Providing the same UI across browsers

If you change the default controls to match the look and feel of something your visitor has never seen before, you run the risk of creating confusion, distrust, or alienation. Even worse, if the controls are poorly made or conceived — and many are — you might make your site less usable. A cardinal sin.

The more I think about it, the real beneficiaries of a uniform UI across browsers aren’t the site visitors, but rather the designers who demand artistic control and the clients who insist the product looks the same everywhere, without understanding that it’s okay (even expected) to have some differences.

HTML5 Video, minus Ogg

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Mozilla, the makers of Firefox, refuse to support the MP4/H.264 standard because it isn’t open-source and free from licensing constraints. Without Ogg, Firefox’s HTML5 video is rendered useless and requires a Flash-based fallback system. However, Firefox’s handling of the video element breaks the fallback mechanism. A scripted solution is required.

Here’s a simple script that will detect whether HTML 5 video is supported in the browser, and if it is, will check to see if this is Firefox. If yes, it deletes the specified video element but leaves the Flash fallback in its place.

Rule of Thirds tutorial

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Rule of Thirds is quick and fun tutorial explaining the concept of the rule of thirds as used in visual design.

JavaScript removeClasses utility

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MooTools’ removeClass utility will only work if the classes you want to remove are listed in the same order as the target element’s className property. Here’s a new removeClasses utility that fixes this shortcoming. A framework-neutral version is also provided.

Viewing PDFs in a Browser on a Mac

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As a Mac user, one of the more annoying issues I frequently encounter is funky PDF handling in Firefox and Safari. Here are some things you can do to get PDFs working in your browser(s).

Speaking of IMS…

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The IMS wants your personal information before they’ll let you read their public standards.