Sorting HTML Tables

En excellent little piece of javascript courtesy of Stuart Langridge that enables users to sort the data in an HTML table by clicking on the headers. No reloading of pages or anything - it all happens straight away.

Easy to implement, unobtrusive... Very nice.

PageRank Plugin for Firefox

Quirk have released an extention for Firefox that shows you the Google PageRank of every page you visit.

"Big deal," you might say, "I've already got one!"

So did I, but this new one offers a few extra features:

1. It also shows you the Alexa rank (not that that means much, but it's there anyway)


2. You can also display backlinks and indexed pages for Google, Yahoo and MSN. That's handy.


3. It is also customisable - you can shoose it's location as well as what it shows you.

Handy tool - get it here.

Don't Be All Things To All People

John Allsopp's latest article, Tipping Firefox Across the Chasm covers some very good ground that hopefully will be read by those at Mozilla.

He comments that:

If I had any advice for the Mozilla Foundation when it came to marketing Firefox it would be that they really separate out the two very distinct groups of user they currently focus on - visionary early adopters, and the mainstream - rather than lumping them together when promoting the application.

Visionaries largely want complicated, complicating (and wonderful) stuff like plugins, toolbars and the like. The appeal to mainstream users of Firefox is almost the opposite - simplicity, security, ease of use, and maybe even a little fun. A bowser that "just works". Taking back the web. There you go Mozilla, you can have that one.

Many of us have already switched to Firefox, and if you're like me, you'll never go back. But what about the average Joe?

I think increased Firefox takeup among the mainstream really needs a positive, specific message. Hopefully Mozilla will take John's advice on board!

Misconceptions About Teenage Visitors

The stereotypical teenager is a myth, according to Jakob Neilsen's latest Alertbox.

According to his research, teenagers in general are not all the wizz-kids they are portrayed as. So rather than teenagers being able to use any website thrown at them, many found websites more difficult to use than adults, due to poorer reading skills and less patience.

Assessing your website's usability on "the average user" is a dangerous game (as there is no such thing), but if you're going to generalise it's handy to know some researched facts about your potential audience rather than basing your decisions on misconsceptions.

The internet wasn't invented when I was a teenager, and my kids aren't that old yet - so I have nothink to test these findings on... So any teenagers reading this: What do you think?

Simple Browser-Based Editing

If you've ever had to allow your client to edit their website, you'll know what problems that can cause.

Clients can get sucked in by the power of most editors, and new fonts will appear, new colours, new styles. Pretty soon it looks like your masterpiece was created in Publisher! (Don't laugh - I've seen it happen.)

You have a few choices:

1. You can allow them control using something like Macomedia Contribute - but it has it's limitations and if it's only simple things that need editing it can be expensive and/or overcomplicated. It also gives the client a lot of control, which can be dangerous!


2. You can use something like XStandard, which generates excellent code, but it's a plugin and gives the client a lot of control. Danger again.


3. Or you can use something like Camron Adams' new widgEditor. It doesn't do much, and that's the best thing about it. Clients can't go "formatting crazy" - they can add headings, bold things, italicise things, and make lists.

The beauty of this thing is it's simplicity. No need to spend hours teaching your clients how to use it, nor trying to give them lessons in semantics. The button that generates a <strong> element is labelled B. It can't get more basic.

If he'd inlcude an "Insert Image" button that's all the extra functionality I'd add.

Simply brilliant!

Smoking is good for you?

Brendon Sinclair has done it again.

Taken a brief encounter with another business and given us his thoughts on how to make it better.

This one will take a few minutes to read - but there are bound to be some ideas in here for everyone. He covers:

1. Finding your target market


2. Identifying what you're actually selling


3. Developing a marketing plan


4. Media releases, direct mail, loyalty incentives


5. Educating clients


6. Encouraging word of mouth

Got all that? Good!

Now... just to apply some of this advice...!

On knowing the 'Why'

Dave Shea has posted some thoughts on overcoming the dreaded designers' block.

I'm most interested in this coment:

What's more important than a planned process, however, is the due diligence (DD) that must happen before a design begins. Gathering materials like existing branding, project objectives, content, and anything else available is essential for the design process.

I couldn't agree more.

Too many designs (and I've been guilty of this in the past too) are just slapped together without thinking about the website's objectives. Logo here, nav there, photo here...

I had a meeting with a client a few days ago and we were discussing improving the conversion rate for their website. Their home page looked nice in a generic sort of way, used their logo and colours, but it had no real purpose. We identified a couple of concrete activities that a visitor could do, but the design in no way encouraged anything.

So here's what I'm thinking. Whether you have designers' block or not, here's what you should have before you even think about starting:

1. Existing branding


2. Project objectives


3. Content (or at the very least an outline of what the content will be)


4. "Anything else available is essential for the design process" - which should include:
   
   
   
   • client preferences (if any)
   
   
   • potential audience or target market
   
   
   • Specific actions you'd like the reader to take
   
   
   
   

If you don't have this information, you'll really battle to make your design work. It might look nice, but the commercial reality is it needs to do more than that.