Articles on front-end web development & design by Alex Gibson

MiniApps: Mobile web applications built using HTML5

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

I'd like to announce the launch of my latest side project called MiniApps, a microsite dedicated to hosting mobile web applications that have been built using HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript.

Quote of the day

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

“Giving a website to a communicator is like giving a pub to an alcoholic.” — Gerry McGovern, Boagworld Podcast 194.

Zen Coding: a faster way to write websites

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Zen Coding is a free text editor plugin for writing high speed HTML and CSS code. There are plenty of other plugins on the market that aide developers in writing code faster, but the one thing that sets Zen Coding aside from the rest is the fact that it uses a hybrid CSS selector–like syntax.

Using Modernizr to detect CSS3 & HTML5 support

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Last month I had the pleasure of attending Andy Clarke's For A Beautiful Web CSS workshop in Newcastle upon Tyne. Toward the end of the day, Andy gave a demonstration of Modernizr; a tiny JavaScript library that detects CSS3 and HTML5 support in web browsers.

Mobile optimised websites using CSS3 Media Queries

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

A while ago I wrote about using CSS3 Media Queries on my website redesign to provide mobile visitors with an optimised view designed for smaller screens. I thought it might be useful if I went into a bit more detail on how I'm doing this.

Using WAI-ARIA landmark roles in HTML5 markup

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Since WAI-ARIA landmark roles have been added into the HTML5 spec, I thought it was about time I got round to updating this site with specific WAI-ARIA landmarks as an aide to accessibility.

Quote of the day

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

“Java is to JavaScript as ham is to hamster.” — Jeremy Keith on Misunderstanding markup.

Accessibility tips for using alt & title attributes

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Here are some basic tips on how to improve the accessibility of your web pages with correct use of alt and title attributes. This article also highlights some of the common accessibility pitfalls when failing to use these attributes correctly.

Quote of the day

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

“We can send a man to the moon and tweets across the universe, but we can't render Bodoni in a browser. Sheesh.” — Martin Streicher, Linux Magazine.

Testing Typekit & Typotheque

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Typekit and Typotheque are two emerging online services that aim to provide licensed fonts for web designers to embed in their sites using the CSS @font-face rule. I have been lucky enough to get early invites to both Typekit and Typotheque, so I thought I would share my experiences trying out each service.

Redesign using HTML5 & CSS3

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

In an effort to keep on top of recent developments in HTML5 and CSS3, I have been meaning to completely redesign my personal website for some time now.

Create a simple animated navigation menu using MooTools

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT

I thought I'd share a quick tutorial on how to create a simple animated navigation menu using MooTools.

Unobtrusive Twitter & Delicious feeds using MooTools

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT

It has become commonplace to include things such as Twitter status updates and Delicious bookmarks on your blog/website. But if you're like me, you don’t particularly enjoy pasting JavaScript directly into your lovingly–crafted HTML markup.