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eyeball

Eyeballs on Your Front End

By | January 30, 2013 | CSS | HTML | JavaScript

11

A few weeks ago, we asked you to point out examples of broken CSS.

We hinted that we had some plans to not just identify broken CSS (and HTML, and JavaScript) but facilitate a means of helping site owners, developers and designers fix their code.

Today we’re announcing an experimental service that you can use to find broken CSS on any website: eyeball.sitepoint.com.

The way it works is really simple.

Just tweet at it and it tweets you back with an assessment.

Eyeball screen shot

 

It’s a work in progress, and it will get better as more people test it, use it and help improve it.

Take it for a spin, and tell us what you think.

 

Ricky Onsman

Ricky Onsman is a freelance web designer, developer, editor and writer. With a background in information and content services, he built his first website in 1994 for a disability information service and has been messing about on the Web ever since.

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{ 11 comments }

xhtmlcoder February 25, 2013 at 5:36 am

The page appears completely BLANK without JavaScript enabled – I assume that is a Bug you are working on?

I accept the tool might not work fully in the absence of JavaScript. Albeit I don’t believe the completely blank page (please view with JavaScript disabled) is a very good implementation of Progressive Enhancement.

Under normal circumstances; if I observe a page that is completely blank I’d assume either; miscreants have been at work, else the web author has messed-up badly regarding implementing Web Accessibility or Separation of Concerns.

It seems rather ironic since I mentioned similar in the SP Blog entry: ‘Examples of Broken CSS Wanted!’ regarding such topics last month…

Ricky Onsman February 25, 2013 at 6:18 am

Well, I did mention at that time that our own sites have problems. Web accessibility is an ongoing issue for us: someone could do a great case study on us. Still, I’m pretty confident the Eyeball team didn’t set out to present a blank page to anyone. I also know they do take in the comments made here. So, thank you. Again.

Jules Webb February 3, 2013 at 8:05 pm

I tested one of my websites and got a response that http://t.co/OxF111SO has Smartphone Issues (black bar covering text). It would be helpful to know what Smartphone the issue was reflected on. Since I wasn’t able to replicate the highlighted problem, I’m wondering how accurate the testing is at this point in development.

Kristin February 3, 2013 at 10:45 am

I agree with Nathan and Jeroen. A tool like this is more useful pre-launch, without the public Twitter announcement. Even if the site’s already live, why would I want to announce to the Twittersphere that there may be problems with the code?

Chris Emerson February 1, 2013 at 4:42 am

I tried it, and it came back with 3 pages on the site saying they were ‘OK’ and a whole load of pages it didn’t check – what does that mean? OK as in it loads, OK as in it looks fine, OK as in it validates, OK as in it adapts to screen size? It does an ‘assessment’ but what is it an assessment of?

Ricky Onsman February 1, 2013 at 1:53 pm

Good points, Chris, we need to make things a bit clearer. Thanks for the feedback. I’ve passed your comments on and they’ll feed the development process further. We have another week or two of testing this model, and then … well, wait and see.

Jeroen February 1, 2013 at 12:59 am

I won’t use anything that relates to public/social on a website still in development. I want (and mostly need) to be in exact control of what can and will be public. I don’t even have a (personal) twitter account!

Nathan January 31, 2013 at 9:16 am

Cool idea! But I don’t think it will work for me because of the use of Twitter. During pre-launch testing would be the appropriate time to use Eyeball. However, I don’t want my link to be public until it’s ready to launch.

Ricky Onsman January 30, 2013 at 11:44 pm

Tsk. Typical. Apologies for the geborken link. Fixed now. Should Eyeball meself, eh?

Leeroy January 30, 2013 at 10:43 pm

Unfortunately the link to the service is broken, it’s missing the http:// at the beginning.

Ryan Fitton January 30, 2013 at 10:42 pm

Fantastic Article! But the Eyeball link is not sending me to the website properly. When clicking, it comes up as ‘http://www.sitepoint.com/eyeballs-on-your-front-end/eyeball.sitepoint.com’.

Ryan

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