Category: Web Design
In the Visual Journalism team at the BBC, we produce exciting visual, engaging and interactive content, ranging from calculators to visualizations new storytelling formats. Each application is a unique challenge to produce in its own right, but even more so when you consider that we have to deploy most projects in many different languages. Our…
It’s quite popular these days, and dare I say a damn fine idea, to build sites with components. Rather than building out entire pages one by one, we build a system of components (think: a search form, an article card, a menu, a footer) and then piece together the site with those components. JavaScript frameworks…
Back in the 2000s, it was commonplace to see websites that were built using Flash. By viewing the source of a website, you’d often see very little HTML and an embedded SWF file. This meant a few things. First, the browser didn’t natively support Flash, so you had to download the Flash plugin. Browsers found…
Over the last few years, I ran several usability studies with participants with various disabilities. I thought it would help others if I shared some of my experiences. In this article, I provide lessons learned or tips to consider in planning and executing usability testing with participants with disabilities. The lessons learned are divided into…
As technologies change and design techniques evolve, it’s inevitable that we’d experience massive growth in terms of design quality. There are similar parallels we can see within video game design as well. For instance: This was CERN, the very first website back in 1991. Just some basic HTML and ample white space: The very first…
At some point in your career, most web designers and developers can relate to issues with scope creep, unexpected project delays, client relationships breaking down, and unpaid invoices. The good news is that there’s an insurance policy to help with these scenarios. In the UK, we call it “professional indemnity insurance.” Elsewhere, it can be…
So you’ve trained yourself as a web engineer, and now want to build a blazing fast online shop for your customers. The product list should appear in an instant, and searching should waste no more than a split second either. Is that the stuff of daydreams? Not anymore. Well, at least it’s nothing that can’t…
(This is a sponsored article.) With a prototype of your design built, it’s important to start testing it to see if the assumptions you have made are correct. In this article, the seventh in my ongoing series exploring the user experience design process, I’ll explore the importance of user testing. As I explored in my…
If you’ve been thinking of creating free or premium WordPress themes, well, I hope I can help you avoid some of the mistakes I’ve made over the years. Even though I always strive for good clean code, there are pursuits that still somehow lead me into making mistakes. I hope that I can help you…
When high potential projects fall apart, it’s often a failure of collaboration and alignment. The tools, the assumptions, the opportunity, and the intentions may line up, but if people don’t communicate or don’t have a clear map to help them move in the same direction, even the best projects falter. Communication failures are human problems,…