Just in case an Easy Content Unit is a little slow to load (happens every now and then), I thought this might help – an animated gif in the background that tells the visitor that the unit is loading.

Once the unit has loaded it hides the animation (just need to make sure your unit has a background colour set). Could hopefully lessen the chances of a user leaving the page if the ECU doesn’t appear straight away.

It only really works for ECU units like the one below and does involve a little bit more work than just pasting the ECU code.

This is what you would see if the unit above didn’t load straight away –

Might be possible to improve on this idea?

If anyone wants to use this idea feel free to pinch the code & graphics -

Since ECU have now improved speeds and set up a caching feature, this loader is no longer needed

Whether you design sites on a Mac or a PC, chances are you won’t always have immediate access to all the popular browsers. As a Mac user I sometimes need to test sites in IE 6 & IE 7.

For IE 7 I can reboot my iMac with Vista, but when I need to test in IE 6 it usualy involves booting an old PC which is not only slow, I also then have to worry about whether the antivirus is up to date etc.

Thanks to Browsershots I can test my sites in IE 6 & IE 7 and a list of other browsers from my iMac. You do sometimes have to wait a few minutes to view the results and there are limits on the amount of tests you can run per day, but it’s a free service. You can even test a site in IE 4!

Give it a try >

You can learn all aspects of web design and development online and for free, but for really getting to grips with a subject I personally don’t think you can’t beat a book. The photo below is of my mini library built up over 3-4 years, some of the books have seen more use than others, HTML By Example was the first web design book I bought and although much of it is now outdated (and probably not recommended) it did teach me how to build my first ever site. The more recent purchases are on the right and reflect my current interests CSS, usability and SEO.

If I was to recommend 4 of these books they would be -

• Designing with Web Standards (Voices That Matter) – Jeffrey Zeldman
• Transcending CSS: The Fine Art of Web Design (Voices That Matter) – Andy Clarke
• Don’t Make Me Think!: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability – Steve Krug
• Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day – Jennifer Grappone & Gradiva Couzin

I am always on the look out for new web design and development books and would be interested in any recommendations.

One of the last things I do when finishing off a new website is to create a favicon.

Favicons (favourite icons) are the little graphics that you see in the address bars of modern browsers, they also appear next to bookmarked websites which can be helpful when trying to find a particular site in a list of others.

Thanks to online favicon makers they are simple to create from existing website logos and graphics.

Though their size 16×16 can be limiting it is surprising how creative some people mange to be, there are some good examples in this favicon gallery.

Here are some more favicon links -

Favicon ideas and inspiration

• Inspire Yourself: 50 Remarkable Favicons
• Favicon from Pics – Gallery
• MpP Favicon Gallery
• Favourite Favicons
• 5 tips for a nice looking favicon

Online favicon makers

• Favicon Generator – create favicons from text
• Favicon Editor
• Dynamic Drive FavIcon Generator
• Favicon Convertor
• Favicon Maker