Author Archives: Zach Leatherman

Internet Explorer Array.sort Unreliable

By Zach Leatherman | Published: February 24, 2010
What would you expect to be the result of executing the following code? // Create a medium size array, at least 100 items var obj = []; for(var j=0, k=150; j<k; j++) { // the value here doesn't matter. obj.push('ABCD'+j); }   // Sort the array alphabetically. obj.sort(function(m,p){ m=(''+m).toLowerCase(); p=(''+p).toLowerCase();   [...]
Posted in JavaScript | Tagged , | 9 Comments

If the Menu Fitts, We Must Acquit

By Zach Leatherman | Published: February 15, 2010
One of the first things you’ll learn when diving into a self-taught course on usability is the hugely popular Fitts’s Law. In a nutshell, Fitts’s Law tries to predict the time needed to move to a “target area” (usually a link, menu, button, or form element) as a function of the distance to the [...]
Posted in Interface Design, Usability | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments

CSS 3 Text: A Tale of writing-mode Woe

By Zach Leatherman | Published: February 12, 2010
After reading an interesting article on using the writing-mode CSS property to display vertical text (I’m always interested in how to abuse what browsers currently support into something new and exciting), I decided to look into this writing-mode property and see what opportunities it might present. Generally when exploring a development opportunity, I tend to prioritize [...]
Posted in CSS, Web Browsers | 1 Comment

Trash that “Back to Top” Link

By Zach Leatherman | Published: February 5, 2010
It would seem that perfection is attained not when no more can be added, but when no more can be removed. - Antoine de Saint Exupéry While most would argue that the principles espoused in the above quote might also be applied to the quote itself, it would serve us better to consider how we can attempt [...]
Posted in Interface Design, JavaScript | Tagged , | 1 Comment

The “24″ Clock on ALARMd

By Zach Leatherman | Published: January 24, 2010
If you’re only using @font-face for titles and text, you’re missing out on a whole wealth of use cases that have yet to be explored. For instance, I created a very simple 7 Segment Display Numeric font to be used for a skin on alarmd.com and changed the color using nothing but CSS to [...]
Posted in CSS, Projects | Tagged , | 3 Comments

DIY Webdings – CSS Sprites using @font-face

By Zach Leatherman | Published: January 3, 2010
Almost everyone knows the Webdings font or its sibling Wingdings. Even if you don’t, chances are pretty good that it’s installed on your system. Webdings is a symbol font designed in 1997 as a response to the need of Web designers for a fast and easy method of incorporating graphics in their pages. … Webdings is ideal [...]
Posted in CSS | Tagged , | 28 Comments

Don’t Give Up on Internet Explorer Yet

By Zach Leatherman | Published: December 9, 2009
These days, the browser landscape is more fragmented than ever. Were times easier back when IE6 and Firefox ruled the internet? Easier perhaps in terms of the number of browsers you had to launch for testing, but not better for any user’s experience. We are in a new world, where more web browsers are [...]
Posted in Web Browsers | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Device Independence on the Open Web

By Zach Leatherman | Published: August 29, 2009
Open Web advocacy can get pretty lonely working in Big Enterprise. Armed with slow moving standards bodies, and held back by antiquated browser support, architectural battles over tools and frameworks can get pretty hairy if you don’t approach them with the right frame of mind. Big Enterprise is traditionally known for creating development environments that [...]
Posted in Application Design | 4 Comments