Tag Archives: Apple

Show 67: Marcusworld

Posted in Classic shows on by Paul Boag

This week Dan Rubin looks at the design fundamentals and Marcus continues his series on the statement of work.

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This week on the Boagworld Podcast, Dan Rubin looks at the design fundamentals of white space and page layout.  Marcus continues his series on the statement of work, while Paul explains openID and tackles the HasLayout bug in Internet Explorer.

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News and events

Keyword forecasting

Last week saw an interesting new tool released by the Microsoft Adcenter Lab. The keyword analyser is an experimental tool which allows you to see predictions of future searches on specific keywords. You can compare the growth of multiple keywords and even get basic demographics on who is searching on these terms. I am not sure that this tool is actually that useful, however it is strangely compelling nevertheless.

Introduction to the DOM

Chris Heilmann shows us a sneak peek of his upcoming DOM scripting workshop in a 10 minute  Screencast. Although not enough to get you started in DOM scripting it will certainly help you grasp the underlying principles.

Lessons in freelancing

As Cameron Moll prepares to leave the world of freelancing he shares his experiences from the last 18 months on his blog. Cameron gives a valuable insight into the lessons he has learnt and I would strongly encourage any freelancers to take a few moments to read it.

Jonathan Snook on CSS

When it comes to CSS we all work in slightly different ways, which is why it is always interesting to get an insight into somebody else’s approach. This week Jonathan Snook shares his top CSS tips and it is nice to see he has added some controversial tip bits.

Clients corner: Statement of work (technologies)

Marcus continues his series on the statement of work by discussing what needs to be said in the documentation about technologies, training and content population. He also looks at the hidden costs associated with hosting and how it should be handled in the contract.

Ask an expert: Dan Rubin on white space and layout

I remember sitting behind Dan at a conference once watching him work on a design (when he should have been listening to the speaker!). It was fascinating to see how he approached user interface work so I thought it would be great to get him on the show to talk about the fundamentals of design; white space and layout.

Agony Uncle: HasLayout

This week in the agony uncle segment we look at the HasLayout bug. In my experience this one bug creates the majority of problems that we encounter in IE. It’s an amazingly hard bug to explain and yet fortunately relatively easy to fix. I explain what it is and what problems it causes as well as looking at some possible solutions.

Review: Open ID

This week saw the announcement by Microsoft that they are going to start supporting Open ID. We take a look at what Open ID is, how it works and why you should consider implementing it on your own site. Most of what we cover is also tackled in Simon Willison’s excellent Screencast on Open ID.

Show 67: No Show

Posted in Classic shows on by Paul Boag

Hello and welcome to what should be the 67th episode of boagworld.com, the podcast for all those involved in designing, developing and running websites on a daily basis. However, unfortunately there will be no show this week.

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Following the success of the client’s corner section of the show Marcus feels that he should have a high profile within the podcast. He has therefore asked that the show be renamed MarcusWorld and that he gets to go on all of the jollies and conferences instead of me. Unsurprisingly, I am uncomfortable with the arrangement feeling that this undermines the hard work I have put in to build up the boagworld brand.

The situation has reached a loggerhead where neither I nor Marcus are willing to continue with the show until the issue is resolved. We are currently in mediation and hope to resolve the problem shortly.

Go on admit it, I had you going for a moment there didn’t i! No the real reason for there being no show this week is that I am currently off of work and our workloads are too extreme to reschedule.

However, rest assured we will be back next week with a bumper episode. If you are new to the show then you can listen to our back catalogue. If you are a regular listener then you will have to get your boagworld fix by replaying this message 100 times.

Thanks for listening and speak to you soon.

Show 66: Beyond HTML

Posted in Classic shows on by Paul Boag

We have a bit of an audio and video theme to this week’s show with Ian Forrester talking about online video and Paul sharing some advice on creating a podcast. Marcus also continues his series on client contracts by looking at “the statement of work”.

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News and events

Mobile internet usage increasing

This week the BBC has reported that 15.9 million handsets in the UK accessed the web in December. This is an increase on over a million on the previous month. This further underlines the fact that the mobile web is going to be the big growth area in 2007.

Headscape recruiting

Headscape is expanding yet again. We are currently looking to recruit a .net developer and an experienced css/xhtml coder. If you are interested in either position send an email to [email protected].

Great British Booze Up

If you are attending SXSW this year then come along to the Great British Booze Up. ClearLeft, Boagworld and @Media 2007 are taking over a “British themed pub” (yeah right!) to bring you an evening of traditional British entertainment.

Enhance your page performance

There are two new articles on the Think Vitamin website this week. Unfortunately Chris Heilmann’s Article is far more interesting than my own. He looks at the issue of page performance, outlining some of the common problems and how to address them. He also has an interesting discussion on page performance verses best practice.

Some handy flash tips

Robert Nyman has obviously been struggling with Flash recently as he has posted two very useful tips on dealing with that pesky plugin ;) He shows you how to embed flash without invalidating your code as well as how to place an HTML element on top of a flash movie.

Client corner: The statement of work

This week Marcus takes a look at the statement of work, which is the cornerstone of the contract between client and developer. In particular he focuses on the various stages of the development cycle and what information needs to be covered in the contract. Elements covered include:

  • Kick off meetings – Who will attend, what documentation will be produced?
  • Information Architecture – Will there be expert reviews, stakeholder interviews or card sorting? What documentation will be provided, who will do the recruiting? What about wireframe testing?
  • Design concepts – How many concepts will be produced? How many different pages will be demonstrated? What happens if the client doesn’t like the design?
  •  Template development – What types of pages will need designing and building? What additional style sheets are going to be produced (print, mobile, low vision)? Will the client sign off each template?

Ask the Expert: Ian Forrester on video formats

Ian Forrester from BBC backstage and the Geek Dinners joins us to talk about online video. He talks through the different formats available (quicktime, real player, windows media and flash) as well as the different delivery mechanisms (steaming, download and progressive download).

Producing a podcast

Probably the most common question I get asked is how I go about producing Boagworld. That is why in this week’s show we combine the review and agony uncle sections to talk about the whole area of podcasting.

I share some thoughts on creating the right format as well as reviewing a range of podcasting tools including:

Show 65: Dying (Man Flu!)

Posted in Classic shows on by Paul Boag

This week on the Boagworld Podcast, Paul and Marcus drag themselves from their death beds to share why you should care about Vista and Drew McLellan explains the pros and cons of Ruby on Rails.

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This week on the Boagworld Podcast, Paul and Marcus drag themselves from their death beds to share why you should care about Vista, which browsers you should support and introduce you to the exciting world of terms and conditions. Oh yes and Drew McLellan explains the pros and cons of Ruby on Rails.

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News and events

Barcamp

The weekend of the 17th of February sees the second barcamp to take place in London. If you haven’t come across barcamp, it is a gathering of web geeks where everybody takes turns to present a 30 minute session. You can pick which sessions you wish to attend and the whole thing has a very informal feel. Its free and arguably one of the most valuable meetups of the year.

Paper prototyping

There is an excellent new article on the List Apart website. It proposes closing down your PC and returning to good old pen and paper. Compelling stuff, which should make you evaluate the way you develop your designs.

Bulletproof AJAX

Jeremy Keith is about to release the follow up to DOM Scripting, Bulletproof AJAX. As with his previous book Bulletproof AJAX is aimed squarely at the designer community. It will be perfect for people who have read DOM Scripting and want to take the next step. If you can’t wait that long and can squeeze £295 out of your boss then you might want to attend Jeremy’s AJAX workshop down in Brighton. I have attended it myself and it is extremely good.

Custom reading containers

This is an incredible proof of concept that I was emailed last week. Basically it enables the user to resize elements of your web page to suit their requirements. Admittedly it has only undergone limited testing so far and relies on PHP; nevertheless it looks very interesting indeed.

Client corner: Terms and conditions

This week Marcus starts a new series on client contrasts with a “fascinating” look at terms and conditions… I know… control your excitement! Some of the points he covers include:

  • Make sure you read the T&Cs carefully no matter how boring they are!
  • Get advice if you don’t understand something
  • Make sure you note the governing laws that cover the T&Cs
  • Note the deliverables and rights
  • Understand your liability if there are problems

Agony Uncle: Browser support

Danny has sent in an excellent question about how far we should go in supporting the numerous browsers out there. Should we support IE5, Opera mobile, Opera on the Wii and so on? In the show I talk about the need to not set hard and fast rules in this area but adapt to the individual requirements of our clients. I talk about not blindly accepting the browser support requested by the client but rather analysing statistics to establish the best browser set to build for. Finally I also explain the concept of graded browser support as implemented by larger organisations like Yahoo!

Ask the expert: Ruby on Rails

Talking of Yahoo, this week our expert is Drew McLellan who works in their development team. He is on the show discussing the pros and cons of working with frameworks like Ruby on Rails.  Among other things he looks at speed of development vs. maintenance and generally gives a nice overview on the subject. He certainly helped me have a clearer understanding of the benefits and drawbacks.

Review: Vista

So Vista has hit the shelves and being the uber geek that I am I couldn’t resist upgrading as soon as I got my hands on the disk. I know there are loads of reviews on Vista but I thought it was worth reviewing specifically from a web designer’s perspective. I talk about the problems I had installing Photoshop, the improved FTP support and the multiple website support now in IIS. I also look at how Vista could potentially change the way people interact with the web by bringing things like desktop widgets and RSS feeds to the masses.

Show 64: Hosting

Posted in Classic shows on by Paul Boag

This week on Boagworld we explain all you need to know about hosting , look at how to interpret other people’s CSS and review an excellent HTML email testing tool. Oh yes… and Marcus drones on about client stuff.

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News and events

Heuristic Testing

This week seems to be the week of Heuristic usability testing. Andy Budd kicked us off with a post on how Jakob Nielsen’s classic article on heuristic testing needs updating to take into account the new generation of web applications. Lisa Herrod then followed up with an excellent article on the sitepoint website looking at how heuristic testing can be used by web development teams.

The Future of Web Design

I know that a lot of people cannot afford the time or money to go to web conferences but I thought the Future of Web Design one day conference was worth a mention as it is only £59. It has a great line up of speakers including people from 37Signals, Flickr and Adaptive Path.

Tips for better design review process

You maybe the best designer in the world but if you cannot “sell” your designs to the client then more often than not they will be rejected. Many designers hate the design sign off process and are often frustrated with the final result. Keith Robinson has written a superb article that will help you better manage the successful sign off of your designs.

Seven Accessibility Mistakes

A while back Chris Heilmann wrote two articles on typical accessibility mistakes that people should avoid at all costs. I am sure that they were great articles but I never got around to reading them. Fortunately Roger Johansson has taken the time to summarise them in a nice easy to digest format.

Client corner: Questions for designers

How do you know which is the right web design agency to go with? Proposals are important but what questions do you ask at the presentation? This week Marcus gives website owners the inside track on what to ask prospective web design agencies. Here are some of the main points he covered:

  • Get a detailed breakdown of rates and pricing.
  • Understand what happens if things go wrong.
  • Ask about the contractual arrangements.
  • Request financial information on the company.
  • Get detailed information on the work they have done.
  • Know the team who will be working on your project.
  • Always ask to speak to existing clients.

Agony Uncle: Understanding other people’s CSS

There is nothing worse than working on a site built by somebody else. This especially true when it comes to the CSS. What styles affect which elements? How do the styles cascade down? What is going to be effected if I make a change to a style? This week in the agony uncle corner we look at some of the tools which can help solve these issues. In particular we take a look at the Firebug Firefox extension and the CSS panel in Dreamweaver.

Ask an expert: Mark Crawley on hosting

One of the things that has been requested for the “ask an expert” section is that we try and get on some new names rather than the normal “web celebs”. With that in mind this week’s guy is an old work colleague of mine; Mark Crawley. He talks about an area we should have covered a long time ago… hosting.

Review: Testing HTML Email

Although many condemn HTML emails as truly evil, the reality is that many of us are occasionally forced by clients into producing them. Setting aside the appalling support for standards, the next biggest headache with working on HTML emails is testing. Fortunately Site Vista, a UK based company has solved the problem by producing a testing suite very similar to Browser cam but for email.

Show 63: More than iPhone

Posted in Classic shows on 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 design 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 hiring developers 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 imagery

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 future 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.

iPhone

Apples announcement of the iPhone seems to have caused a lot of excitement in all quarters not least the web design community. 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: HTML emails built using CSS

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 email. 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: Javascript Libraries

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?”

Review: Pro CSS Techniques

Pro CSS Techniques is a new book 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.

Clients 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

Podcast 61: Christmas Special

Posted in Classic shows on by Paul Boag

In our Christmas Podcast Special; Skype murders Marcus rendition of Silent Night, Paul shares his list to Santa and they both look at the successes and failures of the web over the last year.

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I know what you’re thinking; “not the most riveting subject”. However, don’t let that put you off. Although return on investment might not float your boat, it is still extremely important and you should take the time to listen to this show.

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So another year is done and boagworld finishes for its Christmas break. We will be back in January but until then you can enjoy this extra special episode of the show.

It’s been a real pleasure working on the show over the last year. We really want to thank you all for listening. We never anticipated that the show would prove such a success and hopefully we can continue to keep it fresh and exciting in the New Year with our new format.

This year’s Christmas special is slightly more structured than last year’s so I figured a few notes on what we covered maybe appropriate. Enjoy!

Special offers to boagworld listeners

A couple of companies that listen to boagworld wanted to give something back to the boagworld community. Although I haven’t purchased from either site yet myself, I thought it was nice they were enthusiastic to share a small token with you all.

Houlton Wines will give you a 10% discount if you quote the coupon code “boagworld” when ordering. Equally Seams will offer 25% off any tshirt if you quote to code “boagworld001” when you checkout with paypal.

News

I tried to give the news a Christmas theme this week by ensuring all the stories had a Christmas slant. Guess which one fails to meet the criteria!

Biggest Tech Mistakes of 2006

Thank you to everybody who nominated a tech mistake of 2006. Below is the shortlist. You will have to listen to the show to hear who Marcus announced as the winner.

Best web applications of 2006

Also in the show we look at the best web sites and applications of the year. Nominations include:

Dear Santa

I thought it might be fun to share some of the gadgets I will be asking Christmas for this year. Of course if you want to buy me any of them I am sure Santa won’t mind!

Finally, we do a quick review of the services offered the Shaw Trust. If you haven’t come across these guys before then definitely check them out. They offer some very interesting web accessibility services which is ideal if you want to test your site with real disabled users.

Thanks for listening, and we will speak to you all in the New Year. Happy Christmas!

Podcast 60: Return on investment

Posted in Classic shows on by Paul Boag

This week on the boagworld podcast we look at why return on investment should be at the heart of our approach to website development.

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I know what you’re thinking; “not the most riveting subject”. However, don’t let that put you off. Although return on investment might not float your boat, it is still extremely important and you should take the time to listen to this show.

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This week’s show is largely based around elements of my keynote at this year’s Refresh conference. We discuss how the web design community fails to engage with its clients on a business level spending too much time talking about code and design. I challenge us as a community to start talking the language of business and focus our intention on return on investment.

In particular we cover:

  • What is return on investment?
  • Defining how ROI will be measured.
  • The short term and long term aspects of ROI.
  • How to maximise your returns.
  • The need to look for the simplest solution with the highest return.

In the news…

We have loads of news in this week’s show including:

Also in the show…

Marcus gets out the guitar (if only briefly), and we talk about how you can contribute to next week’s Christmas special. We look at what unobtrusive Javascript is and give some practical examples. Finally we investigate some of the latest postings on the forum including a debate about presenting designs to clients and a discussion about how developers try and blind clients with technobabble.

Podcast 59: Community websites Part 2

Posted in Classic shows on by Paul Boag

This week on boagworld Paul and Marcus continue their discussion on social participation, focusing on growing a community and troubleshooting the problems that are inevitably encountered.

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Despite the fact that I have split this subject over two weeks, we have still struggled to fit everything in. Last week the focus was very much on the business benefits of community websites. This time around we concentrate on the user. Why do they participate in online communities and how do we encourage them to get involved?

We also look at the challenges of starting and nurturing a community and tackle issues such as flame wars, moderation and gaining critical mass.

Later in the show, inspired by Jamie’s post on the forum we get into the subject of time management and how we deal with working from home.

Finally, we also take a look at the week’s web design news which includes:

Oh yes, and Headscape is recruiting yet again!

Podcast 58: Community websites Part 1

Posted in Classic shows on by Paul Boag

This week a somewhat jetlagged Paul discusses virtual communities with Marcus. In particular they focus on the tools available to community builders and the business benefits of social participation.

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Well, I am back from the Refresh 06 web conference in Orlando and feeling somewhat jet lagged. As a result this week’s show is far from coherent. However, I do get the opportunity to make Marcus envious so I guess it’s worthwhile.

Actually it’s a pretty good show despite everything. We discuss the benefits of meetups and conferences as well as looking at some of the upcoming events such as a North East Meetup arranged by our very own Dan Cave, and the BBC Backstage Christmas Bash happening in London.  

The more conferences and meetups I attend the more convinced I am of their value. If you fancy getting more involved in these kinds of events I would highly recommend upcoming.org.

Our main subject this week is online community and social participation. It is a subject I have been promising to cover for some time and one I am particularly passionate about. As a result I have too much to share for a single show. That is why this week we focus on the tools at your disposal and the business benefits of communities. Next week we will move on to look at setting up and growing your community as well as motivating and managing your users.

Finally, we also manage to squeeze in a review of Twitter.com and take a quick look at the issue of multi-lingual sites (although this is something I would like to return to in the future).

Podcast 57: Afraid of Standards?

Posted in Classic shows on by Paul Boag

This week Paul and Marcus are joined by Ben Henick author of an excellent article about standards found on the List Apart website. Together they have a frank and open discussion about the downsides of designing with standards.

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First of all let me apologise to those of you who were expecting this week’s show to be about online communities. Due to sickness and too much work I didn’t have time to prepare everything I wanted to cover. So instead of giving you second best I thought I would bring forward my interview with Ben.

I know a number of you are sick of me talking about standards but I am sure that this week’s show will be a pleasant change. Instead of me waffling on about the benefits of standards we take a look at the problems faced by web designers when moving across to tableless design.

The show is largely based on the article Ben wrote for A List Apart so I would highly recommend you check that out too.

You might also want to check out Ben’s personal site, his business site or learn more about his involvement in the Web Standards Project.

Also in this week’s show…

We discuss various problems in the new generation of browsers including IE7 zoom and Firefox 2 access keys. We look at the concept of website constitutions, review the definitive article on HTML and I share my trepidation at the upcoming Refresh 06 conference.

Finally we take another look at David McFarland’s book CSS: The Missing Manual following his interview on Inside the Net.

Podcast 56: To implement or not?

Posted in Classic shows on by Paul Boag

We look at how to decide what techniques and technologies to implement on your site and what should motivate your decision making process.

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Despite the obscure title, this week’s show is very relevant to everybody involved in web design. We look at how to decide what techniques and technologies to implement on your site and what should motivate your decision making process.

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Web design has become incredibly complicated over the last few years. From accessibility to standards and AJAX to Microformats, there are a plethora of techniques and technologies vying for our attention.

With so many things to consider when developing a website how do you decide what to include and what to leave out. Each of us needs to decide where to draw the line in areas like accessibility, usability and standards.

I have written a lot around this subject because it is something that I am particularly passionate about . This week’s show is largely based around these posts so you might want to check them out.

The business of web design

Return on Investment

Success criteria

It is also a subject I will be exploring further at the upcoming Refresh 06 and Web 2 live conferences.

Also in the show…

Also in this week’s show we discuss whether you should give clients the right to reuse your code and whether blogs should have comments enabled or not.

We also cover the swift adoption of IE7, the new Google site search tool and a fascinating article introducing geeks to the world of marketing.

Finally, we encourage everybody to plant a pin in our boagworld map, which shows the location of all our listeners worldwide.

Podcast 55: Ecommerce 101

Posted in Classic shows on by Paul Boag

Payment gateways, secure transitions, order fulfilment. Ecommerce can be a confusing subject. In this week’s show we are joined by Eric and Ben from the eBiz Vodcast.

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With Ben and Eric being almost as talkative as myself and Marcus, I am not even going to try to document all that we covered. The main topic for this week’s show was basically an introduction to setting up of an ecommerce site. We looked at some of the more confusing aspects such as payment gateways, fulfilment and credit card transactions. However, we also reviewed shopping cart software and discussed the top 10 things that make or break an online shop.

To learn more about ecommerce I highly recommend you subscribe to the EBiz Vodcast. Ben and Eric are excellent presenters that are both informative and entertaining. If you enjoy Boagworld you will love their show.

Also in this week’s show

We discuss the acquisition of YouTube by Google. We also cover the launch of IE7, which is impressive has it hadn’t been released when we recorded the show. And finally we discuss the web development survey released by SitePoint.

Podcast 54: Business Benefits of Web Standards

Posted in Classic shows on by Paul Boag

Our hope is that you can use this episode to promote the benefits of standards to your colleagues, managers and the online community.

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This week’s boagworld special focuses on the business benefits of web standards. Available both as audio, video and a PowerPoint, our hope is that you can use this episode to promote the benefits of standards to your colleagues, managers and the online community.

To watch the video presentation and get access to the various associated downloads visit:

http://standards.boagworld.com

We also ask that you use this website address when telling other people about this special.

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Podcast 53: Ecommerce Usability

Posted in Classic shows on by Paul Boag

Product information can make or break an ecommerce site. In this week’s show we look at the usability of ecommerce sites and in particular how you display your products.

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Recently I have been reading Jakob Nielsen’s book “Prioritizing Web Usability”. Although I don’t always agree with everything Jakob says this is an invaluable resource and I strongly recommend that you consider buying it.

I have just finished the chapter on product information for ecommerce sites. What he had to say on the subject was so good that I thought I would share some of it with you.

We cover:

  • Pricing – What to display and how to display it
  • Common Questions – Ensuring you address FAQs on subjects like delivery, returns and security
  • Product descriptions
  • Layering product information so as not to overwhelm users
  • Product imagery
  • After sales support
  • Supporting articles on your products and the benefits these provide you as a website owner

Later in the show we also discuss some of the comments about ecommerce usability made, in the boagworld.com forum.  Unfortunately we couldn’t cover all of the issues discussed so if you would like more detail visit the ecommerce thread on our message board.

In the news

There are some very interesting stories in the news this week. Probably the biggest story is the possibility that Google intend to by YouTube. For more information on this acquisition check out TechCrunch’s report. However, more interest to me are two stories found on the BBC website. The first is a report stating that people are more concerned about net crime than being burgled. This remarkable report emphasises the need to reassure users continually about the privacy and security of their personal information. The second article exposes the fact that despite people being more tech-savvy than ever before, they are still left confused by the mass of technical jargon online.

Review

Finally, we review an easy to implement ecommerce system called Shopify. Although not quite as straightforward as RightCart it does have considerably more features and is definitely worth checking out if you are considering a small scale ecommerce website. For a more complete rundown of the different ecommerce packages available read the ecommerce software thread on our forum.

Podcast 52: Javascript Libraries

Posted in Classic shows on by Paul Boag

This week on boagworld.com we talk to Dustin Diaz about Javascript libraries, discuss other web design podcasts, launch our web design forum and help you get started with Microformats.

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In the news

Microformats

If you are interested in getting started with then check out the excellent ebook on Microformats by
Brian Suda
. He has also been kind enough to share a Microformats cheat sheet for free.

Microsoft and the BBC

This week saw an announcement by Microsoft and the BBC that they are exploring ways of developing [the BBCs] digital services. As you can see the announcement is somewhat lacking in details. However, this is potentially a huge development and could lead to some interesting online services.

Searching rich media

This year’s demo conference saw pluggd announce an amazing new feature that allows you to search inside of podcasts. This is symptomatic of a growing movement to ensure that rich media content is searchable. Other players in this space include Veotag and Podzinger.

Questions and comments

This week’s show included two excellent audio questions from listeners.

The first was about the open source forum software I mentioned a few weeks back called Vanilla. This led to a discussion about running online communities, the integration of Vanilla and my hopes for the new boagworld forum.

The second question was about what other podcasts I would recommend. Below are the list of the one’s I mentioned on the show. However, you can find a more comprehensive list of web design podcasts by going here.

Main feature

The main feature today is an interview with
Dustin Diaz
about Javascript libraries. Javascript is becoming increasingly important as web designers produce ever more powerful web applications. But, how do Javascript libraries fit in? Do they enable rapid development or are they simply a crutch for those that can’t be bothered to learn the language?

Review

There are so many great website applications around these days, many of which allow you to add their functionality to your own site through web services and APIs. The problem is that it is hard to discover what exactly is available. This week on boagworld we review three sites that help you do exactly that:

Podcast 51: Better Google Listings

Posted in Classic shows on by Paul Boag

We all want better listings for our sites on Google, but search engine optimisation often appears to be a dark art and a morally murky area. In this show, we explore the issue and provide some practical advice.

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Google accounts for over 49% of all searches and has one of the most complex and closely guarded search algorithms. It is not surprising therefore that your website ranking on Google can be a subject of much pain and frustration.

Ranking criteria

The exact nature of how Google ranks websites is largely unknown. However, it is generally accepted that the following items are a major contributing factor:

  • The age of your domain name
  • The amount of content available to the search engines
  • The amount of websites linking to your website and their popularity
  • The information architecture of your website
  • The quality of a page build
  • The relevancy to the end user

Page Ranking

A broad-brush indication of your rating is Google’s Page Rank. This numerical value provides some idea of your success in search rankings. There are numerous ways of viewing your page ranking but probably the simplest is to install the Google Toolbar.

Page Indexing

Another important factor in ranking your site is the accessibility of your content to Google. Google can only list your pages if it can access them. You can easily find out how much of your site is indexed by typing the following into Google:

Site:yourDomain.com

This won’t return every page as it will consider some pages duplicates. To see all pages click on the link at the bottom of the results.

Inbound Links

Of course probably the most significant factor in your page ranking, is still inbound links. The quantity and quality of links are crucial in how well your site is rated. You can view how many sites link to you by entering the following into Google:

Link:yourDomain.com

What does Google look at?

So when Google visits your site, what exactly is it looking for? Well, Google pays particular attention to the following elements on your pages:

  • The page title
  • The body content
  • Your meta tags
  • Headings
  • The naming and destination of links

Of course Google cannot index everything. It struggles with some content and cannot access others at all. Below is a list of the more troublesome elements. Although these elements can be used on a site you should not rely on a search engine being able to fully index them:

  • Images
  • PDF documents
  • Flash
  • Multimedia content

SEO Good Practice

Understanding how Google works is one thing, improving your listing is quite another. Below are is a list of good practices I have picked up while researching the show. These should go a long way to helping you improve your sites placement. However, ultimately search engine is a specialist area and you may wish to consider outsourcing this work if you are able.

  • Identify a list of keywords to focus on. Keep it short and specific. Trying to ranking highly on lots of broad phrases will prove impossible.
  • Endeavour to include keywords in your page URLs. Look at the address for this page. Notice that it repeats the title of the article. Does your site do this or does it have incomprehensible URLs?
  • Use Heading Tags and keeping the H1 tag for the page title rather than the title of the site.
  • Make sure that every page has real content rather than lists of links. I recommend at least 50 words per page.
  • Wherever possible using keywords in your links (both in the body of the page and within navigation).
  • Use breadcrumbs through the site.
  • Try to keep keyword density at around the 5% mark.
  • Separate your content from your design by using CSS based layout.
  • Make sure any Javascript you use is unobtrusive and degrades nicely.
  • Ensure that meta data (keywords and descriptions) is unique to each page and not generic across the whole site.
  • Remember that content only accessible after submitting a form is invisible to Google.
  • Wherever possible, link to other content within your own site using consistent link descriptions.
  • Ensure all images have an alt attribute (alt tag).
  • Make sure your site has a sitemap.
  • Look at your competition and analysis what SEO steps they are taking.

Conclusion

Improving your ranking on Google can be a slow and frustrating experience. It is not unusual for a website to take 4 months to be fully listed and even longer if it is a new domain. Even more frustrating is the fact that Google keeps much of its algorithm a closely guarded secret, which means that much of what we know about improving rankings is educated guesswork. Despite that, we cannot ignore Google. They are a dominant force in the marketplace and search engine listings are a vital component of any online marketing strategy.

Also in this show…

Also in this week’s show we review CSS – The Missing Manual, take a look at a standalone version of IE 7 and check out a new automated testing suit. In the news we also see @media go global and have a look at the latest Web standards advice from A List Apart.

Macs… don't you love them :)

Posted in Working in web design on by Paul Boag

For fear of incurring even more wrath from the mac community, I felt that I just had to share this video I have found on YouTube with you all.

If you have seen the recent advertising campaign from Apple then you will really appreciate this biting response. However, I would like to make it clear that the content of this video in no way represents the views of this author :)

Its worth sticking it out to the end!

Podcast 50: Question time

Posted in Classic shows on by Paul Boag

It’s over to you.

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On this 50th episode of boagworld.com we turn the tables allowing you the listener to set the agenda. Based entirely on listener submitted questions we cover the future of boagworld, top tips for podcasting, working with javascript libraries and whether tables and web standards can be combined.

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Thanks to everybody who sent in questions for the show and thanks too to all of you who have support boagworld over the last 50 episodes. Both myself and Marcus have been overwhelmed by the encouragement and feedback we have received. It is our hope that the next 50 episodes will see the show grow and include more of what you guys have to say, rather than our endless waffle. We really want to build up the comments and questions segment of the show as well as adding a decent forum to this site. So, if you have a question, comment or request for the show then send us an MP3 file through Odeo:

Leave a message for the show now!

But what do you want?

What about you? What would you like out of the show? What should we be covering? What needs changing? What should we be sure to keep? Let us know by posting a comment.