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A podcast for those who design, develop and run websites.

Boagworld is the blog of web strategist Paul Boag who lives in the heart of rural Dorset (hence the cows). He produces a weekly podcast with UX consultant Marcus Lillington on building and running websites. They also run the web design agency Headscape.

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Show 63: More than iPhone

Posted in Podcast on: Tuesday, January 16, 2007 by Paul Boag

This week on Boagworld, Paul looks at whether it is possible to build HTML emails with CSS, Marcus discusses how to write a good brief and Christian Heilmannwades into the current Javascript library debate.

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News and events

Seems like there is loads going on in the world of web this week and we struggled to narrow it down to four items. However, this is our pick of the best:

Getting a job as a developer

Christian Heilmann has written a post on his experiences of at Yahoo! He gives some really sound advice to any developers in search of employment. Definitely worth a read if you are considering a change of job.

Talking of changing jobs, if you are a developer considering a career move then you might want to take a look at the developer position currently available within Headscape.

Global free stock

Luke Sanderson (an old friend of mine) has taken the Google Coop and configured it to search all of the free image stock libraries from one place. Saves a bit of trawling around looking for that perfect (free) image.

The of flash

Now, I don’t know much about flash but I know a man who does and he has just posted his impressions of the Flashforward keynote at MacWorld. He talks about Flash CS3, flash on alternative devices and reveals some fascinating stats on the take-up of Flash 9.

Apples announcement of the iPhone seems to have caused a lot of excitement in all quarters not least the web design . Brian Fling believes it could “revolutionaries the web”. Personally I find myself agreeing more with Cameron Moll who takes a more cautious view.

Agony Uncle: emails built using

This week has seen the discovery that Outlook 2007 uses Word to render its HTML emails rather than IE7. This severely limits what is possible when it comes to HTML emails and standards. It was therefore very topical that this week’s Agony Uncle Question is about using standards with HTML . We look at what is possible and what is not referencing articles both on the A List Apart website and Campaign Monitor.

Ask the Expert:

The debate about the value of Javascript libraries has been raging for a while now but seems to be back with vengeance at the moment. That is why on this week’s show we have Christian Heilmann sharing his thoughts on the question, “Javascript libraries: Friend or Foe?”

: Pro CSS Techniques

Pro CSS Techniques is a new by Ian Lloyd, Jeff Croft and Dan Rubin aimed at experienced CSS developers looking to take their skills on to the next level. Jonathan Snook provides an excellent review on this book that we reference in this week’s show.

corner: Writing a web design brief

Writing an effective brief for web design agencies will not only make the selection process easier but helps to avoid potential miscommunications over requirements further down the line. In this week’s show Marcus looks at the issue of invitations to tender and how to go about writing an effective brief that will help your project run smoothly

Oh yes… don’t forget the boagworld meetup

What did you think about this post?

20 Comments

Comments are for the discussion of this post. If you have other questions / comments then post them to the forum or send me an email

  • kas says:

    Another great episode, nice work and very helpful, thoroughly enjoyed the clients corner!

  • Unfortunately, Email design just went back five years as Outlook 2007 is using Word’s HTML renderer instead of Trident (the rendering engine in IE). More here: http://www.campaignmonitor.com/blog/archives/2007/01/microsoft_takes_email_design_b.html

  • Paul Boag says:

    You obviously haven’t listened to the show John, that is how the conversation came up.

  • Another good show – who doesn’t enjoy a good electron joke?
    On the topic of css support in email clients, check out the Campaign Monitor post that shows css testing results.
    http://www.campaignmonitor.com/blog/archives/2006/03/a_guide_to_css_support_in_emai.html

  • Ah, so sorry about that. I just found that out myself this week. Naturally, I assume I know everything before everyone else. ;) I’ll try to give the show a listen.

  • Martijn v/d Ven says:

    I vote for Paul as world ruler!
    Good PodCast once again Paul & Marcus, keep them comming.
    Fr. Greetings,
    Martijn

  • Ryan Behrman says:

    Great podcast. I found the “writing a web design brief” most useful. I hope Marcus will one day also speak on how (as a web agency or freelancer) to break down a quotation into sections e.g. should one charge for consulting, concept, the actual time spent writing the brief, etc.. I think that would be really useful too.
    Great podcast it was this week!

  • Ronalfy says:

    The iPhone cautious view link is broken also. It should be: Why iPhone won’t revolutionize the mobile web landscape.

  • Love the new format guys – great show. Totally dig clients corner – nicely done Marcus. Everyone at once now… bow down to “The Paul”.

  • Mike Roberts says:

    Haven’t had a chance to listen to this episode, but did get a look at the show notes. How I wish I could move to England and apply to work for Headscape. All my dev experience is in ASP.Net…
    Paul & Marcus, the show is fabulous. I could only imagine how great it would be to work for a company that has its head straight about how good work should be done.

  • Paul Boag says:

    I don’t think we can be that switched on Mike if the creative director can’t add a load of links without screwing them up! Should be fixed now.

  • Simon Morris says:

    First podcast I have listened to. I came here from the Practical Web Design one but couldn’t work out how to spell boag. It now seems so obvious, nice podcast

  • Iain says:

    Yup, great show with some really useful bits. The new format is working well – I was a bit worried at first as I liked the original format with all the banter but so far, so good.
    I like the rash of Tommy Cooper jokes too – I have competition in the joke provider stakes at long last and those were better than mine so I’ll have to up the ante a bit!
    To Simon Morris, download all the previous podcasts – they’re all excellent! Well, except one and I’m not getting in to that fight again ;-)

  • Tuna says:

    Evil Emperor Boag Da Borish
    I would be really good if you could include in the show notes more than just brief sentence on the real star – Marcus’ segment. Especially the client brief one, a list a key points would have been good as this was a very interesting segment.
    Maybe you should rename this podcast the “Marcus and his side kick Paul Show”… :)

  • M Train says:

    Thanks for answering the HTML email question Paul & Markus! It was helpful, minus the smart@$$ comment by Markus, “email clients just don’t support CSS.” That was Rubbish!
    It truly baffles me that MS didnt use the same IE7 engine. I’m no programmer, but I would imagine a good ol’ cut-n-paste of code would have made outlook read like IE7. Isn’t an email window the same as a browser window in theory? Hmm…But, I’m sure it’s more complex, as Microsoft likes to make it.

  • Good information.
    It’s iPhone time, I will buy the iPhone.

  • Thanks for this information.
    Thanks for all the kind words of support!

  • Miller says:

    I have found that, even with this great Apple TV we still need a video converter (things like Apple TV
    Converter) in case to put our favourite movies onto Apple TV before playing them on TV Screen.
    Best apple tv converter
    http://www.apple-tv-converter.net

  • shark12er says:

    You must either setup or have an existing iTunes account in order to use the iPhone, even if you do not intend to make purchases. This is an additional requirement on top of the 2-year service agreement with AT&T
    http://www.iphone-video-converter.org

  • oscarana189 says:

    “First of all, the E70 has a full keyboard, not some shitty stripped down, tap-and-pray smudgy piece of shit. Nokia uses a technology that’s even more advanced than the iPhone’s tap screen, allowing you to actually feel the keys you press as you’re pressing them! The technology is called “tactile response,” and it allows you to do things like dial a phone number without staring at your screen like a shit-chucking ape. In fact, every other cellphone ever made has this technology, sometimes called “buttons.”

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Additional Information

Produced by Headscape

Boagworld is produced by the web design agency Headscape founded by Marcus, Paul and Chris Scott. Headscape also has a number of other talented guys who blog. Check them out.

  • Craig Rowe is one of our amazing developers and writes some superb posts on everything from .net to AIR apps.

  • Ed Merritt is a Headscape designer who's blog contains examples of his work and a number of free Wordpress themes.

  • Dave McDermid is a Headscape developer who has an excellent blog. He blogs on everything from AJAX to security.

  • Rob Borley is one of our project managers and blogs regularly on client and project management issues.

  • Leigh Howells is our multimedia design guru (whatever one of those is). He blogs on a mixture of design and music.

Paul elsewhere

Paul just can't shut up. He publishes regular audioboos, has a personal blog and is addicted to twitter. He also writes and speaks regularly. Check out the most recent below: