Archive for the ‘Web Technology’ Category
published by Dan in SEO | Tools & Resources | Web Development | Web Technology | Writing for the Web
If you happen to have a website and want to generate income from it using Google adsense, it would be wise to determine how you place your ads. We see this option from Google once we are ready to create our own ads but while the Google tutorials are something to guide us, it all really depends on where you place your ads.
For the record, Google allows you to place a maximum of 3 ads on a certain page. Going over that will leave you a blank space. So for blogs, if you want to maximize the advertising spots, it would be wise to place your ads near the posts. Remember that your posts are the ones which changes frequently and to broaden the ads that will be shown on your site, fresh content is usually the keywords that they will rely on.
Just be sure not to overdo it. While it would be best to place Google ads for content, it may render your site worthless if you forget about why the people are there. Formatting is still essential. Blogs are meant to provide information and if you screw that up, chances are you may not get the visitors who will eventually be clicking those ads to generate your revenue.
This has been proven already. Placing them near posts raises the bar of potential ads that may be of interest to your visitors. Just bear in mind, if you don’t update or have good ads, why would a visitor become interested in them if they see recurring ads each time they land on your page?
published by Dan in Blogging | Web Development | Web General | Web Technology | Website Analytics | Website Design
When it comes to putting up sites these days, we can see a fair amount of people left with two choices, blog sites or websites. Some may ask what is the difference between the two since they can both be hosted using any domain and maintained using the standard ways of search engine optimization. Between the two, it seems that blog sites are easier to maintain since with software such as Wordpress or TypePad, you can easily just compose and save your blog entries and even add an image or two and you can start building on rapport on the web.
Websites on the other hand are known for requiring the need of advanced scripting and programming languages such as PHP or CSS. Not all people can easily understand how they can use these software and all they care about is putting up a site, adding some content and then applying certain scripts to get their website up and running. These programming languages are actually being studied by most people since they all know that websites are something that most businesses need right now to establish web presence.
Putting up a blog seems to be simple but it does require some scripting to get traffic. Blogs have so far evolved from the usual online diary belief into something that can be made profitable. Through adsense and some text link ads, blogs can generate good revenue if you really focus on building them. Its all about content generation using main keywords in demand in cyberspace today. That is where the profit lies these days.
published by Dan in Web Development | Web Technology | Website Design
- Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML) - Powerful XML-based markup user interface markup language and application markup language in one. Has the combined functionality of various user interface markup languages such as XUL, SVG, and CSS. Created by Microsoft.
- OpenLaszlo - Supports Flash. Newest versions 4.x and releases also supports Dynamic HTML (DHTML). As you have already probably deduced from the name it is open-source.
- MXML - Markup language for Micromedia’s Flex language. Like OpenLaszlo, MXML-defined user interfaces are rendered by Flash Player.
- GIMP Toolkit/GTK+ - Created primarily for GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) but has evolved in a feature rich toolkit for creating graphical user interfaces that is cross platform compatible. The primary platform that uses GTK+ is still the X Window System but it is also already supported Windows 2000 and upwards, as well as newer versions of Mac OS X.
- Curl - If you have heard of Curl before and thought it was actually a programming language then don’t worry because you are right. Curl IS an object-oriented programming language AND a markup language. Curl was actually developed by MIT’s Laboratory for Computer Science as a research project (Curl Project) but due to it’s success now a corporation (to which site I linked to) fully dedicated to bringing commercial products.
published by Dan in Web Development | Web Technology | Website Design | Website Standards
This is a partial list of markup languages. The links pointed to are the most authoritative links I could find on each particular markup language. Note that I chose only the more popular markup languages for each category in order to give you an idea of the scope of use of markup languages.
General purpose markup languages
Lightweight markup language - Uses very simple syntax since they are designed for very simple text editors.
Content syndication markup languages - We are very familiar with the first two since it is what’s mostly used for web feeds.
published by Dan in Accessibility | Tools & Resources | Web Technology | Website Design | Website Standards
Benefits of automated authoring tools:
- Programming-free authoring and publishing - Uses easy to learn and use WYSIWYG editing
- Time saver - Automated processes makes content translation faster and everything else faster, which results in saved money and earlier release of product to the market.
- Cost reduction - The in-house production/development of e-learning materials and websites using such tools can be significantly lower than hiring a development team.
- Quality assurance - Automated editing processes ensures that process steps are taken.
- Easier collaboration - Some automated software allows for real-time multi user collaboration.
- Results in documentation consistency - By automating documentation processes you can be sure that you’ll get more consistent and timely results.
Disadvantages of automated authoring tools:
- Small things that count get overlooked - There’s no denying it a professional web designer will find it easier to spot problems or even just potential problems that someone inexperienced that is just dabbling with an automated authoring software.
- Non-compliance to web standards - This wouldn’t be too bad if it didn’t result in something adverse but since it does affect accessibility then it is a problem that shouldn’t be overlooked. Most affected by accessibility issues are the visually-impaired. While this can be corrected by someone knowledgeable in HTML those using WYSYWIG editors do not even know there’s a problem.
- Debugging woes - Whether a big/critical problem or something as minute as incorrect alignment arises a lot of those using automated authoring tools will find themselves unable to solve the problem that easily, if at all, which then prompts them to either hire a professional web developer or to leave the the end product flawed.
published by Dan in Tools & Resources | Web Development | Web Technology | Website Design
Automated authoring software have been getting bad publicity from web designers and some people think that the reason behind this bad vibes is simply that these tools are displacing web designers. While it is true that there are people that now use automated authoring tools to “design” their own websites there is still no dearth of web design clients.
To help clear up the issue of automated authoring software let me list down both the advantages and disadvantages of automated authoring software. Before I do that though let me give a short introduction to automated authoring software.
An automated authoring software is a development tool that can be used to create and publish web-ready content in different formats, from HTML to CD files. The great thing about this development software is that it allows even those without any programming knowledge to create these content (including websites) since they are mostly drag-and-click types of content creation…no programming!
Automated authoring tools can be used for a variety of purposes but right now the most popular use is to create e-learning modules.
In my next post I’ll be giving the advantages and disadvantages of using automated authoring tools.
published by Dan in Web Technology | Website Analytics | Website Design
As the term implies, eye tracking is simply a technique used to follow (keep track) a person’s gaze. It makes use of a device called an eye tracker which measures the positions of the eyes and its movements. There are different kinds of technologies available that is used for eye tracking but the most common eye tracker uses a video camera to record the eye(s) and its movements. This is also the method used by (web) usability consultants/engineers.
What happens is that the camera has a special feature (the eye tracker!) which enables it locate the center of the pupil. This is usually done using infrared and near-infrared light. Before data is gathered during eye tracking the camera is calibrated for each user. Calibration takes only a few seconds. The data is gathered by simply allowing the user to go about browsing the a website the way he/she normally would. Specific tasks can be given to the user since eye tracking can be done simultaneously with other usability tests. Note that the camera used for eye tracking is usually placed unobtrusively so that it will not bother the user and thus affect the outcome of the test.
After the data is gathered the usability consultant will then interpret the data. Images showing browsing pattern of the test subject (the average user) should of course be part of the report making it all very easy to understand.
If you haven’t done eye tracking and want to improve your website design I suggest you do this before investing to redesign your website. You might be surprised at how much you can learn and how much it will affect your approach to web design.
published by Dan in Usability | Web Technology | Website Design
Every user has his/her own habits when browsing a web page. In general though users follow a certain pattern and focus on the same parts of the page. There will always be users that will have browsing/reading patterns that diverge from the norm but learning the habits of the majority of the users is good enough to aid in making a better web design.
Eye tracking is a method used by usability experts to determine the parts of the pages users look at, the frequency with which they look at those parts, and the amount of time they spend looking at those parts. The data garnered from this technique is very useful in web design because you can then adjust your web page design and make it more effective by placing the most important contents in key positions/placements.
Eye tracking is usually done as part of usability testing, however, not all usability consultants offer this service (in fact only very few do). To do eye tracking the web design consultant need to not only be knowledgeable about this technique but also have the equipment to carry out the test. In my next post I will be discussing briefly how eye tracking is done.
Note that eye tracking has many applications though primarily it is used for all kinds of research from medical research to primate research. Our interest in eye tracking is obviously its application in computer/web design usability and it is this application we will be tackling on the next post.
published by Dan in Accessibility | Tools & Resources | Web Technology | Website Design | Website Standards
Last time I posted about the importance of web accessibility. I mentioned how other users, aside from the disabled and partially disabled, could benefit from web accessibility. As a web designer though that is not very familiar with web accessibility you should realize that there is a pretty wide range of disabilities to address including:
- visual impairments - whether full or partial blindness or colour blindness
- motor disabilities - for those with problems with fine muscle control due to certain conditions like Parkinson’s disease, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, etc.
- auditory problems - whether full or partial deafness
- seizures - epilepsy is sometimes triggered when the screen frequency is between 2 to 55Hz
- cognitive/intellectually impairments - users with learning disabilities such as dyslexia, dyscalculia, has poor memory and problem solving skills, etc.
Looking at the list above can be daunting. However, a web design provider really needs to address these issues especially if under the jurisdiction of countries that legally require web accessibility. As mentioned in the previous post though, the Web Accessibility Initiative is a good place to start informing yourself about the issue. There you will find everything from guidelines and techniques to evaluation tools.
As a web designer note though that your job is really only to follow the guidelines set by the W3C. You do not have to worry about the hardware part and other assistive technologies that will help the disabled in web browsing. By following the guidelines you can be assured that the website you have designed can be easily read by assistive technologies such as screen readers. Of course, since technology constantly gives better (or at least newer) solutions then it is important that you keep yourself up-to-date with the latest developments in web accessibility.
published by Dan in Web Development | Web Technology | Website Design
Progress - The progress element, as the name indicates, is used to indicate the progress or state of a specific process. Everyone is familiar with progress bars and this acts just like it. Of course if the progress value isn’t updated dynamically then it simply serves to represent the progress of a specific process during a specific time frame, which I think defeats the entire purpose of the element. To be able to update the values in the progress bar you will need JavaScript.
The progress element has two attributes: min and max. The max attribute can be left out for processes wherein there is really no max value or the max value isn’t known. When using the the progress element you can opt to show the actual value or a percentage of the value. For example when downloading a file you can write it as
<p>Downloaded: <progress value=”204.57″ min=”0″ max=”700″> 204.57MB </progress></p>
or as
<p>Downloaded: <progress value=”204.57″ min=”0″ max=”700″>28.8%</progress></p>
For processes that do not have maximum values you can simply eliminate the max attribute:
<p>You are visitor number: <progress value=”20457″> 20457 </progress></p>
Of course the example given wasn’t really a process but is simply a hit counter. But you get the point.
Next up: Embedded Media Elements
Source: New Elements in HTML 5 by Prof. E. Harold
0845 838 7448 
