Current Features
- Flash 10 Support (tested with 10,0,12,36)
- One button to select the images, uploading does start automatically
- Display of the queued images, successfully uploaded images disappear from the queue after a few seconds
- Live-Preview of uploaded photos, each photo is linked to its site and below a link to the album is displayed
- Upload-Errors are displayed if it is a “user-error” like illegal filetype, size, zip files and so on..
- More detailed errors are logged with watchdog
- Flash upload is possible at /photos/upload and /node/-id-/photos (if node is an album or a node type which allows photo uploads)
- Link to the classic upload script and back…
- Flash detection, should display an errors when loading of flash fails (not sure how good this works… )
- Errors, Queue and Preview are displayed as collapsible form fieldsets…
- general.pot and german translation

- (technical) refactored the upload function into multiple methods
- (technical) removed the upload_node function, as it is not needed anymore

Not yet working stuff
- flash upload at edit node / create node forms
- Cancel queue function ( is there actually any need for this ? )
- configuring the look of the upload button

Upgrade instructions
1. Disable phtos_swfu at /admin/build/modules
2. Delete photos_swfu.info, photos_swfu.module and the directory v102demo
3. Upload the folder photos_swfu from the photos_swfu.zip attachment into sites/all/modules/photos
4. Re-enable photos_swfu module
5. (Probably not necessary but to be sure… ) clear the cache at /admin/settings/performance

Google has a fresh version of jQuery, which is made available for developers. Instead of getting a jQuery copy, you should definitely take advantage of Google’s “generosity” and directly load their copy:

script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.3.2/jquery.min.js" type="text/javascript">

–> Source

Validate a date of birth using jQuery

Validating dates of birth are a common task on websites that have content available only for users 18+ years old. Using jQuery, this is very easy to do, as shown in the following example:

$("#lda-form").submit(function(){
var day = $("#day").val();
var month = $("#month").val();
var year = $("#year").val();
var age = 18;
var mydate = new Date();
mydate.setFullYear(year, month-1, day);

var currdate = new Date();
currdate.setFullYear(currdate.getFullYear() - age);
if ((currdate - mydate) < 0){
alert("Sorry, only persons over the age of " + age + " may enter this site");
return false;
}
return true;
});

–> source

Make sure an image has loaded properly

How do you know if an image has been properly loaded? In some particular cases such as a captcha, problems with the user experience may happen if an image hasn’t been loaded properly.
Using the simple piece of code below, you’ll be able to know if your image is displayed on the user screen.

$('#myImage').attr('src', 'image.jpg').load(function() {
alert('Image Loaded');
});

–> source

XHTML 1.0 Strict valid target=”blank” attribute

The target=”blank” attribute can be useful when you want a link to be opened in a new tab or window. Though, the target=”blank” attribute is not valid XHTML 1.0 Strict.
using jQuery, you can achieve the same functionality without having validation problems.

$("a[@rel~='external']").click( function() {
window.open( $(this).attr('href') );
return false;
});

–> source

Search within text using jQuery

The following function will allow full text search on the page using jQuery. The feature is not only cool, but useful at the same time.

$.fn.egrep = function(pat) {
var out = [];
var textNodes = function(n) {
if (n.nodeType == Node.TEXT_NODE) {
var t = typeof pat == 'string' ?
n.nodeValue.indexOf(pat) != -1 :
pat.test(n.nodeValue);
if (t) {
out.push(n.parentNode);
}
}
else {
$.each(n.childNodes, function(a, b) {
textNodes(b);
});
}
};
this.each(function() {
textNodes(this);
});
return out;
};

–> source

“outerHTML” function

The well-known innerHTML property is very useful: It allows you to get the content of an HTML element. But what if you need the content, and also the HTML tags? You have to create an “outerHTML” function like this one:

jQuery.fn.outerHTML = function() {
return $('
').append( this.eq(0).clone() ).html(); };

–> source

Clean way to open popup windows

Although their popularity decreased with the rise of popup blockers, pop-up windows can still be useful in some particular cases. Here is a nice snippet to open links in pop-up windows. Just add the popup css class to your link to make it work.

jQuery('a.popup').live('click', function(){
newwindow=window.open($(this).attr('href'),'','height=200,width=150');
if (window.focus) {newwindow.focus()}
return false;
});

–> source

Quick and easy browser detection

Cross-browser issues are definitely the biggest problem a front-end web developer has to face at work. Thanks to jQuery, detecting browsers have never been so easy, as shown below:

//A. Target Safari
if( $.browser.safari ) $("#menu li a").css("padding", "1em 1.2em" );

//C. Target IE6 and below
if ($.browser.msie && $.browser.version = "1.8" ) $("#menu li a").css("padding", "1em 1.8em" );

–> source

Get relative mouse position

Do you ever want to be able to get the relative mouse position? This very handy function will return the mouse position (x and y) according to its parent element.

function rPosition(elementID, mouseX, mouseY) {
var offset = $('#'+elementID).offset();
var x = mouseX - offset.left;
var y = mouseY - offset.top;

return {'x': x, 'y': y};
}

–> source

Parse an xml file using jQuery

XML files are very important on the Internet, and any developer has to parse them from time to time. Thanks to jQuery and all its powerful functions, the whole process is painless, as demonstrated in the example code below:

function parseXml(xml)
{
//find every Tutorial and print the author
$(xml).find("Tutorial").each(function()
{
$("#output").append($(this).attr("author") + "
");
});
}

–>source

As Web designers, we often have to nudge people in the direction we want them to go. It is a vital skill we all have to learn. We’re not talking about manipulation. Underhanded techniques, and certainly lying, won’t get you anywhere. But you can present yourself and your arguments in ways that make people more receptive. The first and probably most important way is to empathize.

1. Empathize

The worst thing you can do is enter a meeting or begin designing a user interface with a personal agenda. If your goal is to push the other party into agreeing with you, it will resist. But if you seek to understand their needs and respond to them, you will find the others more cooperative.

Start by Listening
To achieve this, you must really listen. Paying lip service to the “idea” of listening is not enough. You have to hear what they’re saying and look for those “points of pain” that your ideas might actually relieve.

Tailor Presentation of Agenda
Rather than forcing the people in the room to reluctantly agree, tailor your presentation of ideas so that they see the benefit of them. This involves some creative thinking on your part but is possible if you really understand their needs.

Show Benefit to Other Party
Remember, explaining how your ideas will help you or others is not enough. You have to demonstrate how they help the actual people you are speaking to. For example, rather than saying to your client, “Users are going to love this new feature,” you could instead say, “This new feature will keep users coming back, which will dramatically improve the number of leads you receive.” Once you understand the other party and have thought about their needs, your next step is to form a relationship with them.

2. Be Personable

If you have a good relationship with your users, boss or client, they will be more inclined to take your suggestions. Of course, the kind of relationship you build depends on who the other person is. Your relationship with website users is different from your relationship with your boss. However, certain approaches hold true across the board.

Get Them Nodding
It’s a silly little thing, but when I give a pitch, I try to get people to nod. Nodding is a good sign and puts them in a positive mood. I normally achieve this by repeating back to them (in different words) one of their own points. They will obviously agree with what you’re saying, but it also demonstrates that you’re listening and are on the same wave length.

The same approach can be used online. For example if I am writing a post aimed at Web designers, I know that berating IE6 will get them nodding in agreement right away. I have succeeded in making a connection.

Be Enthusiastic
Enthusiasm is so important. Clients want to know you care about their project. Bosses want to know you are motivated to work, and users want to know you care about the service you deliver. However, so many people lack enthusiasm when communicating their message. They come across either as defeated before they even begin or as overly aggressive. Instead, try overwhelming enthusiasm. It is infectious, and people get caught up in it. More importantly, saying “No” to somebody who is oozing enthusiasm and excitement from ever pore is not easy. It would be like kicking a puppy. (Well, not quite.)

Mirror Them
You have probably heard how mirroring a person’s body language helps establish a positive connection. Whatever you do, do not do it! Consciously doing it just comes across as creepy! It will happen naturally, so don’t worry about it. That said, it is a useful indication of whether a face-to-face meeting is going well. If the other person is mirroring your body language, chances are they like you. What you can consciously do is mirror their language or use the same terminology.

If your boss or client talks about “return on investment” or “success criteria,” do it yourself. And if you suspect the other party is not familiar with certain terminology, make sure to avoid it. Our way of speaking associates us with a certain “tribe.” If we share the same language, we are more likely to build a rapport.

Make Them Smile
Another trick for building relationships is to inject humour into the proceedings. If you can make the other person smile, you’ve gone a long way to breaking down any barriers. Of course, this has to be done with care. Overdo it and you’ll look like the fool. But even the most miserable-looking directors on a board are human beings, too, and like to smile. Although all of these approaches are great for building relationship, one trumps them all: openness.

3. Be Open

You may be reading this thinking, “This guy is mad. What if his clients read this stuff. Won’t they feel manipulated?” My answer is no. I am open and honest about what I do. I would be entirely fine with any one of my clients reading this because nothing manipulative or secret is here. People hate being deceived; so if anything, the honesty in this article will build my relationship, not undermine it. Two key components help build open relationships and create a receptive audience.

Disarming Honesty
Many times, the best way to diffuse a potential conflict is with disarming honesty. For example, I regularly acknowledge in sales situations that I am there to sell and that they should take anything I say with a pinch of salt. The client obviously knows this already. But verbalizing it shows a kind of honesty that people rarely encounter.

Be Willing to Show Weakness
We can sometimes be so desperate to make a point that we become unwilling to admit even the slightest weakness in our argument. Ultimately, though, we come across as pig-headed and inflexible.

People respond well when you admit you are wrong or are unsure of an answer. Be willing to say “I don’t know” or “I’ve messed up” if necessary. People will respect you for it. One of the best examples of this is Flickr’s blog post “Sometimes We Suck,” in which Flickr apologizes for performance problems. By taking this approach, it demonstrated its integrity and completely defused the anger of those who were complaining. Of course, being willing to show weakness takes a lot of confidence, and that trait is critical if you are to convince others.

4. Be Confident

As humans we are drawn to confident leaders. We follow those who have a clear vision and walk the path with confidence. Communicating your message with confidence, therefore, is important. Establish yourself as an expert, and speak with authority.

Bet Confident, Not Arrogant
Being confident also means having the strength to admit when you are wrong. A truly confident leader does not claim to have all of the answers all of the time. Being able to concede points and allow others to express their views is a key aspect of confidence. Only those who lack confidence fear opposing views.

You Do Not Always Have To Win
Pick your battles. Conceding some points to achieve the greater aim is okay. Giving ground does not undermine your position. Sometimes you have to be a little submissive to get people on board. Don’t allow your ego to get in the way. If someone feels good about having won an argument, then they will more likely be accommodating when you suggest an alternative. Compromising sometimes is okay. It is certainly better than constantly being negative and rejecting counter-proposals.

5. Be Positive

Whether dealing with a demanding boss, difficult client or finicky users, you have to impress them with your attitude and service. Always be helpful and keen to leave a positive impression. In customer service, that sometimes involves going the extra mile. With your boss, it means seeing the benefits of their latest mad scheme. Whatever the situation, developing a reputation for being unhelpful and negative is the worst thing that can happen.

We did some research to find out how the integration of Facebook with WordPress and vice versa works, or — in other words — how you can present your WordPress blog on Facebook or use the functionality of Facebook on your WordPress-powered blog. Both of these can be achieved with a set of WordPress plug-ins, a couple of which we’ll present here in detail.

1. Integrating A WordPress Blog Into Facebook

Integrating a WordPress blog into Facebook is actually quite simply achieved via the Facebook API. The Facebook API makes programming applications that can be spread via Facebook almost a piece of cake. A lot of interactive browser games are on Facebook, such as the currently popular “Mafia Wars.” This game allows users to start a mafia family with their friends, with the goal of becoming an important figure in the virtual underground crime scene. To start a clan, you invite other friends on the network to join. This is the growth strategy of any application on Facebook: the simple snowball effect.

The applications sustain themselves through earnings generated by displaying advertisements, which also makes Facebook an even more attractive platform to develop on. This symbiosis generates growth for both Facebook and its applications.
Plug-In Installation and Configuration

John Eckman developed the WordPress plug-in Wordbook in early 2009. This plug-in allows WordPress blog owners to integrate their blog in Facebook. This gives a blog two lives: one as an application on Facebook (such as, for example, my private FreigeistBlog) and one at the original URL (http://freigeist.devmag.net).

To access a blog via Facebook, you need to first grant access to the application. To do this, go to the so-called “canvas” page, which is where the Facebook twin of the blog lives (my example). However, granting access to the blog’s application means that the administrator of the blog also has access to information about you as a user (this is what most applications aim for: information such as date of birth, gender and educational status allows them to display quite targeted ads).

The application we’re dealing with is a simple blog and, in this sense, quite innocent, but we should state outright that the Facebook API as it is now treats blogs and websites as applications, which may not be appropriate, given the issue mentioned above. Facebook users who authorize the blog application can now easly send comments and share posts from within Facebook. The data, however, is still stored in the original database on the server where the blog is installed.

This makes it look as though Facebook serves merely as a simple feed reader. Yet, we get some other benefits. The blog on Facebook can be used to create a community around it by taking advantage of Facebook’s snowball effect, because friends of the blog’s users will see in their activity stream that they have been participating on the blog. Furthermore, it means that Facebook users will see new posts from your blog whenever they sign in to Facebook and can easily follow comments, making your blog more accessible.

To create a Facebook twin of your blog, first you have to set up a new application. To do this, you need a Facebook account and have to register as a developer using the preceding link. All of this can be done in a few minutes.

Create a new Facebook application

Once you have agreed to the terms of use, give your application a name. Then you will receive your API key and a secret, which you will need later.

Settings for the Facebook application. Large view.

Then, you have to submit a so-called “post-authorize callback URL.” This is the address on your server to which Facebook will send a notice whenever a user authorizes access to the application. By the same logic, there is also the “post-remove callback URL,” which receives a notice when a user removes the application. Both of these events are handled by the Wordbook plug-in. You merely need to write the address of the blog’s root directory with a trailing slash.

Facebook application settings: Define callback URLs. Large view.

The third step is to claim your canvas page, which is the page through which a Facebook user accesses your blog, and a canvas callback URL, which is the page from which content is retrieved. Again, include a trailing slash, or else internal links on your blog won’t work with their Facebook twin.

Facebook application settings: Define canvas page. Large view.

Now you have some choices to make, namely, how to set up your canvas page. You have a choice between iFrame and FBML. FBML is a Facebook XML scheme with which you can use specific Facebook tags (such as tags to display user profiles). You can also use it to access certain Facebook procedures. However, the Wordbook plug-in works with iFrames, which allow Javascript and other tags, and which FBML does not support.

To distinguish between them rather crudely, you can say that iFrames give the developer more flexibility but, unlike FBML, restrict access to Facebook procedures. Another advantage of iFrames is that code that Facebook retrieves from the canvas callback URL need not be parsed by the FBML parser, which could yield a performance gain. With iFrames, only internal links on the blog need to be adjusted. And the “resizeable” option allows Facebook’s JavaScript code to adjust the size of the iFrame to Facebook’s layout.

Now the hard work is done. All that’s left is to install the Wordbook plug-in using the standard WordPress method: install and activate. Then you can change the plug-in’s settings on the settings panel, and here you will need your application ID and the secret. You also have to tell the plug-in where the canvas page is located, so that internal links can be adjusted.

Adjusting the settings of the Wordbook plug-in

And that’s it! If you want, you could activate or deactivate some other options, such as the commenting function and whether users can add your application to their profile by displaying the latest posts from your blog in their profile.

Browsing through the blog via Facebook. Large view.

The plug-in allows you to play around a little bit. But as we said, you are somewhat limited in how fully you can integrate your blog into the Facebook canvas. But the next plug-in we’ll look at integrates a bit of Facebook into your blog.

2. Integrating Facebook In A WordPress Blog

To begin, a little history lesson is needed. Many users do not like having to register for each blog where they would like to post comments, especially if they already have accounts on so many other social networks, such as Facebook and MySpace. So a single online ID for several purposes would be ideal, wouldn’t it? That’s the idea behind the OpenID protocol, which started in 2005. It decentralizes the identification of users for various providers and services. In essence, you can create an account on Facebook and connect it to services such as MySpace or even a personal blog. If you want to change your profile for all of these services, that too is decentralized: you simply change the settings on your Facebook account. OpenID is a chance to make the Web and its services more easily accessible. There are reasonable risks and concerns involved, but also many opportunities.

Facebook announced in 2007 that it would implement OpenID, and others followed, which explains why we now find more and more buttons that say “Connect with Facebook” or “Google Friend Connect.” This leads us to our second plug-in, Facebook Connect WordPress plug-in, which almost seamlessly integrates Facebook into your blog.

The plug-in allows users to comment on a blog using their Facebook account; and if they are already signed in or on Facebook, they need not sign in again. Users do not have to register for a unique account on the blog because the plug-in retrieves the user’s information directly from the Facebook API. With access to the user profiles on Facebook, you can display your users’ profile pictures, which adds a personal touch to your blog.

The plug-in integrates a lot of Facebook functions: for example, users can send invitations and share stories and comments on Facebook, which gives your blog the benefit of word-of-mouth marketing. To do this, you need to activate the plug-in option that publishes a user’s activity in their respective activity feed. Last but not least, you can enable a gadget that displays the profile pictures of your blog’s most recent visitors, similar to “Google Friend Connect.”

(From : http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/09/14/how-to-integrate-facebook-with-wordpress/)

Successful time management can be challenging, especially to those who are new to freelancing or being self-employed. When you have a boss telling you what to do and when to do it by, it’s much easier to prioritize and figure out what needs to be done and when. But when you’re not only dealing with client deadlines but also all of the day-to-day parts of running a business, on top of trying to maintain some sort of life outside of work, time management gets a whole lot trickier.

Below are sixteen tips to help you better manage your time and find the time to participate in the things that are important to you. Also included are some further resources to improve your time management.

Also consider our previous articles:

* Effective Strategy To Estimate Time For Your Design Projects
* 6 Simple Ways For Freelancers To Increase Productivity
* 20 Time-Saving Tips to Improve Designer’s Workflow

1. Get Organized

Taking time away from your work to find things, whether on your computer or your physical desktop, can be one of the biggest time-wasters out there. This is one of those things that varies a lot by industry and personal preference, but you absolutely need to have a system in place to handle the information, files, and data that comes your way each day. This might include folders and tags on your computers, or file-folders, piles, and inboxes in your physical workspace.

Experiment with different organizational systems until you find one that really works for you. Personally, I have a folder called “work” on my desktop and within that I have folders for each client I work with on a regular basis. For one-off projects I’ll create a folder for that client while I’m working on the project, and then those folders will get moved into a “completed” folder once the project is over (and usually moved to my portable hard drive instead of remaining on my laptop’s hard drive). I have very little physical paperwork, so piles on my desk work just fine for me.

2. Separate Work Space from Everything-Else Space

You need to have a dedicated workspace. If you work in an office, this is easy enough to manage. But if you work from home, you’ll need to put a bit more effort in. Here are a few tips for creating a workspace if you don’t have space for a dedicated office:

* Get a desk. Don’t try to work from your coffee table or dining room table. It’s inefficient and you’ll constantly find yourself having to pick things up just to bring them back out later. It’s better to have a space where you can leave your work things set up all the time.
* Go into “work mode” when you’re in your workspace. This might mean wearing “work clothes” when you’re working. Or it might mean putting shoes on when you’re at your desk (this is one I do most of the time).
* Steal unused space. Is there an unused room, corner of a room, or even closet somewhere in your home? Is it big enough for a desk? If it is, then you might have just found your dedicated office. If your space is part of a larger room, consider buying an office armoire to hide away your work stuff when you’re not using it. If it’s in a closet or other tiny space, a built-in desk and shelving might work best (otherwise you’re likely to waste space with a desk that’s smaller than the total space). Commandeer unused space in your home to carve out a dedicated work space.

3. Take Advantage of Time Management Tools

There are hundreds of tools out there for organizing and managing your time. Whether you opt for a physical date book or calendar or go for an online app, take advantage of the ready-made tools available. I use a combination of tools. Remember the Milk keeps my to-do list (with the Pro version you can also access it from an iPhone). I have a dry-erase calendar for my monthly schedule. And I flag emails that have important information in them until I’m done with that information.

Previously, I’ve used those yellow Post-It notes to keep my to-do list organized (I’d stick them to my desk in front of my keyboard) and a pocket-size black Moleskine notebook. Both tools worked well, but I finally decided I wanted to have a to-do list I could access from anywhere.

There are tons of other time management tools. Experiment with a few and see what seems to fit with the way you work. There’s no “one-size-fits-all” solution out there that will work for everyone. But there’s almost certainly a tool out there for everyone.

4. Set Goals

Setting goals is one of the most important things you can do to manage your time. If you don’t have any goals, how do you know what’s important? What deserves your time and attention? The short answer is: you don’t.

Goals don’t need to be formal. They don’t need to be long-term either (though long-term goals can also help). What they do need to do is focus your attention on what’s important.

One of my goals might be to get all of my work done by Thursday so I can take Friday off, or use Friday to work on a personal project. What that goal does is get me to focus on working more efficiently so I can finish my work in 80% of the time. Cutting 20% of my work time isn’t that big of a deal most weeks. Simply turning off TweetDeck while I work (or setting it to only pull updates every 30 or 60 minutes) can go a long way toward doing that. So can working through lunch or getting up a half hour earlier (or staying up a half hour later).

Your goals should be attainable and specific. You can set recurring goals (”I want to take every Friday off.”) or one-time goals (”I want to finish my new website design by next Tuesday.”) or any combination of the two. You might write them down somewhere or you can just keep them in your head. Just make sure you always have a goal. Your goal could even be as simple as, “finish this logo mockup before lunch.”

5. Set Deadlines

Deadlines are sort of like a built-in goal for a project. If you know something is due next Monday, then you’re more likely to structure your work on it to make sure it gets done by Monday. (If not, you definitely need this article more than most.)

If you don’t have deadlines imposed by clients or a boss, then you’ll need to have self-imposed deadlines. Think about when you want to finish something or when you’d like to move on to the next project. Put that date in your calendar or mark it on your to-do list as the deadline for your current project. For added accountability, tell someone else about your deadline. I’ll sometimes post self-imposed deadlines on Twitter or Facebook so my friends there can hound me about it if I miss a deadline. Peer pressure can go a long way toward getting you to work harder.

6. Plan Ahead

Keep some kind of big-picture plan. This might be monthly, bi-monthly, or yearly, depending on your industry and the particular types of projects you take on. As I mentioned before, I keep a dry-erase calendar with my monthly projects and deadlines. I can also mark down appointments, important dates, and other information that might interfere with my deadlines or regular work schedule. Most of my deadlines are on a weekly or semi-weekly basis, so a monthly calendar works great for me. If you have longer deadline periods (or shorter ones), you’ll need to adjust the amount of time you need to look at at once to get an idea of how much work you’ve committed yourself to at any one time.

7. Prioritize

You have to prioritize the work you do. For the most part, work due immediately (or within the next few days) should be completed first. Then comes the work due within the next week or two, and then everything else.

Don’t forget to include family priorities, too. Your child’s first soccer game is important, so make sure that gets on the list of top priorities. Doctor’s appointments, school plays, parent-teacher meetings, date nights, and parties also need to be taken into account when you’re planning your work schedule. Decide what things you absolutely must attend whether your work is finished or not (there shouldn’t be very many things on this list), what things you want to attend if you get to a certain point in your work (and note what you need to have done in order to attend), and things that you may or may not attend if all of your work is finished.

Set up a system of marking the priority of different items on your schedule. This might be using different-colored pens to write in different items, or it might be putting a star next to the most important things, or even keeping separate lists for each priority. Again, just make sure whatever you choose to do makes sense in your lifestyle.

8. Delegate or Outsource

There’s nothing wrong with bringing in a little outside help once in awhile. This might mean delegating responsibility for a project to someone else in your office, or even to an assistant. It might mean outsourcing a certain aspect of a project (research, coding, etc.) to someone else so you can focus on the more important parts.

You don’t necessarily need to outsource or delegate parts of your work to be more effective. Why not consider hiring a housekeeper to come in and clean your house once a week? Or getting someone else to wash and detail your car instead of spending Saturday afternoon doing it yourself? These kinds of outsourced services can free up your time for the important things you want to do (like hanging out with your significant other or your kids, or playing an extra round of golf).

9. Optimize Your Processes

There are almost certainly things you do on a daily or weekly basis in the course of your work that you could streamline. It might be your billing. Or maybe your archiving. Or it could be something you do on almost every project you take on.

These are the things you should streamline and optimize. Look at the way you’re currently doing things and see if there are steps you could combine or cut all together. If you’re a web designer, this might mean creating your own custom set of template files for developing sites. Or using an automated invoicing program for billing. Or any number of other things that can be made more efficient if you’re only willing to take the time to identify them.

10. Learn to Say “No”

One of the biggest time-management pitfalls you can experience is taking on too much work. You have to learn to say “no” to some people. If you take on more work than you can handle, not only will you have problems meeting deadlines, but the quality of your work and your relationships (both personal and work-related) will suffer.

Before taking on any new work, look at your schedule. Do you really have time for another project? If not, simply explain to the client that you have too many projects going to devote the time necessary for their project. Most will thank you for it. And if you really can’t bring yourself to turn down work, give them a realistic timeline for when you can complete their project. Don’t say you can have it done the following week if you already have commitments taking up your time between now and then.

The same principle goes for personal obligations, too. Nothing says you have to serve on your homeowners’ association board. You don’t have to join the PTA or your local indoor soccer league. And just because you’ve done something every year for the past ten years doesn’t mean you have to do it every year for the next ten. Learn to say no to your friends, family, neighbors, and others in your life so you have time to say “yes” to the things that are really important to you.

11. Learn When You Work Best

One of the advantages to being a freelancer is that you can set your own hours. Pay attention to when you’re mot productive. For me, that’s from about nine in the morning until around two or three, and then again from about six or seven in the evening until eleven or twelve. I don’t force myself to work in those hours when I know I’m not productive (from 2-7 most days). But I make sure that I’m in work mode in the morning and then again late in the evening so I can get more done when I am productive.

12. Set Regular Working Hours

This is related to when you work best. You should have regular working hours that you try to stick to every day. If you work best from 4:00AM until noon, then work every day during that time. That also means that you should stop work at noon and go do something else. The same goes fro weekends. Take at least two days a week off if at all possible. It doesn’t necessarily have to be Saturday and Sunday; you might choose to take Wednesday and Thursday off or Monday and Tuesday. Whatever works for you. Just make sure you have some down time when you’re not working. Otherwise you’re likely to end up burning out.

13. Don’t Waste Time

Look at the things that waste time during your day. Are you constantly checking Facebook or Twitter? Getting up to get a glass of water? Taking your dog for his sixth walk this afternoon? Whatever these things are, try to figure out ways to minimize their ability to interrupt you. Take the dog for a nice, long walk right after lunch. Only check Facebook or Twitter once an hour (or every two hours); keep them closed other than at their allotted times. Get a refillable water bottle so you only have to get up a couple times a day. Identify what you waste time doing and eliminate it.

14. Avoid Multitasking

Multitasking works in some circumstances. But when it comes to getting any substantial work done, multitasking usually does more harm than good. Work on one project at a time. This doesn’t mean you necessarily have to work on one project until it’s completely finished, but it does mean you shouldn’t skip back and forth between three projects every two minutes. Set yourself a minimum work time; it might be fifteen or twenty minutes or even an hour, and then work on just one project during that time.

The multitasking advice also applies to trying to work while you’re checking your email, playing solitaire, talking on the phone, and any other distractions that prevent you from dedicating your full attention to the task at hand.

15. Take Frequent Breaks

Burnout is a huge bar to productivity. When you get burned out you end up unable to focus or complete work as quickly as you might otherwise (if you can work at all). Taking regular breaks from your work helps prevent burnout. This might mean going for a walk in the middle of the day, taking a break to watch the news after lunch, doing your shopping in the midafternoon instead of in the evening, or even taking a week off a couple times each year for vacation.

These little breaks refresh us and keep us eager to work. Without them we grow tired and our concentration lags. I generally take a couple hours each afternoon and get out of my house. This might mean going to visit relatives, doing some shopping, going for a drive or a walk, a short hike, or swimming in the summer. I also take a few five or ten minute breaks throughout the day to recharge and rest my eyes (staring at a computer screen all day is very hazardous to your vision). And I take long weekends (3 or even 4 days off) on a regular basis to recharge.

16. Maintain

Maintenance is incredibly important to any time management system. But it’s not just your system you need to maintain. It’s all the parts of your life that you need to keep running smoothly in order to get your work done.

This means basic maintenance on your computer (backing up files, emptying your trash, cleaning out your inbox), basic maintenance on your office or workspace (dusting, emptying the trash, vacuuming, etc.) and basic household maintenance (washing dishes, doing laundry, home repairs, etc.).

Don’t overlook maintenance on yourself, either. Getting some exercise every day and eating right can go a long way toward making you more productive.

You might be asking yourself what this has to do with finding time to do things in your life. Well, here’s the thing: If you don’t maintain all the things in your life that need it, eventually something is going to fail. This might be something as simple as having to take time out on a work day to do laundry because you’re completely out of clean clothes, or it might be something more major like a preventable illness or injury. When unexpected disasters crop up, they wreak havoc on our productivity. You end up spending more time playing catch-up than you would have if you had just maintained things in the first place. And if you include regular maintenance in your schedule, they really don’t take up much time at all.

Further Resources:

* 10 Tips for Time Management in a Multitasking World
A great article from Brazen Careerist on time management.
* 11 Time Management Tips
An excellent time management article from About.com.
* 43Folders
A blog devoted to the Getting Things Done system and other personal productivity and time management topics.
* How I Work in Chunks
An article from Web Worker Daily covering one method of time management.
* GTD Toolbox: 100+ Resources for Getting Things Done
One of my own articles, a roundup of time management and productivity tools.
* 8 Simple Online Time Management Tools for Freelancers
A great roundup of tools compiled by Freelance Switch.

But sometimes, it makes sense to think of the real world as an interface. To design user interactions that make use of how people actually see the world -to take advantage of first person user interfaces.

First person user interfaces can be a good fit for applications that allow people to navigate the real world, “augment” their immediate surroundings with relevant information, and interact with objects or people directly around them.
Navigating the Real World

The widespread integration of location detection technologies (like GPS and cell tower triangulation) has made mobile applications that know where you are commonplace. Location-aware applications can help you find nearby friends or discover someplace good to eat by pinpointing you on a map.

When coupled with a digital compass (or a similar technology) that can detect your orientation, things get even more interesting. With access to location and orientation, software applications not only know where you are but where you are facing as well.

This may seem like a small detail but it opens up a set of new interface possibilities that are designed from your current perspective. Consider the difference between the two screens from the TomTom navigation system shown below. The screen on the left provides a two-dimensional, overhead view of a driver’s current position and route. The screen on the right provides the same information but from a first person perspective.

This first person user interface mirrors your perspective of the world, which hopefully allows you to more easily follow a route. When people are in motion, first person interfaces can help them orient quickly and stay on track without having to translate two-dimensional information to the real world.

TomTom’s latest software version goes even further toward mirroring our perspective of the world by using colors and graphics that more accurately match real surroundings. But why re-draw the world when you can provide navigation information directly on it?

Nearest Tube is a first person navigation application that tells you where the closet subway station is by displaying navigation markers on the real world as seen through your phone’s camera.

As you can see in the video above, the application places pointers to each subway station in your field of vision so you can quickly determine which direction to go. It’s important to note, however, that the application actually provides different information depending on your orientation.

When you hold the phone flat and look down, a set of arrows directs you to each subway line. Holding the phone in front of you shows the nearest subway stations and how far away they are. Tilting the phone upwards shows stations further away from you.

Making use of the multiple perspectives naturally available to you (looking down, looking ahead, looking up) is an example of how first person interfaces allow us to interact with software in a way that is guessable, physical, and realistic. Another approach (used in Google Street View) is to turn real world elements into interface elements.

Street View enables people to navigate the World using actual photographs of many major towns & cities. Previously, moving through these images was only possible by clicking on forward and back arrows overlaid on top of the photos. Now, (as you can see in the demo video below) Street View allows you to use the real-world images themselves to navigate around. Just place a cursor on the actual building or point on the map that you want to view and double-click.

Augmented Reality

Not only can first person user interfaces help us move through the world, they can also help us understand it. The information that applications like Nearest Tube overlay on the World can be thought of as ÒaugmentingÓ our view of reality. Augmented reality applications are a popular form of first person interfaces that enhance the real world with information not visible to the naked eye. These applications present user interface elements on top of images of the real world using a camera or heads up display.

For example, an application could augment the real world with information such as ratings and reviews or images of food for restaurants in our field of vision. In fact, lots of different kinds of information can be presented from a first person perspective in a way that enhances reality.

IBM’s Seer application provides a way to navigate this year’s Wimbledon tennis tournament more effectively. Not only does the application include navigation tools but it also augments your field of vision with useful information like the waiting times at taxi and concession stands.

Wikitude is an application that displays landmarks, points of interest, and historic information wherever you point your phone’s camera. This not only provides rich context about your surroundings, it also helps you discover new places and history.

These augmented reality applications share a number of design features. Both IBM Seer and Wikitude include a small indicator (in the bottom right corner of the screen) that lets you know what direction you are facing and how many points of interest are located near you. This overview gives you a quick sense of what information is available. Ideally, the data in this overview can be manipulated to zoom further out or closer in, adjust search filters, and even select specific elements.

Wikitude allows you to manage the size of this overview radius through a zoom in/out control on the left side of the screen. This allows you to focus on points of interest near you or look further out. Since it is dealing with a much smaller area (the Wimbledon grounds), IBM Seer doesn’t include (or need) this feature.

In both applications, the primary method for selecting information of interest is by clicking on the icons overlaid on the camera’s view port. In the case of IBM Seer, different icons indicate different kinds of information like concessions or restrooms. In Wikitude, all the icons are the same and indicate information of interest and distance from you. Selecting any of these icons brings up a preview of the information. In most augmented reality applications, a further information window or screen is necessary to access more details than the camera view can display.

When many different types of information can be used to augment reality within a single application, it’s a good idea to allow people to select what kinds of information they want visible. Otherwise, too many information points can quickly overwhelm the interface.

Layar is an augmented reality application that allows you to select what kinds of information should be displayed within your field of vision at any time. The application currently allows you to see houses for sale and rent, local business information, available jobs, ATM locations, health care providers, and more. As the video below highlights, you can switch between layers that display these information points by clicking on the arrows on the right and left sides of the screen.

Layar also provides quick access to search filters that allow you to change the criteria for what shows up on screen. This helps narrow down what is showing up in front of you.

Interacting with Things Near You

First person user interfaces aren’t limited to helping you navigate or better understand the physical space around you -they can also enable you to interact directly with the people and objects residing within that space. In most cases, the prerequisite for these kinds of interactions is identifying what (or who) is near you. As a result, most of the early applications in this category are focused on getting that part of things right first.

One way to identify objects near you is to explicitly provide information about them to an application. An application like SnapTell can identify popular products like DVDs, CDs, video games, and books when you take a picture of the product or its barcode. The application can then return prices, reviews, and more to you.

This approach might eventually also be used to identify people as illustrated in the augmented ID concept application from TAT in the video below. This proposed application uses facial recognition to identify people near you and provides access to digital information about them like their social networking profiles and updates.

While taking pictures of objects or people to get information about them is a more direct interaction with the real world than typing a keyword into a search engine, it only partially takes advantage of first person perspective. Perhaps it’s better to use the objects themselves as the interface.

For example, if any of the objects near you can transmit information using technologies like RFID tags, an application can simply listen to how these objects identify themselves and act accordingly. Compare the process of inputting a barcode or picture of an object to the one illustrated in this video from the Touch research project. Simply move your device near an RFID tagged object and the application can provide the right information or actions for that object to you.

This form of first person interface enables physical and realistic interactions with objects. Taking this idea even further, information can be displayed on the objects themselves instead of on a device. The 6th Sense project from the MIT Media Lab does just that by using a wearable projector to display product information on the actual products you find in a library or store.

Though some of these first person interfaces are forward-looking, most are available now and ready to help people navigate the real world, “augment” their immediate surroundings, and interact with objects or people directly around them. What’s going to come next is likely to be even more exciting.

The next time you are working on a software application, consider if a first person user interface could help provide a more natural experience for your users by bringing the real world and virtual world closer together.

* iPhoney
iPhoney gives you a pixel-accurate web browsing environment—powered by Safari—that you can use when developing web sites for iPhone. It’s a perfect tool to see how your web creations will look on iPhone.
* Test iPhone
A web browser based simulator for quickly testing your iPhone web designs.
* iWebKit (Demo)
iWebKit is a file package designed to help you create your own iPhone and iPod Touch compatible website or webapp. Comes with various ready-to-use themes.
* iUI
iUI is a framework consisting of a JavaScript library, CSS, and images for developing iPhone web designs. It makes your web designs look and feel like iPhone’s native applications.
* Intersquash (Demo)
Not really a helpful tool for designing, but you can instantly create an iPhone compatible site from your RSS feed url.

* WPtouch
For WordPress users: WPtouch transforms your WordPress blog into an iPhone application-style theme, complete with ajax loading articles and effects, when viewed from an iPhone or iPod touch.
* Jaipho Gallery (Demo)
If your website features a photo gallery, Jaipho will optimize it for iPhone users.

Further Resources

Don’t stop here. Check out these other great tutorials and guidelines.

* iPhone Reference Library
Apple’s official iPhone reference library for developers. It has everything you need to get started: guidelines, code-examples, tutorials, etc.
* How to build a website for iPhone
This step-by-step tutorial includes everything you need to do when building a website for iPhone. Instructions for orientation direction also included.
* iPhone Compatible CSS layouts
Free website layouts which work in all the common web browsers including Safari on the iPhone and iPod touch.
* iPhone Interface Samples
This includes samples for iPhone interface elements like buttons, fonts, text, design patterns, hacks 6 more.
* iPhoneWebDev Examples
Very helpful examples for alot of things. Direction change, events, fonts, compression, etc.
* iPhone Application UI Design Patterns
* cssiphone.com
A showcase of designs optimized for iPhone.

Unfortunately, one key component for any page nowadays is the use of Tabs, which is not a Widget that can easily be dragged and drop on today’s version of Axure.

Here is a simple way to create the popular tab behavior, which unfortunately, is nowhere to be found when you search the Axure site.

1. Drag a Dynamic Panel from the Widgets panel.

2. Right-click the dynamic panel and select Edit Dynamic Panel > Manage Panel States

3. Add as many States as tabs you’ll need.

4. Select State1 and click Edit State

The trick here is to use the same elements in each state and use the buttons for decoration instead of functionality. In other words, in order to get the look and feel of tabs, each State has to have the same content, except for the body of the tag itself, of course.

This approach will allow you to customize the look and feel of each button on each State thus you simulate the tab been selected and changing color.

In order to wrap this up, you simply need to add an Image Map widget to the top of the Dynamic Panel so you can create the click events (i.e. Image Map1 > State1, Image Map2 > State2, etc etc etc)

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 articles:

* 15 Essential Checks Before Launching Your Website lists some important things to check before you make your sites public.
* 10 Designer’s Checkpoints To Be Aware Of offers a list of things every designers should know about their sites.

1. Client-Focused Checklists and Questionnaires

These questionnaires and checklists are focused on making your relationships with your clients better. Use these to gather information from your clients or prospects at the beginning of each project so that everyone is on the same page.

How to Extract the Facts with a Web Design Client Questionnaire
This questionnaire from Freelance Switch is meant to send out to prospective clients to get a good idea of what they’re looking for from a website. It can save you valuable time and allow you to create more accurate proposals.

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Design checklist: What clients should provide their designer
A checklist of things that clients should provide their designer at the outset. To follow this list will ensure the client and designer are dealing professionally as well as creating an efficient workflow.

Comprehensive Web Design Checklist
This is another client-focused questionnaire. It’s aimed at getting clients to really think about what they need and want from a website.

How I Approach Logo Design – A Checklist
Learn how to figure out what the client wants to have in a new logo, what his objectives are and where the logo will be used. Also check 4 Critical Logo Design Details You May Be Forgetting About.

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20 Questions To Ask Clients Prior To Designing A Logo
Before starting any project it’s essential to get the right preliminary information from your clients. This will help pave the way to a successful project, assist in bringing client’s vision into perspective and build a lasting relationship.

Client Questionnaire for Web Developers
This questionnaire is very short and basic but covers the important points: audience, content, and communication.

Step-By-Step Website Development – Check List
To help you make your plan, here is a simplified checklist for the development and design of a website ($ indicates potential additional fees that may be incurred).

Project Planning Website Checklist
This website check list is a high-level check list of activities to include in your project plan. A successful web development requires attention to several strands of activity, an in particular the organization of information and changes in origanization and business processes.
2. Pre-Launch Checklists

This checklist deals less with the planning and initial stages of website design and focus on the things you need to make sure are complete prior to launching a new site. Every designer should have a pre-launch checklist to make sure they’ve completed everything on a site that they need to.

The Ultimate Website Launch Checklist
This is a comprehensive checklist of things to check pre-launch that includes things like content, style, validation, seo, and security points. Created by Dan Zambonini. The pdf-version is available as well and so is the French translation. The checklist is a very useful reference that may help you in your daily projects and will help you to prevent errors and mistake once the site is released.

Ultimate Check List

Blogger’s Checklist Before Hitting The Publish Button
How many times have we hit publish on a blog and then realized we forgot to do something crucial, whether it is changing post slugs or a crucial spell check. Here is a quick checklist of what you should do before you hit publish.
3. General Web Design Checklists

The checklists in this category are general-purpose; they cover a wide variety of web design areas. This is a good place to start if you’re not sure what a checklist should include or what you need to remember when designing sites. But don’t mistake these for beginners’ resources; most of them are quite comprehensive.

Web Standards Checklist
This checklists covers pretty much every aspect of building a standards-compliant website, from accessibility to basic usability to site management. It’s very complete and well-organized.

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Typographic Rules Checklist (PDF)
Another useful typographic checklist that contains not only some general typographic rules, heuristics and guidelines, but also reminders for typography in your projects.

Typography Checklist (PDF)
Compiled by Jason DewinetzIf, this list contains some useful typographic checks that you may want to consider for before launching your next project or printing your next brochure or book.

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Essential Navigation Checklist for Web Design
These checklists pull together best practice in the disciplines of information design, usability and accessibility, into an easy to apply format. If you are already familiar with those topics, the checklists serve as a handy reminder that is easy to refer to and apply when planning navigation.

Checklist for usable forms
This checklist is for HTML forms along with links to a few articles that are very helpful. Check also Brian Crescimanno’s article Sensible Forms: A Form Usability Checklist.

GUI Screen Design Checklist
This checklist covers various common problems, issues and errors that appear frequently in graphical user interfaces. Also check the legendary GUI Testing Checklist.

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Web Accessibility Checklist (also available as printable PDF and in German)
This checklist, compiled by Aaron Cannon, contains over 35 checks that will help you to improve the accessibility of your web-site. Another accessibility checklist.

Checklist To Improve Your Site’s Speed and Performance
Users have short attention spans and are generally not willing to wait for a bloated Web site to load. Take advantage of these tips, tools and resources, and you’ll have a much better time capturing visitors’ attention. This article presents over 50 speed optimization tips to consider before launching your web-site.

The Ultimate Testing Checklist
Testing plays a critical role in the development of your web site and its long-term maintenance. While smaller web sites—especially those with more limited budgets—may not need to follow the formal testing procedures that are required for large-scale, commercial web sites, every site needs to be thoroughly tested to ensure that it’s error-free, user-friendly, accessible, and standards compliant. This checklist will help you test your site both during development, and after. Download this checklist, along with others covering SEO and content management. Sitepoint also offers 101 Essential Checklists (printable .PDFs, for 29.95$+ per PDF).

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50 Questions to Evaluate the Quality of Your Website
This 50 questions long questionnaire might trigger something here and there for some of you or maybe brings some forgotten item from the long to-do list back into your mind.

Content Quality Checklist
In my experience, a common misperception of the evaluation of content quality is that its scope is limited to the correction of typos and grammatical errors. To truly consider content quality, we need to examine its quality along several dimensions. Consequently, the content quality checklists that follow cover everything from usefulness to voice to accuracy.

CSS Crib Sheet
While not a traditional checklist, this article does offer a pretty complete list of things you need to double-check in your CSS.

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Beginner’s Checklist Before Debugging CSS
This article shares common pattern of mistakes that designers tend to make in practice. Although the following examples may be stating the obvious, it seems most beginners make these mistakes quite frequently.

Ruby On Rails Code Quality Checklist
Ruby and Ruby on Rails is often considered to be one of the most difficult language/framework combinations to truly master. You may want to give this checklist to your coding teams so they can sign off on for each of their projects. Also check Launching Ruby on Rails projects, a checklist.

Checklist for Securing PHP Configuration
The Apache/PHP/MySQL stack is immensely popular for web application development. Its components are powerful, versatile and Free. Unfortunately however, PHP comes with a default configuration that is not suitable for production mode, and may cause developers to use insecure techniques during the development phase. Inside is a check list of settings that are intended to harden the default PHP installation.

4. Usability Checklists

Usability is the single most important part of web design. If the sites you design aren’t user-friendly, if they don’t work as expected, and if they confuse visitors, there’s really no point in even designing them—they won’t get used. The checklists below can help ensure your sites are usable by the vast majority of visitors.

Web Design Best Practices Checklist
This Web Design Best Practices Checklist from terrymorris.net covers a wide variety of usability points, including page layout, browser compatibility, color and graphics use, and multimedia content. It’s very thorough, with more than 60 points to check.

The Ultimate Webdesign Usability Checklist
This checklist from NotUsable offers up more than 85 points to check covering everything from images to navigation to content to forms. It’s one of the longer usability checklists out there and is incredibly complete.

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Quick Usability Checklist
This 7-point checklist from Ux Booth covers some of the most important elements of site usability.

Quick Usability Check List

The Blog Usability Checklist
19 point checklist that should be useful to any blogger looking for a practical way to evaluate (and improve) the usability of their blog. Many of the principles here will apply to websites, as well.

25-Point Website Usability Checklist
The 25-Point Website Usability Checklist offered by UserEffect covers all the basic areas in which to check your site, including accessibility, identity, navigation, and content. It’s shorter than many other checklists, but it still covers all the important items. A printable .pdf-version is available as well.

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Everyday Usability—14-Point Checklist for Success
This checklist offers up fourteen points for making your website more usable and more effective. It covers everything from user testing ideas to link checking.

Usability.Edu: 25 Incredibly Useful Usability Cheat Sheets & Checklists
A truly useful collection of usability cheat sheets and checklists for forms, blogs and more, all listed in alphabetical order. Useful!

The Usability Toolkit
The Usability Toolkit is a collection of forms, checklists and other useful documents for conducting usability tests and user interviews.

Key questions to ask your usability testing supplier (PDF)
This document gives you some of the key questions you should ask your usability supplier and explains what to listen for in their answers. You can use it as a checklist during invitations to tender, when interviewing usability providers or when reviewing proposal documents.

Dr. Web: The Ultimate Usability Checklist (in German)
An extensive German usability-checklist writte by Stefan Nitzsche.
5. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Checklists

Common Sense SEO Checklist
Chris Coyier’s list of pretty straightforward things to consider when publishing SEO-optimized content on your website.

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The Ultimate SEO Checklist
Optimizing your web site for search engines should be an integral part of your web site project, from the very beginning to the very end. Shirley Kaiser’s checklist that can be used as a guide to optimize your web site for search engines.

The Beginner’s Checklist For Small Business SEO
Consider some essential SEO checks that are important for local small business sites. The following is a checklist of all the tasks that may be necessary for you to generate great results. See also The Beginner’s Checklist for Learning SEO and The Web Developer’s SEO Cheat Sheet.

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SEO Checklist
There are “over 200 SEO factors” that Google uses to rank pages in the Google search results (SERPs). What are the search engine optimization rules? Here is the speculation – educated guesses by SEO webmasters on top webmaster forums. Should you wish to achieve a high ranking, the various confirmed and suspected Google Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Rules are listed below.
6. Marketing Checklists

Viral Marketing Campaign Checklist
Once you’ve decided you’d like to create a viral marketing campaign, its easy to become too focused on the details, and miss the forest for the trees, but a good campaign is the integration of a lot of parts. Here’s a quick checklist to make sure you haven’t missed anything.

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The Best Damn Web Marketing Checklist, Period!
Here’s an extensive checklist for verifying you’re doing everything you can to market your website from Search Engine Guide. More information is linked from the headline of each category on the list.

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Improving Conversion Rates Checklist
If your Web site gets great traffic but no sales or sign-ups to back it up, it’s time to take a good, hard look at it. Chances are, your site is scaring off customers. Follow these tips to make your Web site more friendly to customers and encourage better conversion rates.

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Landing Page Checklist
The landing page checklist below is unique in its scope and detail. It is designed to help you assess what you have already done and what is left to do on any given landing page.

Checklists for starting your first business
If you don’t have a business of your own, or are new to starting businesses, you’re probably at a loss for some of the details of what you need to do. So let’s work them out, keeping everything as simple as possible.
7. WordPress Checklists

WordPress: The Complete Post-Install Checklist
Depending on how you’ve installed WordPress (manually or by a “one-click-install” that many hosting providers offer) – one of the very last installation steps is to choose a blog name and provide an email address. That’s where this checklist begins. More checkpoints.

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WordPress: Blog Maintenance Checklist
If you use WordPress to run your website, at the minimum, you need to regularly check updates on such things as your theme and the plugins you are using. This WordPress-powered blog maintenance checklist is a reminder of tasks that you may need to do as well as tracker of such things as version numbers of plugins and themes.

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WordPress: Theme Development Checklist
A list of essential checks that you should consider before releasing a theme or launching your WordPress-powered blog. Another checklist and yet another one (incl. a printable PDF-version).

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Moving and Upgrading Your WordPress Weblog: A 20-Point Checklist
Now, there are many types of “moves” that can be performed for a weblog. This one not only involves changing hosts but also upgrading the blog platform version. And it all has to be done at the same time. It turns out that it’s not a problem-free switch. So what about a “brute force” process for moving and upgrading your weblog? On the off chance that it’ll help someone, here it is. Check also the WordPress Upgrade Preparation Checklist.
8. Ultimate Web Design Checklists

149 Mortal Sins That Will Send Your Site to Web Design Hell
This checklist from Web Pages That Suck is one of the most complete checklists out there. It primarily focuses on front-end design.

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The Official ‘Successful Website Checklist Challenge’
This checklist breaks down important points over six different categories: Planning, Design/Layout, Usability/Accessibility, Content, Website Optimization/Standards, and Search Engine Optimization/Marketing.

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PC Limited’s Web Design Check List
This is a very comprehensive checklist that includes ten steps for planning your site designs. Steps include sizing up your competition and choosing a domain name, among others.

A Solid Web Design Checklist
This checklist includes both pre- and post-launch points to verify in a variety of categories, including typography and layout, accessibility, and consistency.

A Website Design & Development Project Checklist
This checklist is aimed at both designers and their clients, and offers some great starting points for creating an effective working relationship.

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Test Your Website: A 57-Point Checklist for Maximum Usability
In addition to offering 57 points to check your site’s usability, this article also offers more resources for each of those points. A very valuable resource for creating more usable websites.