CategoryMaintenance

February 16, 2019 — Web applications require maintenance just like any other type of software, but as an industry, it is not something that we highlight enough. As a result, we are exposing our clients to a tangible risk as well as leaving money on the table. Read more…

August 12, 2014 — A lot of funny 404 pages have been shared recently: carefully crafted memes, funny GIFs, even the odd interactive game. But if the 404 doesn’t help your visitors, then what’s the point? A visitor could find themselves on a 404 page for one of many reasons: a mistyped address, a bad link from somewhere else, a deleted page or content that has moved elsewhere. While you can prevent errors from moved pages with redirects, you can’t control people’s mistakes. Read more…

March 21, 2014 — If you’ve searched recently for tips on optimizing WordPress’ performance, then you have definitely come across various techniques that people recommend. Read more…

October 12, 2011 —

Imagine you’re playing the latest hash-tag game on Twitter when you see this friendly tweet: “You might want to check your #WP site. It includes two copies of jQuery. Nothing’s broken, but loading time will be slower.” You check your source code, and sure enough you see this:

August 26, 2011 — I think a lot of us CSS authors are doing it wrong. We are selfish by nature; we get into our little bubbles, writing CSS (as amazing as it may be) with only ourselves in mind. How many times have you inherited a CSS file that’s made you say “WTF” at least a dozen times. Read more…

August 5, 2011 — Right now is an exciting time to be in the Web design community. Every month we seem to stumble on a new thought-provoking way to put our expanding tool set to use for our clients and the patrons of the Web. Many designers are chomping at the bit to litter their websites with new CSS, advanced HTML and ultra-engaging JavaScript. By all means, go out and use every last declaration and element you can get your hands on. Abusing, misusing and taking advantage of everything the Web could possibly offer is the best way to learn about what we can and can’t and should and shouldn’t do in future Whether you are excitedly exploring responsive design, diving headlong into accessibility, building a typographic masterpiece or seeing what level of interactivity you can achieve, all of your Web-based projects should have a common core. All of the new methods being discussed in the design community daily might be overwhelming, but no matter what route you ultimately take, almost any Web project you embark on today should start with solid HTML and logical CSS. This may seem like common sense, but the fact is that very, very few websites today benefit from sensationally optimized HTML and CSS and appropriately applied JavaScript. Read more…

June 9, 2011 — Read more…

May 18, 2011 — In this article I’ll be reviewing a few techniques that will help Web designers and UI professionals to improve their error pages in order to engage visitors and improve overall website experience. As C. S. Lewis once said, “Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement”. Web designers should take this to heart. I’ll be focusing on error and maintenance pages, both from tracking as well as usability perspectives. I’ll also be providing a good number of examples on how to use analytics and defensive design in order to optimize user experience for such pages. First, let’s go over the error pages and cover the questions on how to optimize them efficiently. Read more…

July 30, 2010 — Recently I released a WordPress plugin for Google Analytics that adds a tracking code and dozens of various pieces of meta data to blogs. Since the release of version 4, I’ve updated it 6 times, to the point where it’s now at version 4.0.6. In this article I would like to share with you my experiences in maintaining this and other WordPress plug-ins and common good practices that I’ve distilled from that work. Read more…

November 4, 2009 — One of the biggest advantages of online media over print is the ability to change, update, and enhance online media at virtually anytime, with virtually no negative side effects. In fact, if a website or web application does not continually offer its users an ever-evolving and growing experience, that site or application would soon become insecure, unusable, and out of date. Read more…