15 Seconds : Getting Started with the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolk. By John Peterson If you've been wanting to get started with AJAX, but haven't known where to start, this is your lucky day.
The ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit is designed to provide a rich infrastructure for you to write your own ASP.NET AJAX extenders and controls, but it also provides a number of exceptional controls that can be used right out of the box by developers without any previous AJAX experience. What is the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit? I always like to go directly to the source for the answer to this type of question. According to Microsoft: The ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit is a shared source project built on top of the Microsoft ASP.NET AJAX framework. So even if you have no intention of ever writing any controls of your own, the toolkit is worth downloading just to get access to the over thirty controls that you can start using immediately.
First... For the rest of this article, I'll be using ASP.NET 3.5 and Visual Web Developer 2008 (VWD 2008). Best Practices for 6 Common User Interface Elements. The appearance and usability of certain interface elements and functionality are crucial to the success any websites in today’s market.
Studies have demonstrated that even a split-second delay in thinking on the user’s part will weaken their perception and interest in a website and ultimately lower the website’s conversion rate. In certain niches and industries, having UI elements that are not obvious in their use may be perfectly acceptable. The blogging and web development industry are perfect examples. But when we design user interfaces for non-tech-savvy audiences—which is usually the case with client work—we have to ensure that certain UI elements do not stray too far from what users are accustomed to. This article discusses some best practices and usability traits of six user interface elements and the conventions for each, so that developers can create user experiences that are both beautiful and simple. 1.
On large information-rich or product-heavy websites, search is king. 45 Incredibly Useful Web Design Checklists and Questionnaires - Designing websites can be a long and complicated process.
Dealing with clients, designing prototypes, coding, programming, and testing – there’s a lot to keep track of and a lot to make sure gets done. That’s where checklists can make your life a whole lot easier. With lists of points covering multiple areas from content to usability to accessibility to standards, you’re a lot less likely to overlook important parts of a site. Below are 45 checklists to make your design process easier and more organized. Consider using these checklists as a jumping off point for creating your own customized list, based on your own needs. Also consider our previous article: 15 Essential Checks Before Launching Your Website1 lists some important things to check before you make your sites public. Andy Budd on Usability, Design, and the Death of CSS [Design Pri. Andy Budd was in Melbourne as the keynote speaker for the Web Directions UX conference this week.
SitePoint’s Matthew Magain spent some time chatting to him about blogging, design, CSS frameworks, careers on the web, usability testing, the future of the Web, and much more. SitePoint: Thanks for taking some time to talk to us Andy! Let me begin by saying that your blog, along with Drew McLelland’s All In The Head, is one of the first blogs that I began following, many years ago. Can you tell me how your blog has shaped your career on the Web? Oh wow, cool. But I do think it’s been fairly important. It was a fairly early stage, so my other peers were people like Doug Bowman, Dave Shea, Cameron Moll and those guys. But I also think a lot of it was luck — a case of being in the right place at the right time.
I guess like most bloggers, it was all driven by fairly altruistic reasons. But yeah, I guess I got reasonably well-known through my blog. Oh, absolutely, yeah.