24 May

Don’t worry, theirs a library for that!

Every now and again, actually more like quite often than not, developers rely on what has now become an essential part of the developer toolkit: libraries. They enable developers to have more freedom to code, and focus on proper coding which 8/10 times will just work, –and this is a good thing!

But, I have thought about all of this library usage and am curious if we as developers are starting to rely too heavily on its usage in our coding practice. I’m not saying to stop using libraries all together, that would be madness, but at the very least before you decide to include one in your coding project make sure you’re familiar with it, what it does, how it benefits the project and the language it uses.

Less Confusion during debugging

I know one thing all developers loath is when something you thought was reliable breaks down, like a new plug-in for your CMS or a core library function; either way both require you to do something about it to rectify the situation.

A good library provides a …

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16 May

Site Version 2.0! Updates and Changes

I would like to welcome everyone to the new and improved Virtually(Creative) development blog! Some major changes have happened around here to update to a more current “web-standard” and have changed to how content is organized and will be categorized in the future. Virtually(Creative).ca started as just my personal web development blog and now has expanded to a full-time freelance business; so thank you friends and clients! On a high note their will also be some promotions and service discounts via twitter so don’t forget to @follow me!

So as you can see, some major improvements have been made. Eventually I plan to roll out my own custom CMS underneath the skin to add even more functionality, and help with providing clients a customized project tracking & management system along with mobile-only content formatted just for your phones! I’ve had many ideas for this update and will expand upon this in the future…

I’ve also got a new Blackberry Torch 9800 and have updated and outfitted it with all the latest apps which will …

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19 Jul

9 Tips of the bad developer.

1. He Calls Himself a “Webmaster”

Any web guy that calls himself a “webmaster” isn’t a master of anything. The term “webmaster” has become a translation for the word “I suck and need to cover my suckage with flashy pre-2000 internet terms.” The web has diversified into so many different realms that webmaster is no longer meaningful. Nor will it ever be.

2. He’s a FrontPage Expert

Any developer / designer with 2 ions of brain power knows that Microsoft FrontPage most definitely isn’t a professional tool.First off its Microsoft, (jokes!) but FrontPage will pass for Mom and Dad who want to create a website to their dogs and balls of yarn, not for someone who’s trying to do business. I’d argue that a solid Web Developer should work at code level or can easily edit exisiting code after a look.

3. He’ll Submit Your Website to [x # of] Search Engines

Submitting your website to hundreds of search engines would be great…before 1997. Websites are indexed by relevant search engines by how rich their content and keywords are. Search …

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16 Jun

Web Design Usability Checklist

Myself and fellow web designers alike feel like we keep making the same usability mistakes over and over. This checklist with is a must read for every web designer who cares about the usability of their site and does not want to keep remembering over and over if everything completed.

Some of these you would think go without saying, but even everyday objects require warning labels so never forget the basics! But on the flip side, not everything here is essential to your site and you should know if something does or does not apply to your situation.

Yes, even this blog doesn’t meet all the checklist requirements but thankfully, I didn’t make this blog I just use it.

Some terms that aren’t referenced are linked to the pages with extra information, if I missed some or the link is dead please let me know.

Technical

Did you validate your (X)HTML using W3C Markup Validation Service? Did you validate your CSS using W3C CSS Validation Service? Did you check your website in at least IE, FF, …

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16 Jun

Web Dev Questionnaire

I developed this “Website Development Questionnaire” in 2002. It is old, but it still serves me well, so I thought I would share. I don’t actually add the bold or italic sections below. Those were added here to help you understand the rationale for the questions:

1) Corporate Identity: Corporate Information (for site development):Company Name (Legal)Company Name (Branding)Company Tag Line:Company Phone NumberCompany Fax NumberAddress:Other contact informationBusiness hours of operation (store hours / when phones will be answered, if relevant)

2) Domain Names and Hosting:Main Domain Name:What other domain names do you own?Do you have web hosting? If so, what type (IIS, Apache?)

3) Briefly describe what your company does:

4) Adjectives: Please list 5 (or more) adjectives that you think describe your company or should describe your company in order of relevance / importance

This information is used to get a sense for design, and to help in SEO

5) Competitors: Are there any websites that you would consider your “competition”? Feel free to provide more information on how they are your “competition”, but, at minimum, provide for each competitor, …

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