Five Ways to Dynamically Improve Functionality

Are the functionality techniques you’ve been using a bit drab of late? Perhaps you have been meaning to add dynamic functionality to your websites, but you can’t seem to find a good solution.  No problem. I’ve gathered up a few techniques good for any website and especially, suited to take your interactivity skills to a whole other level. It’s just a simple steps which you can easily follow if you have some jQuery and CSS skills.

On Page Text Search

Many users are familiar with the web content search bars found on most sites, but many also may be looking for a better solution.  This technique addresses a user’s need to find text within the current website page. Here are the steps:

1. First, build an input box.
2. Use jQuery to attach a listener to track changes.
3. Next, use the light-weight jQuery plug-in, Highlight, to highlight searched-for text.
4. Style the highlighted text using CSS.
5. Finally, ensure that the highlighted text is removed once the user edits text in the input box.

Drag Controls for Oversized Content

Here a drag and drop control bar addresses the need for oversized images place within a limited layout.   It’s a creative technique that really enhances user experience.

1. First, set a mark-up for basic controls and add CSS.
2. Then, begin building interactivity using jQuery UI’s dragging module.
3. Finally, set up a drag listener and add more styling to make the drag box more interactive.  Also, the sliding animation can be even more beneficial by adding a parallax effect.

Subtle Hover Effects

The subtle transition technique used here is an authentic take on mouse interaction, offering a unique design experience for the user.

1. First, attach some CSS with the class “subtle.”  For a smoother transition add CSS3.
2. Include support for all users by leveraging a jQuery backup technique.
3. Attach the animation to the hover and focus event listeners.

Comment Count Bars

Displaying the “most commented” posts in a sidebar of a blog is a great way to increase user-to-user activity.  This method creates highlight bars for a dynamic display, pulling post counts from WordPress.
1. Start by pulling posts using Word_Query and a variable name.
2. Loop through each post selected.
3. Apply basic CSS styling.

Full-Page Sliders

Another great way to enhance functionality is by incorporating the use of sliding animation.  Here, the slide animates across the whole page for a simple yet innovative solution to displaying related content.

1. Mark-up and apply CSS.
2. Using jQuery, define your variables, and then create a function to address the sliding animation in both directions.
3. Finally, build the controls.

Conclusion

These versatile techniques represent small fraction of many methods of enhancing functionality.  The web designing world is full of other techniques, with or without the use of jQuery, suited to dynamically improve your websites.