Archive for the ‘website design’ Category

It’s Called HTML 5 and You Should Care!

Posted by Eric on April 13, 2010  |   No Comments »

fort wayne web deisgn HTML5 logo Its Called HTML 5 and You Should Care!There’s a new buzz word going on around the web.  It’s called HTML 5.  And, unless you are a web designer, you probably haven’t heard anything about it.  But, it is rapidly promising to be an amazing way to bring new and exciting things to the web.

Need some proof?  Check out this link that showcases some of the coolest new features of HTML 5, created by the boys at 9Elements Design Studio: HTML 5 DEMO!

Now for many of you – about 32% of you to be exact (according to my Google Analytics) – you saw nothing except the “OH NO” warning.

Wonder why that is?  Well, the simple answer is that Internet Explorer doesn’t yet support HTML 5 elements.

There’s a simple test out that tries to tell us how well any particular browser does at implementing the new HTML 5 standards.  You can find this test at http://www.html5test.com.  I recently went through the test with 6 browsers – 3 Mac and 3 PC.  Here’s the results, starting with the best:

  1. GOOGLE CHROME for the Mac
    Google Chrome for Mac HTML 5 Test ResultsAs you can see, Google Chrome for the Mac scored 137 points out of a possible 160.  A pretty good score.
  2. GOOGLE CHROME for the PC
    fort wayne web deisgn googleChromePC Its Called HTML 5 and You Should Care!Now the real question here is why Google Chrome for the Mac scored 137 but Google Chrome for the PC only scored 118?  But, 118 was still good enough to snag second place
  3. SAFARI for Mac
    fort wayne web deisgn safariMac Its Called HTML 5 and You Should Care!Coming in just 5 points behind Google Chrome for the PC is Safari – Apple’s built in browser for the Mac.  Still a pretty nice score!
  4. FIREFOX for PC and for MAC
    fort wayne web deisgn firefoxPC Its Called HTML 5 and You Should Care!Here we have a tie (the way I think we should).  Bot Firefox for the PC and Firefox for the Mac scored exactly the same score – 101.

    Now, before I move on to last place, notice the above score.  All of them are above 100.  In the grand scheme of things, this is a pretty good result for modern standards such as HTML 5.

    But, now we have last place:

  5. Internet Explorer 8 for PC
    fort wayne web deisgn ie8pc Its Called HTML 5 and You Should Care!A whopping 19!!!! You have got to be kidding me.  This is the best that Microsoft could do?  All the other browsers score over 100 and Internet Explorer – the most recent up to date version – scores only 19?  Obviously something is very wrong here.

So, with all this information about browser scores and HTML 5 comes the obvious question – WHY SHOULD YOU CARE?  Well, the answer is that HTML 5 is going to be the future of the internet and wether you are choosing a browser or, even more important, choosing a web developer, you want someone who is familiar with HTML 5 and can leverage all of its power for your site.  You don’t want someone stuck with old, out-dated technologies designing your site using the same tools, the same tricks that were popular ten or even twenty years ago.

Got questions, want to make comment?  Comment below or CONTACT US today to talk more!

Why I hate Internet Explorer

Posted by Eric on September 28, 2009  |   6 Comments »

So, as a web developer, I have to make sure the a web site works in all browsers.  Generally this includes the following:

  • Safari for Mac
  • Firefox for Mac
  • Internet Explorer for PC
  • Firefox for PC
  • Safari for PC
  • Google Chrome for PC

Of course, I could include a few other browsers (Opera for Mac, Google Chrome for Mac – which is still in developer release).  But this covers the major part of what I’m looking at.  And, again, of course, this doesn’t start to address mobile browsers.

But, the basic job of any decent web designer should be to ensure that a web site looks decent and functions properly in ALL major browsers.

To the uninitiated, this may sound like a fairly simple task.  After all, all browsers are basically the same right?

Well the answer is a resounding NO! All browsers are not equal.  Well, to put it a different way, I could say this:  All browsers are almost equal – except for one.  The truth is that most browsers display things and function in basically the same way with one notable exception – Internet Explorer.  Simply put, Internet Explorer (the big blue E from Microsoft), is the worst browser EVER.

Just recently I was working on some “tweaks” to a site and wanted to see how they looked in Internet Explorer, version 8.  And, of course, they looked awful and didn’t work correctly.  So, I went back to the code to see what was missing.  The answer?  NOTHING.  The code was completely correct, however, Internet Explorer had, once again, invented it’s own rules to display things.

This frustration led me to go to one of the online tests for web browser’s standard compliance.  You see, there is an internationally recognized group of people who come up with how things on the internet should be displayed and what the code is to make something look like “X”.  So this international group puts out “STANDARDS”.  A good browser then would be a browser that adheres to the standards, right?

Well, some of the newest standards available can be checked in a test called ACID3. For anyone so inclined, you can find the test at:  http://acid3.acidtests.org.

I thought it might be fun to run each of the six browsers listed below through the ACID3 test and see what we get.  So, here’s the results:

Safari for Mac

Safari for Mac Acid3 Test Results

Safari for Mac Acid3 Test Results

Firefox for Mac

Firefox for Mac Acid3 Test Results

Firefox for Mac Acid3 Test Results

Firefox for PC

Firefox for PC Acid3 Test Results

Firefox for PC Acid3 Test Results

Safari for PC

Safari for PC Acid3 Test Results

Safari for PC Acid3 Test Results

Google Chrome for PC

Google Chrome Acid3 Test Results

Google Chrome Acid3 Test Results

Internet Explorer (8) for PC

Internet Explorer 8 for PC Acid3 Test Results

Internet Explorer 8 for PC Acid3 Test Results

Now, I know that the numbers aren’t the only things that matter.  I know that ACID3 is about more than just the javascript tests.  It also has a display element and render element, etc.

But, I don’t think we really need to go any further than the numbers.  If we take Internet Explorer out of the mix, the lowest score is a 93.  Still a very impressive score – especially considering that ACID3 test some very new HTML specifications – ones that really aren’t being used widely yet.

However, Internet Explorer got a miserable 20 out of 100.  What  a failure.  And, what is sad about this is that Internet Explorer still is the most popular browser (click the graph below):

Web Browser Comparison Graph (click for larger)

Web Browser Comparison Graph

While I continue to test against Internet Explorer, my only hope is that soon, very soon everyone will realize what a bad, bad, bad browser Internet Explorer really is (we haven’t even talked about security…) and switch.  But, I’m probably living in a dream world, right?

Digg Dialog with Marissa Mayer

Posted by Eric on August 8, 2009  |   No Comments »

Just recently, I’ve been watching the Digg Dialog with Marissa Mayer. I’m embedding it below.

But, first of all, a little information to make sure we are all up to speed:

1. DIGG – for those of you who don’t know about DIGG, you have to check it out. Digg is one of the most popular web site’s in America. Founded by Kevin Rose (his blog – http://kevinrose.com/), DIGG (http://www.digg.com) is a user generated news site.  Users submit new articles that they find on the web.  Then the users vote (i.e. DIGG) these stories up or down.  Stories with the most diggs appear at the top (on the home page).  With well over 50 million users – it can be VERY interesting to see what is being dugg right now.

2.  DIGG DIALOG – this is the same concept as digg – but applied to interviews.  DIGG will announce a new Dialog coming up.  Then users will submit questions that they would like asked.  Users will then vote (digg) stories up or down.  The top 10 questions – as determined by US, not the interviewer or news channel – are then asked.

Previous Dialog’s have included Trent Reznor, Richard Branson, Nancy Pelosi…

3.  MARISSA MAYER – Marissa is the Vice President for Search and User Experience at Google.  Her influence is all over the search side of Google.

So, the top ten questions, as voted on by the DIGG community were asked of Marissa.  Here’s the video:

Google page 1 – Fort wayne website design!

Posted by Eric on November 2, 2008  |   No Comments »

OK, if you have been reading my posts at all, I have finally cracked into page number 1 on Google!

My keyword / search phrase is “Fort Wayne Website Design”.  And my current results are:

Google: #7
MSN: #1
Yahoo: #1

 So, that seems like a pretty good results.  I’ll be watching my blog stats (I’m using both Google analytics and WP-Stats) to see if this means any more traffic.

Questions and issues that remain to be solved:

1.  Why don’t I appear in the top 10 LOCAL results in Google?
2.  Why do I appear #1 in Yahoo and MSN, but only #7 in Google – I need Google to be Top 5
3.  Is this a good search term?  Should I optimize for something better?  Should I “ADD” another option – i.e. try to stay #1 on the current term (“Fort Wayne Website Design”), but add another term?

So, I’ll be watching, reading data, and asking questions over the next month to see what the answers are.  Keep reading, I’ll have answers in the future.