Saturday, January 23, 2010

50 Fabulous Flash Web Design Tools and Software

When it comes to web design, there is no doubt as a site owner or a designer you will run into Flash.

Useful Tools for Testing Cross Browser Compatibility

Building websites to work properly and look good in multiple browsers is a fact of life that web designers must deal with. By Jessica Cox

Cross-Browser Compatibility

Find The Right JavaScript Solution With A 7-Step Test

To build a complex web application or even just spice up a website with some highly interactive interface element, web developers have hundreds of pre-built solutions to choose from. By Christian Heilmann

Litmus-disable-javascript in Find The Right JavaScript Solution With A 7-Step Test

35 Beautiful E-Commerce Websites

Despite any financial recession and economic stress, online purchasing continues to grow. Expansion of the market and evolving technology that simplifies our daily lives help to set the pace of e-commerce design. By Julia May

Godiva in 35 Beautiful E-Commerce Websites

The Evolution of Apple.com

The Apple website is somewhat iconic, and over the past few years has become one of the most frequented sites on the internet.
july19971

5 tutorials to web design, the apple.com way

In terms of web design, Apple.com is a very good exemple of clean semantic code and stunning graphics. Here’s 5 high quality tutorials to design like apple.com and recreate Apple’s menubar, breadcrumbs, stylesheets…By Jean-Baptiste Jung

Apple.com accordion

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

ClickHeat

ClickHeat is a visual heatmap of clicks on a HTML page, showing hot and cold click zones. ClickHeat is an OpenSource software, released under GPL licence, and free of charge.

clickheat

Search / SEO Metrics & Analytics Questions + Answers

How do you measure success of a online webinar? By Avinash Kaushik

organic search segment

Creating a Web Page Layout with Blueprint CSS

Looking for an easy way to make a web page layout? Look no further. Darrin Koltow teaches you how to use Blueprint CSS a free CSS Framework.

1 Creating a Web Page Layout with Blueprint CSS

New Usability Testing Tool Packs Power and Simplicity

Usabilla offers a fast and simple way to collect feedback on a webpage, wireframe, mock-up or image. By Jennifer Van Grove

14 Helpful Cheat Sheets for Front-end Web Development

cheat sheet

For web developers and designers, it can be difficult to memorize the syntax for multiple programming languages and frameworks, especially since they are always evolving and growing. This is where cheat sheets come in handy. By Henry Jones

4 Rules for Pitching to Offline Clients

Being based online has its share of advantages. Clients are plentiful and easy to come by, your company can operate from anywhere in the world, and with enough promotional efforts you can easily create a long-term client base that brings in recurring income and major projects. By Mathew Carpenter

In Defense of Vertical Navigation

While a vertical navigation pattern may be more forgiving to an overtly long list of navigation links, the issue here isn’t the choice of layout—it’s the designer. By Kyle Meyer

CSS Transitions 101

Despite people’s expectation of change and movement on the screen, CSS and HTML have few controls that allow you to design interactivity, and those that exist are binary.

55 Trendy Web Design Interfaces From Deviantart

View some of the latest trends now coming up in the web landscape. By Dainis Graveris

Enimac-web-design-interface-inspiration-deviantart

30 Cutting Edge Examples Of CSS Navigation

Navigation is one of those things you have to get right in order to provide your users with easy access to your website’s content. By Tom Walker

Evan-eckard-css-navigation-inspiring-webdesign

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Modern Web Form Design

The Web has been transformed by the recent proliferation of rich interactions and social applications. But the workhorses of the online world, Web forms, have been slow to evolve with these changes. Here's a great video By Luke Wroblewski on the subject. It's 74 min., but well worth it.

Mutually Exclusive Input Groups in Web Forms

It’s not uncommon for a Web form to need some follow-up questions answered based on how people respond to an initial question. By Luke Wroblewski

Mutually Exclusive Input Groups in Web Forms

Design and Build Email Newsletters Without Losing Your Mind (and Soul)

HTML email has the reputation (often well deserved) of being a horrible design medium. By Mathew Patterson

Haystack in Design and Build Email Newsletters Without Losing Your Mind (and Soul)

Sunday, January 17, 2010

25-point website usability checklist

This website usability checklist is split into 4 roughly equal sections, (I) Accessibility, (II) Identity, (III) Navigation, and (IV) Content.

Friday, January 15, 2010

4 Rules for Pitching to Offline Clients

Being based online has its share of advantages. Clients are plentiful and easy to come by, your company can operate from anywhere in the world, and with enough promotional efforts you can easily create a long-term client base that brings in recurring income and major projects. By Mathew Carpenter

Fantastic Presentation Styles of Web Designers’ Portfolios

Portfolios are an important part of a web designer’s job hunting arsenal. In most cases they are the only thing that a prospective client or employer have to decide if you are the right person they are looking for. By Tom Kenny

UX Madness – 20 Fantastic Resources For User Experience Know How

Maybe UX (User Experience) is the new IA (Information Architecture), but you know we need some guides to make real valuable Web 2.0 things, and the only way to do it is to listen to the visitors, not just count them. By Inspiredmag

boxesandarrows

Common Practices To Increase Returning Visitors

A design is only as good as the functional usability of it. By Amey Shivapurkar

Importance of Web Interactivity: Tips and Examples

There are many elements that go into the creation of a website. A website is the best medium to communicate with users from all over the world. It is therefore essential, it should be designed in such a way that users should be attracted and be engaged on the site. This is when a website can reach its users effectively. By Poonam

Progress Trackers in Web Design: Examples and Best Practices

Progress trackers are designed to help users through a multi-step process and it is vital that such trackers be well designed in order to keep users informed about what section they are currently on, what section they have completed, and what tasks remain. By Tom Kenny

Hmv Pr in Progress Trackers in Web Design: Examples and Best Practices

Monday, January 11, 2010

Web 2.0 how-to design guide

Some web design best practices.

Alex Dukal, illustrator

An Introduction to Website Split Testing

An Introduction to Website Split Testing

It’s a fact of life that when people hire a web designer, they don’t just want a website, they want a website that does something! There can be a world of difference between these two things. By Alex Cleanthous

Sunday, January 10, 2010

The web designer's guide to user experience

Experts demystify the process behind UX design. By Craig Grannell

ux-design

10 Web Browsers You Probably Haven’t Heard Of

What if you’re looking for a browser that does just the things you want to do online? What if you’re sick of all the browser-war hubub and want something that’s truly unique and different (and, maybe, works better than the mainstream options)? What then? By Cameron Chapman

Lunascape

Friday, January 08, 2010

Create a Slick and Minimalist Web Layout in Photoshop

In this Photoshop web design tutorial, we’re going to learn how to create a slick and minimal-looking website layout. By Mahmoud Khaled

Creating the main content area

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Website Performance: What To Know and What You Can Do

Website performance is a hugely important topic, so much so that the big companies of the Web are obsessed with it. For the Googles, Yahoos, Amazons and eBays, slow websites mean fewer users and less happy users and thus lost revenue and reputation. By Christian Heilmann

Image3 in Website Performance: What To Know and What You Can Do

Monday, January 04, 2010

The Content Strategist as Digital Curator

When a site launches, your audience arrives to learn more about what you know most about. It’s critical to create a content experience with purpose, that is consistent and contextual. This helps to assert your brand’s authority, establishes relationships with your audience, and secures a return visit based on your content’s value. The content strategist-as-curator is the one who makes this happen. How?

List of Free Web Based HTML Editors For Your CMS Project

If you are developing a customized content management system for a website, blog, wiki, social network or any other web based application, your choice of HTML editor is going to have a major impact on success of your project. By W3Avenue Team

On Web Advertising

There are some websites that spend their time building content. They build it to keep visitors coming back because it’s funny or interesting or important or otherwise compelling. By Chris Coyier

5 Successful Link Building Techniques

One of the most difficult, or rather tedious jobs when running a website is getting reciprocal links. It really matters to search engines…a lot. Link building is getting your website address, be it any link from your site, placed on a remote website.

Stop Wasting My Time

How many times have you found a site that has poor implementation regarding user experience and usability?

10 Well Designed Organic Baby Websites

Being organic is becoming more of the norm rather than just another catchphrase. A lot of people are starting their kids young and turning to organic baby products. There seems to be a lot of these websites trying to sell their organic stuff but most forget about the actual website presentation. Here are 10 well designed organic baby websites that set themselves apart from most. By The Designed

Cama Organic

SEO Strategy and Your CMS; Are They Working Together?

For years now, businesses have understood the importance of search engines and how SEO can drive prospects to their websites. But with websites having a shelf life of one to two years, businesses often perform redesigns. Along with redesigns come new web development vendors and new Content Management Systems.

Creating a Web Development Environment using Google Chrome Extensions

Since its launch, an extension system has been one of the most sought after and requested features for Google Chrome, and last month, Google delivered. By Speckyboy

10 Tips for Creating Mind-Blowing Freelance Logo Designs

Creating a logo for a company, a freelancer, or even just an idea, can be a true task. Some say that it is more difficult than creating a whole theme from scratch. By Mohamed Rias

10 Tips for Creating Mind-Blowing Freelance Logo Designs

How a Web Design Goes Straight to Hell

Most freelance designers have probably suffered this before.

how a web design goes to hell

40+ Excellent GIMP Tutorials for Designers

Gimp or the GNU Image Manipulation Program is a software that enables its user to retouch, edit and manipulate photos or image. By Ronald Bien

Beautiful Post Thumbnails: Top Examples & Best Practices

Your blog post thumbnail will play a big part in how your users see your website, and how they navigate it. A well designed post thumbnail can really engage your visitors and help encourage them to explore your website.



10 Keys to Growth as a Designer

One of the most significant challenges that designers face is the need for continual improvement and development. By Steven Snell

The Best of 2009 in Flash Web Design

Flash design may have started a long time ago in the digital timespan, but it has breached yet another plateau. Now Flash has not only a foot hold, but a serious comeback in the mainstream.
By Paulo P.

xperiment.ca

Take Your HTML Tables to a New Level with JavaScript Frameworks

With basic HTML tables, the structure and the way the table are presented inherits the native html style. By Pixel Art

Showcase Of 50 Best Inspiring Gaming Websites

A great listing of gaming websites. By Gustavs Jurisons

avatar-showcase-of-best-inspiring-gaming-websites

Search & Discovery Patterns

CSS Techniques

CSS is the best thing to happen to the web since Tim Berners-Lee. It’s simple, powerful, and easy to use. But even with all its simplicity, it hides some important capabilities. Ask any designer, and they’ll tell you that the majority of their code headaches are caused and ultimately solved by CSS. By Tim Wright and TJ Kelly

Box-model in CSS Techniques I Wish I Knew When I Started Designing Websites

30 Fresh AJAX Tutorials And Techniques

Using AJAX on websites and applications is pretty much taken for granted nowadays. Users expect it. By Paul Andrew

Ajaxresources1 in 30 Fresh AJAX Tutorials And Techniques

Showcase Of Modern Navigation Design Trends

The navigation menu is perhaps a website’s single most important component. Navigation gives you a window onto the website designer’s creative ability to produce a functional yet visually impressive element that’s fundamental to most websites. By Jacob Gube

Utah-travel-navigation in Showcase Of Modern Navigation Design Trends

Three Days in Seattle

Dan Cederholm holds forth on the virtues of coffee and CSS3 at An Event Apart.

The complete schedule for An Event Apart Seattle 2010—including A Day Apart with Jeremy Keith and Dan Cederholm—is now available online for your listening and dancing pleasure.

Friday, January 01, 2010

10 Quick Tips to be Efficient With Photoshop

10 quick and useful Photoshop tips that will help you during the design process! By Nikola Lazarevic

Adding Depth with Pixel Perfect Line Work

A pixel is a single point in a raster image. Computer displays are capable of showing millions of these at a time. So how can one lone pixel have an impact on a web design? By Henry Jones

line work

Headers and Footers that Grab You Coming and Going

Headers and footers are always a big concern in web design. These two powerful sections of a website hold great importance and are always something to worry about when designing a page. By Gisele Muller

image34

image35

Coding a Band Website Created in Photoshop

Coding a Band Website Created in Photoshop

In Part 1 of this tutorial, you learned step-by-step how to design an awesome band website in Photoshop. Now in Part 2, you’ll learn how to take that PSD and turn it into clean, working XHTML/CSS code. By Shannon Noack

Best of the Web – December 2009

A great collection of various articles, tutorials and more from 2009. By PSD Tuts+

Interface Design Inspiration | 30 Impressive Ways to Design Sign-Up Page/Form

In most online business the revenue of the site solely depends on the registered and active users and Making the visitor of your site to sign up isn’t easy, nobody likes to fill in forms. By Dzineblog

A Discussion on Hourly Rates in Web Design

One of the hardest parts of starting out into full or part time web design is setting fair prices. By Build Internet

5 Steps to Building Social Experiences

Nowadays everyone wants social in their sites and applications. It’s become a basic requirement in consumer web software and is slowly infiltrating the enterprise as well. So what’s a designer to do when confronted with the requirements to “add social”? By Erin Malone

Flickr allows users to

Research Logistics

A crash course for designers and stakeholders. By Demetrius Madrigal

Five Simple but Essential Web Usability Tips

Structure web forms correctly

The web has become a part of our lives. Folks from all walks of life, from upscale parts of New York to dirt road villages you probably will never hear of in Burundi, are all a part of what we call "the internet". By Brujo Owoh