facebook group where Jeffrey Zeldman is currently offering members $100 off the An Event Apart registration fee, just for being a member of his Facebook group.

ART = DECOR

Anna — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 03:39:00 GMT

Question: What's fine art photography?

Spike Mafford's reply:

"...art that's used as decor rather than a commercial application, like on a coffee mug or a packaging somehow."

Art is decor ... yikes, if you feel like starting a riot sometime, say that to some artists at an art opening. :)

I don't have the time or desire to get into a big debate about what is art, instead, I just wanted to share the Crossfader website http://www.crossfader.com with you, which is where I pulled that nugget of a quote from a video interview with the fine art photographer Spike Mafford.

I became aware of the Crossfader website a few years ago but didn't follow it and quickly forgot about it, but was reminded of it by someone I carpooled with last week. The site contains a lot of interesting video interviews with creatives working in all sorts of media, especially music. The site happens to be backed by Microsoft and one of the site's objectives is to, as they say, ".... see how great art is created using the PC and amazing software from a wide range of companies."

From the Crossfader About page:

Q. What is Crossfader?
A. Crossfader is a online magazine aimed at the professional and next generation digital artists. Our main goal was to create a site that features video interviews and stories with artists who use technology in their work. We feel the PC has transformed how art and expression is made and we’d like to share that story. Our motto is Artist. Creative. expression

Good stuff.

Am I hot or not?

Anna — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 06:47:00 GMT

You've visited the http://www.hotornot.com/ website. You've voted. You've compared your vote to the average of all other voters. (You've wondered if the rumors are true that the founders of hotornot sold it for 20 million.)

Maybe you've also visited http://www.hotcaptcha.com/, but that felt a little cruel and so you went to http://www.hotornotchurchsites.com/ to feel good again.

Then you moved on to more sophisticated websites, including http://kittenwar.com/ and http://www.macbattle.com/ .

But now it's time to get serious folks, and pass judgement on more important things... Like the hotness of websites!

From Technorati founder David Sifry:

http://okorko.com

From a guy in Germany who also maintains a blog devoted to topics about Google:

http://www.hotornotdesigns.com/

From some feisty folks in New York City:

http://commandshift3.com

Fun stuff. So do you know of any more design-oriented 'hot or not' websites? Let me know! Also let me know if you know of any other quirky and silly ones.

This post was inspired by Carl Camera (LOVE that name!) whose vinetype website (created with Expression Web and Expression Design ) was voted best website in January by the commandshift3.com voters. See Carl's blog post about it. Congratulations Carl, very nice!

In 3 and a half minutes, all you need to know about web design and web standards

Anna — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 22:26:00 GMT