Usability / Accessibility Tutorials
Disable Submit Button Upon Form Submission
Multiple clicks on a "Submit" button can cause duplicate processing if your programming is slow or the user's connection is lagging. Duplicate processing can include duplicate database records, multiple emails, or different types of errors. JavaScript provides an easy way to disable the multiple submission of a form once the form has been submitted.
6 AJAX Rules To Live By
AJAX, or Asyncronous JavaScript And XML, has been around for a few years now. Web Developers have done some really great things with AJAX, but I've also come across some horrible uses of AJAX. I've coupled together my experience as a Web Programmer and a lowly web user and have come up with six AJAX rules to live by.
Advanced CSS – Using A Reset.css File To Gain Complete Control
It took me about a year to feel as though I completely owned cascading style sheets. For a language (yes, it IS a language) with simple syntax, CSS optimization techniques can take quite a while to learn. Formulating your style sheets to do exactly what you want starts with a good foundation, which is why I eventually started using a reset.css file.
Fluid Anchors – Smooth Anchors Using MooTools
While we as programmers get more used to using AJAX and advanced JavaScript frameworks, we can only assume that our users will. At one time, it was acceptable to have elements dynamically just "pop into" the screen but now we must strive to make the experience smoother for our users. That's why MooTools has put a big focus on the "Fx" part of their framework.
Advanced CSS Printing – Using JavaScript Double-Click To Remove Unwanted DIVs
Like any good programmer, I'm constantly searching around the internet for ideas and articles that can help me improve my code. There are thousands of talented programmers out there so I stumble upon some great articles and code snippets that I like to print out and use at a later time. The most disappointing part of finding a great article is seeing the printed result — many times the article is unreadable and thus gets relegated to scratch-paper duty.
Removing Internet Explorer’s Active Content Warning on Flash Objects
A couple of years ago Internet Explorer cause millions of programmers and users alike a giant pain by making users click on a flash object, ActiveX object, and java applet before the object became active and usable. Businesses, of course, cried out for their programmers to fix the problem and programmers pulled their hair out for weeks. As one of those programmers, I can tell you that businesses wont take "Microsoft screwed things up" for an answer and luckily I found a solution that works without requiring that the user do anything.
Advanced CSS Cursors – Increase Usability With A Pointer
All browsers provide their own stylesheet which includes settings link colors (blue for unvisited and purple for visited, in IE's case), default padding and margins, text sizes, and cursors. Browsers provide the pointer cursor to make it obvious to the user that the text or image that serves as the link is clickable. What about the other cases for clicking on elements? These elements include: