The Case for Conservative Web Site Design

Web design isn't about creativity alone. It depends crucially on reader expectations.

Essential Tips for Designing an Effective Homepage

The homepage is what many people see when first encountering a website, and it can lead to a lasting impression (negative or positive) that can affect their decision to return to it.

30 Creative Examples of Javascript Slider & Scrollers

Some days before we are using flash for buttons, gallery etc, later now JavaScript frameworks like jQuery, Mootools , Scriptallicious and Prototype replace the flash with a light weight code and we can get the same effect like flash, that gives web designers and developers a lot a space for creative thinking

But how to use them effectively in such a way it won’t distract the users attention and it should add value to the website.

How to Make a Mega Drop-Down Menu

Jon Phillips of Spyre Studios brings us a great Mega Menu tutorial. This tutorial is suitable for all levels of web designers and developers. All the files are attached so you can work your way from beginning to end.

Editorial Style

People read differently on the web, and a new writing genre designed to accommodate the reading habits of online users has emerged.

Video Demo: New and Notable on Cisco.com

Martin Hardee [Director of User Experince at Cisco] recently, put together a breezy and informal overview of some of the improvements implemented to Cisco.com. There are a couple of nifty "hidden secrets" featured on this video, so it's worth a look.



(Note that a couple of features we labeled as "Coming Soon" have already gone live in the few weeks since we recorded this for Cisco Live!)

Mastering CSS, Part 1: Styling Design Elements

Here are fresh tips and techniques for creating and styling design elements with CSS.

HTML5 and The Future of the Web

Some have embraced it, some have discarded it as too far in the future, and some have abandoned a misused friend in favor of an old flame in preparation. Whatever side of the debate you’re on, you’ve most likely heard all the blogging chatter surrounding the “new hotness” that is HTML5.

35 Beautiful Photography Websites

Interest in photography has exploded over the last 10 years, largely thanks to the developments in digital photography.

CSS 3 Cheat Sheet (PDF)

Here's a CSS 3 cheat sheet that provides the main features of CSS 3 in a handy, printable reference card.

Quality-Price-Ratio in Web Design (Pricing Design Work)

The quality of a design and the monetary cost of producing or procuring that design have absolutely no relationship whatsoever.

40 Really Useful Photoshop Text Effect Tutorials

No matter you want to design a banner or logo, text effect is very important. Why? It is because a beautiful text effect on the banner or logo will attracts the visitor and also delivers a better message.

110 Fresh Logo Designs For Design Inspiration

A logo is a graphical element that, together with its logotype (a uniquely set and arranged typeface) form a trademark or commercial brand.

Beating The Creative Blocks – A Creative Discussion #1 Wrap-up

How do you beat the creative block? This is a question we often tackle alone, but it seems that when it is opened up for discussion, we have a lot of the same ideas and ways we deal with the blocks that bar us from getting our creativity on.

6 Easy Ways To Cure A Nasty Case Of Redesign-itis

Why d0 you redesign so many times? Why weren't you happy with those previous designs?

8 Important SEO Techniques To Kickstart Your Website

When you are starting a website or blog, it is important to have your search engine optimizing techniques ready. Search Engine Optimizing (SEO) is important, because if SEO is implanted correctly, the search engines supply a large number of visitors for your site.

28 Sites Producing Podcasts And Screencasts To Help You Grow As A Designer And Developer

Reading blogs and tutorials is pretty good, in fact it’s great! You can learn a lot by doing this, but actually seeing and hearing (video and/or audio format), is a whole different world.

Rejected Designs and What We Should Do With Them

When it comes to web design, a standard practice in the industry is to create multiple mock-ups of a design and have the client choose which one they think is most suitable like the most. What usually happens is that rejected designs get thrown away or stored deep down in the murky depths of a hard drive somewhere to never be seen again.

30 Awesome and Well Designed Mac App Websites

Here you can admire 30 absolutely amazing mac software, iphone app websites. Feel free to download any cool app when you are browsing through.

9 Essential Firefox Add-ons for Easy Web Development

If there is one reason web designers love using Firefox, it must be the huge variety of add-ons. Firefox is very flexible. There are thousands of add-ons available on Mozilla’s site and we can add them to our Firefox freely.

Using htaccess files for pretty URLS

While some claim pretty URLs help in search engine rankings, the debate here is fierce, we can all agree that pretty URLs make things easier for our users and adds a level of professionalism and polish to any web application.

20 Inspirational, Clean E-Commerce Website Designs

Many e-commerce websites tend to get very cluttered and suffer from not being user friendly. In this post you'll see a showcase of 20 e-commerce sites that have taken a different approach.

9 Characteristics of Well-Designed E-Commerce Websites

E-commerce web design and development presents some unique challenges that you won’t always face with other types of web design.

How to Make Your Web Design Stand out from the Crowd

All web designers want their work to stand out from the crowd … but what does that take?

Seven Reasons to Switch Web Analytics Tools

Most organizations are on their third or fourth Web analytics tool by now. The funny part is that some are switching from tool A to tool B, while others are switching from tool B to tool A. Are they all so bad? Yes, they are -- and here are the reasons.

20 Excellent Examples of Using Animals in Web Design

Well-drawn animal illustrations can make for a fantastic design element for websites and web applications.

HOW Designers’ Bootcamps

The HOW Designers’ Bootcamps are a series of in-depth, seminar-style workshops designed to help you grow your design business, finesse your career, perfect your marketing efforts or move smoothly into web design

Amazing Watercolor Effect in Pixelmator

This tutorial will show you how to create a really cool effect using some watercolor brushes mixed with photos.

The UXD Stack: Looking At Projects

Many people in our profession use different kinds of “briefs” when they get started on a project. A brief is a short paper defining the background and preliminary understanding for a project. Some of these documents are called “Strategic Briefs” or “Creative Briefs”.

Optimise your site for iPhones

Craig Grannell explores some ideas for fine-tuning websites for Apple’s increasingly popular smartphone and its very smart browser, Mobile Safari.

Navigation and Wayfinding

In his book The Image of the City (1960), Kevin Lynch coined the term “wayfinding” to describe his concept of environmental legibility—that is, the elements of the built environment that allow us to navigate successfully through complex spaces like cities and towns.

SEO and Website Design

Ben McKay is a SEO Manager for Mediaedge:cia, WPP, and writes about SEO consulting and the evolving challenges in his blog, Just Me and My.

PNG Optimization Guide: More Clever Techniques

As a web designer you might be already familiar with the PNG image format which offers a full-featured transparency. It’s a lossless, robust, very good replacement of the elder GIF image format.

The Definitive Guide to Using Negative Margins

Out of all the CSS concepts designers have ever used, an award probably needs to be given to the use of Negative Margins as being the most least talked about method of positioning.

Text rotation with CSS

Jonathan Snook shares a simple example that works in Safari, Firefox and even Internet Explorer (using the Basic Image filter).

50+ Fresh and Unique Personal Portfolio Websites

Designers have an urge to stand out as unique, specially when building their own portfolio websites to showcase their work and skills to future employers.

40+ Vector Characters Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop Tutorials

Having a unique design is a must to get your visitor’s attention. Vector characters can establish a memorable image of your site in the reader’s mind.

35 Inspirational Shopping Cart Page Designs

Shopping carts are an integral part of the online shopping experience. E-commerce designers face challenges in creating an attractive, yet user-friendly, website that will provide customers with a pleasant purchasing experience.

GIMP Training Videos

Probably more known to the Linux users, GIMP is an GNU Image Manipulation Program, also available, though not supported officially for Windows.