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 artic… - 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
- Seven HTML related working drafts published
On March 4, the W3C published no less than seven new or updated working draft documents related to HTML: HTML5 HTML: The Markup Language HTML5 differences from HTML4 HTML+RDFa HTML Microdata HTML Canvas 2D Context Additional Requirements for Bidi in HTML Read full postPosted in (X)HTML, HTML 5. … - Visual display of alternative text
The fact that web browsers have different ways of displaying alternative text when images are missing or disabled is something that I talked about in Safari, WebKit and alt text for missing images and Steve Faulkner expanded on in alt and title content display in popular browsers. In How should Web browsers render alternative text?, Vlad Alexander asks (and answers) a few questions on this topic.Read full postPosted in Accessibility, Browsers. … - Accessibility issues on Vancouver Olympics websites
Being a pretty big fan of many winter sports I have spent most evenings of the past two weeks in front of the TV, watching the action from the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. With excellent live TV coverage from the games I had no reason to visit either the Vancouver2010.com or the CTVOlympics.ca website to find more info about the games. But one person who has visited and taken a closer look at those sites is Joe Clark. What he found is that the Vancouver Olympics Web sites are inaccessible to… - CSS efficiency tip: use a single stylesheet file for multiple media
The way most people link CSS intended for different media types, such as screen, print, or handheld, is to use multiple files. The files are then linked either through link elements with a media attribute or through @import statements with one or more media types specified. There is nothing wrong with splitting your CSS into multiple files and linking them this way (I currently do that here on this site), but there are two drawbacks: it leads to more HTTP requests from the browser to the server… - Remember the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG)
An increasing number of web developers are aware of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) (though they don’t necessarily use them in their work). But another set of accessibility guidelines seem to be almost completely overlooked – the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG). Where WCAG addresses the information and functionality of a website, ATAG addresses software that is used to create websites or manage the content of websites. There are two versions of ATAG; ATAG 1.0,… - How to respond to email messages that contain multiple questions
Email messages often contain a number of questions that the sender wants the recipient to answer. I find that many responses to such messages are much more difficult to understand than they should be. Not because of grammar or spelling errors, but because of how the responses are structured and formatted. I’d like to share two tips that, in my opinion, will make responses to multiple question messages much easier and quicker to read.Read full postPosted in Productivity. … - Specify a text colour for img elements
When an image specified with an img element is missing from a web page, some browsers display the alt text instead. Why not all browsers do that is a separate topic which I talk a bit about in Safari, WebKit and alt text for missing images. I think most people will agree that it is a good thing for web browsers to display the contents of an image’s alt attribute when the image is missing or broken, or image rendering has been disabled. However, many web professionals forget to check what the … - sIFR default CSS hides content from at least one screen reader
Just a heads-up to anyone using sIFR to render text: the default CSS that comes with sIFR hides the replaced text from the VoiceOver screen reader. I don’t know if any others are affected – VoiceOver is the only screen reader I have been able to verify this problem in.Read full postPosted in Accessibility, CSS, Typography. … - Forgotten CSS selectors
Anyone who has been using CSS for any length of time has probably been frustrated by the lack of selector support in Internet Explorer 6. There are quite a lot of cases where a CSS 2.1 selector will let you target elements in all other relevant browsers, but where you, if you want it to work in IE 6, have to add a class or id attribute to the HTML. Well, the market share of IE 6 is now finally at a level where we as developers can say that a site “supporting” IE 6 does not necessarily mean … - Beware of “Web Page, complete” when saving HTML pages with your browser
Every now and then I need to ask a client or another developer to save a copy of a web page and email it to me. Mostly it is because they are viewing a page that is behind a firewall and I need to see the markup. Something that happens a lot is that they send me HTML that is more or less mangled. This HTML mangling happens when you choose “Web Page, complete” or a similarly named option in your web browser. With this option selected, browsers don’t save just the HTML source of the page …
Cameron Moll
- ColosseoType.com, An All-HTML5 Endeavor
ColosseoType.com, An All-HTML5 Endeavor: The site for the Colosseo poster is my first production-ready website with HTML5 under the hood. I’ve coded sites semantically with HTML5 class names before (see Jon Tan’s article), but this is the first with legitimate HTML5 elements such as and in the markup. IE doesn’t yet recognize HTML5, so I’ve added Remy Sharp’s HTML5 shiv script, which forces IE to acknowledge the new elements. Granted, the Colosseo site is a one-pager, but hey, it… - Colosseo Letterpress Poster: Now Available
This is a behind-the-scenes look at the printing (and making) of the Colosseo. Purchase a copy here. Also, read a little more about the successes and failures of creating the video in the description on Vimeo.… - Phantom HD Camera: 1080p, 1,052 fps, $118,000 price tag
Phantom HD Camera: 1080p, 1,052 fps, $118,000 price tag: Uncrate: Sure, it costs as much as 47 Canon 5D MK IIs, but you’d need nearly that many — configured in some sort of crazy, Matrix-like setup — to match the unbelievable 1,052 fps high-speed 1080p recording of the Phantom HD Camera … and the ability to capture slow-motion gems like this and this. … - New Design, New Host, and Tumblr: How, Why
The malware attack(s) that my site suffered in recent weeks put into motion a series of changes which have been planned for some time now—some for a few months, some for a couple years. What follows is a detailed explanation of the changes. New Design Over Christmas Break in 2007, I started two redesigns: One for Authentic Jobs and another for this site. The premise for this realign encompassed a concept that wasn’t original, but one that I felt better suited my style of blogging. … - Mike Davidson: A House by the Park
Mike Davidson: A House by the Park: The venerable Mike Davidson is blogging about his homebuilding experience, complete with photos, product links, and total accumulated cost with each post. (Clicking the link in the sidebar to reveal pricing details will cookie your visit with pricing info.)… - Drift Sumi-e Promotional Video, Shot with Canon 7D
Drift Sumi-e Promotional Video, Shot with Canon 7D: All I can say is this: I absolutely love my Canon 7D.… - Acrobatic Thieves Hit Best Buy, Get Away with $26,000 in Apple Laptops
Acrobatic Thieves Hit Best Buy, Get Away with $26,000 in Apple Laptops: This reads like something out of a movie script: They didn’t appear on store security cameras. They cut a hole in the roof and came in at a spot where the cameras were obscured by advertising banners. And they left with some $26,000 in laptop computers, departing the same way they came in — down a 3-inch gas pipe that runs from the roof to the ground outside the store…. “High level of sophistication,” said Detecti… - Tumblr Backup for Mac
Tumblr Backup for Mac: You’ve seen this already, right? Back up your Tumblr account (posts, drafts, and theme) using this desktop app. Currently available only for Mac users.… - OK Go's “This Too Shall Pass” Music Video
OK Go's “This Too Shall Pass” Music Video: What happens when you combine domino sequences, a 4-minute master shot, and a music video? You get this. Whether or not CGI was involved, this is brilliant.… - Nerd Merit Badges
Nerd Merit Badges: Clearly, I’m well on my way to becoming an Eagle Scout. /via Swiss Miss…
Six Revisions
- 8 Ways to Promote Your Work Through Internet Collaboration
Promoting our products and services can be a time consuming and daunting task. It can be a wise way to expand your network, pool resources and save time, money and work. Here are eight ways you can do this.… - How to Increase Conversions on any Website in 45 Minutes
In less time than you spend watching The Bachelor each week, you can have a dramatic (and measurable) effect on your website.… - A Look into Color Theory in Web Design
Colors are powerful tools and an important thing all designers should understand when creating websites.… - The Winners of MooTools 1.2 Beginner’s Guide Books
Packt Publishing set out to give away five copies of my book, MooTools 1.2 Beginner’s Guide. Here are the winners.… - The Ingredients of a Successful Website
The ingredients of a recipe for the success and growth of a website.… - 6 Critical WordPress Plugins You Should Have Installed
Using many plugins can affect a website's performance, and thus, you must be highly selective in choosing the plugins you install. In this article, we share with you the WordPress plugins that we use on our sites.… - We Asked a Simple Question: “Why are you here?”
For artists and designers, knowing why we are "here" is especially important since it's the kind of knowledge that can give purpose and meaning to our work.… - 10 Simple Tips for Launching a Website
In this article, I'll share with you some tips for launching a website based on the experience of our own launch of Design Instruct.… - How to Make Remote Team Collaboration Work
There are many challenges associated with working with someone over a long distance. We share with you the areas of our workflow that posed some challenges, and the methods by which we overcame them.… - Design Instruct Week on Six Revisions
Design Instruct Week is a weeklong celebration of our newly launched site, Design Instruct. This week on Six Revisions will cover topics that deal with running websites and design, written by the founders/editors of Design Instruct and Six Revisions.…
DesignM.ag
- Win 1,000 Business Cards from Next Day Flyers
Next Day Flyers has offered to give 1,000 business cards and $25 of printing credit to a lucky reader of Designm.ag. … - 25 of the Best Non-Profit Websites
In recent years the quality of non-profit websites has improved dramatically. Fortunately, a growing number of organizations are recognizing the need for a quality website and the opportunities that it presents. In this post we'll showcase 25 well-designed sites of non-profit organizations. If you enjoy this collection please see the one we did back in December or 2008, 40+ Inspirational Non-Profit Website Designs. Sower of Seeds … - Freebie: High Res Spray Paint Textures
Today we have a high-quality set of 8 spray paint textures to release to DesignM.ag readers. The textures are from Sebastiano Guerriero of WeGraphics. This is a follow up to the first set of spray paint textures released at WeGraphics. The textures are free for personal or commercial purposes (which includes use for creating templates or themes to distribute or sell). All 8 textures are shown below. Click on any of them to go to the Flickr page where the image can be downloaded. Or you can do… - 9 Ways Freelancers Disrespect Their Own Time
As a freelancer or independent designer, the most valuable asset you have is your own time. Your ability to earn a living relies upon your own time management, which will allow you to perform income-generating services for clients. With effective time management you may be able to earn more and work less, and with poor time management you may find yourself working very long hours just to get by. In this article we will look at 9 different things that freelancers often do that is disrespectful t… - 25 Mega Menus for Your Design Inspiration
Navigation is a critical element to any website. Mega menus are a current trend that take drop down menus a step further in attempt to make it easier for visitors to navigate through a large site. In this post we'll showcase 25 examples of mega menus in use. For more, see this post from our archives: 25 Examples of Mega Menus in Web Design. Converse … - Free HTML/CSS Template for Download
A few weeks ago we published a tutorial How to Design a Blue Marketing Company Layout in Photoshop. Our friends at SnobbySlice have taken that design, coded it, and made it available for free download. The template includes the homepage design that was created for the tutorial, as well as a secondary page that can be used for the other pages on the site. The homepage includes a jQuery slider to provide information about the various services offered. Here is a preview of the homepage: … - 15 Useful Premium Plugins for WordPress
In the past few years the growth of the premium/commercial WordPress theme market has grown exponentially. While there are also premium plugins available, they generally get far less attention than premium themes. The right plugin will allow you to improve your site through specific functionality that might otherwise take a lot of time and/or money to set up. In this post we'll feature 15 premium plugins that may be able to help you with your own site or with those of clients. Please feel free … - 11 Tips for Making Your Home Office More Comfortable
Freelance designers will probably spend more time in their home office than anywhere else. Having a comfortable office that is conducive to work is essential in order to keep your working hours pleasant and productive. In this post we'll look at some things that you can do to make your home office more comfortable and more enjoyable to spend those working hours. Obviously, some home offices come with certain limitations (such as the area of the house or the size of the space), but every s… - Interview with Dan Noe of Noe Design Studios
I recently had the opportunity to interview multi-media designer Dan Noe. Many DesignM.ag readers have probably seen Dan's portfolio site for Noe Design Studio showcased at various design galleries or blogs. Dan works at Screenscape Studios in Des Moines, Iowa. I hope you'll find Dan's insight and experience to be helpful in your own work. … - 25 of the Best Blogging and Social Media Icon Sets
Icons are a favorite free resource of designers and bloggers. There are tons of quality, free icon sets out there and in this post we'll feature 25 that are great for blog design. These icons sets include the types of icons that are great for use with blogs and social media. Cute Blogging Icon Set …
SitePoint
- Enabling Accessibility in Flex applications
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… - Get Started with PHP on Windows with SQL Server Express
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: A Case Study
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. … - Dedicated Hosting Comparison: a Review of 10 Dedicated Hosting
Plans
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. … - Being a Kick-ass Employee
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. … - Flashy Graphs Sans Flash
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. … - Build an Ajax Tree with YUI
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. … - A Crash Course in Django
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! … - Data Visualization with Flex, Part III
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! … - SEO for Multilingual Marketing
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. …
Jonathan Snook
- Background Position X and Y
Every now and then I look at using background-position-x and background-position-y but can never seem to find a definitive and up-to-date resource. To save myself the trouble in the future, I'm documenting it here. Positioning via separate X and Y values is a feature that Internet Explorer introduced but never made it into a W3C specification. Any recommendations to add it to the spec have been denied. Why have separate X and Y values? I believe that there are several reasons why you may wish to… - Review: Logo Design Love
Logo Design Love is a book written by David Airey that covers the whys and hows of brand identity development. The book is broken down into three parts: The importance of brand identity, the process of design and keep the fires burning which looks at how to find motivation and inspiration. It's a light 200 pages with readable type and plenty of examples. David Airey aims this book at the aspiring designer by not only covering the design process but also covering the process of project scope and… - Multiple Backgrounds and CSS Gradients
CSS3 features are making their way into the various browsers and while many are holding off on implementing them, there are those who are venturing ahead and likely running into a world of interesting quirks across the various platforms. Two such features that I have been having the pleasure of enjoying are the use of multiple backgrounds and CSS gradients. I'm covering both features because multiple backgrounds by itself is simple enough, as are CSS gradients, but combining the two is where thi… - Safari and Transparent Borders
I had noticed this little bug on my own site. In the footer, there's a 5px border with the colour set using rgba. In Safari, it's as if the semi-transparent borders overlap each other in the corners and the values are compounded. This creates little squares in the corner of my squares. Not quite what you'd expect. Firefox and Opera (10.5; I didn't test in 10.10) render this as you'd expect, with a consistent colour surrounding the block. In testing some other border handling, I noticed that the…
PSD Tuts
- How to Create a Realistic Fountain Pen – Screencast
“In this tutorial, you’ll learn to design a realistic calligraphy pen from scratch. The tutorial involves a simple use of the Pen Tool and a few flexible Layer Styles. Lighting and reflection techniques are explained throughout the tutorial. This might be a quite useful for icon enthusiasts. Let’s dive in Asher Abbasi.” Here is a link [...]… - Showcase of Textures in Print Design
The use of textures can dramatically improve your print design work. You can (if used sensibly) add more depth to your work, whether your work be business cards, advertisements or posters. The results of using texture in your print design projects can be completely different every time, depending on various factors such as what textures [...]… - Use Photo Manipulation and 3D Layers to Design a Surreal Cover Art Illustration
My clients often ask me to create impossible scenarios, weird landscapes and surreal images for their projects; images that wouldn’t be possible in real life. It’s situations like these where photo manipulation becomes a powerful design tool. In today’s tutorial I will show you how to design a CD cover using several photo manipulation techniques, [...]… - Create a Shiny Psdtuts+ Folder Icon in Photoshop
Icon design is an essential element in any designer’s tool chest. No matter how simple or how complex your design is, a nice looking icon will almost always help to spruce things up. In this Photoshop tutorial we will demonstrate some easy steps to help you to produce your own shiny Psdtuts+ icon in Photoshop. [...]… - Redesign and Other Tuts News
… - Create Character Driven Book Cover Art Using Illustrator and Photoshop – Part 2
… - It’s All in the Eyes: 100 Beautiful Photo Manipulations
The eyes have long been considered the windows to the soul. Photographers often try to focus on a subject’s eyes as a way to add depth and emotion to a photo. But there are still only so many ways you can emphasize the eyes in a standard photo. That’s where photo manipulations like those below enter [...]… - Best of the Web – February 2010
… - Massive Textures Showcase – Creative Examples of Use, Premium Packs and Tutorials
… - Make a Freezing Cold Snow-themed Abstract Piece
In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to create a snow-themed large piece. You’ll learn how to plan the composition of the piece, to add elements into the composition, how to recycle the piece itself to generate more elements for the piece, how to incorporate pentools into a design and finally how to finish off and [...]…
Think Vitamin
- Freelancing Together
By Matthew Smith Editors Note: In his first article for Think Vitamin Matthew Smith, Principal Designer at Squared Eye Design, discusses the benefits, risks and infrastructure required to work effectively with fellow freelancers. Working Alone Working alone can be great. There’s a pleasant autonomy of knowing exactly what you’re doing and when. There are few unknowns. You work directly with [...]… - Getting Started with Yahoo! GeoPlanet Explorer
By Christian Heilmann Where are you and what is around you? Geolocation is a hot topic. Google just got the patent on geolocated advertising, mobile phones allow us to pinpoint ourselves on the planet and find things nearby and with augmented reality applications we can even find our way by filming our surrounding and finding hidden treasures by moving [...]… - Future of Web Apps Highlights Video
By Keir WhitakerOur friends Jim and Nick at Doctype recently attended Future of Web Apps Miami along with their camera gear. They kindly put together a highlight reel of the day including interviews and clips from the main stage sessions. They will be releasing full length interviews over on their Facebook page shortly. Just as a quick heads [...]… - Think Vitamin Radio: Episode 3
By Keir WhitakerAfter a brief hiatus due to heading across the pond for Future of Web Apps Miami we’re back with Episode #3 of Think Vitamin Radio. This week we are joined by Greg Annandale as Ryan is on holiday. A full transcript is available.… - The Web as a Database
By Tom Hughes-CroucherOne of the things that’s great about the Internet is that it’s open to everyone. There are a million sites, all different, and everyone is free to invent their own way of doing things. Of course, that has left us with a legacy of systems which don’t always work well together. When you are using a [...]… - 17 Essential Developer Networks
By Keir WhitakerRecently I have been noticing that more and more tech companies are starting up “developer networks”. Some of these, like the Yahoo! Developer Network, consist of great tools and resources (think YQL, YUI etc) that we can all make use of in our work whilst others focus on more specific aspects of developing with a [...]… - Forrst: Where Designers Who Code meet Developers Who Design
By Chrissie Brodigan Editors Note: Forrst is still in beta and as such you will need an account to view the links referenced below. Kyle, the creator of Forrst, has kindly offered 250 Think Vitamin readers an advanced invite. All you have to do is email kyle@forrst.com with subject “I’d love an invite!”. A few weeks ago Carsonified’s Mike [...]… - Cached: Video of Logos, Pancake Platitudes, & Why the Internet Will Fail
By Chrissie BrodiganMonday evening’s roundup of news & treats: (Klik hier om het video filmpje te bekijken) Why the internet will fail *From 1995 (via ThreeWordChant) An entire video made out of logos, breathtaking, brilliant, and bizarre! Also nominated for best Animated Short Oscar (via kottke) Best of TED talks (via GOOD) Fascinatingly fun (possibly dangerous and illegal) way to cook pancakes [...]… - Tips and Tricks for developing Mobile Widgets
By Keir WhitakerIt’s not often Bath, the home of Carsonified, hosts full day tech events. However I was recently lucky enough to attend openMIC right here on my doorstep. “Open Mobile Innovation Camp” is organised by Chris Book and takes place around the UK. It describes itself as “an un-conference for discussion, debate and development new mobile applications [...]… - Cached: Designing a Yeti & Discovering Forrst
By Chrissie BrodiganFriday evening’s roundup of news & treats: A brilliant artist gets a job where he designs a “big ass” Yeti. Glitch Zen interviews artist Kukubee (via GlitchZen) Some talented snow sculpting depicts the 2 feet of snow that fell overnight in NYC (via worlygig.com) A great tutorial pops up in the feedreader, How to Design a Multilingual Website: [...]…
Vandeley Design
- Comment to Win a One-Year Membership to MediaLoot!
Earlier today a new membership-based site, MediaLoot was launched. It is an online toolbox of premium design resources, and they have kindly offered to give five readers of the Vandelay Design blog a one-year membership to the site for free! … - 21 Resources Especially for Lovers of Minimalism
Minimalism a popular style of design because it keeps things simple and user-friendly. In this post we'll look at more than 20 websites, blogs and books dedicated to minimalism. Not all of them are related to web design - minimalism can also be applied to other aspects of business and life. Minimal Design Showcases: If you want to find great and inspiring examples of minimalist design, these sites will be excellent sources. Minimal Exhibit … - jQuery Resources for One-Page Portfolios
A few weeks ago we published a showcase of one-page portfolios and pointed out some trends among them. Many of those sites are using jQuery to accomplish specific things. In this post we'll feature some plugins and tutorials that are ideal for one-page portfolios. Of course, they can be used on other types of sites as well, but they are well-suited to match up with the trends among one-page portfolios. Contact Forms: All portfolio sites need to allow visitors to contact the designer, whether it … - Showcase of Light Texture in Web Design
Texture is obviously a common design element that is being used on a lot of modern websites. However, texture doesn't always have to be a part of the design that stands out immediately to visitors. Light textures can also be used to subtly improve the design of the site. In this post we'll feature 25 sites that use texture without it dominating the design. Odosketch … - 25 Portfolio Site Designs Using Illustration
Designer portfolio sites often showcase creativity and the skills of the designer. If you browse around at current portfolio sites you'll see a lot of illustration being used in the design. In this post we'll feature 25 portfolios that use illustration. To see more portfolios please visit our gallery site Folio Focus. Rype Arts … - Win a Free Template of Your Choice from TemplateWire
TemplateWire has offered to give free templates to three Vandelay Design readers. If you’re not familiar with TemplateWire they are a leading marketplace of CSS templates, Flash templates, and logo templates. For $49 you can get 12 months of unlimited access to all of their premium templates. Or you can get 3 months of access for $29. You can use the templates on an unlimited number of websites for you or your clients. … - Showcase of Transparency in Web Design
Transparency is being used in an increasing number of websites. In some cases transparency subtly adds to the quality and character of the design, and in other cases it can be a major design element. In this post we'll feature 35 websites that are making excellent use of transparency. 2am … - 10 Keys to Effective Non-Profit Organization Websites
Non profit organizations tend to have limited budgets and limited involvement from members for planning, designing and maintaining websites. This often results in a site that doesn't really achieve everything that it could for the organization and the people involved. In recent years there has been an increasing number of organizations that are doing great things with their websites and truly making them valuable and effective. In this article we'll look at the keys to an effective non-pr… - Design Trend Showcase: 30 Horizontal Websites
Horizontal websites have been increasing in popularity over the past year or two. Although the approach isn't a good fit for every project, a horizontal layout can provide designers with an opportunity to showcase some creativity and to break out of the box. As you may notice from the sites showcased here, portfolio sites of designers and photographers are probably the most likely type of site to use a horizontal layout right now. Here is a look at 30 sites for your own inspiration. Aubrey Edwa… - One-Page Portfolios: Trends and Showcase
One-page portfolios are certainly a popular trend among web and graphic designers. Many designers have created one-page portfolios that use a lot of creativity, but there are also some elements or characteristics that are very common among them. In this post we'll look at ten trends of one-page portfolios with examples of each. At the end of the post we'll include a showcase for your own design inspiration, plus some resources to help you if you're interested in creating your own one-page…
Net Tuts
- Save Time and Money by Systematizing your Photoshop Workflow
Repetitive tasks can quickly become tedious. As a designer, you probably often find yourself designing the same elements over and over from scratch. STOP! Wasting time is so old-fashioned. It also means you’re wasting money! So, let’s review some ways that you can automate and systematize your Photoshop workflow. And be sure to download the project [...]… - Quick Tip: My Favorite New IDE: WebStorm
Over the weekend, Elijah Manor tweeted about a new IDE, called WebStorm, that is currently being offered as a public preview, from JetBrains. After spending a few hours with it, I’m extremely impressed! In this video quick tip, I thought I’d show you some of my favorite features that you, frankly, just don’t see much [...]… - Uncovering jQuery’s Hidden Features
jQuery is not always as it appears. There's a lot of cool stuff going on under the surface, and there are many methods just waiting to be discovered, and many potential usages of jQuery's API that you may not have considered before. In this article I'll be taking you through a few of the not-so-obvious [...]… - How to Create a Simple iTunes-like Slider
When space is at a premium, making use of sliders is the optimal way to present information. Today, we’ll take a look at how to create a slider similar to the one used in the iTunes store. Developers often seek the functionality provided by sliders in order to fit lots of information in [...]… - Redesign and Other Tuts News
… - Quick Tip: The HTML 5 Audio Element
… - 12 Steps to MooTools Mastery
… - Coding a Complex Design into CSS and HTML: New Plus Tutorial
… - How to Add Custom Configuration Settings for an (ASP).NET Application
… - Inspiration: Wonderful Watercolor Websites
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SimpleBits
- FontShop + Typekit
http://blog.typekit.com/2010/02/23/buy-fonts-at-fontshop-host-them-on-typekit/… - :nth-child tester
http://css-tricks.com/examples/nth-child-tester/… - HTML-Ipsum
http://html-ipsum.com/… - Zeldman’s advice: show up early
http://www.zeldman.com/2010/02/05/free-advice-show-up-early/… - Exploded Settings icon
http://www.buyolympia.com/q/Item=settings-app-shirt… - The Days of Miracles and Wonder
http://www.eod.com/blog/2010/02/the-days-of-miracles-and-wonde/… - Events in 2010
This year will be a busy one in terms of speaking events. I’m currently crafting a brand new talk titled, “The CSS3 Experience”. It’ll focus on enriching the experience layer with advanced CSS and CSS3. Everyone can easily add enhancements to to their designs when focusing on the interactions and events that happen on the [...]… - FF Nuvo
http://fontfeed.com/archives/firefox-36-released-first-web-fontfont-is-free/… - 300&65 Ampersands
http://ampersandampersand.tumblr.com/… - American Pixels
http://www.jmcolberg.com/pixels/index.html…
Smashing Magazine
- Entering The Wonderful World of Geo Location
I thought I could not be out-geeked. With a background in radio, and having dabbled in the demo scene on the Commodore 64 and hung out on BBSes and IRC for a long time and all the other things normal kids don't quite get, I thought I was safe in this area.Then I went to my first WhereCamp, an unconference dealing with geographical issues and how they relate to the world of Web development. Even my A-Levels in Astronomy did not help me there. I was out-geeked by the people who drive… - Common Questions About Design Professionalism
The design profession is full of happy folks, and understanding why so many designers enjoy their work is not hard. But not all are so happy. If you’re not careful, the joy of getting paid to pursue your passion can be tainted by the less joyous realities of the professional world. You see, no matter how skilled you are as a designer, unless you are equally prepared in professional matters, your prospects will be limited and your circumstances compromised. This is true whether yo… - Handy Tools and Tips for E-Commerce Websites
… - Print Magazines for Web Designers, Digital Artists, and Photographers
Although much valuable information for all sorts of web and print professionals can be found online, it is often difficult to weed through all the noise and find good quality content. I believe it's vital that professionals in different creative fields supplement their online learning and research through well-edited and high-quality print publications. Print magazines, more often than not, are well-researched and are headed by top-notch editorial staff, usually containing informat… - Beautiful Illustrator Artworks By Artists Around The World
Adobe Illustrator is a powerful software for illustrating that allows users to produce beautiful artwork, technical illustrations, and even graphics for both print and the web. Adobe Illustrator is a multipurpose vector illustration tool and its versatility makes it the most preferred choice among many professional artists and designers.In the past, we've published a collection of Beautiful Photoshop Illustrations By Artists Around The World, and this is the latest post that will s… - How To Market Your Mobile Application
App Store is a competitive environment. Against more than 140,000 apps, all screaming for attention, how do you make sure your app gets its time in the spotlight? What does it take to get good media coverage? How do you get people to talk about your app—and, ideally, how do you get them to buy it and show it to their friends?Following the simple rules laid out below, you will increase your chances in the battle for fame and glory. These tips might seem rudimentary or in-your-… - Web Design Criticism: A How-To
Web design is a relatively young field. It's youthful, growing and made up of people from all kinds of backgrounds, many of whom lack formal design training. We have learned, and still are learning, as we go. I came into my first job as a Web designer for Boeing back in the mid-1990s, with no formal design training. I was lucky to get some training on the job, and I would guess that my experience there was similar to that of many who are reading this article.I had the opportunity t… - The Future Of CSS Typography
There has been an increasing and sincere interest in typography on the web over the last few years. Most websites rely on text to convey their messages, so it's not a surprise that text is treated with utmost care. In this article, we'll look at some useful techniques and clever effects that use the power of style sheets and some features of the upcoming CSS Text Level 3 specification, which should give Web designers finer control over text.Keep in mind that these new properties an… - Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: March 2010
Desktop wallpapers can serve as an excellent source of inspiration. However, if you use some specific wallpaper for a long period of time, it becomes harder to draw inspiration out of it. That’s why we have decided to supply you with smashing wallpapers over 12 months. And to make them a little bit more distinctive from the usual crowd, we’ve decided to embed calendars for the upcoming month. So if you need to look up some date, isn’t it better to show off a nice wallpaper wi… - Usability Review of Charity Websites Taking the Lead
Over the years designers have pushed themselves to create unique and inspiring designs. Companies have yearned to have websites which are innovative and make them stand out against their competitors. Yet charity websites have not progressed along with trends and expectations — they seem to have been designed for launch and then only updated with minor tweaks to suit the content.It has become a recent trend for charities to look at their online identities and branding; spending…
Webdesigner Depot
- Winners of 5000 Business Cards from UPrinting
Today we’re announcing the winners of the UPrinting contest that we held on WDD for the past week. Many thanks to all of you who participated. The response was great and we’ve got almost 500 comments. Each of the 10 winners has won a set of 500 free business cards of their choice with free shipping to [...]… - Why Designers Shouldn’t Settle
Ugly designs abound on the web, and behind each and every one of them is a “designer”. In many of these cases the designers behind the sites are simply incompetent. They’re often amateur designers or those who have little or no design training or people who design their own sites based on a [...]… - Our Favorite Tweets of the Week Feb 28-Mar 6, 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 #15
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 [...]… - Fantastic Content Sliders for your Inspiration
Content sliders are extremely versatile forms of navigation that can be used to display all sorts of information, such as images, popular posts, social information and product features. Some have automatic slideshow capabilities or buttons to scroll sideways or up and down, and most of them feature a transition effect, usually a slide motion. Sliders can be [...]… - How to Kill the Design Community
Recently, the notion of killing the design community has come up on a few blogs (sometimes indirectly), creating many intense conversations on the direction the design community has taken over the past couple of years, and what can be done about it. The possibility that such discussions are going to improve the [...]… - Win 5000 Business Cards from UPrinting
We all know that as web designers, we should market ourselves both online and offline. For online purposes, a great portfolio website or blog is a perfect way to spread the word, but for offline purposes, nothing beats the traditional business card. We’ve partnered with UPrinting to bring an amazing contest to WDD. One week from today, [...]… - How to Build a Footer That Doesn’t Stink
As the first thing visitors see, home pages and headers often steal the design spotlight. But above-the-fold thinking neglects the natural flow of vertical page layout. What happens when people reach the end of a page? You can bet that a simple copyright statement won’t hold visitors’ attention, but many pages are designed with the expectation that [...]… - Our Favorite Tweets of the Week Feb 21-Feb 27, 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 #14
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 [...]…
Freelance Switch
- Our Latest Book: How to Write Great Copy for the Web
Last week I introduced you to the latest collaboration between Rockable Press and FreelanceSwitch, How to Write Great Copy for the Web by Donna Spencer. I am happy to announce that the book has been launched today and Rockin’ List members get a $5 discount on the digital book, bringing the book’s price down to [...]… - How to Give Yourself a Raise Without Losing Business
This post is an excerpt from my eBook, The Blog Business Funnel. It teaches freelancers how to run a profitable freelance business, fed entirely by a healthy and thriving blog. This excerpt is from Chapter 7: Scaling Up. FreelanceSwitch readers can claim a special discount at the end of this post. One of the nicest things [...]… - Freelance Freedom #146
… - The Perils and Plusses of a Persistent Project
As a freelancer, I’ve tackled plenty of projects. Not all have been enjoyable, naturally, but I’ve been able to keep a steady flow of work. I don’t think every job has to be perfect, and as long as I’m making good money and maintaining my freedom, I’m generally satisfied with my career. While I’ve worked regularly [...]… - How to Work with a Marketing Expert if You’re a Freelancer
As a freelancer, you may find yourself either a) too busy or b) too clueless to handle your own marketing. This happens more often than you might think, and even some excellent freelancers with a strong reputation aren’t doing a very good job at marketing. But you, you’re smarter than that. And you realize you should [...]… - Coming Soon: How to Write Great Copy for the Web
A couple of years ago, FreelanceSwitch brought you How to Be a Rockstar Freelancer by Collis and Cyan Ta’eed, which helped a lot of you find your feet in the world of freelancing. Since then, FreelanceSwitch and Rockable Press have been working together to bring another great guide to your bookshelves: How to Write Great [...]… - Keeping Yourself Motivated
Staying motivated isn’t easy – we often convince ourselves not to be. We often give ourselves excuses, allow other people to put us down, or look at the success of others and think, “That’ll never be me.” There are two basic types of motivation: intrinsic motivation, and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation comes from the feeling of self-achievement [...]… - Freelance Freedom #145
… - What’s the Next Step in a Freelancing Career?
If you’re working for an employer, your career patch can be pretty clear: work hard and move up the corporate ladder, hopefully winding up somewhere near the top. But when you’re freelancing, your career path can be a lot less clear. We all want to land more clients and earn more per hour, but where [...]… - Ask FreelanceSwitch #6
In this issue of Ask FreelanceSwitch, Travis King and Thursday Bram look at website maintenance packages and what to do if people have a problem with were you live. Ask FreelanceSwitch is a new regular column here that allows us to help beginners get a grip on freelancing. If you have a question about freelancing that [...]…