staceybrook, post: 17354 a écrit : Hi .. I know its good practice to have alternative text navigation if a site is using a flash nav bar, but is this compulsory? Someone has "proof read" one of my sites looking for those errors you miss when designing and has commented
"All Flash navbars and graphical links need visible text alternatives to comply with European legislation on accessibility" ..
he also goes on to say "nothing for screen-readers to read so as not accessible to partially sighted. Also page would make no sense to mobile browsers who have Flash, Images and Javascript turned off"
Laudible points, but how much does everyone take such considerations into account, and does anyone know if it is really EU law to have text nav bars throughout site?
First of all - yes they are absolutely right. Why are you using flash for navigation there is so many html/js solutions. For the screen readers and search engine crawlers any flash content will be simply a blank space. According to EU legislation your site should achieve at least level 1 of compliance.
If it's your personal site - I would not care - if it is a customer's site or commercial one then I would worry a lot as you can easily be sued by any blind or partially sighted person wanting to access this site and simply not being able to (according to law YOU HAVE TO MAKE IT ACCESSIBLE FOR DISABLED PEOPLE)
Sogo7, post: 17360 a écrit : You have to take the client at thier word, it's up to them to prove original ownership or permission to use the images if challenged by third parties. Remember you are just building the site and not it's actual owner.
A tailor who making a suit can hardly be held accountable if the client has provided them with stolen cloth
Yeh I agree with that as long as it is client provided you shouldnt worry as regards the type (I'm guessing you talking about fonts) just to be safe use fontsquirrel or typekit and problem is solved.
John83, post: 17361 a écrit : Hi,
trying to 'validate' my website and this keeps cropping up. can anyone explain what it means?
Line 50, Column 7: end tag for "div" omitted, but OMITTAG NO was specified
</body>✉
You may have neglected to close an element, or perhaps you meant to "self-close" an element, that is, ending it with "/>" instead of ">".
Any help would be great
Thanks
Check if all of your tags are closed properly you probably did not close one of your div tags.
michelledancer, post: 16894 a écrit : Victorious is a bit aggressive, but also correct. Professionals don't let wannabe professionals use Dreamweaver, get yourself a proper editor :)
Sorry if I appeared aggressive I did not meant to. I guess everyone ventured through Dreamweaver (including me). The Coder view in dreamweaver is ok but there is a lot far more advanced editors.
If someone really thinks to do web development really should wean themselves off Dreamweaver as soon as possible it is simply perceived as WYSIWYG and may give wrong impression when applying for jobs (especially in creative agencies) although a lot of people use it for reasons known only to themselves. I personally use Komodo which I found to be the best tool.
The Dreamweaver creates buggy, code heavy sites if not coded by hand which is simply unprofessional.
I don't want to shatter your dreams of becoming web designer/developer but no one uses WYSIWYG editor to create professional pages 1st it's hugely inefficient, 2 its just wrong....
You don't need books - google is the best resource - tutorial sites like nettuts or thinkvitamin and learn absoulte essentials like HTML, CSS and JavaScript from w3schools.com... Over time you may want to venture into server-side scripting like PHP or ASP (go with PHP much easier to work with - hint) and frameworks like Codeigniter or jQuery... If you reach a good level of proficiency in these areas most of the agencies will pay big bucks to reel you in...
brahma, post: 16807 a écrit : Hi I am new to this forum having just started developing websites. I am trying to develop a page that uses css and a bit of java on CS5. I have an image controlled menu on the left side of the page - 2 columns and 3 rows so 6 menu items - when the page is loaded, all the images are "dimmed" and when the mouse hovers over one of the images, it is displayed in its normal state. What I want to do is have some text appear to the right hand side of the second column (this text relates to the image so will change when the user selects a different image. I have created a further 6 images that contain my text - not sure if this is the best way of doing this? ). I can get the first bit working (image menu - dimming and lighting) but can not get a third column to show my text. In the css section I have used the float:left command on the 1st, 3rd and 5th image.
I'm not sure if this makes sense - can anyone help?
Many thanks,
Hi, First of all it is hard to see what you want to achieve without seeing the code. if you use jquery or javascript you can select the div that you have text in either using $(selector).show() in jquery or document.getElementById(selector).style.display = 'block' where selector is the ID of a div you want to show. In jquery you should use #idname as selector and in javascript idname.
Neil-C, post: 14569 a écrit : I'm trying to display a comment thread per design for my graphic design portfolio.
Below is the code i have at the minute, I hope someone out there can point me in the right direction. I'm relatively new to php so be nice with me. :confused2
I have 2 tables in my database, one containing all the image paths and description, another table for the comments.
$get_info_sql = "SELECT id, thumb, full_size, description FROM graphic_design";
$get_info_res = mysqli_query($mysqli, $get_info_sql) or die (mysqli_error($mysqli));
$get_comments_sql = "SELECT design_id, user_name, user_comment FROM comments WHERE design_id = '".$id."'";
$get_comments_res = mysqli_query($mysqli, $get_comments_sql) or die (mysqli_error($mysqli));
AdamC, post: 16317 a écrit : When you are design a page for your own personal use, do you prefer to code the site from scratch or use an existing template and modify it for your own needs?
Well I'm not a designer but developer so I code everything on my own. If you are serious about web development/design you simply NEVER use templates.
Lambo1, post: 13865 a écrit : I've recently finished my HND in web development and I'm wanting to know all I need to know about freelance web development work. Mainly how to pay tax and what are acceptable rate to charge?
I have been emailed about potential work and since I really need the money, I'm not wanting to end up being charged over not paying my taxes.
I am new to all of this so please, be patient. :)
Cheers.
You need to register yourself as self employed really - first step. Depending on experience and portfolio acceptable (average freelancer) rates are between £15 and £50 per hour but it is not uncommon to charge more... my guess would be - calculate the time you need to complete the project and optimal £££ you want to charge. I usually choose to charge different rates per different client.
Keep all the bills to have costs on the project and calculate the profit. But I would go to your IR and talk with them - they will tell you more.
PS. You can always go on for a bit "cash in hand" but that's illegal.
I pretty much would expect they will tell you themselves about all this things... Let them talk and point them in the right direction (well your direction). As regards the stuff like contacting them with the progress you set the rules. Most of the time I dealt with the customers they were complete idiots that didn't know what they want and went with everything I told them.
I have been with Streamline.net for a long time but since they have been taken over by Fasthosts I started looking around and strongly considering moving to Pixel Internet as they have much cheaper and better hosting service than streamline.
Anyone know any better UK based hosting providers?
I would do it myself but when I think about the cost involved in getting symmetric broadband connection, setting up the server and so on it is much simpler to just pay someone else for hosting.
returnButton, post: 12574 a écrit : I guess it all boils down to contracts and making people understand what they’re buying, what they own and what to expect from me.
So, what do you do?
You need to explain before you start working on it that copyrights to the work you did the code along with graphic design belong to your person. Then decide on the hourly rate or a one off fee. Ask for minimum 50% deposit and present the stuff on your server once you finish. Once they pay the rest you relase the project.
As regards hosting service - well I give them right to choose the service on their own. Most of the time they ask me to do it and manage their site. Most of the time I pick 2-3 large hosting providers and give them idea what will be the best for them. You can easily find hosting service that wont exceed £30 a year. I never pay for hosting myself - I arrange a meeting with the customer prior the publishing and we choose the service together.
It depends on the project but it is a common practice to use third party code such as jQuery plugins etc. I personally develop my websites in PHP framework of Codeigiter its a bit difficult at the beginning but once you switch to it you won't even look at the old ways of coding the web applications.
First of all good positioning in search engines, advertise in online business directories, drop a small ad in a local newspaper and most of all on social networks facebook, twitter etc.
When I started long time ago I didn't do anything just got a pretty good position in google and offered VERY low price. Just from that I got 12 projects in the first 6 months. Don't underestimate search engines.
And give your business cards to people... Well designed business card does the trick.
To give you a slight idea of how much some people are willing to pay for their websites let me give you this quote:
Static 5 page website with a flash banner (content taken from txt file) around 10 full size photos from istockphoto, NO CMS.
Quote from a web studio £2000
When I heard how much my friend paid for it I couldn't stop laughing.
Charge as much as you think you should. Web design studio for 16 pages website (if its done nicely) can easily quote between 3 to 5 grands depending on technology used.
If you charge him £20 per hour then charge him £20 per hour.
LitFL Website Designer, post: 13629 a écrit : I'd say practise makes perfect with both, even a lot of creativity people have just comes from inspiration.
I try to do everything myself and I'd say that I am at least on my way to doing both well.
Exactly!
I applied for a job in a local web design studio and to be honest most of their designs I can do within a week or less, designing the graphics with my eyes closed and writing the code with my left foot...
What they said to me was that if I am good at coding I can't be good at graphic design... my answer to it was that I absolutely don't agree with that If you work as a freelancer you need to be good at both otherwise your customers will go away from you and pick someone else who does the stuff better...
imoscar, post: 12978 a écrit : One of my clients wants to pay me by accepted graphics, for a website! Not how long it takes or how many I do, before its accepted. Some will be simple and quick but some could take a few hours or even a day, depending. Also when they need one doing it has to take priority. I always work on hourly rate, I have for them before, but they don't want to pay like that. There are a few of them who have to accept it too, in the past I have done banners and images where 4 like it but 1 doesn't, so back to the drawing board.
I am fairly new to freelance. Has anyone ever come across this kind of pricing before, or this kind of client?
I have the same problem here and for 3 months I had to mess about with designs to get the final acceptance - NOT WORTH THE MONEY THEY PAY YOU...
Just say no.
Usually I give people the rough calculation of hours needed to finalise the project and then charge per hour rather than per graphic.
As far as I am concerned to be a freelance web designer you need to be able to create good graphics for your customers along with programming it.
When I finally decided to settle down and apply for a permanent job in design studio I got an answer that if you are good with graphic design you can't be good in web programming. I find this argument really weak to be honest...
