How to Design Browser Themes

The web browser is probably one of the most frequently used applications on a person’s computer. For designers and developers, a browser theme can be canvas that provides hours of exposure to the artist or brand willing to create a theme for their fan base. By Patrick Murphy

A Commonsense Approach to Improving SEO of Images and Videos

Search engine spiders haven’t yet evolved to the point where they can directly extract the meaning from a visual medium such as a photo or a video. Instead, search engines must rely on the metadata we provide them through alt attributes, title attributes, surrounding elements (for context), and so on. By Alex Galasso

Avoiding Unscoped Work from Unreasonable Clients

Have you ever had a dispute with a client? Most freelancers and contractors will answer this question with a resounding "no" because we tend to think of disputes as something which results in court proceedings, or at least, the intervention of lawyers. By Margaret Burrell

Server Headers 101 (Infographic)

For newbies in the business of crafting websites, the purpose and technicality behind server header responses can often be a little mind baffling to get to grips with. By Oli Archibald

The Overblown Excitement Around Modern Web Browsers

In the past few months, there has been a lot of talk around modern web browsers (Firefox 4, Chrome, IE9, etc.). The software application we use to navigate to our favorite websites is seeing tremendous attention, increased competition amongst its vendors, and advancements in its features. By Jason Gross

Effective Communication Tips for Web Designers

We lay increasing importance on doing things in the user’s best interest and meeting their expectations, but we often forget that content and design is the window to a website’s soul.

Our designs tell visitors something about us and build emotional bonds to brands through first impressions and reputation. By Alexander Dawson

Multivariate Testing 101: A Scientific Method Of Optimizing Design

In a multivariate test, a Web page is treated as a combination of elements (including headlines, images, buttons and text) that affect the conversion rate. Essentially, you decompose a Web page into distinct units and create variations of those units. By Paras Chopra

Fundamental Guidelines Of E-Commerce Checkout Design

Here is the harsh reality of e-commerce websites: according to recent e-commerce studies, at least 59.8% of potential customers abandon their shopping cart (MarketingSherpa puts it at 59.8%, SeeWhy at 83% and MarketLive at 62.14%). The main question is why do customers abandon their shopping cart so often? By Christian Holst

Useful JavaScript and jQuery Tools, Libraries, Plugins

Good information regarding JavaScript and jQuery tools, libraries and plugins. By Smashing Magazine

Taking Credit Card Payments Online: What’s Involved?

If you’re looking to integrate a credit card payment solution onto your website, the following steps are a guide to applying for, enabling and taking payments online. By Leigh Mason

Make Your Content Make a Difference

Content, content, content. It’s an obvious part of any interactive experience. In fact, you’ve probably heard content is king, or queen, or some sort of royalty. Yet, content is elusive. Often, you don’t realize your content isn’t cutting it until it’s too late. Does any of this sound familiar? By Colleen Jones

Powerful New CSS Techniques and Tools

Here are examples of great CSS techniques. By Smashing Magazine

Showcase of Creative Navigation Menus: Good and Bad Examples

Good navigation is the main cornerstone of an effective website. In practice, however, it’s often a tough challenge to come up with a meaningful, unambiguous way to organize, arrange, and display content to users; and it’s often not much easier to find a visually interesting solution either. By Sarah & Adrienne Kahn

Smashing Magazine CSS3 vs. CSS: A Speed Benchmark

Trent believes in the power, speed and “update-ability” of CSS3. Not having to load background images as structural enhancements (such as PNGs for rounded corners and gradients) can save time in production (i.e. billable hours) and loading (i.e. page speed). By Trent Walton

Are your users S.T.U.P.I.D?

It is an honest question: how smart are your users? The answer may surprise you: it doesn’t matter. They can be geniuses or morons, but if you don’t engage their intelligence, you can’t depend on their brain power. By Stephen Turbek

Conversation is the New Attention

Most online content today is stuck. It has roots firmly planted in one of the many sites and applications around the web. By Cameron Koczon

Looking Beyond Google PageRank: Alternative SEO Metrics

When it comes to SEO, Google’s PageRank (PR), which is the most used SEO ranking metric, is vague and unhelpful. Although most SEOs would agree that it’s an indication of a page’s popularity (or power), it’s unclear why that’s so or exactly how popular a ranked website is. By Modi Mann

5 SEO Tips for The Everyday Web Designer/Developer

With proper planning, optimizations can be implemented to help a site rank high in the search results without compromising the aesthetics and functionality of the site. By Youthedesigner

How To Create a Slick Navigation Bar In Adobe Fireworks

Great tips using Fireworks to create a navigation bar for your website. By Spyrestudios

Top 6 Mistakes to Avoid in Mobile Usability

Mobile applications are important for providing users with an alternate means of accessing your web page, as well as keeping connected anywhere and at any time. By Spyrestudios

How to Juggle Multiple Projects and Clients Without Going Crazy

Let’s face it: it’s hard working on multiple things at once. Focusing on just one thing is much easier than trying to juggle multiple projects and clients. By Spyrestudios

25 Essential Android Apps For Web-Workers And Designers

Here are 25 Android apps that I think can be very useful to designers, developers and web-workers. You’ll find editors, reference guides, blogging tools, image editing tools and more. By Spyrestudios

Top 5 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Create Trendy Designs

Following trends is a part of many creators in all creative mediums: design, fashion, music, film, whatever. It’s only natural: you see what people want, then you give it to them. What’s the problem, you might ask? By Spyrestudios

The Ultimate 20 Usability Tips for Your Website

Usability is ridiculously important to your website. It doesn’t matter how cool your website looks or how amazing your content is if visitors can’t quickly, easily, and enjoyably access and use it. Many of them will eventually just give up and look elsewhere. By Spyrestudios

The User Experience And Psychology Of Color

There are some cultural influences on color as well, and people need to take these sorts of things into account when designing sites, but there also seem to be some ideas that cross over cultural lines. By Spyrestudios

Usability Best Practices For eCommerce Websites

Usability – a term that we hear almost everywhere we go on the web and for good reason. Good usability can mean the difference between one site’s success and the downfall of another. By Spyrestudios

Curing the Navigation-itis Syndrome

More and more content is being published everyday and site owners need to find ways to categorize all this content. And with more content and categories comes greater navigation problems. Sometimes navigation becomes a problem when there are simply too many options. By Spyrestudios

Showcase of 20 Minimalist Grid-Based Web Designs

Minimalism doesn’t rhyme with grid systems, but many grid-based websites will feature a stripped down and clean design and make great use of typography. After all, it’s all about letting the content shine. By Spyrestudios

Top 15+ Best Practices for Writing Super Readable Code

Code readability is a universal subject in the world of computer programming. It’s one of the first things we learn as developers. This article will detail the fifteen most important best practices when writing readable code. By Net Tuts+

How to Spot and Avoid Web Copy that Kills Websites

Web designers and developers sacrifice countless hours and sleep sorting out clients’ objectives, audiences’ needs, brand continuity, page layouts, information architecture, navigation, functionality, cross-browser compatibility, accessibility — the list goes on. And then the web copy finally arrives. By Webdesigner Depot

Design a Blue Corporate Website Layout in Photoshop

Here's a step-by-step process for designing a homepage for a corporate website in Photoshop. By Vandelay Design

Apply Graphics to Textured Surfaces With Displacement Maps

Do you ever wonder how Photoshop masters create such realistic compositions? By Joshua Johnson

35 Nice Single Page Web Designs

Some beautiful single page web designs for your inspiration. Enjoy! By Brant Wilson

Speed Up with CSS3 Gradients

Safari 4+, Chrome 1+, Firefox 3.6+, and Opera 11.10+ are all now supporting CSS3 gradients. This wide browser support makes using them for progressive enhancement all the more appealing. By CSS Tricks

20 Great Sign Up Form Examples to Learn From

Sign up forms come in many different shapes and sizes. Some are a single field, others are a multi-step process that stretch over several screens. By Joshua Johnson

Expand Your Online Presence With a Nice vCard

There was a time when every business person carried a pack of business cards for handing out to new acquaintances, some of whom would never use them anyway. By CrazyLeaf

3 Tips to Manage Content Updates

Throughout the busy workday, your email box may flicker with requests from clients to change or update content on their sites. These seemingly simple assignments can be distracting and quickly accumulate into a time-devouring pile if not managed effectively. By Design Blog

Web Design and Development Inspiration

Here's a web design showcase that aims to not only showcase the best and most innovative web design styles currently available, it also aims to give you a visual overview of current web design trends and highlight the latest in innovative web technologies. By Speckyboy

Working With and Optimizing Images for the Web

Images can make or break a website, whether that be adding a humanist feel to a site, adding animation and mouse over effects or finalizing that amazing design that just can’t be achieved with CSS alone. By Speckyboy

10 Essential Web Application Usability Guidelines

Users should be able to simply, quickly, and intuitively use any web app, like with any tool in life, be it a car, phone, or anything else. By Speckyboy

Why Making Web Apps with Rails Is Awesome

Learn how to utilize Ruby on Rails for making web apps. By Marc Gayle

From Nothing to Something: Story of a Self-Taught Designer

Many of us in the web design and web development field are self-taught. To one extent or another, we taught ourselves at least the fundamentals and rudiments of the field before going to a college or joining a design firm. By Michael Tuck

4 Steps to Building a Portfolio Website Using Drupal

If you’re building a website for a client or yourself that requires a number of images to be presented in a gallery format — for example, if you’re a web designer, photographer, sculptor, painter or graphic designer — Drupal has some out-of-the-box solutions to help you organize and present your information. By Monica S. Flores

Using Design Tools to Become a One-Man Design Team

As designers, we can often find ourselves on a bit of an island. Whether we are working independently or at an in-house position, there are times when we are left to fill many job roles that merit an entire design team. By Aaron Irizarry

Speeding Up Your Website’s Database

Website speed has always been a big issue, and it has become even more important since April 2010, when Google decided to use it in search rankings. However, the focus of the discussion is generally on minimizing file sizes, improving server settings and optimizing CSS and Javascript. By Paul Tero

How to Choose a Typeface

Choosing a typeface can be tricky. The beauty and complexity of type, combined with an inexhaustible supply of options to evaluate, can make your head spin. But don’t be baffled — and don’t despair. By Douglas Bonneville

Photo Retouching Tips And Tricks In Photoshop

Here are some great Photoshop retouching tips and tricks. By Dirk Metzmacher

Get Started Developing For Android With Eclipse, Reloaded

In the first part of this tutorial series, you'll learn how to built a simple brew timer application using Android and Eclipse. In second part, it will cover developing the application by adding extra functionality. By Chris Blunt

Designing For The Future Web

Designing for the future Web. That’s a big subject. Where do we start when we’re talking about something that isn’t here yet? By James Gardner

How To Use CSS3 Pseudo-Classes

CSS3 is a wonderful thing, but it’s easy to be bamboozled by the transforms and animations (many of which are vendor-specific) and forget about the nuts-and-bolts selectors that have also been added to the specification. By Richard Shepherd