Use Tables for HTML Emails
By: Diana
Date: Nov 18, 2008
Category: design, marketing
In the "olden days", web pages were tables of data - think spreadsheets - with cool colors and images added in the cells. Web 2.0 is all about tableless designs using CSS to structure the layout. Tables are definitely out - except for HTML emails.
Web pros complain about browser compatibility, a misnomer considering that not all browsers display markup the same way. Mention Internet Explorer 6 and watch web geeks spasm. Still, browsers are synchronized swimmers compared to email clients, who are just getting into the "display HTML" game and do not play well with others. The best way to keep them under control is to put your markup into tables.
For a more in-depth and interesting to read tutorial, read Tim Slavin's tutorial on Sitepoint. You can also find 10 HTML Email Coding Tips and free templates on MailChimp.
Frames, bad. (Usually)
By: Diana
Date: Sep 02, 2008
Category: design
Ten years ago, web pages split into boxes, called frames, were popular. The common layout was a header box for the site name and logo, a navigation box on the side with links to the pages of the website, and a large content box where those pages would appear when clicked. Frames were always more of a necessary evil than good thing for websites but for public website nowadays, they aren't even necessary anymore.
Chances are, if you are hiring a web designer/developer to create your website, they will barely remember how to code frames and would not choose to use them. But if you have an older site that has frames (here is an example of a site that does) there are some very good reasons to update your design.
Because each page of a framed website does not have a unique URL, like http://www.spithra.com/blog.php, but instead hides the address inside the frame, users can't share your web pages with others by sending URLs or reliably bookmark the page so they can return. They also can't print the information they find there - if they find it at all, frames make sites difficult for search engine robots to crawl. You can use cheats, but the results don't ensure that users navigating from search engines will land where they mean to land.
CSS has freed the web from the necessary evil of frames, though in some cases inline frames are harmless, and a sometimes exception to the "frames bad" rule.
What Makes you Special?
By: Diana
Date: Jul 25, 2008
Category: branding, marketing
Branding your website is just as important as branding a breakfast cereal. Users will develop a "feel" for your site and associate their experience with your "personality". As a business or individual, you are still a brand. There are so many websites vying for attention. Users are most likely to revisit sites that give them a reliable experience and a secure feeling.
Knowing that users will get a "feel", decide up front exactly what you want them to feel. What is your core value? What is the thing about you, your business, your service that makes you truly special? Rather than make the user figure out who you really are, know who you really are and design a web presence that conveys that message. Choose a logo, colors, text, and images all with this value in mind and thus . . . it becomes your brand. And it will show.
For example, one thing that makes me special as a web developer is my commitment not just to serving my clients but to educating them. I am deeply committed to educating myself. And so, The WebGeek Journal is designed to convey this value. Return users can trust that, if nothing else, they will always learn something here.