Services

Development

Pixel Development can modify or create web sites using clean and lean code, tailored to your needs. If you're wondering about 'clean and lean', see the paragraph on Web Page Editors, below. I have used the following technologies in virtually every project I have worked on over the past several years:

  • PHP
  • MySQL
  • HTML
  • CSS
  • JavaScript
  • AJAX
  • Google Maps

I am used to constantly changing requirements. See the Portfolio page for examples of my work, and the About page for more about this site. The following sections discuss my approach on web site design, coding and user experience.

Web Site Design

Presentation

The purpose of any web site is to provide information, thus making that information as readable as possible is a top priority. A well designed site should take into account the wide range of screen resolutions and take steps to make content readable. On this site, steps have been taken to avoid presenting text in lines that are too long to be comfortably read. Visitors view in a variety of conditions, displays, and personal tastes. The Preferences on this site's Home page demonstrates one way of giving visitors the ability to optimize their visit.

Navigation

Navigation should be clean, clear, and should avoid relying on any features a visitor may have turned off, such as JavaScript or Flash.

Coding

Web Standards

Pixel Development creates web sites using WASP standards.

"... standards that reduce the cost and complexity of development while increasing the accessibility and long-term viability of any site published on the Web." - WASP

Benefits of this approach include:

  1. Future-proof work
  2. Broader usability
  3. Easier to redesign
  4. Transferable to other developers

Valid XHTML 1.0! Code that is valid is the first check to see if it follows standards. Validate this page to see an example of this, and use the W3C Validation Service to check any site.

Web Page Editors

Dreamweaver is a great tool, but it won't always create the best code. Hand-coded sites can be more efficient which leads to a number of benefits. They use less bandwidth (lowering costs), and are better understood by web-crawling services such as Google and language translators (increasing traffic). For an example of this, try the flag buttons at the bottom of this page. Note that all the content is understood and translated. Use Altavista's language translation service to check any site.

User Experience

Screen Resolution

As of January 2005, over a quarter of all Internet users have screen resolutions of 800x600 or less. A site should be designed to handle these lower resolutions, but many are not. Resize to 800x600 and check any site.

Printing

While most visitors read web pages online, sometimes it's more convenient to print them. This can produce a mess, because beyond pure content web pages also have navigation controls, advertising, etc. Some sites try to solve this issue by placing 'printable version' links somewhere on the page. A site should be designed to print web pages without any extra effort on the part of the visitor. Try printing (or print preview) a page from this site, and from other sites.

Flash, Java and JavaScript

Flash, Java and JavaScript add to a visitor's experience, but not everyone has these features in their browser. For example, some users on the Internet have JavaScript turned off. Most users also have popup blockers. If your website relies on these technologies and features, you're only reaching part of the market. However, these technologies should not be ignored as they can greatly add to the user experience. Sites should be designed to gracefully degrade if these features aren't present and active. An example graceful degradation can be seen by turning JavaScript off on your browser, and using one of this site's galleries.

Accessibility

Another consideration is that some of your visitors have impaired sight, and are using special software that reads the words aloud. By law, all US government websites and contractors must have accessible websites.

Examples

View examples of my work on the Portfolio page.