September 30 is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Canada, but it was originally known as Orange Shirt Day, and started as a grass-roots effort by Indigenous people to commemorate the children who died in residential schools, and those who survived but were harmed by the violence and abuse in the schools.
(more…)Author: Yvonne Aburrow
-
Website Performance
Website performance involves making web pages load quickly, or failing that, making slow processes appear to be fast. This is important because, if your page is slow to load, people will give up waiting for it to load and go somewhere else.
(more…) -
Hosting and Domains
What is the difference between hosting and domains? Why do web companies list prices for these separately? What’s a redirect? This blogpost explains all these terms.
(more…) -
About that “free” website…
There’s no such thing as a free lunch… and there’s no such thing as a free website either.
(more…) -
Holding out for a Hero
A hero is a content block that has a big bold image, a headline, a short explanation, and a call-to-action (either a button or a really short sign-up form).
(more…) -
International Nonbinary People’s Day
Today is International Nonbinary People’s Day. It is exactly halfway between International Women’s Day and International Men’s Day. However, that does not mean that nonbinary people are halfway between men and women. Gender is best thought of as less of a spectrum and more of a scatter-plot.
(more…) -
Does Your Website Reflect Your Values?
Your values are how you show up in the world as a human, so it would be strange if your website did not reflect your values.
Values are not the same as politics, although they do affect how you vote and what you campaign for.
(more…) -
Disabled People in Business
Continuing the theme of Disability Pride Month, here is a list of businesses owned by disabled and neurodiverse people in Ontario. There were 2485 businesses owned by disabled people in Ontario in 2021, according to BDO Canada, but it is very hard to find them via a search engine. Feel free to add yours in the comments.
I use the term disabled people instead of “people with disabilities” because disabled people is derived from the social model of disability (developed by disabled people), which emphasizes that people are disabled by inaccessible environments, rather than the disability being inherent to them, which is implied by “people with disabilities”.
(more…) -
Disability Pride Month
July is Disability Pride Month. This year’s theme is “We Belong and We’re Here to Stay”. This message highlights the way that disabled people are often overlooked when providing services, and there needs to be a cultural shift as well as changes in legislation.
(more…) -
Great Customer Service
I had a great customer service experience today. One of my domain names was deactivated and I didn’t know why. I contacted WebHosting Canada’s support chatline. They fixed the issue, and explained what had gone wrong. And now I am a happy customer.
(more…) -
The Craft of Editing
Writing is a process of constant editing and revision. When the dreaded red or blue squiggle appears under the text you’ve just written, it can induce frantic back-tracking and even self-doubt. If you don’t know where to start, staring at a blank screen can be disheartening.
(more…) -
Posting to Social Media
Posting to many different social media platforms is such a chore, isn’t it? They all require a slightly different format for your post, so you end up rewriting your post excerpt and rejigging your content to fit the requirements of the platform. This can become a full-time job on its own.
(more…) -
Design and Development
What’s the difference between a designer and a developer? A lot of people assume that these terms are synonymous, but they are increasingly found on different teams in large organizations. There are other roles in the software development space that are also needed to ensure that the finished product is reliable and usable.
(more…) -
Your Virtual Store Front
Imagine you’re walking down a street, looking in the windows of all the stores. Some are exciting and make you want to go in. Some tell a story of what you might find inside the store. Some are dusty and neglected. Some have not changed their display for so long that the sunlight has bleached out the products and made the book covers curl up like dried leaves. Some of them make you laugh, some are gimmicky and cheesy, some make you smile, and some even make you think.
(more…) -
Tools for Developers
These are some of the tools that I use all the time during development.
(more…)