Sat, 06/09/2008 - 8:50pm.
"One of the annoying things about changing the number of characters for teasers in Drupal is that you have to edit and save every single node (page, story etc) for the change to take effect. Well, it doesn't have to be that difficult, because here is a nice little script that will update all of the teasers at once."
Wed, 03/09/2008 - 10:59am.
Reducing the number of tags required for loading an external javascript library by combining them into one tag. "Only one tag – and the semantics would work like this: The external script would attempt to be loaded (as normal). If the load and execution was error-free then the internal script would be executed as well. If the load or execution failed then the internal script would not be executed. "
Wed, 03/09/2008 - 10:56am.
"For Aurora we saw an opportunity to change the browser’s focus from the page to the individual “object”. Giving users the ability to interact directly with the atomic parts of a given web page offered greater personalization of their Internet experience. " This has interesting repercusions for webdesign as well.
Wed, 03/09/2008 - 10:18am.
John Resig, jQuery creator & Mozilla hacker, writes about the significance of the process manager in Google Chrome: "The blame of bad performance or memory consumption no longer lies with the browser but with the site."
Wed, 03/09/2008 - 10:14am.
(dutch) An overview of the Natural User Interface, a term coined by Microsoft for their Surface concept.
Tue, 02/09/2008 - 7:48am.
Should be released any time now, curious if the screenshots in the comic are like the browser.
Mon, 01/09/2008 - 6:12am.
Ubiquity is "experiment into connecting the Web with language in an attempt to find new user interfaces that could make it possible for everyone to do common Web tasks more quickly and easily." A command-line for the web, connecting services through a hotkey.
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Sun, 31/08/2008 - 3:19pm.
Critical comparison of mine and Selwyn's vision on the Digital Divide.
Thu, 28/08/2008 - 9:02am.
Will Microsoft make new virtual machines available for testing purposes? I hate buying another Windows license just to get my testing setup of IE6, IE7 and IE8 complete…
Tue, 26/08/2008 - 12:32pm.
(Dutch) "Bezoekers komen op je site vanwege de content die je er aanbiedt. Maar welke content bied je het beste aan? Waar doe je dat het beste en in welke vorm? Met een contentstrategie geef je succesvol antwoord op de vragen van je bezoekers."
Tue, 26/08/2008 - 9:57am.
Google graduates the Google Suggest feature, which auto-completes search entries (and spellcorrects them), to the homepage.
Tue, 26/08/2008 - 9:54am.
"Since at least Richard Saul Wurman’s 1996 book Information Architects, architecture has been the primary metaphor for how we think about what we do. By adding a new metaphor to our theoretical toolboxes, we can gain a richer, more nuanced understanding of what we create and how our users interact with it."
Mon, 25/08/2008 - 11:23am.
Very useful Drupal module to customize the way taxonomy fields are displayed in CCK content types. It will replace the (fixed) taxonomy input method, allowing you to configure different widgets and adjust the field order.
Mon, 25/08/2008 - 10:59am.
Useful article that describes the most important steps to properly configure FCKEditor with file uploads on Drupal.
Thu, 21/08/2008 - 10:16am.
"This is a simple little solution to the issue that there isn’t a native control to really do the job. What you really probably want here is the ability to drop down and select items, or just type into the select box field itself." Check out the comments for better versions of the solution though.
Thu, 21/08/2008 - 8:56am.
A superior alternative to PhpMyadmin, which is slow and has a very cumbersome interface. SQL Buddy has a zippy, minimalistic interface. Installation couldn't be easier; just drop the files in the webroot and you're done.
Wed, 20/08/2008 - 5:54pm.
The ultimate software prank. Really, everyone who leaves his or her computer unattended in my presence can count on getting this baby installed. Let that be a warning and a reminder to properly secure your computer! (via codinghorror)
Wed, 20/08/2008 - 4:55pm.
"Today I'm going to show you how to build an alternate page and style sheet for the iPhone and iTouch. We will cover how to detect if the user is using an iPhone to view your page as well as the orientation of the device – whether it be landscape or portrait. To accomplish this we will be using javascript, and some Safari mobile specific CSS tags."
Wed, 20/08/2008 - 4:38pm.
An excellent, albeit technical, discussion on the pro's and cons of using the panels module for Drupal. I agree with Bèr's points that the UI is too complex for non-technical users.
Mon, 11/08/2008 - 10:20am.
For making your web-app keyboard-friendly: "jQuery.Hotkeys plugin lets you easily add and remove handlers for keyboard events anywhere in your code supporting almost any key combination. It takes one line of code to bind/unbind a hot key combination."
Mon, 11/08/2008 - 10:19am.
Easy to follow tutorial, very handy as a reference for understanding those cheatsheets.
Mon, 11/08/2008 - 10:17am.
A meta-web: "ShiftSpace (pronounced: §) is an open source browser plugin for collaboratively annotating, editing and shifting the web. ShiftSpace is an open source layer above any website. It seeks to expand the creative possibilities currently provided through the web."
Mon, 11/08/2008 - 10:11am.
Interesting approach to redesign browser history navigation, showing some simple mockups and a video prototype of very visual, integrated approach that includes weather and location details.
Fri, 08/08/2008 - 11:37am.
"A short while back, the folks at Adaptive Path invited me and the gang at Unit to contribute to a cool project they had in the works for Mozilla Labs. Our part would be to design how The New York Times sports page would look a few years into the future." Interesting perspective on the role of newspapers in the future vision represented by Aurora.
Fri, 08/08/2008 - 11:34am.
Very cool: "Aurora is a concept video presenting one possible future user experience for the Web, created by Adaptive Path as part of the Mozilla Labs concept browser series. Aurora explores new ways people could interact with the Web in the future based on projected technological trends and real-world scenarios."
Fri, 08/08/2008 - 11:27am.
A graphical keyboard user interface integrated in Firefox. An interesting look at a possible direction for browser development, heavily inspired by Humanized's Enso and Jeff Raskins concept of integrated applications.
Fri, 08/08/2008 - 11:11am.
Very cool: "Greasepocket is a version of Greasemonkey for the iPhone. Just like Greasemonkey userscripts can be installed via the web. These scripts can access the accelerometer and location APIs (perhaps more). Greasepocket has the potential to shift some of the balance back to the web."
Now let's wait and see if Apple will approve this app if it comes out.
Fri, 08/08/2008 - 11:10am.
A nice list, but you have to realise these examples aren't very creative in terms of functionality or interaction, rather in terms of graphic design.
Fri, 08/08/2008 - 11:07am.
Nice step-by-step tutorial that demonstrates where to download sIFR3 and how to install it onto your website or in this case, a WordPress theme.
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Fri, 08/08/2008 - 11:05am.
Problem: a Drupal user role can't publish/unpublish nodes without the "Administer Nodes" permission from node.module. Solution: Override Node Options module (allows a Role to be able to publish/unpublish the nodes they already have permission to Create or Edit) and the View Unpublished module.
Fri, 08/08/2008 - 10:58am.
"We all know content management systems (CMS) can be beneficial for most websites. However, they do come with five hidden costs. These include: the cost of training, the cost to quality, the cost to functionality, the cost of redundancy and flexibility and the cost of commitment. "
Fri, 08/08/2008 - 10:55am.
Bert Bos, who will be at the 2008 Fronteers conference, presents several arguments why CSS shouldn't provide variables. It's not a compelling argument, and the design of the page is incredibly corny, but it's interesting to hear this argument from one of the original creators of CSS.
Fri, 08/08/2008 - 10:44am.
A gallery page is what we'd dubb a landing page – any page that a user can choose from a selection of options to proceed through the site, like a product catalogue. Jared Spool provides valuable insight in how to optimize these pages to eliminate 'pogosticking' – the back and forth clicking to find out what each option does. Understanding how order and layout of the links affect the user's behavior is critical.
Fri, 08/08/2008 - 10:38am.
Seems like a good resource for sound effects. "Soundsnap is the best platform to find and share free sound effects and loops- legally. It is a collection of original sounds made or recorded by its users, and not songs or sound FX found on commercial libraries or sample CD's."
Fri, 08/08/2008 - 10:37am.
Nice (short) article from the Official Google Webmaster Central Blog on how to tackle the organizational parts a multilingual site.
Sun, 03/08/2008 - 10:48am.
"Web without sense is a platform. Essentially a blog, it is a gallery of common place website design/layout/marketing/general annoyances on the Internet. Equally, it is satirical dialogue aimed to get a message across while being frank and outward." Some hilarious quotes on common webdesign mistakes here.
Mon, 28/07/2008 - 12:35pm.
"This jQuery plugin generates sparklines (small inline charts) directly in the browser using data supplied either inline in the HTML, or via javascript."
Mon, 28/07/2008 - 11:55am.
(dutch) " In een reeks van vijf afleveringen zal ik aan de hand van concrete voorbeelden demonstreren hoe je tich meer uit je data kunt halen. In aflevering een: hoe te beginnen met web analytics?"
Mon, 21/07/2008 - 1:57pm.
I like using smart CSS names to keep my CSS DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself). Using presentational class names (such as "horizontal", "left", "right") makes it very easy to quickly create complicated structures.
Mon, 21/07/2008 - 1:53pm.
"Create your own heat maps using HeatMapAPI. Use it over the Internet or as a .NET DLL to run in your environment. Integrate heat map images into Google Maps or other GIS systems."
Mon, 21/07/2008 - 1:41pm.
Display a customized tooltip instead of the default one for every selected element. Replacing standard tooltips is easy: Just include the script on the page, add a stylesheet, select the elements to tooltip and call the tooltip plugin.
Mon, 21/07/2008 - 1:38pm.
Just like the Coda-slider, this jQuery plugin transforms a series of divs into horizontally sliding content.
Thu, 17/07/2008 - 1:30pm.
This looks like an interesting interaction design concept: the slot machine metaphor is used for selection variables, while shaking your iPhone will show you the results. Nifty!
Thu, 17/07/2008 - 1:27pm.
"Opera’s new Web Standards Curriculum, released in association with the Yahoo! Developer Network, is a complete course to teach you standards-based web development, including HTML, CSS, design principles and background theory, and JavaScript basics."
Fri, 04/07/2008 - 1:07pm.
(dutch) "Het is volgens McGovern voor de overheid belangrijk niet geobsedeerd te raken door technologie en de focus te leggen op het helpen van gebruikers om hun taken te realiseren. De overheid moet zich niet bezighouden met het managen van websites en s
Fri, 04/07/2008 - 1:00pm.
"Softkinetic is using 3D cameras to track your movement and converts it to similar movements in a virtual space. If you need to jump over an obstacle you simply jump, if you want to reach out for something, you simply do that."
Fri, 04/07/2008 - 11:10am.
Apparantly, one axis upon which Google measures the complexity of its homepage is in the number of words featured on it.
Wed, 02/07/2008 - 7:54am.
Another zooming & panning interface for a subselection of the Amazon bookstore. Controls are very much like Google Maps (and seems to be implemented using the Open Source variants thereof).
Tue, 01/07/2008 - 8:49am.
Google now extracts text and links for Flash (SWF) websites. I wonder what the consequences are for websites with an HTML version, since that’s technically duplicate content…
Tue, 01/07/2008 - 8:39am.
Some very useful tips for those old-style dudes still working in a terminal from time to time (like me, when I’m configuring a Linux server, or need so quick & dirty hacks on my Mac).
Tue, 01/07/2008 - 8:30am.
A (slightly outdated) article on the necessities of navigation on websites. General advice: however cool your navigation is, it would be better if there was less of it.
Sat, 28/06/2008 - 12:13pm.
(Dutch) "Mediamatic geeft al haar boeken weg. We roepen het publiek op de hele boekencollectie te komen halen en zelf goed voor het culturele kapitaal te gaan zorgen. Mediamatic kan dat niet langer alleen."
Sat, 28/06/2008 - 11:57am.
I knew I wasn’t the only one using this technique! Although you could argue classes such as .left or .left are purely visual and unsemantic, they can be used in addition to semantic names.
Fri, 27/06/2008 - 11:21am.
Excellent article with some common best-practices to prevent some of the most annoying cross-browser compatibility problems.
Fri, 27/06/2008 - 9:43am.
Paper prototypes of various websites, like Flickr, Twitter and Vimeo. Very cool!
Fri, 27/06/2008 - 9:28am.
whoisi.com seems like a nice twist on the focus of social networking sites on accounts instead of people by providing wiki-style adding of feeds.
Tue, 24/06/2008 - 12:43pm.
"Migrating changes from development to production is particularly tricky in Drupal due to a large amount of configuration settings being stored within the database." These scripts provide an automated answer though.
Mon, 23/06/2008 - 3:19pm.
A very nice rant-like article on the perceptons of social media by a 50-year old who compares it to the closeness and touchiness of the hippy-era – "I’m 50 years old. I get the whole social media gig. It’s like Woodstock on the ‘Net, where people ga
Mon, 23/06/2008 - 3:16pm.
A Firefox wrapper that lets you launch a particular Firefox version with a (dedicated) profile (Mac-only). Takes the pain out of the manual launching of Firefox X with profile Y!
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Sat, 21/06/2008 - 1:25pm.
Nice (Dutch) post on how to leverage Google Trends to use the correct keywords for search engine optimization.
Wed, 18/06/2008 - 8:18am.
Use this module to insert language prefixes in pathauto. This will allow unique (language-specific) nodes and language-neutral nodes.
Wed, 18/06/2008 - 7:56am.
A proposal for adding the href (and related) attributes to a lot more elements in HTML5, to provide easy linking. This document adds use cases and discusses pro’s and cons. Very interesting since it touches the very core of the Web.
Wed, 18/06/2008 - 7:53am.
Podipodi is Quicksilver or Enso for websites: "a special widget that makes possible the integration of a smart command line interface and a bunch of additional services directly into your website to perform common web-tasks."
Wed, 18/06/2008 - 7:48am.
The runner-ups for the webby’s this year for navigation (Schematic.com and Blenderbox.com) feature some interesting zoomable interfaces.
Wed, 18/06/2008 - 7:37am.
"I don’t think I’ve seen reliable research on this, and if I did I think I’d be suspicious of it anyway as the complexity of the issue isn’t about number, but about complexity of concept."
Wed, 18/06/2008 - 7:28am.
"There are two popular approaches to positioning with CSS: float and absolute positioning. Both approaches have their pros and cons. My teammates and I have developed a new positioning approach that gives us the best of both worlds"
Fri, 13/06/2008 - 3:00pm.
There are many contributed node access control modules for Drupal and you really should understand the basics of node access before installing and configuring one. Read this article for a non-developers guide.
Thu, 12/06/2008 - 11:41am.
"This tutorial focuses on the big picture steps taken to create this image. You’ll learn some incredible techniques in this tutorial, and get a view into how Nik Ainley creates beautiful photo-manipulation based images."
Wed, 11/06/2008 - 8:06am.
Yahoo has expanded its Design Pattern Library to also include social interaction design patterns. This one’s for reputation. One could easily see patterns for all kinds of aspects of social networking sites (would be a nice research subject for a master s
Tue, 10/06/2008 - 2:36pm.
"ThemeRoller is a web app that offers a fun and intuitive interface for designing and downloading custom themes for jQuery UI."
Tue, 10/06/2008 - 2:36pm.
Details on the new release for jQuery UI, which includes widgets and animations for web applications. Too bad the demo’s work poorly in Safari.
Sun, 08/06/2008 - 1:29pm.
"The search and views modules can be glued together and made to cooperate using the views fastsearch module. In this article I show how to build a search form that has filters for taxonomy terms and content types."
Sun, 08/06/2008 - 1:27pm.
This Drupal module (first beta is now out) provides a GUI for pushing data and content from your development server to the production server. No support for node deployment yet though…
Sun, 08/06/2008 - 1:21pm.
Cool mashup prototype that mixes the SIMILE Timeline component with Twitter using jQuery.
Sun, 08/06/2008 - 1:16pm.
Beautiful wallpapers that mix nature and design in creative ways.
Sun, 08/06/2008 - 10:55am.
Some great (photoshopped) photographs of Dutch soccer heroes.
Sat, 07/06/2008 - 3:05pm.
“I often get asked–by students, by design professionals in the HCI community–how someone without degrees in literature (etc.) can practice criticism. But for the sake of accessibility, and at the risk of being flamed for attempting to present the practice of criticism in a bullet-list laden blog post, I offer a high-level overview of what (I think) interaction criticism looks like. “
Sat, 07/06/2008 - 2:03pm.
"This post will offer much more concrete, do-it-yourself strategies that I believe anyone could start doing today."
Sat, 07/06/2008 - 2:02pm.
“This post continues a multi-part series on interaction criticism begun here. The series goal is to offer a useful introduction to criticism in the context of interaction design, targeted at interaction design professionals.”
Sat, 07/06/2008 - 1:42pm.
A great example of how an interactive chart can provide much more information in a coincise manner than traditional reporting. There’s lots of information here, showing clear relationships between age, gender and colour in voting trends, without losing some subtler nuances that often get lost presenting statistics.
Sat, 07/06/2008 - 1:37pm.
Yes, a top-ten list, but actually a pretty good one. The examples are beautiful, and the analysis clarifies why they’re so good.
Fri, 06/06/2008 - 2:13pm.
A great write-up of the process that one developer went through in creating a gorgeous website. Using lots of custom modules and some great front-end tricks (e.g. using Flash for transparency effects), the result is nothing short of amazing.
Thu, 05/06/2008 - 3:35pm.
Using the ScrollTo plugin family, this article teaches you how to create a scrolling tab area. It seems quite complicated for such a simple effect, but the result is worth it!
Thu, 05/06/2008 - 3:32pm.
This Drupal theme is based on the Blueprint CSS framework. That means normalized CSS across browsers, strong typograhic defaults and a grid framework for easy custom layouts.
Thu, 05/06/2008 - 3:30pm.
"The Messaging Framework makes use of the API to support SMS as a send method. Add Notifications and you’ll be able to alert users about updated content via SMS. I wanted to quickly show everyone how easy this is to set up."
Thu, 05/06/2008 - 3:26pm.
"Ubercart is an e-commerce suite developed for Drupal. It has been designed with the end user in mind, focusing on usability in three key areas: store configuration, product and catalog creation, and order administration. " 1.0 was released today.
Mon, 02/06/2008 - 4:54pm.
"Gyminee is the premier fitness social network for detailed tracking, online accountability, and motivation." Well-executed Web 2.0 website for health and fitness addicts like myself.
Mon, 02/06/2008 - 11:31am.
I love the birds’ eye perspective on a website. The design here is perfectly executed in a fluid manner (try resizing your browser window).
Mon, 02/06/2008 - 11:29am.
"Lately, I have began experimenting with new ways to navigate a website. In this tutorial I’ll show you how to let the user make use of their keyboard to get around your site."
Mon, 02/06/2008 - 10:42am.
"Adobe is has just launched their version of an online office suite available at Acrobat.com, complete with word processor (Buzzword), web conferencing/whiteboard app (ConnectNow), online file sharing (Share), file storage, (My Files), and PDF converter.
Sat, 31/05/2008 - 10:11am.
Very cool: Moby launches free movie music for non-commercial and non-profit use (smells like a Creative Commons license, although I saw no mention of it anywhere).
Wed, 28/05/2008 - 11:06am.
Excellent essay by Clay Shirky on media changes in the beginning of the 21st century: " But media is actually a triathlon, it ‘s three different events. People like to consume, but they also like to produce, and they like to share."
Wed, 28/05/2008 - 12:23am.
Google now offers hosted access via their speedy servers to several popular Javascript libraries, such as jQuery, Prototype, Scriptaculous, Dojo and Mootools.
Tue, 27/05/2008 - 8:24am.
To target Internet Explorer with Javascript, this proprietary technique can be used similar to conditional comments in CSS. Simply place code between: /*@cc_on and @*/.
Tue, 27/05/2008 - 8:13am.
Another interesting Drupal case study. While the resulting website is pretty simple (an aggregator of various social platforms), it uses some interesting modules to make everything a bit more user-friendly.
Mon, 26/05/2008 - 2:53pm.
Hack to the Drupal simplefeed module which enables it to import feed items with tags, and convert them to a Drupal taxonomy. In an upcoming release of the del.icio.us API, this shouldn’t be necessary anymore, however development seems slow.
Mon, 26/05/2008 - 11:22am.
Using two research groups, one with loyal customers, and one with new users, to discover the perceived value, the communicated value, and the hidden value of your website.
Mon, 26/05/2008 - 11:01am.
"Eureka! Science News just launched – it is a site dedicated to provide the very latest science news, but with a special twist – it is entirely automated!"
Mon, 26/05/2008 - 10:38am.
Also very useful for my thesis on navigation in websites: "The JIT is an advanced JavaScript infovis toolkit based on 5 papers about different information visualization techniques."
My name is Jeroen Coumans, I'm a freelance web designer, front-end developer and Drupal ninja from the Netherlands. I love to create beautiful, usable and accessible websites. On this website, you can find my portfolio as well as my personal weblog. Interested in hiring me? I'd love to hear from you.
After completing my BA in Arts and Culture I'm now doing a MA in Communication and Multimedia Design. More …
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