Web Design Blog
CSS Naked Day 2008
April 9th, 2008 by Dustin BrewerCSS Naked day is the day that sites shed their CSS that makes our sites look good to show how seperatation of presentation and structure is so important in web design. To find out more about CSS Naked Day visit http://naked.dustindiaz.com
-
How to ruin your website in 10 easy steps
March 13th, 2008 by Dustin BrewerA lot of people give suggestions on how to improve your website or blog. Whether it is via SEO or design suggestions. Not many tell you what is going to destroy your website. I may be a little extreme but there are several pet peeves (as do many in the web design world) have that can truly turn your site from great to lame. There may be a couple of these that are straight forward but when dealing with clients it can become very obvious that some of their ideas on how a website should function are modeled after MySpace and the ilk.
Read more »
-
Why Internet Explorer 8 is shaping up to be another IE6
March 6th, 2008 by Dustin BrewerWe all know the blood, sweat and tears we have put into countless hour of development specifically for Internet Explorer 6 since August of 2001. Now it looks like we may be coming to battle with another problematic browser from software giant, Microsoft. The IE8 team is deliberately making up their own rules again and now adhering to the organizations involved with standards even though they are (seemingly) active members of the respective groups. You would think that with the budget that the team has to develop a decent browser that they would be able to product something worth-while. Unfortunately for the rest of the world that because IE comes pre-installed on Windows machines most consumers don’t know the difference.
Read more »
-
Internet Explorer 8 beta is available for download
March 5th, 2008 by Dustin BrewerIt looks like IE8 is about to be released for beta, there is a Microsoft site up that has various links for downloading the beta of the upcoming browser. None of the links on the page currently work but there are several versions looking to be made available very soon. With SXSW just around the corner it looks like they may be releasing it to the public for beta testing within the next week or two (hopefully sooner). With their announcement also that the browser will work by default in standards mode things are looking good for Microsoft’s next browser version. Once IE8 is released I will update this page with the news. Until then just keep checking back here and on the link to see if it is available for download.
Update: IE8 beta Is now available for downloading!
Update2: I’m not impressed so far, lots of sites are broken on it (this site, CNN, HP, etc). It also does not in fact pass the acid2 test like Microsoft had previously claimed. So far it is a big let down in my opinion. They have added a few features that are irrelevant if it doesn’t render web sites properly. I’ll have a better write up after some testing.
-
The acid3 test has been completed
January 29th, 2008 by Dustin BrewerIan Hickson has announced that the acid3 test is completed and available for testing on browsers. The test uses DOM scripting to evaluate HTTP, CSS, HTML, ECMAScript, SVG and even XML. So far none of the released browsers pass it, most aren’t even close. Internet Explorer 6 doesn’t know whats going on and Firefox 3 only gets 58/100. So it looks like the browser vendors have a little ways to go before they are ready. Ian began working on the acid3 test about the same time that Microsoft announced IE8 passed the acid2 test (with special http headers being passed).
-
HTML5 Working draft has been published
January 22nd, 2008 by Dustin BrewerI don’t have much to say on this topic yet because I haven’t even gone over it much. Check it out though if you are interested in some specs and general information about the future of HTML5. The HTML5 Working Draft for January 22, 2008.
-
Contest for the best ACID3 test
January 14th, 2008 by Dustin BrewerIan Hickson has announced on his web site that he is running a contest to come up with some great JavaScript (EMCAScript 3) tests for ACID3. Ian has set aside some criteria for the test that need to be followed but once you think you meet the requirements and feel the test is effective he has requested you email it you him. Currently there are about 84 sub tests and Ian is shooting for an even 100 subtests, so there is a lot of room for some good browser tests.
1. The test must consist of the body of a JavaScript function which returns 5 when the test passes, and which throws an exception otherwise. It doesn’t matter what kind of exception.
2. The test must compile with no syntax errors in Firefox 2, IE 7, Opera 9.25, and Safari 3. (You can use eval() to test things that are related to syntax errors, though.)
3. The test must not crash any of Firefox 2, IE 7, Opera 9.25, and Safari 3.
4. The test must fail (throw an exception) in either a Firefox trunk build from January 2008 or a Webkit trunk build from January 2008 (or, ideally, both). (Opera and IE are failing plenty of tests already, I don’t want to add more tests that only fail in one of those. Of course if you find something that fails in Firefox or Webkit and Opera or IE, so much the better.)
5. The behaviour expected by the test must be justifiable using only standards that were in the Candidate Recommendation stage or better in 2004. This includes JavaScript (ECMAScript 3), many W3C specs, RFCs, etc.
6. You must be willing to put your test into the public domain. (I don’t want us to end up with any copyright problems later!)
-
Developers are working on ACID3 test
January 10th, 2008 by Dustin BrewerWith the announcement that both Firefox 3 and IE8 have passed the acid2 test, Ian Hickson has been working hard on the acid3 test. The new test will focus mostly on ECMAScript and Dom through Selectors Level3, Media queries and data URIs. The new acid3 test isn’t quite ready yet but it should become ready within the coming months.
This new test will put more pressure on the browsers to attempt to adhere to further standards with JavaScript. Hopefully they will all pass it soon with their push towards adopting web standards as they are written.
Hopefully we will be seeing IE8 and Firefox 3 released very soon. There are of course already versions of Firefox 3 available for download. However, not many of the extensions work on the beta browser yet. Until they do I don’t plan to fully switch over to Firefox 3. I would like to say that Firefox 3 renders pages incredibly fast and loads and runs very fast within Windows also. I’m awed by the new version.
-
Why web standards are important in web design
January 7th, 2008 by Dustin BrewerThere is a lot of talk amongst designers about why web standards are important, sometimes it is a bragging point to say that you know a lot about CSS and HTML and can make a good site within standards. Some of it is just a line to make whatever you are doing sound better. I hear a lot of local Oklahoma web design companies talk about web standards but for the most part I see some of them still designing in tables or not even getting the bare minimums in when it comes to web standards.
This article is going to be directed at web design firms, web design clients and web designers everywhere. The importance of web standards is more then just something to say, it is the way the web should be designed. There is more then just passing an HTML or CSS validator when it comes to standards. Even so there is more to making a site pass coding standards, accessibility being the primary objective. Accessibility is usability, it isn’t just about disabled it is about ensuring that your site will work from the time it is published until the end of time if it needs to. I’ll go over different web standards and accessibility guidelines and how they can be implemented, used and maintained better then just exporting a document out of Adobe Photoshop or throwing together an insane unaccessible image map.
Read more »
-
Microsoft announces that IE8 passed the acid2 test
December 19th, 2007 by Dustin BrewerAs some of you may be familiar with the acid2 test and some may not, I’ll give a little information to help you understand what it is. The acid2 test is a CSS test, a web standards test really. The test creates a simple smiley face image using CSS, browsers that are compliant (safari, opera) show the smiley face just as it is intended. Browsers that are not show something entirely different. IE6 shows something that doesn’t even make sense and IE7 equally shows something that makes a little more sense but not much. Firefox is almost there*, definitely much closer then IE7 though.
However, IE8 which is set to release sometime in early 2008 has passed the acid2 test and will be released passing it as well. This is all according to the IE Blog over at Microsoft, some pretty exciting news about Internet Explorer users (and haters). Hopefully the IE hacks of the past will be no more with the release of IE8. We can only hope that there will be some kind of update to IE7 that will make it compliant also.
*Update: Firefox 3 Beta does pass the acid2 test, thanks Asa.
-
About Dustin Brewer
Dustin Brewer is a freelance web designer based out of Oklahoma City, OK passionate about web standards, and beautiful web design. Dustin Brewer has been in the web design industry for over 8 years through freelance and professional experience. If you are interested in hiring Dustin Brewer please visit the web design services page to find out more information. You can also checkout the web design portfolio.
Contact Information