Digital Web Magazine
- Time To Change
It's the end of the year; a time for nostalgia and looking back on the past year. Nick Finck, Digital Web Magazine's founder and publisher, recalls where we've been, what we've achieved, and discusses the potential for dramatic change in where we are going as a publication. This is your chance to influence the future structure and focus of Digital Web.… - Is The Web Really Helping Us Find New Music?
With exactly one month to go until Christmas, Digital Web Magazine is changing pace for our last article of 2008. Tempers have flared in recent weeks over our coverage of idiosyncratic CSS techniques, so we thought we’d look at something completely different—finding new music online. For many developers, their passion for great music runs nearly as high as their passion for semantic code; Chris Wright takes a look at how the current crop of online music tools might be failing us. This art… - RESTful CSS
With every web developer or agency worth their salt releasing a web application these days, it was inevitable that attention would eventually turn to how best to manage CSS within a modern MVC framework. Steve Heffernan pairs stylesheets with REST principles to present a new approach to CSS architecture.… - Are Accessibility Statements Useful?
Leona Tomlinson is back for a second article, detailing where accessibility statements fit into Web sites today.… - Review: Website Optimization
Is your website firing on all cylinders? We take a look at a book that has a little something for everyone, from marketers to developers, to help you polish your pages. Andrew Stevens returns to Digital Web to review Website Optimization.… - Extract: Know Your Site
In this extract from his forthcoming book, the Website Owner’s Manual, Paul Boag takes a look at some of the simple things you can do to gain a fuller understanding of how your website is performing, both for your users and in a broader sense.… - Interview: Aarron Walter
This week, Digital Web’s own Nick Finck sat down with the Web Standards Project’s Aarron Walter, to talk education, findability, and the path to lasting happiness.… - Everything You Know About CSS Is Wrong
Digital Web running a provocative article on CSS techniques? Shurely shome mishtake! In this extract from the forthcoming Sitepoint book of the same name, Rachel Andrew explains how you can use tables for layout in modern web design with a clean conscience.… - head Conference Q&A with Aral Balkan
Aral Balkan talks to Digital Web about the conference: an experiment in online communities. Bringing a collection of varied and insightful speakers from around the globe to thousands of attendees without even stepping outside.… - Concept Design Tools
Does your creative process start with the same sketch of a web page every time? Or even the same Photoshop template? You could be missing out on the most innovative solutions by not putting enough thought into the concept, says Victor Lombardi. Here he outlines three methods for pulling apart a brief to tackle the underlying concept design.…
456 Berea Street
- Vacation
Yep, it’s that time of year again. Summer here in Sweden is very short. Too short. Some of you might not even think it’s worth calling “summer”. Anyway, to enjoy as much of it as possible I’m taking a break from working and blogging for a few weeks. Back in August.Read full postPosted in Life. … - Be careful with non-ascii characters in URLs
One thing that is rather common, especially on websites whose content is not in English, is URLs that contain unencoded characters such as space, å, ä, or ö. While this works most of the time it can cause problems. Looking at RFC 3986 - Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax, characters that are allowed to be used unencoded in URLs are either reserved or unreserved. The unreserved characters are a-z, A-Z, 0-9, -, ., _, and ~. The reserved characters are used as delimiters and are … - New windows with JavaScript and the target attribute
I’ve written a few articles about techniques that use JavaScript to open new browser windows, the most recent one being Opening new windows with JavaScript, version 1.2. A very quick summary of my reason for using JavaScript is that it enables me to use strict HTML 4.01 and XHTML doctypes, which do not allow the target attribute. By using JavaScript to open new windows I can still use validation as a quality assurance tool when working with HTML 4.01 or XHTML 1.0 without having to manually fi… - Validating HTML5 in the browser
I like to be alerted of any validation errors that sneak into my markup as soon as possible. That's why I find the HTML Validator Extension for Firefox very hard to live (well, work) without. Unfortunately, it does not support HTML5. I've been looking hard for an alternative that does and has the same features as the HTML Validator Extension, i.e. runs locally in the browser without sending anything to a remote server and validates every page you load automatically. No luck.Read full postPoste… - Accessibility does not prevent you from using JavaScript or Flash
A common misconception is that in order to make a website accessible you have to abstain from using JavaScript or Flash. Almost every time I hold a workshop on Web standards and accessibility there is at least one participant who believes that accessibility limits what they can do on the Web by telling them to stay away from anything that isn't pure HTML.Read full postPosted in Accessibility, JavaScript. … - If you use the accesskey attribute, specify unique values
The HTML accesskey attribute can be used to assign a keyboard shortcut to a link or form control. The intention is to let keyboard users quickly navigate to different parts of a web page or trigger links to other pages. Whether or not the accesskey attribute should be used at all is a debate that has been going on for years. I’m not going to go there in this article (see Providing Keyboard Shortcuts Using accesskey for a good explanation), but will instead focus on something you need to be aw… - Void (empty) elements and self-closing start tags in HTML
The syntax for void elements and self-closing tags is something most web authors get right. However, there are two types of mistakes that I see every now and then: using end tags on void elements and using self-closing start tags on elements that can have content.Read full postPosted in (X)HTML, HTML 5, Quick Tips. … - Internet Explorer market share now below 60 percent
It’s been a while since I talked about the market share of various browsers here. It seemed more important around six or seven years ago before Internet Explorer’s market share started to decrease from levels above 95%. Back in those days, sites that were built exclusively for Internet Explorer and actively blocked visitors with newer browsers like Mozilla or Safari were pretty common. Nowadays they are rare, at least in my experience. I can’t remember the last time I visited a site that … - The Web is a web of content, not an application framework
I’ve never been a big fan of Web “applications”. For most tasks that warrant the use of some sort of application I much prefer having a stable desktop application that adheres to the user interface conventions of the platform I’m using, and that I can use without having to be connected to the Internet. When I use the Web, it’s first and foremost because I want to find or share information – what many call “content”. And that’s something the Web excels at. Yes, Web applications… - Authentic Jobs 50% promo this week
Right now is a great time to post a job listing on Authentic Jobs. From today until this coming Friday (May 7), you get a 50% discount by entering the promo code 50RJ when you order. The offer is valid for all job listing types (full-time, freelance, or contract), and of course the 100% money-back guarantee still applies.Read full postPosted in Job openings. …
Cameron Moll
- The Magic Trackpad
When Apple’s Magic Trackpad was announced on Tuesday, I was quick to order one. With the suite of software I use — design, video, sound and so on — having a gestural device on my desktop to interact with that software was an easy sell. I didn’t necessarily see it as a replacement for my mouse prior to purchasing, and since its arrival yesterday, I still don’t see it as a replacement. More about that in a minute. Size-wise, it’s a little over 5” by 5” square (13 cm × 13 cm).… - Good Night, and Good Luck.
Good Night, and Good Luck.: Watched this film again last night and enjoyed it just as much as the first couple of times. It’s beautifully shot, well-written, and if you’re into the whole mid-century modern thing right now, you’ll enjoy it even more.… - Urbanized
Urbanized: Gary Hustwit’s third and final film in the design trilogy that includes Helvetica and Objectified, Urbanized will explore the design of cities: Who is allowed to shape our cities, and how do they do it? Unlike many other fields of design, cities aren’t created by any one specialist or expert. There are many contributors to urban change, including ordinary citizens who can have a great impact improving the cities in which they live. By exploring a diverse range of urban design … - “Mad Men” Furniture: Don Draper’s Office
“Mad Men” Furniture: Don Draper’s Office: A very detailed review of the show’s mid-century style from none other than The Mid-Century Modernist. I’ve not seen a single episode of “Mad Men”, but I’ve read/seen/digested enough tweets or posts to have seen at least two seasons worth. At least.… - Laurent Nivalle Photography: Le Mans Classic 2010
Laurent Nivalle Photography: Le Mans Classic 2010: These fabulous photos look like they were taken 40 years ago. (They were taken just 3 weeks ago.)… - TwelveSouth Compass Stand for iPad
TwelveSouth Compass Stand for iPad: So practical, so beautiful. Same price as BookArc ($40), but way more utility.… - A Real Web Design Application
A Real Web Design Application: This is a very thorough overview by Jason Santa Maria of the current tools available to web designers, their shortcomings, and the friction and waste created by transferring work from tool to browser. Jason’s argument toward the end of his article will certainly continue a debate that’s already raging: A web designer jumping into the browser before tackling the creative and messaging problems is akin to an architect hammering pieces of wood together and the… - HTML5 Live with John Allsopp
HTML5 Live with John Allsopp: Just purchased my subscription. Though I’m familiar with a lot of this, I still have plenty to learn. I suspect it’ll be a good interactive complement to Jeremy Keith’s HTML5 for Web Designers.… - Kiva High School
Kiva High School: A new effort by Kiva that enables high school students to organize themselves in microfinance clubs with the intent of educating others. I’m a big believer in microfinance, and since March 2008, Authentic Jobs has funded 222 loans by donating 1% of its total monthly revenue.… - World Cup Typography: Yomar Augusto
World Cup Typography: Yomar Augusto: Though game play ended a few weeks ago, this is still worth reading. FontFont’s Yves Peters interviews Brazilian designer Yomar Augusto, creator of the Unity typeface designed exclusively for Adidas. The typeface appeared on the World Cup ball and the jerseys for teams such as Germany, Argentina, and the 2010 champions, Spain. See also Paul Barnes work for the World Cup.…
Six Revisions
- Making User Interface Elements Difficult to Use By Intent
In modern web interface design, no other principle has been heralded and pushed onto us as much as the concept of user-centered design. User-centered design tells us that we should do everything we can to make our user interfaces as easy to use and as intuitive as possible. However, a big part of designing user interfaces [...]… - How to Navigate Design by Committee
Let's examine why design by committee exists and why it so often fails.… - The Web’s Undead
For most people, the web looks and feels like things are all peachy — vibrant, alive, new, fresh. However for those of us in the know, below this facade exists a consistent cycle of death and rebirth. While many technologies and practices have left this world and passed on to the next (R.I.P Netscape), some have [...]… - How Web Designers Can Adopt a Global Mindset
Globalization is one of the biggest business buzzwords in the 21st century. The rise of the internet as the world’s dominant medium is largely responsible for the onset of this global mindset, as businesses of all sizes realize the potential of tapping into new or emerging markets afforded by the World Wide Web. So what can [...]… - Making Money Designing Themes: What You Should Know
Alongside my primary income stream, which is my web design freelance business, I’ve also been selling themes and templates for content management systems and publishing platforms like WordPress for close to two years now. Although theme design can seem like the promised land for web designers and web developers — with some theme authors making tens [...]… - 10 Interesting CSS3 Experiments and Demos
You’ve heard it plenty of times before: We’re at the precipice of a transition in the way we, as developers, do things. Leading the way are future standards like CSS3 and HTML5, both already partially implemented in 4 out of the 5 major web browsers, with IE9 promising support, empowering us with new ways of [...]… - Building Rich Internet Applications with Frameworks
JavaScript libraries, ICEfaces, Adobe Flash 4, Microsoft Silverlight, and now, HTML5 have been competing for web dominance as the world wide web is thrown into a new era — an era dominated by rich internet applications (RIA for short). The purpose of this article is to define what RIAs are, explain why the web has been [...]… - Drawing the Line: 6 Things You Shouldn’t Tolerate in Projects
I was pretty proud when I netted my first clients as a freelancer. Wow! Someone is actually willing to give me their money and have me design their site? I was ecstatic that someone had picked me out of all the talented designers out there. But my joy didn’t last very long. The projects were underfunded and [...]… - A Guide on Layout Types in Web Design
One of the most variable aspects of web design is the way in which we approach width and height in terms of measurements and flexibility. For many years, we have rotated between the benefits and pitfalls of using fixed, elastic, and liquid measurements in a quest to give optimal viewing experiences in highly varied situations, [...]… - Search Analysis with Google Analytics
Tracking and studying searches on your site is a valuable part of site analytics, but many site owners underestimate the benefit of it. Website search analytics can provide advantageous insights into what people are looking for on your site and also what your site looks like in search engine results. In this guide, we’ll go over [...]…
DesignM.ag
- 6 Ways to Use Social Media Successfully as a Designer
If you’re a web designer and you’re NOT using social media to help you in your work, then all I can do is direct you to 2002, because that’s where your workflow lives. Your competitors, co-workers and clients are all using social media, which means if you’re not, you’re getting left behind. Social media isn’t just a time waster, and it’s not just Facebook and Twitter – there are many different ways a designer can use it to advance his or her career. Here are six ways you could be… - Effective Pricing Tables
Finally, you've done it. You've successfully persuaded your visitor to close the deal. Now it's time for the hard close. We all know how important the layout of your sites homepage is, or the product details page but what about the pricing table? No one ever talks about that, when really it's such a vital part of a websites sales funnel. The real tricky part is the strategic thinking behind it. You need to make the entry version bare bones and not give away too much, yet you still need to show… - Minimize Your Life with Tilt Shift Photography
"Tilt-shift photography" refers to the use of camera movements on small- and medium-format cameras, and sometimes specifically refers to the use of tilt for selective focus, often for simulating a miniature scene. This trick is becoming very popular and has made its way into the mainstream in print advertisements, as well as commercials. In this post I will share with you 49 examples of tilt photography that make good use of its clever illusion. A Miniature Dip … - Win a $100 coupon from Sticker Mule!
Sticker Mule has offered to give one lucky DesignM.ag reader $100 worth of free custom stickers. Sticker Mule is the easiest place online to create custom stickers and skins. They fix artwork issues for free and provide free shipping anywhere in the US. Their products are made using the best print technology. The result? Full color printing at really low costs. Whether you need 50 or 500,000 stickers, nothing beats the mule. … - The Benefit of a Responsive Community
A few weeks ago, I had an article published here on DesignM.ag entitled “The Problem with Free Fonts,” in which I basically suggested that one of the potential problems that may emerge from the vast pool for free fonts that are available (in a variety of capacities) across the internet might be found in their obvious over use. I cited Papyrus and Comic Sans as potential examples, and ultimately was quite happy with the response – both in terms of the quantity and quality of the comments. … - 300+ Free Grunge Textures
In this roundup we've collected over 300 free grunge textures. Enjoy the show! vintage grunge textures(5Textures) … - Designing a Facebook landing page: 12 of the best!
I felt it necessary to congratulate and portray some of the successes of Facebook on this very big occasion. As of today (July 21st) Facebook has succeeded in signing up 500 million accounts! This is obviously a huge number and it's not only individuals. As many of you already know we are seeing more and more companies jumping on the bandwagon in an effort to extend their reach beyond the typical platforms. The site wide uniformity of Facebook has been a flagship characteristic of the Facebo… - 36 Beautiful Examples of Tattoo Photography
Backstage 3 … - Win a Slideshow Box Premium HTML License from JumpeyeComponents.com!
JumpeyeComponents.com has offered to giveaway a free Slideshow Box Premium HTML License to a lucky DesignM.ag reader. The value of this giveaway is $99. SlideshowBox is an application that allows you to easily create HTML and Flash photo slide show galleries. The Flash component is supported by all Adobe Flash CS versions. The HTML embeddable as SWF objects (they require Flash Player 9+) and some of them as pure JavaScript slide shows. There are 24 different templates you can use to create… - Collection of Superb, Inspirational Design Books
Sure, there are hundreds of great resources to seek inspiration on the web, but it is never quite the same of holding a book in your hands and getting to flick through the pages. This collection of inspirational design books features a handful of categories, from illustration to t-shirts, infographics to letterpress products and much more in between! It's time to splash some cash and start growing your graphic design library! Images 33 2009 Author(s): AOI Editors Images 33 is a superb book, fe…
SitePoint
- How to Take Extraordinary Photographs, Part 1: Exposure
Ever wonder why your photos are either too dark or overly bright? In this excerpt from SitePoint’s latest book: Photography for the Web, Paul Duncanson explains the weird science that is exposure. … - Data-driven Development with Flash Builder, Part II
In the last article, Toby showed us how easy it is to hook up a Catalyst-generated Flex application to a database by using Flash Builder’s code generation features to create a PHP service. Now, he takes us a step further by adding data editing features to the application. … - How to be a Great Online Community Member
Whether you want a quick answer to a question, looking to meet people, or find inspiration, there are certain things that you need to know if you want to make the most of any online community. In this article Sarah explains how you can be a valued member of any online community. … - Keep Your Blog Safe: Back Up Your WordPress Installation
No matter how much you trust your hosting company, disasters happen. You should ensure that you have a full backup of your WordPress database and files to restore from easily, without losing any important data. In this article, Abbas explains how to back up your WordPress site manually and also describes some useful plugins that automate the process. … - Drop Cap: The Next Generation
Following up on a reader's comment, James takes the drop cap to a whole new dimension. He shows you how to break free of the box, and make the text flow around the letter itself. … - Data-driven Development with Flash Builder, Part I
In his last article, Toby showed us how to import a mockup into Flash Catalyst and start converting it into a working prototype. In this next installment, he’ll walk us through carrying that work over into Flash Builder and creating a functional data-driven application, complete with PHP and MySQL back end. … - 15 Gorgeous and Effective HTML Emails
As designers, we often think of HTML email as a dark, scary realm filled with ugly designs. But it doesn’t have to be that way. In this excerpt from SitePoint’s Create Stunning HTML Email That Just Works!, Mathew shows us some stunning examples of beautiful HTML email design to serve as inspiration. … - The Principles of HTML Email Design
Even though HTML emails are made up of the same HTML markup and CSS styles as web pages, they present an entirely different set of design challenges. In this article, Mat Patterson, author of SitePoint’s Create Stunning HTML Email That Just Works, explains the email design environment and gives you practical advice to make your next email campaign a success. … - Create Your Own WordPress Theme from an HTML Template
WordPress is undoubtedly the most popular blogging system on the planet. There’s a wealth of free themes available online for WordPress, but eventually you’ll want to build your own. In this tutorial, Matthew shows you how to take an existing HTML/CSS template and begin converting it into a functional WordPress theme. … - From Concept to Working Prototype with Flash Catalyst
The catch-22 of web and software development is that the client always wants to see what they’re paying for before it exists. In this article Toby demonstrates how Flash Catalyst changes that situation completely keeping everyone—client, designer and developer—happy. …
Jonathan Snook
- Changing Display Resets Scroll Offset
In Chrome 5, Safari 4, Opera 10.53 and sometimes Firefox (although I was unable to reproduce it in this test case), changing the visibility of the element by toggling display:none will cause the scroll offset to reset to zero. Toggling visibility:hidden does not seem to trigger the same problem. Scroll the container and then toggle the classes applied. Class applied: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et… - Handling Active State for jQuery Animated Backgrounds
Awhile back, I wrote an article on how to animate background images with jQuery to create some nifty effects. One of the most common questions I receive on that article is, "How do I handle active states?" It is time to answer that question. There are two ways in which you can handle the active state: Create a different animation for active elements; or Change the background image to be animated. The HTML The HTML for this is exactly the same as before except an active class wo… - Filling in the Gaps
HTML started as a very simple language. By many accounts, it's still very simple. You create some text and you wrap some tags around it. The tags provide a small measure of meaning and allow user agents—aka browsers—to present the content in a meaningful way. In the early days of the web, browser developers quickly added features that helped web developers build more exciting sites and applications. Tables, font tags, and images gave us a decent amount of flexibility to create the … - Vendors using Competing Prefixes
IE Mobile for Windows Phone 7 has decided to implement support for -webkit-text-size-adjust. They'll also be adding their own duplicate vendor-specific prefix, -ms-text-size-adjust. That's right, Microsoft will be adding support for another vendor's non-standard implementation. Is this good or bad? The general consensus on Twitter would indicate that this is a bad thing but while there is a scenario where this could go terribly wrong, I haven't found a real world example to back it up. So why is…
PSD Tuts
- Create a Dark and Rainy Crime Scene in Photoshop
We can all imagine what a dark and rainy crime scene looks like. We have all scene them in television and movies. Today, we will learn how to use different tools and techniques to create a scene of our own in Photoshop. Resources Used You can download the following textures from the links below. Just [...]… - Create a Fantasy Painting With Photoshop CS5′s Mixer Brush – Psdtuts Premium Tutorial
Today, we have another Psd Premium tutorial exclusively available to Premium members. If you want to take your digital painting skills to the next level, then we have an awesome tutorial for you. Learn more after the jump! This Premium Tutorial is Filled with Creative Tips Without a doubt, my favourite new feature in Photoshop [...]… - Add Depth of Field to a 3D Scene with Lens Blur
In today’s quick tip tutorial, we will demonstrate how to add depth of field to a scene that we will be creating with 3D objects to help improve a presentation to a client. Step 1 First, create a new document (Cmd/Ctrl + N) and make it 600 pixels by 400 pixels. You could of course [...]… - Behind the Scenes of Psdtuts with Collis!
Here at Envato we’re pretty famous for building a lot of successful blogs, like this one! We’ve done quite a few now, so last year I decided other people might find our techniques and systems useful. Today I’m really happy to announce my new book How to Build a Successful Blog Business which is a [...]… - Over 250 of the Web’s Best Rust Textures
Rust can often produce beautiful colors, textures and linear qualities on surfaces. Rust textures are not only inspiring but are also a great way to add an extra dimension to any project. Today, we have compiled a huge collection of over 250 free and premium rust textures from around the web for you to use [...]… - Create Beautiful Abstract Female Art in Photoshop
Sometimes, all it takes to create a stunning piece of art is a stock photo, a bit of creativity, a great idea, and some time. Today, I will demonstrate how to create a piece of art that I created titled, "Beauty of Gold." Let’s get started! Step 1 Let’s start by creating a new document [...]… - Interview With Croatian Artist Ranko Blazina
Recently, I had a chance to talk with Ranko Blazina who is a very talented and award winning digital artist from Croatia. We talked about his work, career, his techniques and style. Amazing and inspiring words came from Ranko and I welcome you to read the interview. Q Hello, welcome to the PSDTUTS! Please, introduce [...]… - Create a Medieval Fantasy Castle Gate in Photoshop
Photoshop’s wide variety of tools enable you to perform complex photo manipulations with relative ease. Today, we will demonstrate how to combine Photoshop’s tools with photo manipulation techniques to create a medieval fantasy castle gate. Let’s get started! Resources Used The following resources were used during the production of this tutorial. Each item is freely [...]… - Interface Design – Creative Session Wrap
It’s a wrap. This session has covered a mix of interface design topics. We’ve looked at quite a bit of inspirational icon and graphic user interface design articles, after reviewing theory on topics like creating user friendly interfaces. We’ve reviewed both in depth detailed tutorials and case studies. This session posted across numerous Tuts+ sites: [...]… - Create Photoshop Stencil Art – Psd Premium Tutorial
Today, we have another Psd Premium tutorial exclusively available to Premium members. If you want to take your design skills to the next level, then we have an awesome tutorial for you. Learn more after the jump! This Premium Tutorial is Filled with Creative Tips Urban art has fast become the de-facto graphic style for [...]…
Think Vitamin
- PHP Login Form Part 1 [Video Tutorial]
By Keir WhitakerFor our second free weekly helping from the Think Vitamin Membership video library Jim looks at how to create the perfect login form using PHP. Don’t forget to check out the video library for free videos as well as learning more about our new membership service.… - Around the Web: CSS3 Animations, Agile + UX, Processed Identity
By Chrissie BrodiganHey there! It’s Wednesday, so this mid-week roundup is devoted to all things business and development. Some links are newsworthy, some retweeted across Twitter, and others just meet our “awesomeness” requirement, and regardless we hope you’ll enjoy them. Without further delay: Start Experimenting With CSS3 Animations (via@leemunroe) Arggggh! Subterfuge. Why Design Contests Are Bad (via [...]… - PHP Basics: Installation [Video Tutorial]
By Keir WhitakerIt’s Wednesday and time for our first free weekly helping from the Think Vitamin Membership video library. Today Jim looks at getting started with the popular programming language PHP. In this 8 minute video he shows you how to install PHP and write your first lines of PHP code.… - Recurring Billing For Web Apps
By Kieran MastertonIncreasingly web application developers and entrepreneurs are turning to the “Software As A Service” (SaaS) model to monetize their products. Together with this growth has come the need for reliable recurring billing systems and in turn a number of enterprising folks have built said solutions and fittingly used the SaaS model to monetize their efforts. [...]… - Around the Web: Inspiredology, Avatars in Motion, & Quite Strong
By Chrissie BrodiganHey there! It’s Monday, so this roundup is devoted to all things web design (ux, photo, illustration, art, graphics, CSS, jQuery, tutorials, and more). Some links are newsworthy, some retweeted across Twitter, and others just meet our “awesomeness” requirement, and regardless we hope you’ll enjoy them. Without further delay: Ever wonder what avatar development looks [...]… - Exception Handling in PHP5
By Lorna Jane MitchellThis article follows on from my earlier posts, introducing OOP in PHP, taking a closer look at OOP concepts in PHP, and also covering the various magic methods on offer in PHP 5. We’ll now move on to look at exceptions, which is how PHP 5 handles errors in an object-oriented way. What are Exceptions? [...]… - Around the Web: Forrst’s App Contest, inForums, Cow Clicker
By Chrissie BrodiganHey there! It’s very late on Friday night!(woo-hoo!), so this roundup is devoted to all things “awesome.” Some links are newsworthy, some retweeted across Twitter, and others just meet our “awesomeness” requirement, and regardless we hope you’ll enjoy them. Without further delay: Design Informer’s Jad Limcaco releases inForums Cow Clicker is a Facebook game about [...]… - CSS3 Transitions Part 1 [Video Tutorial]
By Keir WhitakerIt’s Friday and time for our second free weekly helping from the Think Vitamin Membership video library. Today we move our attention to CSS3 Transitions. Don’t forget 2 new videos are added to the library every day, to find out more about Think Vitamin membership videos and all the other benefits check out the site.… - The 7 Sins of Managing Web Projects
By Rob MillsManaging web projects is both tough and satisfying in equal measures. Every project is a new learning curve and even though I’m educated from every project I work on, new problems are presented to me on a daily basis. Some problems and challenges on the other hand, rear their head time after time, and I [...]… - Think Vitamin Interview: Dan Cederholm at FOWD London 2010
By Keir WhitakerEarlier this year whilst attending Future of Web Design London I recorded a few interviews. First up is my chat with Dan Cederholm, designer, author and co-creator of one of the most popular design focused apps Dribbble. Thanks to Dan for taking the time to chat. You can listen below or download the mp3 directly.…
Vandeley Design
- 25 Embossed Business Cards for Your Inspiration
Designers are often looking for examples of creative business cards for inspiration, whether it be for designing their own cards or for client work. In the past we have showcased letterpress business cards, die cut business cards, and double sided business cards. Today we'll look at 25 examples of embossed business cards. Jaclyn Studor … - 25 Beautiful Travel and Tourism Websites
Websites in the travel industry often place an emphasis on the design and appearance because a good-looking site will hopefully draw more interest and excitement for the destination. Many of them also use nature-inspired designs (see last week's post 35 Beautiful Web Designs Inspired by Nature for more examples). Here you'll find some of the best websites from the travel and tourism industry. Roadside Heritage … - 15 Proven Ways to Gain Exposure for Your Design Portfolio
With so many web and graphic designers out there, getting the attention of potential clients and landing work can be a major challenge. The portfolio site is one of the most important assets for a designer, and an effective portfolio site will be an invaluable resource for keeping the business moving forward. For many designers creating an attractive portfolio site is not the problem, getting people to see it is often much more of an issue. In order for the portfolio site to truly do it's… - 35 Beautiful Web Designs Inspired by Nature
When creating a beautiful and memorable web design, many designers turn to nature to be inspired by the beauty of what surrounds us. Nature-inspired web design has become more common in recent years as large backgrounds and extensive use of images are being used. In this post we'll take a look at some amazing examples of designs that can be created to incorporate various aspects of nature into a website. Ecoki iPhone App … - Client Retention: A Key Ingredient for Freelancing Success
Working as a freelance designer is a challenging job. Not only do you have to be a skilled designer, but you also need to be able to find work and run a profitable business. Landing new clients can be a lot of work and can require a considerable amount of time on your part. Once you have the client, retaining that client can be highly beneficial for your business. A long-term or repeat client could be any number of things. Maybe you've designed a website for a client a few years ago and they ju… - Comment to Win a Free License for SlideShowBox
Our friends at Jumpeye Components have offered to give five readers of the Vandelay Design Blog a free license to SlideShowBox Premium HTML! … - 35 jQuery Animation Tutorials
Creative designers can do some amazing things with jQuery. A wide variety of animation effects are possible, and these 35 tutorials provide excellent learning resources for anyone who is wanting to brush up their skills in this area. You'll find tutorials for creative animated navigation menus, as well as for other types of animation that use jQuery instead of Flash. Animate Image Filling Up Using jQuery … - 25 of the Best Calligraphy Fonts for Designers
Having the right fonts is critical to successful web and graphic design. Fortunately, there are a lot of quality free fonts that are available for use. In this post we'll feature 25 of the best calligraphy fonts for download. Be sure to check the restrictions of any font before using on a commercial project. Champignon … - 35 High-Quality and Free Paper Textures
Paper textures are extremely useful and versatile in web and graphic design. Whether it is brown paper, notebook paper, wrinkled paper, or something else, they are frequently used by designers. In this post we'll feature some of the best free paper textures. Always be sure to check the license and terms before using. For more textures please see: 35 High-Quality and Free Concrete Textures 45 Free Wood Textures … - 25 Beautiful Minimalist Websites – Part VIII
Throughout the existence of this blog our readers have appreciated posts on minimalism more than just about any other topic. Here we will continue our series of showcasing exceptional examples of minimalism in web design. Clean, Simple, Clear …
Net Tuts
- How to Use CakePHP’s Access Control Lists
If you’re building a CMS, you’ll probably need different user roles—superusers, admins, users—with different permission levels. Too complicated to code? Enter CakePHP’s ACL (Access Control Lists). With the right setup, you’ll be checking user permissions with just one line. Introduction: What Are Access Control Lists? The ACL lets you create a hierarchy of users with [...]… - Incredible Services and Products
Okay, okay; this may be a thank you posting for the wonderful sponsors of our massive HTML5 competition, however, it’s important for me to note that I refused to accept sponsors of any product that I didn’t honestly feel was fantastic. What this means is that, as the editor of Nettuts+, I fully endorse each [...]… - CSS: Noob to Ninja – The Complete Video Series
This exclusive premium video series will take you from a state of absolute CSS “noobness,” all the way up to ninja-status, capable of taking advantage of the latest CSS3 techniques. The series begins with the basics: the syntax, properties, etc. However, each new video expands upon the previous, as you work your way up and [...]… - Start Using HTML5 WebSockets Today
One of the cool new features of HTML5 is WebSockets, which let us talk to the server without using AJAX requests. In this tutorial, we’ll review the process of running a WebSocket server in PHP, and then building a client to send and receive messages to it over the WebSocket protocol. What are WebSockets? WebSockets [...]… - Behind the Scenes of Nettuts with Collis!
Here at Envato we’re pretty famous for building a lot of successful blogs, like this one! We’ve done quite a few now, so last year I decided other people might find our techniques and systems useful. Today I’m really happy to announce my new book How to Build a Successful Blog Business which is a [...]… - Build an Incredible HTML5 App: $7000 Competition
As HTML5′s popularity continues to increase, we at Tuts+ and CodeCanyon would like to do our part in promoting and rewarding those who are on the cutting edge of what’s possible with HTML5, local storage, geolocation, SVG, and CSS3. Not only that, but we’re also, at the conclusion of this competition, launching a brand new [...]… - Quick Tip: 4 Ways to Auto-Refresh your Browser when Designing new Sites
You know the drill: make some edits to your document, click save, switch over to your browser, refresh it, and then observe the changes. Wouldn’t it be convenient if there was to auto-refresh your browser at a provided interval? That way, for instance, every three seconds, the browser will automatically refresh. Granted, this isn’t too [...]… - Magento for Designers: Part 6
Magento is a stunningly powerful e-commerce platform. In this miniseries, we’ll learn how to get started with the platform, get to know the terminologies, set up a store and all related aspects of it and finally learn how to customize it to make it our very own. In this sixth part, we’ll be building one [...]… - Quick Tip: Improve Site Performance in 3 Easy Steps
We all know we should do it, but how many of us do? I’m talking about minifying JavaScript, CSS, and optimizing images to reduce load times. Today, I’ll show you three quick and easy methods that all of us should implement to improve our site’s performance. Premium Members: Download this Video ( Must be logged [...]… - 20 Steps to a Flexible and Secure WordPress Installation
A comprehensive WordPress installation, albeit simple to produce, often requires multiple steps — many of which can easily be omitted accidentally. How many times have you forgotten to customize your permalink structure? How about adding in a sitemap plugin? What about changing your timezone? If you’ve installed WordPress more than once, chances are you’ve missed [...]…
SimpleBits
- CSS3 Generator
CSS3 Generator: Handy tool that spits out the syntax and associated vendor-prefixed CSS3 for properties like border-radius, box-shadow, multi-column layout and more. Especially helpful are the supported browsers icons with pop-up version numbers for each property.… - "Web design is not merely building. It’s not just designing. It’s not only the rest of the myriad..."
“Web design is not merely building. It’s not just designing. It’s not only the rest of the myriad disciplines and titles we all align ourselves with, but the culmination of all these things.” - Jason Santa Maria, A Real Web Design Application… - Bobby McKenna
Bobby McKenna: One of the most consistent and admired illustrators on Dribbble, Mr. McKenna just graduated from Notre Dame and is apparently looking for a job. Something tells me finding one won’t be a problem.… - Bye-Bye Redirect
A month into using Tumblr for the blog and portfolio here, and I’m still happy I made the move. Something that had been bothering me was the redirect that was required for the homepage. I couldn’t point simplebits.com at Tumblr completely. If I had, over 10 years of files and old archives would’ve vanished. Setting up a subdomain avoids that, but I wanted the blog to be the main index of the site. So redirecting simplebits.com to stream.simplebits.com was the best I could do. A ProxyPass r… - An interview with Think Vitamin
An interview with Think Vitamin: While I was in London for the Future of Web Design conference this past May, I had the pleasure of chatting with Keir Whitaker from Carsonified about Dribbble. You can also find the audio over at Huffduffer if you happen to huff the duff stuff.… - FontFonter
FontFonter: This is a wonderful tool. Enter a URL and replace its fonts with any of FontFonts web fonts. Hmm, this site looks rather nice with FF Dagny and FF Meta Serif replacing Helvetica and Georgia.… - 8 Faces
8 Faces: I just purchased a debut copy of Elliot Jay Stocks’ new print magazine that asks: “If you could only use eight typefaces for the rest of your life, which would you choose? 8 Faces is a new magazine for devotees of typography that asks this question — and many more — to eight leading designers from the fields of web design, print design, illustration, and of course type design itself.” Hurry though, only 1000 copies available.… - "I found myself resorting to the same button styles, shading techniques, etc… and having to force..."
“I found myself resorting to the same button styles, shading techniques, etc… and having to force myself to go back and change things up. I figured that if these guys can spend a year making a single piano, I could probably spend an extra couple hours here and there on refining these details.” - Jesse Bennett-Chamberlain on his redesign of Steinway & Sons… - Q & A with Jason Munn of the Small Stakes
Q & A with Jason Munn of the Small Stakes: Grain Edit interviews the prolific music poster designer. Have long been a fan, and now purchasing the book, which collects over 150 of Munn’s poster designs for various indie bands.… - Font metrics and vertical space in CSS
Font metrics and vertical space in CSS: Tim Brown from Typekit explains the complexities of visible and invisible vertical space between characters when typesetting with CSS.…
Smashing Magazine
- Lessons Learned From Maintaining a WordPress Plug-In
Recently I released a WordPress plugin for Google Analytics that adds a tracking code and dozens of various pieces of meta data to blogs. Since the release of version 4, I've updated it 6 times, to the point where it's now at version 4.0.6. In this article I would like to share with you my experiences in maintaining this and other WordPress plug-ins and common good practices that I've distilled from that work. The updates that I released had a couple of purposes, ranging from bug f… - In Defense Of Photoshop
… - Passing The Holy Milestone: How To Meet Deadlines
For too many projects, there comes a time when every action taken, every decision and sacrifice made, is spurred on by pressure to finish. Tempers seem to shrink along with the available days, talk about “high standards” gives way to “good enough,” and people realize that deadlines are aptly named. During the last-minute crunch, someone may well wonder, how did it come to this? Could it have been prevented?Every Web project has deadlines. But not every designer or developer… - New eBook From Smashing Magazine: Mastering Photoshop For Web Design
Mastering Photoshop for Web Design is the third book in our eBook series, and it's definitely the best eBook we've published so far. It was written from scratch by our regular writer Thomas Giannattasio, exclusively for Smashing Magazine and its readers. We are very proud of the result, in particular because of the high quality of tips, ideas and techniques that Thomas — who is a deep expert in Adobe Photoshop — presents in his book.Mastering Photoshop is written for advanced a… - 50 Useful Tools and Resources For Web Designers
An effective, well-organized workflow is an important asset of professional web designers. The more useful and time-saving your tools are, the more time you can focus on important things, thus creating a foundation for timely good-quality results. The problem is that there are just way too many tools, services and resources out there, so it has become difficult to keep track on them and find those tiny little time-savers that will spare you headaches and save time in a long run.And… - The Showcase of Beautiful Pinhole Photography
Camera is a remarkable piece of innovation. However, it is people — professionals and newbies alike — who make it truly remarkable. It’s the photographer behind the camera. It’s his imagination, passion and talent and knowledge of the medium. You don't need a high-end costly equipment to get beautiful results. Just your talent and a way of looking at things differently is together more than enough for a great shot. It's also the ability to envision the final result … - Free Full Layered Facebook GUI PSD Kit
In this post we release a free Facebook GUI PSD Kit, designed by SurgeWorks and released for Smashing Magazine and its readers. The main idea behind the kit is to speed up the prototyping of Facebook application UIs and Facebook fan pages, thus sparing you from drawing all the comps and letting you customize all the texts, buttons and data as you need. As usual, the kit is free to use in all projects, without any restrictions.The kit brings the Facebook vector icon and logo. Also, … - What Do We Really Mean By Art?
Mark Rothko, an American artist who described himself as an "abstract painter", once said that he was not the kind of person interested in the relationship of form, color or similars. He didn't define himself as an abstractionist, but rather as a person interested only in expressing basic human emotions such as doom, tragedy, ecstasy and so on. This was one person's vision of art, but what do we mean by art today? Why is defining the concept so difficult?This article is an explora… - A Complete Guide To Tumblr
Think of Tumblr as micro-blogging on steroids (technically, it's called "tumblelogging"). Whereas Twitter and similar services limit posts to 140 characters or less, Tumblr lets you post updates of any length, although it's best suited to short-format posts. Tumblr bridges the gap between full-blown blog and micro-blog.Tumblr is also a great option for designers and creative types, because it gives you complete control over the look of your tumblelog. It also offers great opportuni… - Designing Style Guidelines For Brands And Websites
A website is never done. Everyone has worked on a project that changed so much after it launched that they no longer wanted it in their portfolio. One way to help those who take over your projects is to produce a style guide.Edward Tufte once said: "Great design is not democratic; it comes from great designers. If the standard is lousy, then develop another standard." Although there's no stopping some clients from making their website awful, by creating a style guide, you're effec…
Webdesigner Depot
- Worldy Inspiration from Tourism Websites
The tourism industry can be a major source of revenue for a country and in some cases, it can even be its main source or revenue. That’s one of the main reasons why web design for this field plays such a vital role in promoting and attracting potential tourists from other parts of the world. In this [...]… - 30+ Places to Submit Your Website Designs
Sometimes you finish a web design project and you’re really proud of the results. Maybe it’s a personal project, or the client gave you complete creative control. Whatever the case, you know it’s some of the best work you’ve ever done, and you want the world to see it. Besides adding it to your portfolio [...]… - 200+ Exclusive Free Icons: “Reflection”
Icons are a great and quick way to enhance your projects. They add a certain personality to your designs and make things pop when they need to. Today we release a new set of icons which we call “Reflection”. It’s simple yet elegant and stylish at the same time. You’ll find these icons great to use [...]… - How to Handle Information Overload
The Internet holds a wealth of information on virtually any topic one could think of. With a simple search, you can gain access to knowledge about almost any subject out there. In fact, you can often get so much information returned that it’s a little intimidating even knowing where to start. Information [...]… - Exploring Photoshop’s Angle Gradient Tool
The angle gradient tool is an overlooked gem tucked away in Photoshop’s toolbar. Often passed over for its more popular sibling, the linear gradient tool, angle gradients create clockwise blends of color around the point a user clicks. The angle gradients create clockwise blends of color around the point a user [...]… - Our Favorite Tweets of the Week Jul 18-Jul 25, 2010
Every week we tweet a lot of interesting stuff highlighting great content that we find on the web that can be of interest to web designers. The best way to keep track of our tweets is simply to follow us on Twitter, however, in case you missed some here’s a quick and useful compilation of the [...]… - Comics of the Week #35
Every week we feature a set of comics created exclusively for WDD. The content revolves around web design, blogging and funny situations that we encounter in our daily lives as designers. These great cartoons are created by Jerry King, an award-winning cartoonist who’s one of the most published, prolific and versatile cartoonists in the world today. So [...]… - Book Review: From Photoshop to HTML
If you’re new to creating website designs using Photoshop, learning to transform those .PSD files into semantic, standards-compliant CSS and HTML files can be a bit intimidating. After all, there are plenty of great services out there that can slice up and code your files for you. But there are those cases when [...]… - 20+ Demos Showing Advanced jQuery Effects
Just a short while ago, Flash was one of the primary technologies used by web designers to add interactivity to a website. Since the introduction of the iPad, with its lack of the Flash Player, there’s an acceleration in the web development world to use alternative technologies to Flash, such as jQuery, Ajax and others. Although Flash [...]… - Winners of Icon Sets from IconDock
For the past week, we’ve been running IconDock’s Giveaway for 10 Icon sets. Thanks to all who participated and a special thanks to Nick La for these wonderful icons. IconDock features professionally designed pixel and vector stock icons suitable for print and web projects. The website contains a great collection of both premium [...]…
Freelance Switch
- Support Your Supporters
Who is the person in your life that helps you be the best freelancer in your world? Is it a loving spouse that goes to work every day, providing your family with the extra income you need to make sure the mortgage is paid, food is on the table, and your kids are not dirty urchins [...]… - Ask FreelanceSwitch #16: Workload Management, Freelance Video Jobs
In this issue of Ask FreelanceSwitch, Travis King and Thursday Bram look at the drain of working two jobs and how to grab the eye of a video agency. Ask FreelanceSwitch is a regular column here that allows us to help beginners get a grip on freelancing. If you have a question about freelancing that you [...]… - What Are You Doing Today to Get Work for Tomorrow?
You’ve got a 5:00 deadline, 3 pages of copy to revise, 2 logos to vectorize (or whatever magic you design folks use to make things pretty), and a status report to complete to wrap up another project. It’s almost the perfect trifecta –your three current projects ending at the same time. You’re smoking busy right [...]… - 6 Personal Productivity Tools Guaranteed to Up Your Game
Being a freelancer has its perks. You are your own boss, meaning you can work at home and set up your own hours. As great as that sounds, working at home also has its downsides. The main problem is that it’s hard to be productive when you keep getting distracted by the 7 billion wonders [...]… - Having Fun: Imagine the Perfect Freelancer’s Tool
Imagine it: you’ve been given the chance to look into the future and bring back one tool that will help you be the Best. Freelancer. Ever. What is this tool? Heck if I know. What is the one tool that will help you become the best? Even if it hasn’t been invented yet, what is it that [...]… - Child Care Options for Freelancers
One of the benefits that many freelancers with families cite is the ability to stay home with the kids: you can save a fortune on daycare if you have kids just by working from home and not sending the kids elsewhere. But there are situations in which having the kids at home all day may [...]… - Behind the Scenes of FreelanceSwitch with Collis!
… - Gems of the FreelanceSwitch Archives
Trolling the archives of FreelanceSwitch is a great thing to do if you’re trying to avoid doing actual work. So because you’re a super busy freelancer, I’ve taken the time – hours and hours, just for you – to grab a few of the more, shall we say “interesting” posts and gems from the crypts. The [...]… - Client Follow-Up: Getting Your “Duck-Ins” in a Row
Sometimes, you’ve gotta be that “in your face” type of freelancer. By that, I mean client follow-up. You may have to duck in and check up on clients to make sure you’re getting the work. Especially in business, the early bird gets the worm. A client may not always think of you for a project [...]… - Five Easy Ways to Vent Safely
Have you ever had one of those days where everything was going wrong? You missed a deadline, you lost a good client, an oft-promised cheque still hasn’t arrived, final notice on your cable bill came today, the client isn’t buying into the concept, your spouse is upset, your dog has fleas, and to top it [...]…