10 Writing Tips for Web Designers

Writing for the web is a skill set of its own. Website text, or “copy”, needs to be written in a different tone for the web than a brochure. It needs to be built around the target keywords for the site and be written for a lower literacy audience.

Designer Workspaces

Every designer is different, we all use different tools and applications, we all set about a new design in a different way and we all have our own unique style.

Here are some pictures of the best freelancers and designers offices.

CSS Layouts

If you're in need of some CSS layouts, here's a few hundred.

The Elements of Design Applied to the Web

Design is broken up into a number of basic principles that apply to all design from type creation to painting to page layout, both on the web and in print. However, especially on the web, these rules tend to be forgotten and we just go with what feels “right.”

22 Website Designs Inspired by Apple.com

It’s well known that Apple is one of the most creative and innovative companies in the world, so it’s no wonder that many software companies and web designers would choose to follow Apple’s style of branding.

The Apple website is one of the best websites out there due to its ease of use, functionality and the beautiful environment that it creates.

Take a look at these websites where they use one or more design elements inspired by Apple.com.

50 Free High-Quality Icon Sets

When it comes to freebie designs, beautiful icons sets are tops. Designers scour for these free treasures more than anything else. You can use icon sets in Web applications, website designs and on your desktop. If well designed, they make a great impression on others.

Common Usability Mistakes In Web Design

Great article on what to look for regarding usability problems that websites commonly face.

30 Websites Worth Noting

Just how do you pick from what must be a Zillion websites on the Internet, selecting only 30 of the very best designs?

Well, of course, at least 10 billion can be quickly discounted. The ones that are just plain bad. Another 5 billion cover the “were average” category. A mere 2 million are great. Here are 30 worth checking out.

18 Tools Used as a Designer & Blogger

Adelle Charles is always sharing what tools are useful to her via Twitter, but just in case you don’t use Twitter - she's wanting to share here. She always get asked what productivity tools and apps she uses on a regular basis. Here's a listing that Adelle would recommend to a designer/blogger/creative type. If there is something missing from the list that you think should be on here, please share in the comments!

Better yet, go to her blog, Colorburned, or find her on Twitter.

Things To Check Before Launching A Website

After creating a website, depending on several factors (like whether it is a personal or a corporate project), you may choose to instantly launch it or test it deeply to make sure that it is ready.

Box UK is sharing an Ultimate Website Launch Checklist that makes sure the website is ready for being online.

Design Deconstructed: WhiteHouse.gov

Youssef Sarhan, who also writes regularly on design blog over at www.whiteinkblog.com, shares his thoughts on the development process and/or elements of a selected design. By deconstructing the design into layout, typeface, colors and use of images Youssef helps provide a better understand of how the final result was achieved. Read his article here.

12 Blogs That Can Expand Your Web Design Repertoire

Web design, much like any technology related field, requires those who make their living in it to stay on top of it’s ever evolving nature. To maintain a high level of work, a web designer must always be looking for ways to expand his or her repertoire.

Color Scheme Designer

Check out this color tool.

Moluv

The freshest web designs come from the creators of the world's best-looking web sites. Moluv.com strives to list only the freshest, most innovative, and well-executed designs.

10 tips for efficient design

Being a good designer is not always enough to survive hard economic times. You need to be efficient too.

Don't Rely On One Client

There are ways to move from relying on one or two clients — just like there are ways to move from a full-time job — that can wind up making your freelance business more successful in the long run.

20 Steps to Better Wireframing

Possibly the biggest mistake in any development project is failure to plan.

Wireframing is one of the first steps in your planning process and arguably it’s one of the most important ones. This is when the idea starts to take shape as an application, becoming boxes and buttons that users will interact with.

How To Prepare A Demo

Here's a great article on best practices on how to pitch your demo.

How to Create Effective Personas for Your Projects, Part 1

The persona is so important because it affects so many other pieces of the project -- discovery, design, QA, and even search engine optimization. A persona is the answer to the question "who are we doing all this work for?". What you know about him or her will inform your choices about how your site will be found, how it will look and how it will function.

Read Part 2 here

Visual Interface Design: The photography example

When developing user interfaces, designers increasingly use custom graphical elements. As the web browser becomes basic technology for software interfaces, more and more elements derived from graphic and web design replace the traditional desktop approaches to the concrete design of human-computer interfaces.

User (experience) research, design research, usability research, market research, ...

User research...should such a practice or offering be referred to as "user research" these days? The term is still in use (though the word "experience" often lies in the middle), but the word "user" can imply a much narrower conception of the practice than often intended.

Web Design and Development Firefox Extensions

Here's a collection of extensions for your every design and development need, from editing CSS and database management to image capture and color pickers.

In Defense of Readers

The best readers are obstinate. They possess a nearly inexhaustible persistence that drives them to read, regardless of the circumstances they find themselves in.

Site Design

In architecture as in all other operative arts, the end must direct the operation. The end is to build well. Well building hath three conditions. Commodity, firmness, and delight.
— Sir Henry Wotton, The Elements of Architecture

A New Image Replacement Technique: The State Scope Method

Image replacement is arguably one of the most important CSS-based techniques available to a web designer.

50 Excellent Icon Design Tutorials

Icons are essential in any graphical user interface. They are effective visual cues for performing tasks or navigating to a certain location. Review the 50 resources online that can help and inspire you in your own icon designs.

In this article, you’ll find a wide selection of tutorials and resources to help you learn about designing icons.

80 Large Background Websites

As the monitor resolution and internet speed is advancing, it seems like more and more designers use over-sized photo or illustrated image as the website’s background. Large background image can create the stunning visual effect, especially for high resolution monitors.

Search Patterns

Here are a few links to a new book by Peter Morville (and talk) about the future of search, and his collection of patterns and examples to support his research.

Expanding Our Horizons

The Information Architecture Summit is the premier gathering place for information architects and other user experience professionals. The conference has grown from a special interest group's efforts to define an emerging field, to a rich and expanding community of practice shaping and informing multiple disciplines.

Aviary: Vector Graphics Editor for the Web

Aviary [aviary.com] consists of a set of online graphical authoring tools, including Phoenix, an image editor along the lines of Adobe Photoshop, Peacock, a so-called "visual laboratory" for pixel-based images, and Toucan, a color palette tool.

Google Is Following Your Eyeballs

Imagine that you need a refresher on how to tie a tie. So, you decide to type [how to tie a tie] into the Google search box. Which of these results would you choose?

15 Incredibly Useful Mac Apps

If you're a mac lover [like me], you'll find this listing of Mac Apps for freelance web designers!

10 Websites to Help You Master GIMP

GIMP - which stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program - is a testament to how open source applications can successfully compete with their proprietary, commercial counterparts.

Here are 10 excellent sites that feature design tutorials and information about GIMP.

ColorMunki Design Review

Color management, it sounds complicated and technical and it is one of the most difficult aspects of graphic design. Getting color right early in the workflow, and keeping it right to the end, is increasingly critical.

Paid Search Analytics: Measuring Value of "Upper Funnel" Keywords

“How do you measure the value of “upper funnel” keywords?”

Upper funnel keywords are typically those that are used by Customers who are early in their consideration life cycle, they have not made up their mind.

30 Useful Open Source Apps for Web Designers

Here 30 exceptionally handy open source applications for web designers. There are a variety of tools here that include source code, WYSIWYG, and graphic/image editors, as well as useful software utilities that can improve your task management and production processes.

Dreamweaver CS 4 - Properties Panel and CSS

In a nutshell, Dreamweaver CS4 has made it even easier to add and modify CSS code in your web pages. View it here.

Web Design in a Recession

What's a web designer to do now that we're knee deep into a recession. How does one keep their business running. Here are some ideas on how to cope.

Web Success Without SEO Works

Stay tuned to see me outrank Matt Cutts for seo blog in the upcoming weeks and ranking top 10 for SEO in one year from now.

Recreating the button

An interesting article on creation of buttons.

Fox Tab

FoxTab is a Firefox extension that brings innovative and attractive 3D tab management to Firefox.

Lorem ipsum for web designers

Handy options in this dummy text generator, including number of words or characters, specifying pixel width, number of paragraphs (with tags), etc.

MX San Francisco

Sign up for the MX Show coming to San Francisco from March 1-3, 2009.

The Details That Matter

We no longer lay out pages with composing sticks and straight edges, and design is no longer a trade position requiring a lengthy apprenticeship, but an eye for details is every bit as important today as it was in the early days of graphic arts. Learn the habits of successful designers, who think critically as well as creatively, and who see the forest while never losing sight of the trees. Read this great article by Kevin Potts.