CSS ComfortDesign with Love

A Wordpress Plugin for the iPhone

iWPhone is a free plugin for the iphone that displays an iPhone optimized version of your blog for iPhone and iPod Touch users.

This is a great concept and will appeal to many tech bloggers.  I know I will be installing this plugin as I use an iPond Touch.

But what Im hanging out for is an admin backend optimized for the iPhone as well.  Then I will be able to make new posts on the go.

Customizing the Cool Sites Directory

Flimble.com is a link bidding directory that I spent a fair bit of money on customizing.  The site i built using PHPLinkBid but I decided to hire a freelance coder to add extra functionality to the website.

This was one of those jobs that I probably could have done myself,  yet, time being my most valuable asset, I chose to outsource the coding to a freelance.

Finding a freelance programmer isn’t hard these days.  With sites such as eLance and GetaFreelancer you will have swarms of prospective freelancers bidding on your project.

For Flimble.com, I chose to list the project on GetAFreelancer.com.  I have found that GAF is perfect for smaller projects like this one.   The entire process of listing the project, receiving bids, completing and paying was all done in about a week, and it saved me a heap of time.

So what did I get done to Flimble.  Well I wanted to make the site a little more social, so I had a commenting feature added.  This allows visitors to comment on any of the websites submitted, providing valuable feedback for site owners.  I also added some listing enhancements for advertisers.  They can now upload their logos and add a detailed description to their listing.   Those 3 enhancements cost me around $90.  Which is fairly cheap for custom mods but its 3 times more expensive then the PHPLinkBid script itself.

I’m planning on adding a few more features, but I will look at doing this myself as if I ever plan to sell the site, I doubt I will be able to make much back on it.

5 Essential Rules For Web Designers

Here are my 5 essential rules for all web designers!

1. No Splash Pages - I muse sound like a broken record, but Splash pages really serve no useful purpose.  Forget about making the user click and give them the content right away.
2. Be Smart About Ad Placement - Excessive banners, pop-ups, things that flash etc.  These all annoy the user.  Be smart about advertising and integrate the ads into your design.  Don’t feel you have to use standard banner sizes if they won’t fit your site.  Just take a look at what Smashing Magazine - I actually want to click their ads!
3. Use a Simple and Clear Navigation - You don’t need to reinvent the wheel.  Stick with a tried and tested navigation structure and layout that users are both familiar with and understand.
4. Logo’s Equal Links -  Your logo should link back to your homepage!  You would be suprised how many sites don’t use this an just how awkward this can make the user feel.
5. Don’t Use Audio - How annoying is it when you visit a website and it just start blurting out sound.  Audio is just plain annoying and can also make your website non work safe.  If you put audio on your site, put the control in the users hands - don’t just have an auto-playing .midi file looping in the background!

How simple is that!  Thats my 5 essential rules for web designers.  What are yours?

Speedy Image Uploading

I use a lot of images. I post them on Forums, social networking sites, blogs and all over the place. So the ability to upload images quickly and efficiently is essential for me.

I could just upload all the images I use to a server like the one this blog is hosted on, but I find that it is too time consuming. So instead I use a great (free) service - PicSpeed.

PicSpeed requires no registration and you can upload images with just 1 click. The best bit is though, is that the site spits out various linking methods including direct links and the very useful BBCode which allows easy image insertion in forums.

I have found the service to be really fast and as far as i’m aware they are always up and running and full speed!

Take a look at http://www.picspeed.com

Splash Pages. Why?

A splash page is a front to the actual website which usually doesn’t provdie any actual content. They offer information on what the site is about, what software is required to run the site and sometimes options on how to enter the website.

Yet all of this means more clicks for the user - and in design, the less clicks the better.

So why would you want to place a splash page on your website? I can’t think of many valuable reasons apart from a legal reason. For example many adult orientated sites contain information letting the user now that the following pages are only suitable for adults.

IF you really need a Splash page then I suggest you go for something like what Apple.com does. There front-page is splash-esque but also contains vital navigation controls. In fact, I find the info Apple displays on their front-page to be worth a look and I enjoy seeing there latest innovations displayed.

Ajax Inline Editing

A little while ago, I came up with the concept of web 2.0 app that allowed you to promote your blog in a unique way. I won’t give away too many details so as to maintain some kind of competitive advantage.

But one of the features this app requires is the ability to edit text inline. ie. edit text on a page where it is displayed without using a separate form.

Luckily I don’t have to bother coding this feature myself, thanks to a really useful ajax app - Ajax Inline Text Edit 2.0.

This is a really simple script that was super easy to setup. It basically requires very little technical knowledge at all. I will see if I can setup a working example of this script on this blog.