Google maps is awesome! I just created this map pinpointing all of the locations and activities listed on my Things to do in San Francisco page. How cool is that???

Or, some of what I learned at An Event Apart Boston

(some of this I already knew, unfortunately)

General

• Words are important, content is the meat of most web sites
• Text should be concise and to the point, scannable, not bulky
• Should reflect the brand or flavor of your site, speak to YOUR audience
• Consice, meaningful tagline
• Instruction should be simple and clear
• Get the point across in fewer words

Inspiration

• Look at some of the many CSS galleries
• Keep morgue files (a collection of photos or objects that inspire you, you may also want a collection for a specific client or project)

Usability

• Make things clear, the user should get it right away
• Test with about 3 people and test often
• Your test users don’t have to be targeted, they can essentially be anyone
• Recruit friends or friends of friends, buy them lunch or give them a gift certificate
• Fix the biggest problems first, tackle the rest if you have time

Accessibility

• Label items with straight forward meaningful text (especially important for javascript items where titles aren’t likely to show up)
  • What’s this object called?
  • What does it do?
  • What are it’s settings?
• Think about how a screenreader might see the site, get a program if you can (Camtasia, Morae, CamStudio)
  • Particularly tabs and other links that change things on the page without reloading
  • It may help to put a title before a section and give it a margin-left: -999em; so that screen readers will pick it up but other users won’t
• Test your site for color blindness – Colorblind Web Page Filter

Testing

• When you have a layout complete, remove the images and see if the text stands on its own
• Grayscale the design and blur it to see where the focus lies
• Create a style sheet just for testing. To make sure your images and anchor tags are accessible:
  • Put borders on images, and not on images with alt tags
    img {
    border: 5px solid red;}
    img[alt] {
    border-style: none !important;}
  • Put borders on anchor tags, and not on anchor tags with titles (same as above)
• Run HTML and CSS validators
• Turn off images, css, js (one at a time) and make sure your site is still usable
• Increase and decrease the browser’s font size
• Look at your site using another language (with a web translator)
• Firefox has a great add-on for achieving some of these things – the Developer’s Toolbar

Web Standards

• By using standards and semantic markup we’re preparing our sites for future developers and future changes
• Standards are easy, you just need to start using them
• Use Microformats, it’s easy and forward-thinking

CSS

• Many IE6 bugs have been fixed with IE7, but there will always be some more
• Use Dean Edwards script to bring IE6 up to par with the rest of the web – insert conditionally based on browser
• Create a separate CSS file for your browser specific hacks – insert conditionally
  <!–[if ie6]>
  <link rel=”stylesheet” type= “text/css” href=”ie6fixes.css” media= “all” />
  <![endif]–>

Clientelle

• Choose good clients, don’t accept a crap job just because you need the money – it will be hell and you’ll hate yourself for it
• Build trust, your the professional, show them that you know what you’re talking about
• Put the plans and process in writing, constantly reiterate the plans, follow up meetings with an email summarizing the discussion
• Sell ideas, not pixels – your designs should have meaning and convey a certain message/brand
• Criticism can be harsh or nonexistent, ask questions to derive what the client really wants and repeat what they’re saying back to them in your own words

Just launched my new store, created with Shopify. You can buy my original art work as well as prints and in some cases t-shirts. As I continue to make new things I will occasionally add them to the store. Feel free to make product suggestions.

As for Shopify, I have to say it’s pretty cool software. It was super easy to get started. They offer a lot of template themes, but they also allow you to completely customize your shop, which is why it looks exactly like my site. I also feel that the admin section is very easy to use, although it does need a few things here and there. If you want to sell your goods, I highly recommend you check them out.

Visiting Steve’s sister Shana was fun, but everything around it wasn’t.

To begin, we got a phone call in the middle of the night to tell us that our first flight was canceled and replaced by a flight an hour later. Ok, no big deal, we get an extra hour of sleep.

I tried to check-in online before we left in the morning. Little did I know, I was using the wrong browser to do so. I couldn’t print our boarding passes because I was using FireFox. I tried to trick it into using the proper margins, but nothing would work. I eventually gave up and figured they could print them for us at the front desk. I sent a note to US Airways (America West) support stating that they should make the site work for both FireFox and IE – like most user friendly sites out there on the web.

Next, the new flight we were given didn’t take off on time, so when we arrived in Las Vegas for our layover we had to run to our gate for the next flight.

On the flight to Denver however, we had quite a treat. Next to us was Paul, a conservationist full of extremely interesting stories and viewpoints. Steve and I talked to him the entire time and the conversation made the flight just fly by (hee hee, pun). We exchanged info and plan on getting together next time either of us is in the other’s area.

Once we were in Denver and had given each Shana hugs, we trekked back to her apartment through terrible weather and traffic, which she said was extremely rare. It reminded me of Cleveland weather and traffic. Normally I guess Denver is warm and pleasant in the winter. The drive took about as long as our flight!

Hanging out over the next few days was fun. Shana and Derrick took us to their favorite restaurants and hang outs. We visited the Denver art museum. Saw a couple of local bands play some good music. And we all went to see Steve’s friend who lives in the Boulder area. Overall we just hung out because it was too cold to really do anything.

All of that was fun. Seeing Shana, Derrick and their pups was great.

Half way through the trip Steve and I were coughing and starting to feel achy all over. We both caught the flu. So on the way home all we wanted to do was sleep.

Our first flight was fine and uneventful. At the Las Vegas airport we had to switch planes and airlines, which is a tremendous pain. I highly recommend you avoid this if possible. We had to leave the security area and cross the airport to go through security again.

Now for the grand finale, after landing at SFO we went down to the baggage claim. We watched that thing go around and around, happy people were grabbing their bags and leaving, while we stood waiting and waiting. Alas we decided that it was lost due to the airline switch (another reason I highly recommend you don’t do that). We filed a claim with United, and they blamed US Airways (America West), saying that they probably lost it and it’s still sitting in Vegas.

When we got home we called US Airways. The person that answered the phone was one of the most unhelpful people I’ve ever spoken to. He could not track our bag because it was the last airlines fault. He supposedly couldn’t even look for it in the system anywhere. He said we needed to make a claim with US Airways to track it on their end. And he told us to go back to the airport to do it. We both spoke to him (I was getting extremely aggravated) and Steve asked to speak to his supervisor, he couldn’t oblige.

After hanging up with that nitwit I called again and got someone else. I simply asked if the bag had been passed into United’s hands and he said it had, in Vegas. That was all I needed to know, why couldn’t the first dipshit tell me that?

Our bag was still MIA until tonight. It had our personal effects in it, and it’s misplacement caused a huge inconvenience (for one night anyway). This is a first for me, and I can’t tell you how annoying it is, wondering if you will ever get your stuff back. I truly hope this never happens to you, and that if it does, you get your stuff back as well.

And to follow up on the US Airways support, they responded with:

Please refer to the linked page below for information about using USAirways.com with your MAC.
http://www2.usairways.com/awa/content/systemrequirements.aspx

I never mentioned a MAC, I don’t use one. And they’re trying to force me use a specific browser, instead of accommodating many platforms and browsers. Way to go US Airways, your site sucks and I plan on never flying with you again. Thanks a lot for being so helpful both on the phone and online.

On NPR last night they told us about MSN’s, Ms. Dewey. She’s a sexy woman with 600-some clips ready to respond to your queries and questions. Try telling her, “you are a ho” and she just might flip out on you (I got at least 3 different responses to that one). Anyway, it’s a pretty unique way to promote a search engine. There seem to be several different interesting intros as well. Check it out – Ms. Dewey.

Recently I redesigned the site widgets at Alexa, and here’s a nice little compliment about it. For your viewing pleasure, here is an old widget next to a new one:

You can get a widget for your site here.

I went to the Future of Web Apps conference last week at the Palace of Fine Arts. I would say that maybe half of the speakers talked about the future of web apps. The other half talked about their companies and how you too can be a successful web 2.0 company that eventually gets bought by some larger company. I wasn’t really interested in the entrepreneurial aspect of it all.

I gathered that the future of the web will focus on identity, having one ID to log in all over the web; moving back towards desktop applications, while incorporating the online versions; and more/less community (there were split feelings on this one). I personally think that community-based sites are not going away, they’re just going to keep developing and evolving into new things.

Some of the presenters would push their own sites, but some of them would also list other web 2.0 sites as examples to illustrate a point. Here are sites that I found to be pretty cool, some of them are definitely worth checking out.

Techy Stuff:

• Digg Labs – great experiments for showing data
• Sxore – identity and reputation in blogging
• Microformats – if you haven’t heard about this yet, check it out
• MyBlogLog – blog stats, I’m signed up here, and addicted
• Measure Map – stats for your blog
• Visual Complexity – different and creative ways of showing data

Communities and Fluff:

• Last.fm – music community (I’m on here too)
• Popsugar – celebrity community site
• Amateur Illustrator – illustration community site
• Cute Overload – oh, I am so addicted to this one
• Hype Machine – discover new music
• Teachade – teacher community
• FeelingBullish.com – building reputations for investors

Useful:

• Kayak – trip planning
• Fly Spy – has some limitations at the moment, but has potential
• Fare Cast – EXCELLENT site, tells you when to buy your plane tickets
• Trip Hub – trip planning

Overall the conference was definitely worth the cheap admission price.

One of my co-workers made this really neat chart over the weekend that has this mysterious lightning bolt going through the center. The chart is very pretty blown up, which is why I might also call it art. Check it out – Fun with the Web Search Platform

Just finished some cool user interface projects at work. We added a Developer’s Corner to the web site in order to help user’s build applications on the Alexa Web Search Platform. The corner has tutorials and sample applications. They’re some pretty neat little apps, check ‘em out!

Just added another item to my portfolio. A logo for ClassHat, an application that will create Java classes on the fly, like magic. The site isn’t available yet, but I’ll let you know when it is.

(Update) – here’s the link www.classhat.com