javascript

I increasingly do stuff with Javascript. Here I report on my experiments and/or failures.

Simple, accessible jQuery menu

Written at 13:02, on Saturday 2 June 2007. Tags: javascript webdesign .

Not every website needs to be powered by a content management system, or even a simple blog engine. Sometimes, a fully powered CMS like Drupal or Joomla is just a little too much. Sometimes it’s not even possible to use a database and all you have is your webserver, maybe equipped with PHP or ASP. For a simple website, it’s even overkill to add the complexity of a database, and all you want is just some folders with static HTML files in them. But to make it easier to maintain and expand this website, you create some simple templates for the header and the footer, so you don’t have to change all files if you need to change the copyright date or the tagline. These are included via some server-side processing, for example, with Apache server-side includes, or PHP includes.

But then you run into a roadblock when you try to maintain your navigation in a similar vein. Being a good standardistas, you use an unordered list for your navigation, and use CSS to present it. But in your navigation, you want to highlight the currently viewed page, since this greatly enhances the usability of your website and lets readers know where they are. And that requires a predetermined strategy to setup and maintain, such as using body id’s and menu id’s, or using PHP to match the page with the proper menu. These solutions have some drawbacks which led me to investigate an alternative solution. In this article, we’ll look at some common techniques for highlighting the current menu item in an otherwise static website, and at a Javascript-based solution.

Comments closed (4 total) |

Design patterns and javascript libraries

Written at 00:05, on Wednesday 9 May 2007. Tags: c-md javascript webdesign .

A large part of the discourse on web development today is focused on design patterns and interface components. But what are they exactly, how are they useful and how can they change the way we work? More importantly, what are their limitations, the scope of their application?

Design patterns are sort of an evolution of the style guide, which we are familiar with from graphic design. But while the style guide documents and prescribes the use of graphic design for communicating a certain brand, design patterns abract common problems in interaction design. A common examply is undo functionality.

Comments closed (3 total) |

Table of contents

Written at 22:10, on Wednesday 19 July 2006. Tags: javascript usability webdesign .

Thanks to a fairly hacked-up version of Jehiah’s Table of Contents script, I’ve added my share of progressive enhancement to what are otherwise long and boring articles. I’ve looked at a number of promising TOC generation-scripts, but couldn’t get them to work (the first threw me this Javascript error: span(error). “tagDetail[i] has no properties” while the second returned this error: “this.stack0 has no properties”. The demo’s worked though. Strange). So I returned to this old faithful, and enhanced it somewhat.

Comments closed (14 total) |

Turn on the light

Written at 12:11, on Monday 17 July 2006. Tags: javascript webdesign website .

This article refers to the fifth version of this website.

My blog anno 2006 (light variant)

As I promised in dynamic text zooming, I made some improvements to the text controls. I also added the option to switch to a light design (click on the lightbulb!). All thanks to the use of CSS for presentation, semantic XHTML for structure and content, and Javascript for interaction and behaviour.

Comments closed (5 total) |

From the portfolio

  • Politieonderzoeken tijdslijn

About this website

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 …

Tagcloud

Elsewhere

Designing with data

This article echoes my current thinking on design: "So, IDP (Information Design Prioritisation). Take the elements that are required on a page then decide what takes priority and score the different elements depending on how essential they really are to the user experience. If you’re redesigning a site and using the same information; use Analytics results to see where users are clicking the most and eye-tracking tests to decipher their routes and the hot spots on the page." It's too bad that this article provides the why, but doesn't provide the how.

Add comment | Visit site …

Neuromarketing troefkaart voor structuralisten

(dutch). Een alarmerende kijk op neuromarketing, een nieuwe manier om reclame te maken door transparante beeldmerken met de video te vermengen.

Add comment | Visit site …

Drupal.org, Design Iterations, and Designing in the open

Some preliminary lessons on Design by Community, by lead designer Mark Boulton. Interestingly, the first prototypes were not at all what I expected (honestly, I thought they sucked), but by putting them out in the open as soon as possible, and watching trends in feedback, further iterations (especially the last one) are really good. Lets hope this can serve as an inspiration for further Open Source design methodology (and beat Wordpress in creating a kick-ass administrative interface through an open process).

Add comment | Visit site …

Webapp Death Match: Google vs. Apple

Nice comparison, which raises the obvious question: should web apps look, feel and behave like web sites (a la Gmail) or should they look, feel and behave like desktop apps (a la Mobile Me)? It's too bad that by looking at two extremes, the article can't reach the more obvious conclusion, which is: it depends (on the context, goals, users, brand etc).

Add comment | Visit site …

45 Beautiful 3D Typography Designs For Inspiration

Some examples really are beautiful

Add comment | (1 comments) Visit site …

Interpersonal Divide

"nterpersonal Divide, which won the Clifford G. Christians Award for research in media ethics, documents how long-standing theories—including ones by Marshall McLuhan—no longer hold in the wake of new media and technology. Rather than extending the human senses, as McLuhan believed, Bugeja documents how media and technology split consciousness and diminish the senses, placing users in virtual environments at odds with physical ones. " Via @nielshendriks.

Add comment | Visit site …

A Smarter MAMP

Combining Apache's Virtual Hosts and installing a DNS server to simplify website development.

Add comment | Visit site …

Google Analytics Releases Advanced Segmentation!!

A great post detailing how to make use of this: "Along the way I’ll share three different segments that you must have in your web analytics tool. Regardless of why your website exists or what tool you use, Google Analytics or an alternative. I’ll close with a approach you can use to get answers to your ad-hoc questions / queries faster, in mere minutes rather than days."

Add comment | Visit site …

More Enterprise-Class Features Added To Google Analytics

Still waiting to try them out, localized versions always lag behind.

Add comment | Visit site …

Putting Anti-Poverty Activists on the Map

"…we were able to leverage other work we’ve done with Mapnik and Drupal to quickly create maps that show off this global participation in an intuitive and eye-catching manner on StandAgainstPoverty.org for the United Nations Millennium Campaign."

Add comment | Visit site …

I regularly find interesting websites, which you can find here. Powered by del.icio.us. (add me to your network or subscribe).

Looking for more? I’ve got a whole archive available.

Subscribe

Or choose one of the single feeds:
Journal feed | Elsewhere feed