I have always referred to the web content as HTML. I have noticed, however, some sites, and blogs too, say XHTML valid. This is similar to my RSS dilemma, in that I’m not sure what the benefit of XHTML is. I could use some insight in this regard.

What is different between HTML and XHTML, and should I consider using the latter instead?

In any relationship we store in our memory identifying information for each individual. Most likely that information exceeds physical appearance. We might recall where they live and work, where we met him for the first time, what their interests are, and other aspects of their personality. It is that persons projected self that helps us to form a relative status of our relationship, perhaps it is someone we would like to get to know better or someone we want to try to forget. I don’t mean to go into psychology, but it is relevant to this topic, promise.

All of this analyses and storage happens gradually overtime we contact another human, regardless of whether we acknowledge it. It’s more than a ratings system. It’s a mental file folder for one person a portion of the entire compilation of our memories.

So how does all of this translate into the internet realm? Well, no doubt, most of us have an online relationship with someone we have never met face-to-face before. Whatever the level of that relationship, we store the details of each contact in the same type of mental file folder, but many times the details are different. We may not know what they look like, where they live and work, and our shared experiences may be limited to just a chat. We might record their language usage or their tone. But it can be difficult to recognize names of a large group of people we regularly communicate with.

However, have the power to utilize the visual medium. And use it we must. We can individually create a visual identity for ourselves, a personal brand if you will. Why should brands apply solely to goods and services? They shouldn’t.

Personal brands are nothing new really. Athletes and other celebrities have personal brands. Many bloggers have established a brand. Anyone can do it. Some do it better than others, so analyze what is out there currently and make something for yourself.

If you chat, IM, comment on blogs, or are involved in online communities where you can be identified personal avitar make one. Don’t just take one from the stockpile, make one uniquely yours, something you would be proud to be represented by. It doesn’t have to tell a story, just make something unique. If you want to use a portrait make it interesting not a yearbook shot. This image should be the same across each communication avenue so you will be recognized. In a sense, this graphic will be your personal icon or logo attached to your name and message.

When you choose your final avitar, use it across all of your communication tools even if your "screen name" varies. Also make sure you choose something you will be happy with for a while because it takes a while for your icon to gain visual recognition.

Why is this helpful? It helps others visually recognize you from everyone else. For example, kartooner typically has something clever and insightful to say. So when I see his avitar I "listen". Or maybe I see someone new in a forum, I might take the time to carefully read what they have to say or just pass it on by. You will see how helpful unique personal avitars become when scanning through comments and the like. That is something I have found to be most helpful.

The Gravitar system has made personal identities more popular and easier to implement on any site with commenting or posting. Anyone can upload an image to be associated with their e-mail address. On sites that have gravitar implemented, such as this one, you will notice select comments with an image typically next to their name. When you are scanning through a comment thread you can identify authors quickly without seeing their name.

If you have not established a personal identity why not start now. If you run a blog, implement Gravitar, your readers will like it. If you have an avitar show it off in the comments and tell us what your identitiy means to you. It might be something you never thought of before.

At the time I was running Moveable Type 3.0 and so I read their home brewed article Six Apart Guide to Comment Spam. It’s an informative read, so check it out if you are running MT. It took me four steps to get what is semi-protected against these spam bots.

Plan A

First I upgraded to Moveable Type 3.15, but that just enables me to attempt to install the Blacklist plugin. I followed the install directions for MT 3.15 first and MT Blacklist plugin second. Moveable Type updated easily by following the brief instructions. I installed the Blacklist plugin and started to get rebuild errors. Checked permissions. Checked file locations. Backlist would not initialize. I’m not one with patience for debugging so I moved on.

Plan B

A less robust, but easy to install, anti-spam system includes:

1. an open proxy DNS lookup
2. close comments on old entries

Fortunately there are a few plugins that do this automatically. I chose MT-DSBL*, for the former, and MT-CloseComments, for the latter. The install and setup were painless. MT-DSBL only require the plugin to be uploaded for it to do its thing and one quick template tag insertion will get MT-CloseComments up and running. I chose to only have the five newest entries open for comments, a reasonable time frame for my posting rate I think.

Over the past couple of days I have had one comment slip through. Hopefully the success is not short lived, but spammers will try new tactics so I don’t expect the best. In the meantime it should do.

Are you slaving over the delete comment button?

* MT-DBSL Requires MT 3.1 or later

After doing quite a bit of web design, and unknowingly getting yet others hooked on designing for the web, I decided to learn some server side programming. After asking other designers and programmers which language I should learn, out of Pearl, PHP, ColdFusion, and ASP, I was told PHP is the way to go. Shortly after, I ordered the PHP Bible and waited for the time and right opportunity to learn.

My First PHP

For the contact page on this site, I envisioned a simple test statement that would be used if the form was submitted. Here is the code.


<?php
($_GET['Sent']=$Sent);
($_GET['Name']=$Name);
if ($Sent == 1) {
?>

When the form passes the testing the redirect page is http://gs.designbymk.com/contact.html?Sent=1&Name=mk; that is the same contact page passing variables that is tested in the PHP if statement. Simple, yet powerful. I hope to incorporate other fun and useful techniques in to Graphically Speaking. To bad Movable Type is done in Perl.

I read this alert box article by Jacob Nielson on the top ten web design mistakes of 2003. Point number four, small thumbnail images of big, detailed photos. He assessed the problem well. He did not, however, explain how to make them more effective. Even if the photo is a bit detailed, that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be on the web. So let’s append Dr. Nielson’s brief thumbnail treatment.

“Paging Dr. Nielson; Dr. Nielson, line three.”

Since the thumbnail is their to show a glimpse of what the full size zoomed image is we need to avoid (A) showing the entire image as a the full image scaled to a smaller dimension, and (B) having the thumbnail image so obscure that the viewer doesn’t know what to expect. Your best bet is to think of the thumbnail view as looking through a telescope; the entire planet or galaxy may not be visible, but the view is focused on one object.

The optimized view (C) helps you see that, in fact, that sim is vomiting in the toilet. That leaves little to surprise, at least unless the sim has a toilet in the bedroom, but I digress. The zoomed cropped image (C) is also more effective than just the full size scaled image in that at least some of the picture is discernible, where as at such a small size it’s hard to tell what’s going on in thumbnail A.

So the point is, don’t force your viewers to look at the big picture in a small space. Get a nice portion of the image that helps others know what to expect when they view the image full size.

Have you done anything with such a natural blend? What is your favorite web smoothie (ie, PHP + XML)?

W

the whole site was assembled in fireworks and dreamweaver. the main images
were created with photoshop and/or illustrator. questions or comments? let me
know. enjoy!

it’s one of those very
open projects, which tend to be fun to work on. i have the logo and first page
done of sli, of course i came up with the name too, cool, eh. for now,however,
i decided just to post the site logo untill i can link up the entire site. should
be interesting.

find some helpfull downloadable flash references at Mundi Design Studios. there is also a web safe color picker to mix and match web safe colors for your new site.

any other good reference sites?