Tech
Talkin

Here we are with the second "What's wrong with" article. This is just a index as this is ended up long enough to warrant being separate 'articles'. Separate threads for each article would help greatly keep concepts clear and easily discussed.

I'd say around 80% of the time someone asks for help on a website, there are a number of stock responses I end up giving -- to the point I end up sounding like a broken record. To see the exact same mistakes in coding, design and accessibility repeated over and over again is beginning to wear thin -- so I'm just going to list out the most common issues I see. From now on I will be linking to this article and just listing the numbers...

Follow the links below to go to each of the sections in the article.

*NOTE* for now only sections 1 through 3 have been posted, links will go live as each section is added over the coming week.

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PART 1 - Layout and Design
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1.1 - Fixed width layout
1.2 - fixed metric fonts
1.3 - Illegible color contrasts
1.4 - Serif Fonts
1.5 - Overuse of Webfonts

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PART 2 - Markup
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2.1 - No DOCTYPE
2.2 - Multiple DOCTYPE/HTML/HEAD/BODY declarations
2.3 - Pointless META
2.4 - overstuffed keywords META
2.5 - Nonsensical description META
2.6 - Useless TITLE tag contents
2.7a - DIV for nothing
2.7b - Classes for nothing
2.8 - Pointless TITLE attributes
2.9 - Improper use of numbered headings
2.10 - Tables for layout
2.11 - Non tables on tabular data
2.12a - There are more tags for tables than just TR and TD
2.12b - There are more tags for forms than INPUT, BUTTON and TEXTAREA
2.13 - Non-semantic markup
2.14 - "Risky" Comment Placement
2.15 - Code Bloat

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PART 3 - JavaScript
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3.1 - JavaScript Libraries
3.2 - JavaScript for Nothing
3.3 - AJAX replicating frame behaviors
3.4 - JavaScript doing CSS' job!
3.5 - Static scripts inlined in the markup
3.6 - Tracking Scripts
3.7 - Supplanting form functionality
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PART 4 - CSS
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4.1 Failure to grasp point of CSS
4.2a Lack of resets and/or initialization of values
4.2b Bloated framework masquerading as a reset
4.3a Redundancies
4.3b Wasting time declaring default values
4.4 'Single Line' formatting
4.5 IE Conditionals for CSS
4.6 Failure to set line-heights properly
4.7 Minimalism vs. Byte obsession

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PART 5 - Search Engine Optimization vs. Promotion
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Also beware that some of these are still being written, so the above list is subject to change.

This is great! Have you thought about compiling all of these articles together when you are done and providing it as a free e-book?

(Jan 6, 2013 08:42 PM)machtm Wrote:  This is great! Have you thought about compiling all of these articles together when you are done and providing it as a free e-book?

Ironically, it would seem that the Web is the best medium for delivering this content to anybody on any device, so if it's free what is the point?

The web is definitely a great way to deliver it and you are getting search results, all that great stuff and traffic... I've found that offering info in an ebook for free adds some value for some of my site's visitors. I think they like the idea of downloading everything as a PDF and being able to open it locally whenever they want.

I find having immediate, local access to documentation comforting. I have a folder on a HDD dedicated to documents (Not Winblows' "My Documents") of all kinds for quick reference when I need it. Nobody can download the internet but I prefer to have documentation handy without jumping on the internet. I usually find myself doing the "copy & paste" from content I find that I want to archive. There is usually no need to put all the information in a pdf or e-book format. If there are no images then just put the information in a text file. If you need to include images and you can write html then make it a web file.

That makes sense...
Was just making the suggestion as "non-techy" people usually like a nice little package that can be downloaded.

take care.