Michael Doyle | Blog » Web

jQuery – A Beginners Guide

Michael Doyle — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 01:44:31 +0000

Long time, no post! Freelancing, tight deadlines, christmas, etc.

What is it?

jQuery is a javascript framework, it all happens on the client side, and allows developers to enhance the user experience of a website. Scrolling, sliding, fading, etc. it has a lot of cool features that can really add to the overall feel of a website. I've just done my first tuorial tonight and it seems all pretty straight forward.

Here's a short, interesting interview with Karl Swedberg (he runs learningjquery.com):

http://carsonified.com/blog/dev/jquery/karl-swedberg-on-jquery/

Tutorials

I've used MooTools (another javascript framework) before and found it nice and pleasant to use. Since then, everyone has been raving about jQuery (actually, I'm about 6 months late here), so I looked up a beginners guide to it. The tutorial I did is located here:

http://woorkup.com/2009/11/22/jquery-for-beginners-making-your-website-cool/

Here's the result of the tutorial (I changed it a little)

Here's a tutorial on how to build an image/content slider:

http://cssglobe.com/post/3783/jquery-plugin-easy-image-or-content-slider/

Or you could try searhing twitter for a list of up to date tutorials

http://twitter.com/#search?q=jquery%20tutorial (it really is a testament to it's popularity when you see the amount of tutorials)

jQuery Plugins

Tripwiremagazine has a list of some plugins for jQuery that are useful (although some can be achieved with css). Here is the link:

http://www.tripwiremagazine.com/2009/11/is-top-rated-jquery-plugins-the-best.html

Noupe also has a larger list of plugins:

http://www.noupe.com/ajax/37-more-shocking-jquery-plugins.html

Or you can learn how to create your own:

http://woorkup.com/2009/11/19/jquery-lesson-series-how-to-implement-your-first-plugin/

Overuse

I've come across a lot of sites that use jQuery just for the sake of it, it does make a site look a little slicker but only when used right. When its overused, it can get really tiresome and completely removes it's impact. I've seen a few sites with only one UI element utilising jQuery that really impressed me.

Conclusion

This is the first time I've used jQuery, and I'm really impressed. The huge interest and large amount tutorials make it look like it's hear to stay. It has easily overtaken MooTools and Scriptalicious and it's developer base is growing rapidly.

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Web Development – Minimise Load Times

Michael Doyle — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 17:29:38 +0000

Smashing Magazine has tweeted a very informative link on how to minimize web page load times. It lists some great tools which analyse load times.

http://www.uxbooth.com/blog/how-to-minimize-load-time-for-fast-user-experiences/

Web Development – Javascript

Michael Doyle — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 09:30:47 +0000

Noupe has a good resource on a list of articles for beginners of Javascript. Dropdown menus, progress bars, and form validation is covered along with some other good tutorials.

http://www.noupe.com/javascript/javascript-for-designers.html

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Web Design – Creating A Portfolio Site

Michael Doyle — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 16:13:02 +0000

Elliot Jay Stocks made an interesting 2 part video on how to make a portfolio site. Very good information and things to think about in them:

http://carsonified.com/blog/design/how-to-design-a-portfolio-site/

http://carsonified.com/blog/design/how-to-design-a-portfolio-site-part-2/

Web Design – Inspiration

Michael Doyle — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 15:55:41 +0000

Seen a few of these before, but still worth a mention

http://carsonified.com/blog/design/how-to-make-your-web-design-stand-out-from-the-crowd/

Web Development – Site Sketch101

Michael Doyle — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 15:50:08 +0000

Just don't have the time at the moment to go through a vast array of good articles on: http://www.sitesketch101.com/ I will soon though Related posts:Web Design – Creating A Portfolio Site Web Development – Developing from a PS design Web Development – htaccess Related posts:

Web Design – Typography

Michael Doyle — Fri, 29 May 2009 14:39:38 +0000

I've usually just relied on Verdana and eyeballing layouts when taking typography into consideration. At the moment, I'm living and breathing typography for the website I'm currently creating. It's a simple website, but I'm focusing on the rules for typography on the web, web safe fonts, spacing, leading, etc. It's one of my biggest weaknesses when designing websites so I'm researching as much as possible into it at the moment. Some interesting sites I've come across are:

Basic rules for web typography:

http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/02/10-web-typography-rules-every-designer-should-know-2/

Browser safe fonts:

http://www.ampsoft.net/webdesign-l/WindowsMacFonts.html

Fonts bundled with Mac, Windows, Adobe and Office:

http://media.24ways.org/2007/17/fontmatrix.html

Embedding custom fonts with Javascript:

http://typeface.neocracy.org/

Smashing Magazine has a great article on 50 different web typography tools:

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/01/27/css-typographic-tools-and-techniques/

Web – Modal Windows

Michael Doyle — Thu, 28 May 2009 13:31:27 +0000

Smashing Magazine has a good round up of the different typs of modal windows.

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/05/27/modal-windows-in-modern-web-design/

CSS – Improving Typography

Michael Doyle — Fri, 15 May 2009 17:15:38 +0000

AisleOne have a great article on how to improve typography on the web using a simple few steps. http://www.aisleone.net/2009/design/8-ways-to-improve-your-typography/ Related posts:Web Design – Typography Design – Web Page Headers Web Testing – Fixing Layout Problems in IE Related posts:

SEO – Meta Tag Analyzer

Michael Doyle — Fri, 15 May 2009 16:25:24 +0000

SeoCentro provide a very good resource for checking your meta tags http://www.seocentro.com/tools/search-engines/metatag-analyzer.html Related posts:SEO – Case Study: adobe.com SEO – On Page Optimizations SEO – Getting banned by Google Related posts: