Pixel Liberation Front

Until now, chances are that if we dropped text onto a web page in a system font at a reasonable size, it was legible. But with many typefaces about to be freed for use on websites, choosing the right ones to complement a site's design will be far more challenging. Many faces to which we’ll soon have access were never meant for screen use, either because they’re aesthetically unsuitable or because they’re just plain illegible. Jason Santa Maria, a force behind improved type on the web, presents qualities and methods to keep in mind as we venture into the widening world of web type.

Web fonts are here. Now that browsers support real fonts in web pages and we can license complete typefaces for such use, it's time to think pragmatically about how to use real fonts in our web projects. Above all, we need to know how our type renders in screens, in web browsers. To that end, Tim Brown has created Web Font Specimen, a handy, free resource web designers and type designers can use to see how typefaces will look on the web.

It's hard for clients to understand the true value of user experience research. As much as you'd like to tell your clients to go read The Elements of User Experience and call you back when they’re done, that won’t cut it in a professional services environment. David Sherwin creates a cheat sheet to help you pitch UX research using plain, client-friendly language that focuses on the business value of each exercise.

"Content-rich" is not enough. Most websites are not learner-friendly. As an industry, we haven’t done our best to make our content-rich websites suitable for learning and exploration. Learners require more from us than keywords and killer headlines. They need an environment that is narrative, interactive, and discoverable. Amber Simmons tells how to begin creating rich content sites that invite and repay exploration and discovery.

A bad client relationship is like a bad marriage without the benefits. To avoid such relationships, or to fix the one you’re in, learn the five classic signs of trouble. Recognizing the never-ending contract revisionist, the giant project team, the vanishing boss and other warning signs can help you run successful, angst-free projects.

Usability evaluations are good for many things, but determining a team’s priorities is not one of them. The Molich experiment proves a single usability team can’t discover all or even most major problems on a site. But usability testing does have value as a shock treatment, trust builder, and part of a triangulation process. Test for the right reasons and achieve a positive outcome.

Wouldn’t it be a little magical if, when you signed up for a new site, it said something like, “We notice you have a profile photo on Flickr and Twitter, would you like to use one of those or upload a new one?” Glenn Jones created a JavaScript library called Ident Engine that can help you do just that.

The value in usability testing comes from the magic of observing and listening as people use a design. The things you see and the things you hear are often surprising, illuminating, and unpredictable. This unpredictability is tough to capture in any other way. Dana Chisnell shows you how.

Your search and clickstream data is missing a key ingredient: customer intent. You have all the clicks, the pages people viewed, and where they bailed, but not why they came to the site. Your internal site-search data contains that missing ingredient: intent. Learn five ways to analyze your internal site-search data—data that’s easy to get, to understand, and to act on.

Top-down analytics are great for creating measurable goals you can use to benchmark and evaluate the performance of your content and designs. But bottom-up analysis teaches you something new and unexpected about your customers—something goal-driven analysis can't show you. Discover the kinds of information users want, and identify your site's most urgent mistakes.

It's the end of the year; a time for nostalgia and looking back on the past year. Nick Finck, Digital Web Magazine's founder and publisher, recalls where we've been, what we've achieved, and discusses the potential for dramatic change in where we are going as a publication. This is your chance to influence the future structure and focus of Digital Web.

With exactly one month to go until Christmas, Digital Web Magazine is changing pace for our last article of 2008. Tempers have flared in recent weeks over our coverage of idiosyncratic CSS techniques, so we thought we’d look at something completely different—finding new music online. For many developers, their passion for great music runs nearly as high as their passion for semantic code; Chris Wright takes a look at how the current crop of online music tools might be failing us. This article also marks something of an experiment for Digital Web: opinion-driven editorial content, rather than our normal expert advice-led columns. Let us know what you think of our first, an editorial on the value of editorial…

With every web developer or agency worth their salt releasing a web application these days, it was inevitable that attention would eventually turn to how best to manage CSS within a modern MVC framework. Steve Heffernan pairs stylesheets with REST principles to present a new approach to CSS architecture.

Leona Tomlinson is back for a second article, detailing where accessibility statements fit into Web sites today.

Is your website firing on all cylinders? We take a look at a book that has a little something for everyone, from marketers to developers, to help you polish your pages. Andrew Stevens returns to Digital Web to review Website Optimization.

In this extract from his forthcoming book, the Website Owner’s Manual, Paul Boag takes a look at some of the simple things you can do to gain a fuller understanding of how your website is performing, both for your users and in a broader sense.

This week, Digital Web’s own Nick Finck sat down with the Web Standards Project’s Aarron Walter, to talk education, findability, and the path to lasting happiness.

Digital Web running a provocative article on CSS techniques? Shurely shome mishtake! In this extract from the forthcoming Sitepoint book of the same name, Rachel Andrew explains how you can use tables for layout in modern web design with a clean conscience.

Aral Balkan talks to Digital Web about the conference: an experiment in online communities. Bringing a collection of varied and insightful speakers from around the globe to thousands of attendees without even stepping outside.

Does your creative process start with the same sketch of a web page every time? Or even the same Photoshop template? You could be missing out on the most innovative solutions by not putting enough thought into the concept, says Victor Lombardi. Here he outlines three methods for pulling apart a brief to tackle the underlying concept design.

This article debates the importance of using follow-up emails and autoresponder software to increase sales.

Imagine what it would be like if you could write ads in minutes rather than hours. How much easier and less time consuming would running your AdWords campaign become?

To run any successful business you need to what's working and what's not so you can fix it. For some reason I find that one area that slips through for some online entrepreneurs is when I ask them how effective their ads are they don't have a ready reply.

One of the quickest ways to build your email marketing list is by creating an ethical bribe, or a client attraction device. This free giveaway serves to entice visitors to your site to sign up for your email list because they want to access your solution to their problem proffered in your email list opt-in box. Here are 10 ideas that you can use to package your information into a valuable ethical bribe for your web site:

For many online marketers using SEO, first page results in Google are the only goal. But, are other factors important, maybe even more important? Can you succeed online without first page Google results? find out here...

Do you recruit bloggers and other intermediaries to write testimonials and endorsements (think affiliates or resellers)? If the answer is "yes", the FTC says you're liable if they fail to disclose a material connection to you or misrepresent your product or service. This Cliffsnotes-style article cuts through the mis-information and legaleze, providing online marketers with clear cut guidelines to avoid liability.

Discover how to localize website content and geotarget your AdWords campaign to better attract visitors on a geographical basis.

Your AdWords click through rate (ctr) is an important statistic for any advertising campaign. A good ctr will reward you with a higher Quality Score. And the better your Quality Score, the less you'll pay in bids, saving you money.

Getting setup to accept credit cards on your website or for your ecommerce project is not as difficult as some people think. This article discusses a few of the things you'll want to know before signing a contract or getting started with a merchant services provider.

The typical form of newsletter is a one-way communication where you provide information to customers, such as product updates and announcements. Creating a successful newsletter can be extremely rewarding. Subscribers and customers respond with glowing feedback, online sales jump and your customer relationships and brand loyalty deepens.

Lindsay Nevins is an event organizer who is helping out at Techfluff.tv, she reports from the The Pitch 2009, held last Monday.

“I recently attended The Pitch 2009 final and conference on November 16, 2009. Without having any previous knowledge of the conference I was pleasantly surprised to find out it was basically a replica of the “Dragon’s Den” brought to a much smaller scale. I arrived just in time to participate in the ‘speed networking’ exercise, facilitated by Oli Barrett, the founder of Connected Capital and Make Your Mark with a Tenner. Barrett helped motivate interaction among the audience by first making sure that everyone was seated next to, or near, someone they had never met before and second, kept the communication limited by blowing a whistle every 5 minutes within a 20min period. I thoroughly agreed with Barrett’s views on the importance of networking, because you never know who is going to be beneficial to you in the future. However, given my experience with ‘speed networking’ I believe it is more focused on quantity and less so on the quality of the people you network with.

Immediately following ‘speed networking’ were the pitches, where 30 entrepreneurs competed in 5 cities for the chance to pitch their ideas in the hopes of winning a £50,000 prize. The 6 individual winners were Super Mouth from the South West, BEEcycle from the North, The Printed Bag Shop from Scotland, Get Set Schools from the Midlands, Cyclehoop from the South East and the wild card winner Lily Pins. Each participant had 3 minutes to deliver their pitch which was followed by 7 minutes of Q&A by the judges. All of the participants had their strong and weak moments, although it was clear who came the best prepared for this competition.

After the pitches were finished, the judges had 30 minutes to deliberate and returned back with their choice for the best 2009 Pitch, and the winner was Anthony Lau, Founder of Cyclehoop. Cyclehoop is a cost-effective and environmentally friendly new way to help ensure bike security and increase the number of available parking spaces. In my opinion, Lau was by far the best candidate; he delivered his pitch with confidence and had a strong knowledge of his product as well as the appropriate data to support its benefits to society.

I thoroughly enjoyed the conference, and I think The Pitch is a great way to give smaller businesses and entrepreneurs and chance market themselves and hopefully win £50,000 in the process.”

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Today is the second day of Global Entrepreneurship Week – A week long string of events happening all over the world. It started as a UK- wide event and then went global. To find out about an event happening near you check out their site and the Techfluff team are at a number of events this week so check us out for news and events!

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Last night was the unveiling of London’s very first Nude Tech Calendar - all in the name of charity, of course!

Ever since the project got underway in October this year, the launch has been a highly-anticipated event within London’s tech scene. The calender features 12 men and women – all volunteers – in tastefully naked poses including our own Miss Hermione Way!

The leader of the pack – Milo Yiannopoulos – hosted the evening, and introduced Lucian Tarnowski from Take Heart India, who explained how all proceeds raised will go towards the youth charity which sets up IT projects in India.

We all gathered around the LCD TV screen – drink in hand – and waited to get a sneak peek of the calendar in all its glory! As the screen virtually flicked through the pages – from Mr and Mrs January to Mr and Mrs December -the crowd spun around to clap and cheer for the model and give their support to the cause.

It was an eclectic mix of images which represented the individual in their ”zone”. The series included arty, unfocused black and white shots to more quirky images which used inanimate objects such as laptops and guitars to cover their modesty.

If you would like to view all the images, then you can pre-order the calender exclusively at firebox.com. It only costs £10 and it would definitely be a unique stocking filler for Christmas this year!

Finally, a big congratulations to everyone involved in this initiative! I think it’s a very brave thing to do. Let’s hope it raises lots of money and awareness for Take Heart India. You can check out some of the pictures from the event below:

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The who whos of the real-time web will be at Jeff Pulver’s 140 Character Conference in London next week. If you want to know who are the movers and shakers of social media and real-time web in Europe, you simply can’t miss this opportunity to meet Jeff who has been busy organizing 140 Character Conferences all over the world, including 140 Character Conference LA which was held at the Kodak Theater in LA – home of the OSCARS!

The event is being held next week, Tue the 17th at the 02 and Twitter lover Stephen Fry is speaking along with other gurus of real-time web.For a full list of speakers check out the schedule here.

The hash tag for the event is #140conf- Jeff has given friends of Techfluff.tv get a very special discount- one that offers 50% to our
viewers to attend- thanks Jeff!

You can use the link -
http://www.amiando.com/140London.html?discountCode=techfluff to save
50% on delegate registrations

Here’s a video from #140conf LA

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Being Australian, I just wanted to share with you European techies how we do it Down Under…

To promote the Flip camera, who are also our lovely sponsors, hundreds of Aussies gather at Bondi Beach in Sydney to part take in a little ‘towel surfing’ and dance the day away! Enjoy!

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A couple of week’s ago we were at the PayPal offices at Launch48 2009-An event where over 100 people got together to build and launch a web app in 48 hours. The UK’s answer to Ycombinator.

About 30 people pitched their ideas to the group on the Friday night. The group voted for the six best by a show of hands- They then divided the group into six teams to work on building the web apps over 48 hours.

You can see read about the six finalists over on Techcrunch and here’s Techfluff.tv’s video:

Thanks to business social network Viadeo for sponsoring the video -Interestingly  Viadeo has more members than LinkedIn in China – emerging market – win win-  Check out their site for more info!

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After seeing this post in the Huffington Post of the geekiest Halloween costumes, I was determined to go to Halloween as either an iPod advert or a YouTube video – I decided on the former because Alex Tew of Popjam had already gone to a party as a YouTube video a few months before.

The whole outfit cost £10 and consisted of a peice of card and two bits of flourecent paper – bargin!

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The Techfluff.tv team were at the Internet Retailing Conference 2009 where some of the biggest players in the industry got together to talk about the challenges and issues facing the industry.

One thing I found particularly interesting was the notion of cross-channel marketing – So basically retailers online strategy  in sync with with their off line strategy giving consumers a more coherent shopping experience.

One guy I interviewed said that in future you will be able to buy something online and if it doesn’t fit take it back offline to the shop -another example he made was browsing online and picking purchases up in the store – saving the time it takes to deliver.

For me that’s the main problem with shopping online – I live such a fast paced life I can’t wait for the item to be delivered – If i go shopping its usually for an occasion that day or week so I need to be able to have the item straight away- If I could browse online with an avatar shaped like me to see how the clothes fit,  and then,  pick it up straight away from the store- I would do more shopping online.

Oh and John Lewis was a name that kept cropping up as doing things right. Check out the event’s site for more up to date news in the online retailing sector.

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Hello TF readers! Our lovely Techfluff.tv correspondent, Isabelle O’Kane, attended the eComm conference in Amsterdam last week and wanted to share with you all her interview with Claire Boonstra from Layar. Claire discussed the latest developments in augmented reality and even gave Isabelle a quick demo. This is what she had to say…

Hey guys, it’s Isabelle reporting from Amsterdam and as promised I have the interview with Layar for you. For those of you unfamiliar with Layar they develop augmented reality browsers for mobile. The technology uses GPS to understand where the camera is pointing and then overlays graphics within the phone’s camera viewfinder to enable the user to receive geo-specific information, a simple example – where is the nearest restaurant or petrol station. The user is then given further options such as to call the restaurant or car dealer or petrol station or to review more information etc.

Soon to be released is Layar 3.0 – which is a 3D version – as Claire talks about in this clip below.

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The Next Bill Gates search is being launched by IT provider, XMA who currently supply IT solutions and systems to Higher Education institutions and public sector organisations in the UK. With sponsorship from their partner Toshiba, the company has launched a new nationwide competition open to anyone, of any age, who is starting University in 2010 and considers themselves to be an IT pro – is that you? Or someone you know?

If you think you have what it takes or know someone who does, make sure to get you entries in fast by visiting www.thenextbillgates.co.uk and submitting your 100 word application. You can also upload a video entry! Here’s a little promo we made for the comp:

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