Blog Archive

Will my website work in Netscape? - Feb 24, 2009 8:40AM - By: Chad Halvorson

Umm... no.

With the features brought to us by web 2.0 browsers, we designers have become spoiled—and I guess then so have our clients. There are far less limitations to what we can and cannot do on the creative front with design. However, the embrace of these new capabilities by modern browsers come with the responsibility to make sure our sweet new idea works with the big three: Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari—and if you want to get down to versions: IE 6,7,8, FF 2,3. It's also our responsibility to communicate this repertoire of compatible browsers to our clients—make sure they know what browsers their site is going to work with.

With a took-kit of tricks, hacks and techniques we can pull off all the major design challenges that have plagued us in the past. IE6 of course is the hardest of browser versions to comply with our visions of better internet. When it comes to IE6, my position is usually this: make sure it works, looks non distracting and maintains the clients brand. Beyond that there is definitely wiggle room. The user base for IE6 is plummeting more and more every day—which is great. A world without IE6 will eliminate 20% of the work spent on browser compatibility for it. If you want to keep tabs on browser stats, click here.

The Web Design Trifecta - Feb 18, 2009 3:55PM - By: Chad Halvorson

Rounded corners, drop shadows and pattern backgrounds in website design.

Let's face it. The biggest no-no or reluctance in web design is a site who's live area consists of rounded corners with drop-shadow on a patterned background. We've faced this issue twice recently. The first time we used some fancy javascript & CSS with PNG images (http://www.loft.org). It worked fine, but we had hoped it could be simpler. The second time I think we nailed it. We managed to keep the entire integrity of the design by using standard CSS techniques and simple JPGs; —no PNGs (http://www.tcspine.com).

First, we assumed a maximum resolution width of 1920. Then we broke the site into essentially three rows. The top row, or header, is a long JPG stretching 1920 pixels wide. The second row is the content area and is a wide 1920 pixel JPG that is 7 pixels tall. The height of this JPG is important because it repeats vertically and needs to maintain the patterned background. The third row is pretty much the same as the top row. The footer JPG only needs to be tall enough to accommodate your bottom rounded corners. Finally, using CSS the positioning of these three rows needs to be centered.

This method only applies to fixed width website designs, but it allows for a fluid background pattern up to 1920 pixels wide. If you desire to accommodate larger resolutions, just make the widths of the JPGs wider. What's really neat about this approach is it works natively with the main browsers. It also eliminate the weird one pixel shift that shows up in Firefox and Safari.

In-house means within budget - Feb 13, 2009 7:49PM - By: Chad Halvorson

And sometimes under budget.

I know it may sound a little corny or gimmicky but it's basically true. A vendor that provides all it's services in-house often times ends up costing the business on the receiving end much less for the same quality of work.

Since marketing efforts these days are requiring various mediums as part of the marketing strategy, it's becoming more costly for the "big" ad agency's to outsource the work. Video production, editing, web development, customized interactive CDs, graphic design, mobile content and microsites, (just to name a few) are required in most marketing mixes.

Since a typical agency outsources things like websites, animation and video production, the cost of a single product launch that requires all of these mediums skyrockets fast. An in-house vendor can provide all these services with the same quality and follow through, thus reducing the huge costs commonly associated with agencies.

Obviously I'm tooting my own horn here since all our services are done in-house, but it's fair to note that we have had direct experiences where our cost is often half of what an agency would charge; —and the final product is equally as effective as the work previously done by the agency for double the cost.

Finally, in the current economic state it's behoove of business to continue their marketing efforts to remain competitive, but it's also fair to note that just because it's been expensive to to develop your marketing materials in the past, doesn't mean that you have to sacrifice quantity for quality.