Visual28-Personal Blog of Mark Aplet - Design, web, and other topics

In the last few months I have read a number of articles from some major sites that appear to promote or advocate the use of an auto-focus input when a page loads as a "technique to improve your user interface". The technique usually relies on some form of onload event for the body tag to set the focus to a search field or a login field.

I will say right now this is not a good practice at all. Unless your creating a site (or page) where the first task a user should take is to search for something or login, this is a very bad thing to do. This technique is one that I would personally lump in an article more appropriately titled "10 things to kill your user interface designs"

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Let me start off by saying that this is not going to be a javascript bashing article. I don't hate javascript, in fact I really do like it a lot--- although the title of this article may seem to the contrary. There are many javascript libraries that do really cool stuff. I love that many of these scripts enhance webpages without requiring the use of flash.

The problem I have been encountering lately has more to do with the improper use or implementation of javascript. I think there is far to much whiz-bang stuff being added to many of todays modern websites without considering the impact on users. I feel it's important that before you add a script or a feature to your site that you stop and ask yourself: Is this thing I am about to add to a site going to help my visitors or hurt them? Does it add any value to for the user? Does it hurt them if it's not there? Will it only cause more confusion?

Rather than just talk about it, I have compiled a few video clips to help demonstrate some bad uses of javascript.

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I'm not one to volunteer all to often. There are however a few times when I set some time aside for a worthwhile cause. Like helping homeless woman and children get back on their feet and turn their lives around.

I recently offered up my web design services to help Women's Empowerment, a local not for profit organization that does just that. Help Homeless women and their children get back on track.

Many who know me well, know that I am fairly critical of the homeless. So it may at first appear odd why I decided to volunteer my time to help them. The whole answer can be a long one, however the short and possibly surprising answer is that I spent most of my childhood and teen years being homeless or forced into a less than normal living arrangement. My brother's and I were casualties of a lifestyle that we had no control over. Like I said, it could be a long story. One that I will spare you from here.

My motivations to help were based largely on helping the children. In this case, to help the children you have to help the mother's too. So it just made sense to me to support the group.

Project Background

When approaching a project like this, I wanted to make sure the members at Women's Empowerment could update the site without knowing HTML or have additional software like Dreamweaver or Contribute. Instead I opted to use the free open source web software called Mango Blog. It's a great blogging tool that I have been involved with for the last few months. Using software like Mango Blog, I was able to quickly develop a simple website and push the limits of what I know about the software to do more than it was intended.

It was a fun challenge to undertake. Especially doing the design and code in just over a week. A true testament to the speed and flexibility of a great application like Mango Blog. I think the end result turned out quite well despite having to cut a few corners in order to make the launch deadline.

Have you donated your services to a group you feel is worthwile? If so please leave a comment  below, and If you donated a website please leave a link. I would like to see what others are donating to.