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Complete Joy Gems Archive

• 2010

• The Final Edition Of The Joy Gems Newsletter
  All things must pass and this too applies to a newsletter I loved writing for a long time.

• 2009

• Practical Advice On How To Find And Hire That Perfect Web Designer - Part3 of 3
  At last. You've received proposals to design your web site. Now all you have to do is evaluate them and make a decision.

• Practical Advice On How To Find And Hire That Perfect Web Designer - Part2 of 3
  This time around I go over how you assemble a list o design firms which are capable of doing your project and how you control the bidding process.

• Practical Advice On How To Find And Hire That Perfect Web Designer - Part 1 of 3
  Want to get the best web design and development team possible to work with you? There's a process - a right way and a wrong way - to go about it. In this first of a three page article I discuss how and why you need to write a Request For Proposal (RFP) to create a competitive bidding environment that will serve your best interests

• The Lovely Lynda
  Need to learn an application right now? Need a quick refresher on how Apps like Dreamweaver, Photoshop, illustrator and so many more work? Get access to 4,000 short video training videos on demand at lynda.com.

• World Usability Day, November 12, 2009
  About one day in the life of Planet Earth and what is being planed in New York City.

• In Search Of The Best Web Page Editor
  What web page editors do the best web designers in the world use? An exploration of the popular page editors for Windows and Mac.

• IE8: If You Can't Beat 'Em Copy 'Em
  Yet ana other example of how Microsoft no longer creates applications that people have to have. The release of iE8 is just another case of not being able to reinvent the wheel which is what many of us have come to expect when a revised browser is launched.

• Downloadable Web Fonts: Not Ready For Prime Time
  Web designers have been waiting eons for the time when users will be able to download a font Selected by the designer. Looks like the wait is going to be longer as browsers still do a poor job implementing CSS's @font-family capability.

• It's Getting Better All The Time
  You're eyes are not deceiving you. Web pages are looking much better these days now that we're ten years plus since everyone and everything was going web. Here's a big reason why.

• Me And My iMac
  What happens when a veteran Windows user makes the change and finally switches over to iMac? Let me tell you about The Good, The Bad and The Gorgeous.

• Survey Of Web Designers 2008
  What do the people who make what we see everyday on the web think of their work and how they do it? Great annual survey done by A List Apart.

• My Position On Position
  If you're new to working with Cascading Style Sheets I'd steer away from working with the position property. That doesn't mean never use it. It means use it after you are really comfortable with CSS in general.

• Going Mobile
  What happens when you see your web site in an iPhone, Blackberry or a T-Mobile? Does your heart get broken? Some things to consider for designs in tiny spaces.

• Two Online Web Design Tools To Make Life Easier
  Sure, there are more than just two online tools to make things easier on web designers but Browsershots and TinyURL tops the lists of many.

• XHTML Brush Up Tips (Part 2 of 2
  The final 3 tips. After 7 tips, what more could you need?

• XHTML Brush Up Tips (Part 1 of 2
  This is the first of two articles that's really more about what you need to know about XHTML as much as it is a list of brush up tips. XHTML has only a few rules and here they are.

• Rage Against The Content Management System
  Can you find anyone who loves the CMS that they use at work or just for themselves? Here are a few reasons why I don't love CMSs either.

• A Conversation With Stefan Mischook Of Killersites.com
  A few words from a guy who knows more than a thing or two about web design and runs a fantastic service for designers, content creators and everyone else that has anything to do with building the web.

• Web Design/Development Skills Needed In A Rotten Economy
  Employers are looking for designers and developers that have a certain approach to web design.

• 2008

• 2008 Year In Review - The Best Of Joy Gems
  My annual pick of what I thought were the best Joy Gems jewels of the expiring year. And I take a look ahead.

• Time For Splash Pages To Dry Up
  What do you do when you see a splash page on the web? Just click on through? Then why bother to use one at all?

• Getting "Embed" With YouTube
  There's a simple explanation as to why videos have popped up everywhere on the web. Here's the reason: It's Easy!!

• The War Against "Click Here"
  What's a sure fire way to know that someone doesn't know how to write for the web? Ever see the words "click here?"

• The Blind Spot In (X)HTML Validation
  Validating pages to remove errors in coding is a great idea for many reasons. But it doesn't answer the question about how good - how well formed - is your document.

• A Little Of This And That
  My first Joy Gems that features the "blurb and click" style of e-publishing. Leading off? a link to writing for the web.

• Kill The CAPTCHAs
  If you don't know what they are no doubt you've seen them. They do a great job at what they're designed to do. And that's the problem.

• You're Smarter Than Dreamweaver
  If you're leaning on DW as a Cascading Style Sheet authoring tool you ought to think of laying off it. At the end of the day you'll end up with more trouble than it's worth.

• Lessons Learned: The Making Of A Sustainable Web Site (Part 2 Of 2)
  More things I learned when re-making this site.

• Lessons Learned: The Making Of A Sustainable Web Site (Part 1 Of 2)
  Might be pretty obvious but here are the first two: 1) Set Your Design Priorities At The Start and 2) 2. Build A Perfect Page Template

• A Short Guide To Writing Style Rules
  I came up with a way to bring order to chaos.

• Don't Call Them Coders
  My attempt to elevate and appreciate the work of those who translate ideas into web pages.

• Useful Comments
  What can you do with <!-- and -->? A lot.

• The Purpose Of (X)HTML
  It has nothing to do with style, appearance, and layout. It has everything to do with giving meaning to content.

• Open Borders
  You don't want a silly border around images used for links do you? This is a reminder of how to get rid of them.

• The Future of (X)HTML
  New and better tags are on their way.

• The FONTain Of Youth
  Just when you thought you'd be stuck using arial, verdana, and georgia forever, I found a few good new fonts for web pages.

• PDFs Are Web Pollution
  A rant against using PDFs as if they were a web page. They're not.

• 2007 Year In Review - The Best Of Joy Gems
  My annual shot to play judge and jury of the best Joy Gems of last year.

• 2007

• Google Earth Live
  What if Google Earth went live and you could see people and things moving about in real time?

• The Mother Of All Good Web Sites - A Web Page
  Make a great web page template for the site you are designing and you've got it made.

• What Are They Looking At?
  Usability gurus can track eyeball movements across a web page.

• Writing Design Specs For A New Web Site
  Whether your web site is designed in-house or outsourced, a plan must be committed to paper (or screen) before anything is ever made.

• Good Lookin' Email: Which Way To Go
  Creating formatted email is no walk in the park as email clients are even more varied than web browsers.

• The New And Improved Joy Gems Newsletter
  After a few years, it was high time to redo the look of Joy Gems.

• The Code To Content Ratio
  Less code, more content. That's what you should be striving for in your web page designs.

• Google Analytics
  A simple, effective, and amazing way to track visitors to your pages.

• What's To Learn?
  When it comes to using Dreamweaver, what is the most important thing you need to know?

• Where To Go For Web Mastering Help When You Get Stuck
  Using online forums when all other resources have been taped out.

• What Is It? A Link Or An Underline?
  Don't you feel foolish when you click on underlined text thinking it was a link? Here's a remedy for the problem.

• Turning Users Into People
  Better quit calling the people who use your web site "users" because they're not users. They're people.

• Dreamweaver Revisited
  When Adobe took over Macromedia, what did they do to assist web designers and content creators in creating web pages that follow web page design standards? Not much.

• Just The Opposite Is True
  Do you think that by following web page design standards you'll be unable to create visually engaging web sites? Think again!!

• It's The Navigation, Stupid
  After you've killed yourself getting visitors to your site, what's the thing that is most likely to drive them away?

• That Bright Line - Part 2 of 2
  One of my students also understands the separation of structure from style - and why that is useful.

• That Bright Line - Part 1 of 2
  The more I understand web design standards, the easier it gets for me to see the difference between document structure and style.

• What Means Work?
  How do you define an hour of work in the Digital Age?

• Font Tester
  An online tool that let's you easily test out your ideas about which font to use.

• Serving All The Masters - Part 2 of 2
  More of the same as Part 1, but with an example.

• Serving All The Masters - Part 1 of 2
  Use web page design standards and you'll make everything - and everyone - happy.

• What It's All About
  Web page design is a process by which informed (let us hope) decisions are made.

• 2006

• 2006 Year In Review - The Best Of Joy Gems
  I picked out a few of the best Joy Gems of 2006. At least I thought these were the best.

• The Past, Present, and Future Of The Joy Gems Newsletter
  My chance to ask JG Readers - "What would you like me to write about?"

• A Little Of This, A Little Of That
  A short collection of interesting resources that generally lead to the same place: web design standards.

• Buy These Books
  A short selection of great web design books, mostly for newbies, from a Friendly Web Design Instructor.

• White Open Spaces
  Frequently forgotten - and most important in web page design - is the space where nothing is said or done.

• A Useful Microsoft Tool (really) Hidden From View (naturally)
  What's free, in front of your face, and can FTP files from your (Windows only) computer to a server?

• Tools Of The Trade
  What programs do you use to make web sites? Here are a few long trusted and worthy friends.

• Think Before You Code
  Don't just dive into making web pages when you start putting your site together.

• The Holy Grail Of Web Page Design: Look Ma' No Tables
  To use layout tables or not to use layout tables - that's the question.

• MySpace Is Not My Space
  The popular online teen community is teaching kids a few bad things about web design.

• The Funer Side Of Web Design
  A few sites that poke fun at web design - and where you can learn a thing or two.

• Where's The Cascade In Cascading Style Sheets? Part 2 of 2
  More on how the 3 Style Sheets work together to influence web design.

• Where's The Cascade In Cascading Style Sheets? Part 1 of 2
  How the 3 Style Sheets work together to influence web design.

• Are We Ever Going To See IE7.0?
  What that 800 lb. Redmond Gorilla is doing to their new browser.

• What Style Is Your Parachute?
  Where does one's sense of style in web design come from?

• A Writer's Medium
  After you strip away all the fluff of a web page you're left with the naked truth.

• Sometimes You Have To Hide
  Yes Virginia, there is a way to hide your web site from pryin' eyes.

• Why Bother To Learn XHTML?
  The case is made.

• Fonts Fonts Fonts
  A Fontophile takes an overview of something too frequently overlooked.

• Navigation Tips - Moving About In Infospace
  Some things to keep in mind when making a web site. (Don't forget your visitors!!)

• 2005 Year In Review - The Best Of Joy Gems
  I picked out a few of the best Joy Gems of 2005 - the ones you liked and so did I.

• 2005

• Web Accessibility Toolbar - A Good Friend For Webmasters
  Put this baby in your browser to easily evaluate how others - and you - make web pages.

• Beginners' Guides To Cascading Style Sheets
  Some places to start if you're new to CSS - or even if you're not so new.

• The Other Side Of CSS And Web Standards
  Other perspectives about Cascading Style Sheets and Web Standards - be practical.

• Color My World With Great Online Tools
  A few well worn online color tools for web designers, developers, and content creators.

• So, You Want To Know About HTML Goodies, Huh?
  The well known site where you can get HTML tutorials and much more.

• A Well Formed Document Is A Beautiful Thing
  This is more important than beauty being in the eye of the beholder.

• Helpful Hints When Writing For The Web
  Learn to write in hypertext.

• 5 Web Design Principles To Live By
  Follow these ideas and you won't go wrong.

• SearchDay, Every Day
  A newsletter that's a must for anyone who needs to know everything about search.

• SEO: Giving Your Site A Chance To Be Found
  Meet Jill Whalen - a giant in the Search Engine Optimization biz.

• Speed Thrills: A Way To Optimize Your Pages So They'll Download Faster
  Meet Andy King - a web page speed freak.

• Check It Out - W3C's HTML And CSS Validators - Part 2 of 2
  Couldn't fit it on one page.

• Check It Out - W3C's HTML And CSS Validators - Part 1 of 2
  If you don't know what validation is, it's time to learn.

• Image Depots - Where To License Royalty Free Images
  Meet Corbis and Getty.

• Top Style - An Awesome Tool To Help You Make Cascading Style Sheets
  Sorry Mac users. The best of the breed was made only for Windows users.

• A Few Thoughts From The Past And Present On Site Development
  Some things I wrote years ago still hold up.

• Color Help - Two Tools That Check For Color Blindness And Contrast Issues
  Color matters.

• A Method Of Building A Small Web Site - Part 2 of 2
  Step 3 - Templating, Step 4 - Building.

• A Method Of Building A Small Web Site - Part 1 of 2
  Step 1 - Charting, Step 2 - Wire Framing.

• Listamatic - The Magic Of Working With Lists And Links
  One of the classic works of art on how to make list mark-up work in unbelievable ways.

• Tidy GUI: Fixing Up Code And Converting To XHTML
  It doesn't look like much, but it's handy to keep around in your web designer tool box.

• CSS Zen Garden - The Power Of CSS
  Want some inspiration about what you can do with Cascading Style Sheets?

• Bobby And Cynthia - Two Tools To Test Your Pages For Accessibility
  Bobby's been taken over by WebXACT but still doing the job on accessibility testing.

• The History Of The Web
  We've come a long way, baby!

• The Granddaddy Of Browser Archives
  You won't believe how many web browsers have been developed.

• Things I Hate About The Web - Part 2 of 2
  Too much for one page.

• Things I Hate About The Web - Part 1 of 2
  Pop ups, underlined text, poor multimedia controls, and more.

• Never Published as a Joy Gems Newsletter

• Old World, New World
  I was thinking out loud when I discovered Daoism.