Previewing the Headache of the Future?
Ask anyone who makes websites what is the single most frustrating part of their job and I’ll bet many of them will say it’s working on cross-browser compatibility. Unlike just about any other kind of interface/graphic design, websites have to work in all sorts of environments. They have to work in all of the popular browsers for a start, and with more and more people using their mobile phones and PDAs to access the net it’s becoming more important by the day to take that into account too.
So when Microsoft release a new version of Internet Explorer, the most commonly used browser on the planet, it’s a Big Deal.
Having done a little bit of Internet Explorer 7 testing through BrowserCam I had a pretty good idea of what to expect: A shiny new interface, tabbed browsing and RSS support. Many of the more frustrating CSS bugs and missing features are also apparently fixed. I haven’t had much of a chance to test IE7’s CSS capabilities/shortfalls myself yet, but it seems to be a huge improvement over IE6 even if some problems do remain.
But what’s it like to use? Well it’s good enough that I have been using it for the past day instead of FireFox which certainly says something. Tabbed browsing works more or less exactly the same as in FireFox but there is the addition of a very handy ‘quick tabs’ button that lets you view thumbnails of all of the open tabs at once, eliminating the need to ctrl-tab 10 times to find what you were after. Another hugely useful feature allows you to save all of the open tabs when the browser is closed, something I previously achieved with FireFox’s SessionSaver extension.
IE7 also catches up with the rest of the world by offering a search box at the top of the page, which IE6 users will instantly wonder how they lived without. Surprisingly mine was set to search Google by default; presumably a result of previous settings being carried across from IE6.
If the above screenshot was your first look at IE7 then one of the first things you noticed was probably the lack of a standard File | Edit | Tools menu as seen in just about every program you ever used. The icons to the left and right of the open tabs replace these, but I would expect many of the less techy users to be pretty confused by this change. You can actually bring the ‘old school’ toolbars back by pressing ALT on your keyboard at any time and they can be turned on permanently in the settings, but by default it is turned off. My guess is Microsoft will be getting a lot of support calls about that one, but personally I think it’s a great feature that saves valuable screen space.
Support for RSS feeds is really the only other big feature addition and on the whole it seems pretty average. I’d have thought anyone who regularly catches up with lots the updates on a large number of sites would still want a dedicated RSS reader, but maybe for casual users it will be enough.
Overall verdict? Well from a developer’s point of view I have yet to see just how much of an improvement has been made in how pages are rendered, so I’ll have to reserve judgement. But as far as the user experience goes, I like it. It’s a huge improvement on IE6 and since it doesn’t seem to have the memory leak problems that plague FireFox I will definitely be persevering with it as a main browser. I’m sure that even once the currently unthinkable happens and IE6 support can be phased out there will still be a need to spend time double and triple checking that everything is behaving as it should, but with any luck I’ll be reaching for the paracetamol a little less often. Roll on the official release!
13 Jun 06Changes a-comin’
I've decided that it was time that VayaDesign was given a fresh lick of paint. The new site is probably still a little way off as client work has to come first, but I'm hoping that the finished product will be worth the wait and that a complete overhaul will be a real boost for the site.
A little preview of the new design can be seen to the right, here are some of the features I'm planning to include:
- The blog will be integrated into the main site, instead of being a fairly incongruous bolt-on like it is at the moment.
- The services area will be completely updated to include some of the more specific services I can offer, for instance vBulletin templates and building sites with Joomla/Mambo and other CMSs.
- An updated and extended portfolio.
- A 'mini-blog' section where I can post some of the more interesting links I come across. There are so many great resources I find on a daily basis but aren't really worth making a full post about, hopefully the 'mini-blog' will solve this and help keep things fresh.
After a lot of head-scratching and trying to decide on the best CMS for the job I think I will be opting for ExpressionEngine for the final thing. In a nutshell it looks as though it will make managing a fairly complex site structure fairly simple, the customer support looks good if I need it and I'm always a sucker for a nice interface. Once the site is up and running I'll be sure to post a review up, but in the meantime it certainly looks like a winner.
31 May 06Project Updates & Some Useful Tools
I’ve definitely been slacking blog-wise lately (how do the people who post every couple of days manage it?), there just don’t seem to be enough hours in the day. I’ve got a ‘proper’ post in the works which will hopefully be up soon, but in the meantime here’s an update on a couple of the sites I’ve been working on lately and a couple of the tools I have used in developing them.
MadWeekends
was lucky enough to be able to do whatever I wanted for this design, so long as it ended up looking ‘fun’. In my book, a pretty good design brief. On the whole it’s the usual XHTML/CSS setup, but I did get to experiment with sIFR for the first time. At this point I should warn you that unless you are familiar with building websites, the following will send you to sleep (it may have that effect regardless).
Until now I’ve always opted for the negative text-indent method when trying to replace plain text with something more interesting. It’s simple, effective and pretty accessible. However if you’ve got more than a few titles you wish to replace, it’s also mind-numbingly boring and totally inefficient. Which is were sIFR steps in.
sIFR is an automated means of replacing unattractive, plain text with anti-aliased eye candy. Its only requirements are that the user’s browser supports Flash 6 or greater and javascript. According to Macromedia around 97% of browsers have Flash 6 or greater and according to w3Schools 90% of browsers have javascript enabled. Hardly definitive, but a useful indicator if nothing else. Even better is the fact that if these ‘required’ browser features are missing then no damage is done - the user just sees standard CSS formatted text and is none the wiser.
Once you’ve spent 10 minutes setting up the CSS, flash file and javascript the job is done and thanks to a little black magic your standard markup such as:
<h3>Example Title</h3>
... is automatically turned into formatted text.
Would I recommend it? Definitely, and I’m sure I’ll be using it again in future projects.
Treasure Art & Design
Not a site I designed, just one that I was asked to complete some updates on. An exhibition page was needed and in the name of avoiding one obscenely long page I decided to try my hand at some javascript tricks with the help of scriptaculous. I’m in no hurry to go back to 1995 (Clock mouse pointers, anyone?) but I do think a little javascript can be very useful in the right situation and that on that page it works pretty well. Who needs flash, anyway?
Incidentally, if anyone else is looking for a wordpress code snippet plugin then the imaginatively titled ’code snippet plugin‘ is what you want.
That’s it for today, but there’ll more posts up soon with any luck!
26 Apr 06Fixed-width FreshBlue Template
In Scripts & Resources, vBulletin, FreshBlue
This is just a quick note to anyone who is using my FreshBlue vB template or runs a vB powered forum: I've released a fixed width version of FreshBlue (scroll down to update #2) and the price remains the same at £0.
24 Apr 06Google - Expandable results, shrinking ad revenue?
If you enter a search term into Google, currently you will be presented with the ten links deemed most relevant and either a brief extract from the page or the page’s meta description. And some sponsored listings. Google are currently testing a new expandable results feature which would allow users to view an extended extract (example) from each of the pages listed.
This is great for Google, as they can provide more information directly to their users who will then spend longer on the SERPs and click more sponsored listings. It would be nice for users too; the extended listings probably feature some quick-loading AJAXy goodness and searchers looking for specific information will likely find what they want even quicker. But what about site owners?
My initial reaction is that this could be a Very Bad Thing for anyone with a 'content site', that is to say, anyone who runs a site which exists purely to provide information, rather than some kind of service. Such sites are usually funded by advertising and occasionally through paid subscriptions. If someone's searching for a specific fact and Google's extended listing already contains the all-important part of the article which contains what is being searched for, why would they then click through to the site? Google answered their question already.
To an extent this could be considered paranoia; after all, the short extracts currently on offer already target the area of text containing the search terms. The answer may already be there with the current system. However it's reasonable to assume this would happen more regularly if the extract area is four times longer.
If the content provider (by which I mean the site, not Google) does not get the visitor, despite providing them with the information they wanted, there is a problem. Sure, life's not fair, but if the content providers lose out on visitors then they lose out on revenue. Then they decide it's not a profitable venture and there is a serious decline in the freely available information on the net as excellent free resources become subscription only, or shut up shop for good. Of course not all content sites provide information so that they can directly profit, but if you think about all of the sites you visit regularly I expect that a majority do.
Oops, back in the realms of paranoia a little, I think. Nonetheless, as a content site owner, I am a little concerned about the idea, probably just as publishers were with Google books. It certainly seems like another instance of profiting through information hoarding from the big G, but for now, and since it is still just one of many developments in testing, I'll sit on the fence.
Source: Sharp Seo.
03 Apr 06‘Nofollow’ & Paid Links
The 'nofollow' tag was introduced by Google at the start of 2005 solely as a means of 'preventing blog spam'. In other words, to stop people using automated scripts which post gibberish in weblog comment areas in order to get a link back to their site. The basic idea being that if Google spotted a link tagged with 'nofollow' then it wouldn't consider it a 'vote' for the site being linked to in the way it does with normal links. Therefore the spammer's site wouldn't benefit in the SERPs from the link and as a result he or she would give up their evil ways and concentrate on making nice fluffy sites about puppies and ice cream, using only search engine approved 'white hat' techniques.
Great idea, eh? Well maybe in theory. Personally I feel that blog owners should take responsibility for the comments on their site and ensure that any 'spam' comments are deleted very quickly or moderated before being approved for general consumption. I also think that anyone who takes the time to comment on a post deserves a 'proper' link back to their site. But that's not my main point.
Last week Matt Cutts, more or less the public face of Google, posted the following on his blog:
Q: "If one were to offer to sell space on their site (or consider purchasing it on another), would it be a good idea to offer to add a NOFOLLOW tag so to generate the traffic from the advertisement, but not have the appearence of artificial PR manipulation through purchasing of links?"
A: Yes, if you sell links, you should mark them with the nofollow tag. Not doing so can affect your reputation in Google.
Riiiight. So the official policy is that nofollow should be used on paid links, 'or else'. The first thing that strikes me is that paid links have nothing whatsoever to do with blog spam and that they are perfectly legitimate. Equally you would assume sites wouldn't accept advertisers if they weren't willing to 'vouch for them' so to speak.
Point number two would be that Google make almost all of their revenue from advertising. If publishers added nofollow to their paid links then the advertisers would potentially lose out on improved organic search results - one of the few things Google can't (or at least doesn't) offer advertisers. That then reduces even further the number of reasons not to advertise with Google. Coincidence?
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, here's a quote from the Google webmaster guidelines:
"Make pages for users, not for search engines."
Isn't that a bit hypocritical then?
Whilst nofollow may have been a nice idea in theory it isn't working in practice, and with talk of 'reputation' penalties in Google it certainly doesn't seem to be helping site now - the opposite in fact. Personally I will keep doing my job as normal and leave Google to do theirs.
(On a related note, Threadwatch have an interesting post up demonstrating some of the bizarre uses of nofollow currently floating around.)
29 Mar 06Free vBulletin template - ‘FreshBlue’
In Scripts & Resources, vBulletin, FreshBlue
To celebrate the launch of this very blog I’ve decided to release a free vB template which is available for use on any vBulletin forum.
The 'FreshBlue' template is a fairly simple layout which requires no editing whatsoever when being installed. As the forum title is taken from the database you don't even need to change a header image.
FreshBlue Demo: MotoGP Forums
Download link: FreshBlue 1.0
Installation
- Upload the 'freshbluetemplate' folder to your vBulletin /images directory.
- In your vB Control Panel go to Styles & Templates -> Download / Upload Styles.
- Select 'freshblue-vbulletin-style.xml' in the 'upload the XML file from your computer' section.
- Leave the rest of the form settings as they are and click 'import'.
- You're done!
The small print
You can use this template on any number of forums at no cost whatsoever. All I ask is that the Vaya Design link in the footer remains and that you do not redistribute the template yourself (including modified versions).
Comments are welcome and feel free to share a link to any forums using the template.
Enjoy!
(vBulletin forum owners may also be interested in the vBulletin Directory, submission is free)
Updates
Update: I can offer an unbranded (no 'skin by Vaya Design' link in the footer) version of this skin for £30 which is approximately $50. Email me if you are at all interested.
Update #2, 26/04/2005: A fixed-width version of the FreshBlue template is now available. You can once again view a demo at my MotoGP Forums. The installation and usage requirements remain exactly the same, although it will be 'freshblue-fixed-vbulletin-style.xml' that you need to upload. Download FreshBlue Fixed.
Update #3, 09/08/2005: An updated version of FreshBlue for vBulletin 3.6 is now available. The above downloads for vB 3.5 will remain available for download, but are no longer supported.
Update #4, 28/05/2008: An updated template for vB 3.7 is now available and can be downloaded at vBulletin.org.
20 Mar 06“I’ve got a great site - now what?”
Lately I have been focussing as much as possible on developing my own sites, rather than doing 'normal' work for clients. The reason for this is basically that I'm well aware of the possibilities the net offers and the fact that if you do a good job with a site it can really work for you, rather than the other way around. One thing I wasn't anywhere near as aware of as I should have been is how it isn't enough to come up with a great site. Not even close.
When I got MotoReview up and running, for instance, I thought that the combination of a nice design and good, regularly updated content would be enough to get a good amount of traffic relatively quickly. After all, if you're interested in a particular subject and come across a decent site about it you'll return, won't you? But there's another bridge you need to cross before you persuade anyone to come back to your site - they have to find it in the first place.
As I see it there are three ways to get visitors to your new site:
Advertising
The most obvious and quite probably most expensive method. Whether you opt for online or offline advertising you can carefully target an exact audience and if you opt for a CPC (cost per click) solution then you can be certain that every penny you spend goes towards a visitor to your site. If they don't click, you don't pay. How viable paid advertising is depends on your budget and your product. If a converted visitor equals the sale of a high value product and you have a good conversion rate then great - spend, spend, spend. But if a 'conversion' is not worth a great deal and the conversion rate doesn't make up for it, then it might be worth reconsidering, especially if you're targeting a competitive market with high advertising costs.
Search Engine Optimisation
Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO as it's generally known, can unsurprisingly make a huge difference to your site's ability to make sales, bring you leads and simply bring in new visitors. This post isn't intended to be a 'howto' on the subject, so I'm not going to go into too much detail. Frankly, though, you don't need to go into too much detail when it comes to SEO these days. In fact here's a fairly definitive guide to how to rank well in the search engines:
- Get lots of links to your site that include the keywords you're targeting from 'authority sites' in your subject area.
- Pat yourself on the back and take the afternoon off.
Of course it's rarely going to be that easy - you need content people will want to link to, for a start. But the truth is that these days a site succeeds or fails in the SEs because of its incoming links. You can add meta keywords, create 'search engine friendly URLs' and write content until you're blue in the face but if nobody links to you you'll remain on page 382.
Viral Marketing
Now this has to be a favourite, because it's free. All you need to do is come up with something noteworthy, something that people look at once and want to show all their friends. How many jokes have been emailed to you in the past month? The problem is it often isn't easy to achieve this. Some areas, like entertainment sites, are suited towards viral marketing. For business sites it's likely to be harder.
With MotoReview the biggest area of the site is the news section, which is updated almost daily with new content. Although the content is original it is more often than not based on the same press releases that every other MotoGP site uses, which makes it tricky to come up with a real exclusive. A week or so ago I heard a rumour which would be interesting to most MotoGP fans, even though it was just a rumour. Within a week of posting the news item I received a huge increase in traffic as people posted links on message boards across the net and I've seen an improved number of daily visitors ever since. Sites such as Digg and Del.icio.us are two popular sites which are synonymous with viral marketing and have recently become so popular it's been suggested they could even be used for manipulating stocks.
That's it! (ish)
Although this post really just scratches the surface of internet marketing and I'm sure for many there is nothing new here, hopefully it's been helpful to some of you who may be wondering why 'we built it but they're not coming!'
02 Mar 06Site Promotion with DMOZ
For those of you aren’t familiar with it, DMOZ, or the ‘Open Directory Project’, is the largest human edited website directory in existence. As such, a link to your website in the directory could be beneficial for many reasons…
Only the best sites are accepted (in theory)
Unlike your average search engine, sites are only added to DMOZ once they have been approved by an 'editor' - someone who has volunteered to help maintain a given category (or categories). Editors will only approve sites which meet the directory's guidelines which, in a nutshell, are that 'editors should select quality sites and lots of them'. Because of this many net users will look to DMOZ before a standard search engine, which could result in a healthy boost in targeted traffic to your site.
Two (or more) for the price of one
It's not just the odd net user that values the Open Directory - Google like it too. The big G likes it so much that its own 'Google Directory' is an exact copy! In fact, many websites offer variations or exact copies of the directory, as DMOZ.org make their entire database available to download, for free. With search engines giving incoming links a huge amount of importance when they decide who belongs where in their rankings, links from authority sites such as DMOZ and the Google Directory, as well as other DMOZ mirrors, could make a significant difference to your site's search engine rankings.
Where do I sign up?
Submitting your site to the Open Directory is extremely simple, but that doesn't stop a lot of people from getting it wrong. Before submitting your site, read the submission rules carefully to make sure you follow the right procedure. Depending on the category there may be hundreds of other sites in the submission queue and if yours contains a description that reads like marketing spiel or you've picked the wrong category, the editor may just reject the submission.
The other side of the coin
As DMOZ is edited purely by volunteers, there are no guarantees. You can submit the most relevant, well designed, informative site and find that it never gets added. Sometimes it might take over a year for your submission to be accepted. Some people have really thrown their toys out of the pram and accused the Open Directory of being corrupt and even gone to the trouble of starting their own sites on the subject. As far as I'm concerned, it's just the nature of the beast, and complaining won't make any difference.
The fact of the matter is that it takes 2 minutes to submit your site and if you're lucky enough to be accepted (the best way to look at it, in my view) then you could have a long term source of traffic and boosted search engine rankings, and it's free! If you don't get accepted then that still applies - it is free, it didn't cost you anything to try, and it only took 2 minutes. C'est la vie.