Check 1, 2

It never fails to amaze me the things people miss when finishing up on project, wether they be designers, developers or project managers.

So here's my little list of things to think about next time you'v 'finished' a project.

1. You have tested it on all browsers havn't you, even IE 6?


2. Have you put an analytics package in there. It takes more time to make a tea than it takes to drop in Google analytics


3. Does this site need to be accessible? and if so is it?


4. Have all the depatments and stakeholders involved signed off the final product. Designers, IA's developers all happy?


5. You have done proper 301 re-directsd havn't you? We don't want that valuable page rank dropping off a cliff do we.


6. And those obscure domain names the client bought years ago have been pointed to the new site havn't they?


7. And on that note, have all the incoming links been properly redirected?


8. Have you got a list of common use cases and have you run the site through those cases?


9. What happens when javascript's turned off? and what happens when the user's not got flash?

Back off

Are back buttons on a website bad? It's a question and request that almost always comes up. My feeling is that back buttons signal a flawed navigation model, but is that correct to assume? So let's argue that back buttons are for error correction - the user didn't want to follow the route they'd chosen. Should the browsers back button not be for this purpose, but then ok, checkouts and other transactional processes can fail when users resort to the browsers back buttons, but then the back buttons is obsolete here, the buttons should be user centered and be inteligent to direct error correction - 'Edit your details' rather then the meaningless 'Back'.

And on less transactional sites? 'Back' has to show a flawed navigation model, i can't think of a reason why it woudln't. The users journeys should be informed and logical and the site should guide.

Please any ideas?

Listen to Phil Loye Adobe

I've been designing my site comps in illustrator for years now thanks to the direction of the very talented Paul Sonley the as then Creative Director of Razorfish London. It's the perfect tool in my mind for wireframing, laying out and producing components for Flash. Only when a site needs templates producing and final polishing do I turn to Photoshop.

One of Illustrators notable problems, even up until CS and CS2 i'd imagine, has been the inability to underline text a clear usable way. Designers have historically adopted nasty work arounds to try and solve this problem and all create more issues than they solve.

That's is until now, all hail Phil Loye for this work around....Come on Adobe, sort it out.

http://www.philoye.com