In this week’s issue of A List Apart, for people who make websites: The Perfect 404. No matter how carefully you design and structure your site, visitors will sometimes request missing, moved, or non-existent pages. A well tempered 404 error page will plunge these visitors back into the flow of your site. Ian Lloyd shares strategies for crafting the perfect 404.
Where have we been? We’ve been ill, that’s where. Sickness makes you grateful for your life and sorry for your sins. It drops you down a dark mineshaft of melancholy memories. Come crawl with us. »
When we finished the latest zeldman.com redesign, we mentioned that Opera 6 (and older) wrongly inserts a small vertical gap between the primary navigation and the top banner. So does Opera 7.1. But reader Andreas Kalt reports that Opera 7.23/Win and 7.5 Preview/Win display the site correctly. Opera fans, take note.
You may have noticed that we removed the text ads from Zeldman.com and A List Apart. If you didn't notice, we have removed the text ads from Zeldman.com and A List Apart. Now you know.
We’re not suggesting that other sites should remove their ads, or that ads are bad. We simply made a decision about what felt right for our sites.
Although we were too ill to update The Daily Report this week, we did manage to refresh near-daily the external links listed under the “For Your Pleasure” heading in the right sidebar. That’s how much we wuv you.
The upside of the “For Your Pleasure” listing is that it enables us to quickly link to worthwhile or inspiring stuff. The downside is, the links are explanation-free. Not every link will be to every reader’s taste. But so far, nobody has complained. (Inevitably, someone will.)
Redesigning sites like ALA and zeldman.com provides a chance to follow the maxim “keep it simple.” These sites are informational and minimalist. New client projects require fancier footwork and we are enjoying the problems they pose. When we weren’t flat on our backs this week we were working intensively on some new web layouts that we hope push the aesthetic envelope as well as kicking against the pricks of CSS design. More will be revealed.