As conscientious developers we try to ensure that our applications are streamlined, self explanatory, and easy to use. We work hard to make sure they look good and lend themselves well to a given workflow, but often forget that not everyone experiences our work in the same way. From dyslexia and color blindness to full visual impairment and mobility issues, a percentage of the population face obstacles that can make using an application difficult or even impossible. In this article Toby examines several ways to tailor your Flex applications to make sure they work for all users.

In a recent article, we saw how easy it is to get a web server up and running on Windows with PHP, IIS, and SQL Server Express using the Web Platform Installer. In this article, Akash explains how to use those tool together to build a simple web app.

Buying your first website property can certainly be daunting, especially if you’re unsure how to go about investigating your potential purchase. Flippa.com’s new marketing manager, Luke Moulton, walks us through the due diligence behind a sample website purchase to show us the ropes.

When your site or application grows beyond what can be supported with shared or even VPS hosting, perhaps it’s time to look for a dedicated server. Countless companies provide dedicated hosting, and the features of their offerings can be difficult to untangle. In this week’s article, Khurram guides us through ten different entry-level plans and points out their pros and cons to help you make an informed decision.

Whether you’re in an entry-level position or you own your own business, there are important concepts that you should integrate into your working life. As well as increasing your value in the job market, it also enhances your worth to your current employer. In this article, Chris covers the top five tips for being a kick-ass employee.

You could be forgiven for thinking that Flash was the only way you can add cool interactive graphs to a website. In this week’s article, Alex shows us just how far this is from the truth, introducing us to the excellent gRaphaël graphing library for JavaScript.

Yahoo’s YUI JavaScript library has a wealth of components that work well together to create impressive user interfaces. In this article, Darrin shows us how easy it is to leverage YUI’s TreeView component, in order to create a dynamic expanding tree control that loads content via Ajax.

Web development frameworks enable you to build highly functional applications very quickly, and are increasingly seen as a must for any new project. Python-based Django bills itself as “the Web framework for perfectionists with deadlines,” and after following along with Akash’s crash course, I think you’ll have to agree!

In this final installment of his Data Visualization with Flex series, Toby builds on the work from the first two parts to take our visualization to the next level. The final product allows you to visualize how often various tech key words are used on the SitePoint forums, and how they are connected. Even if you’re new to the series, it’s worth having a look to see the visualization in action!

Multilingual marketing should be considered in every international marketing initiative. Yet, when it comes to web site localization, most businesses only go so far in creating a literal translation of their English copy. In this article, Christian demonstrates why SEO should be implemented in every language on the Web. If you fail to localize your translated text, you stand to do your business a great disservice.

In part I of this series, Toby showed us how to extract a subset of useful information from a truly massive set of raw data: nearly all the posts from the SitePoint forums! In part II, we’ll set about turning that data into a useful visualization, showing how often keywords are used in an impressive, interactive graph.

Microsoft Expression Web 3 has some unique features that make it invaluable to web developers. In this article, Raena puts the web development tool through its paces and cranks out a simple PHP page. After reading the article, you can test out your knowledge with the Expression Web Quiz.

Google’s Social Graph API gives developers access to a wealth of public social data mined from the Web. In this tutorial, Louis extends a Ruby on Rails user registration form to query the API and suggest site URLs for users to add to their profiles.

Want to create a customized blog, without having to deal with the complexity of WordPress? Introducing Jekyll, a web site creation engine with a sophisticated templating system that’s dead simple to use. In this article, Simon Pascal Klein shows you how to use Jekyll to create a feature-rich blog quickly and easily.

Adobe’s Flex can be a fantastic tool for visualizing data. In this first installment of a three-part series, Toby gives us some general theory on data visualization, and shows us how to extract meaningful data from an application and import it into Flex.

Making sure you’re properly paid for your work is one of the biggest challenges for a web freelancer or small business owner. In this article, Chris describes seven danger zones where you could potentially lose money, and explains how to avoid doing so.

Testing your web site in all the current versions of Internet Explorer on separate PCs is no one’s idea of fun. In this article, Craig shows step-by-step how to run IE6, IE7, and IE8 simultaneously using Windows 7 XP Mode.

The new Web Platform Installer from Microsoft makes setting up PHP and PHP-based applications on Windows a breeze. Louis walks us through what’s available with this new tool and shows us how simple it is to start off with WordPress or Drupal on Windows with IIS.

Ever updated a web site’s markup and CSS only to have it render incorrectly when you load it in your browser? Perhaps you’ve had to tell a co-worker or client that they needed to refresh the site or empty their browser cache to view your updated site correctly? In this article, Zach shows us a few methods to avoid these headaches and turn the browser cache from a foe into an ally.

Web design agencies are particularly susceptible to growing pains: if you don’t watch out your costs can rise faster than your revenue. In this article, Sandy offers some great tips to keep your agency’s margins healthy as you grow.