Apart from being the most... er... graceful term in the web's working glossary, "graceful degradation" is a simple but powerful technique. The first step in adapting that technique successfully is fluid thinking: accepting the unpredictability that rules the user interface of the web.

Links:

• fluid thinking

Nick Finck - September 25, 2002

See also: Web standards (2)  Javascript (3) 

Jeffrey Zeldman and A List Apart have long been advocating for Web standards – the use of CSS and XHTML in Web design. As Netscape 4.x and other browsers not supporting the W3C standards die out, we can justify skipping the old-school HTML methods. From a usability perspective, there are a number of advantages:
- We can build sites that download faster
- We can comply with accessibility laws and guidelines, without sacrificing beauty, performance, or sophistication.
- We can support wireless gadgets, Web-enabled cell phones, PalmPilots, screen readers, and other nontraditional devices.
- We can deliver sophisticated printed versions of any page without creating separate printer-friendly page.

Links:

• An interview with Jeffrey Zeldman about the new era of Web design
• The online magazine A List Apart
• The Web Standards Project

Henrik Olsen - August 13, 2002

See also: Web standards (2) 

A white paper from User Interface Engineering (UIE) takes at look at how cutting-edge applications have demonstrated Flash's potential to surpass the power of traditional software applications. These web applications leverage the strengths of Flash to help users make better sense of large amounts of data, presenting information in an easily accessible, graphical visual representation.

Links:

• Download the white paper Macromedia Flash: A New Hope for Web Applications

Henrik Olsen - June 17, 2002

See also: Flash (6) 

It's boring, it's nonsense, it's utterly useless, and it goes on and on...

Links:

• The Flash movie Skip Intro

Henrik Olsen - May 27, 2002

See also: Flash (6)  Bad designs (7) 

At thecounter.com you'll find some statistics on browser usage. The statistics are based on the users of the counter.com statistic tool.

You'll find statistics on:
- JavaScript (88%)
- Java (87%)
- Operation Systems (63% Windows 98)
- Browsers (MSIE 5.x 62%)
- Screen resolution (52% 800x600 / 3%640x480)
- Colour depth (52% 16bit)
- Visits by domains
- Visits by weekday

Links:

• Statistics from thecounter.com

Henrik Olsen - February 12, 2002

See also: Research (88)  Browsers (2)  Javascript (3)