Ben Tremblay » Web Design http://bentremblay.com/en The web, what matters, common sense Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:52:10 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Evolution Of Search Engine Optimization http://bentremblay.com/en/evolution-of-search-engine-optimization http://bentremblay.com/en/evolution-of-search-engine-optimization#comments Mon, 15 Feb 2010 05:13:02 +0000 Ben Tremblay http://bentremblay.com/en/?p=1784 In 2000, SEO was mainly about gaming search engines (80% gaming, 20% best Web dev. practices), now it is the opposite: 80% best Web development practices, 20% gaming search engines.

]]> http://bentremblay.com/en/evolution-of-search-engine-optimization/feed 1 What Design Can And Cannot Do http://bentremblay.com/en/what-design-can-and-cannot-do http://bentremblay.com/en/what-design-can-and-cannot-do#comments Wed, 03 Feb 2010 05:30:08 +0000 Ben Tremblay http://bentremblay.com/en/?p=1727 What design can and cannot do: design can help a good idea spread, but can't save a bad idea.

]]> http://bentremblay.com/en/what-design-can-and-cannot-do/feed 0 Web Design http://bentremblay.com/en/web-design http://bentremblay.com/en/web-design#comments Fri, 08 Jan 2010 05:10:58 +0000 Ben Tremblay http://bentremblay.com/en/?p=1601 Welcome to the Web design business. No need to explain that one, it is pretty self explanatory.

]]> http://bentremblay.com/en/web-design/feed 2 Some Spaces Are Better Left Empty http://bentremblay.com/en/some-spaces-are-better-left-empty http://bentremblay.com/en/some-spaces-are-better-left-empty#comments Sun, 27 Dec 2009 05:10:51 +0000 Ben Tremblay http://bentremblay.com/en/?p=1470 Web design and usability 101: some spaces are better left empty.

]]> http://bentremblay.com/en/some-spaces-are-better-left-empty/feed 0 Every Metric is Crap http://bentremblay.com/en/every-metric-is-crap http://bentremblay.com/en/every-metric-is-crap#comments Wed, 23 Dec 2009 05:10:38 +0000 Ben Tremblay http://bentremblay.com/en/?p=1428 Of course, every metric is crap. But what is a good metric then? Metric that are to your advantage of course.

Of course every metric is crap, every ranking is crap and every top 10 list doesn’t deserve anybody’s attention.

Are they really bad or just bad when you don’t make it into the ranking?

]]> http://bentremblay.com/en/every-metric-is-crap/feed 0 What is Usability http://bentremblay.com/en/what-is-usability http://bentremblay.com/en/what-is-usability#comments Wed, 16 Dec 2009 05:10:09 +0000 Ben Tremblay http://bentremblay.com/en/?p=1392 usability is at the center of Web design, simplicity and common sense

]]> http://bentremblay.com/en/what-is-usability/feed 1 Simplicity is Underrated http://bentremblay.com/en/simplicity-is-underrated http://bentremblay.com/en/simplicity-is-underrated#comments Sun, 13 Dec 2009 04:10:52 +0000 Ben Tremblay http://bentremblay.com/en/?p=1372 simplicity is underrated. Making things simple is actually quite complex.

]]> http://bentremblay.com/en/simplicity-is-underrated/feed 0 ABCD of Web Development http://bentremblay.com/en/abcd-of-web-development http://bentremblay.com/en/abcd-of-web-development#comments Fri, 11 Dec 2009 21:32:49 +0000 Ben Tremblay http://bentremblay.com/en/?p=1355 ABCD of Web Development: Analytics, Business, Code, Design

ABCD of Web Development: Analytics, Business, Code and Design

]]> http://bentremblay.com/en/abcd-of-web-development/feed 0 Building Websites: Theory Vs What Matters http://bentremblay.com/en/building-websites-theory-vs-what-matters http://bentremblay.com/en/building-websites-theory-vs-what-matters#comments Sun, 06 Dec 2009 22:51:42 +0000 Ben Tremblay http://bentremblay.com/en/?p=1309 Is your website worth visiting?

Is your website worth visiting?

]]> http://bentremblay.com/en/building-websites-theory-vs-what-matters/feed 0 Browsershots – Test your web design for different browsers http://bentremblay.com/en/browsershots-test-your-web-design http://bentremblay.com/en/browsershots-test-your-web-design#comments Tue, 02 Sep 2008 02:08:51 +0000 Ben Tremblay http://www.seohorror.com/?p=78 First of all, I know it’s a shame, I last posted 4 days ago. That being said, I want to let you know about a tool I use a lot when designing websites. That little tool is called browsershot and what it does is taking screenshots of your website in a lot of different browsers. You know how hard it can be to test your design on IE6, IE7, Firefox 2, firefox 3, opera, konqueror, etc. This will make your life so much easier and you won’t have to run 30 different browsers on 3 different machines or call your friends to ask them how your website looks on their machine!

How it works

First, head to Browsershots website obviously.

Then, it’s pretty straight forward, you enter the URL you want to test and the OS/Browsers you’d like to test with.

Then, you just have to wait for the system to take the screenshots. The time to take them can vary, but it’s usually pretty fast. I selected a dozen of browsers for seohorror.com and the estimated time was between 3 and 12 minutes.

Refresh, see the results and back to work

You should get something like this in the end:

You can click on the screenshots to see real life size images and it is a great way to identify problems with other browsers.

Perfection isn’t possible

You will usually notice some glitch with some browsers, but don’t try to be compatible with all of them. I usually concentrate on being compatible with IE 6.0 & 7.0, Firefox 2.0 & 3.0, and Safari 2.0 & 3.0. These are the main browsers and it’s important to be compatible with all of them. You could also analyse your traffic and see what browser most of your users use, this might help you identify important browsers to be compatible with.

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