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Boagworld

A podcast for those who design, develop and run websites.


Effective browser supportJanuary 5

Browser support should focus on usability and accessibility rather than pixel perfect design. Sites should render in all browsers, but provide advanced features and aesthetics to those which can support it.

Most web design contracts address browser support. Many agencies still treat support as a black or white decision - a browser is either supported or it is not. If the browser is not supported the site is often unusable. However, this approach fails to acknowledge the diverse and evolving nature of the web. We should be supporting all browsers.

What does 'support' mean?

Although we support all browsers, that does not mean every user will have the same experience. For example, it is unrealistic to expect a user accessing the web through a text only browser to have the same experience as somebody using the latest version of Firefox.

As Yahoo states in their own browser support documentation:

Requiring the same experience for all users creates a barrier to participation. Availability and accessibility of content should be our key priority.

Supporting a browser should provide the best experience possible within the constraints of that browser, and should exclude none.

Expecting pixel perfect accuracy across browsers is unrealistic and not cost effective.

The problem with pixel perfect design

With browser technology imp

147. Ho Ho HoDecember 13 2008

This week on Boagworld: IT'S CHRISTMAS!

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Watch the behind the scenes video

This week's Boagworld is our live Christmas special recorded via ustream.tv. It is our last show before the Christmas break. We return on Wednesday 14th January 2009!

News and events

Kevin Rose's Christmas Shopping list

Later in the show we are going to share your top geek gifts. However, before we do that I thought we would start with Kevin Roses' list to Santa.

Kevin has posted his top 10 gifts for geeks and it makes interesting reading. His list includes:

  • Amazon MP3 Gift Certificates - Notice this is not iTunes
  • A USB Drive that can go through the wash and survive to tell the tale
  • A clever little box that can stream Netflix films to your TV
  • A kit for getting you into building your own electronics
  • A HD flip camera
  • Some awesome luggage that is perfect for conferences
  • An insane all in one printer with touch screen
  • A Drobo
  • A micro tool with 19 di
The power and problems of twitterDecember 13 2008

I take no pleasure in this post. I do not like embarrassing myself in public. However, I need to both publicly apologise and also share a valuable lesson in the use of twitter. If you use twitter, please read this post. It is important that you do not make the same mistake.

I love twitter. I think it is amazingly powerful tool, but I have also seen people post some pretty dumb things on it. I have seen people forget the public nature of twitter and post personal things. I have seen people post when they are drunk. However although these can be embarrassing, they pale into insignificance when compared to the consequences of a post I made today.

Today, I was travelling to see relatives in Somerset to celebrate Christmas. We do it every year and although I love to see them it feels a long way for a short meal. To make matters worse I was tired and rundown. I just could not face it. This led me to post the following to twitter...

Off to somerset to endure a 'christmas meal' with the extended family.

What should have been a simple journey turned into a nightmare. First we encountered an accident and had to turn around and then twice we found the road blocked by floods. A 2 hour journey took well over 3 hours. Little did we know this was a part of a much larger problem.

While sitting in traffic caused by the floods, I posted the following...

What's in a name?December 5 2008

I am proud to announce that the Boagworld podcast has won this years .net magazine award for best podcast. However, I do also have some regrets.

It is getting embarrassing now. When I setup the Boagworld website and subsequent podcast it was just a personal side project. The name was a silly in joke. I put no consideration into it.

In the dot com boom I worked for a startup called TownPages. I headed up a team of designers who unsurprisingly enjoyed taking the piss out of me. One of those designers (a guy called Rob Crook) took offence at me having two monitors, while the rest of the team had to make do with one and so coined the term boagworld. He painted me as an empire builder, drunk with power :) The name stuck and eventually I bought the domain. It became a form of self deprecation that referred to my over inflated ego.

When I finally decided to create my own site Boagworld seemed the obvious choice. The site and podcast was me sharing about myself, why wouldn't I choose Boagworld?

Four years on and it has become an embarrassment. Winning the .net award has particularly driven home how bad a choice it was.

Boagworld has long since stopped being about me. It is about the community and those who contribute to it. The success of the show is down to a whole bunch of people:

146. ObsessiveDecember 3 2008

On this week's show, Paul interviews Nicholas Felton about designing with data, we celebrate the return of 24Ways, and explain how community can keep users coming back for more.

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Housekeeping

Two pieces of housekeeping before we begin:

  • First, Jaysone wrote in asking about the chat room we mention on the show. He wanted to know what it was and whether anybody could join. The chat room is associated with the shows we occasionally stream live. You can watch these shows at http://boagworld.com/live and interact with us as we record via the chat room. Anyone is welcome although you will probably need to follow me on Twitter to see when the shows are being recorded.
  • Talking of streaming shows, the next live show will be our Christmas special on the 8th December at 2.30PM UK time. The show will be an open question and answer time so either send in your questions in advance or come along and join us in the chatroom. We will also be doing a feature on this years top Christmas gifts for geeks. You can vote for your suggestions over at UserVoice.