10 Web-based Sandbox Tools for Testing Your Code Snippets

One of the greatest benefits the Internet provides web developers is the ability to share and collaborate with other professionals. When you’ve hit a coding roadblock, you can reach out on your social networks to see if your friends can give you a hand. By Jacob Gube

Upcoming Web Design and Development Conferences in 2011-12

Here's a list of upcoming web events in 2011 and 2012. By Louis Lazaris

The S.M.A.R.T. User Experience Strategy

There’s a fundamental problem with stating that your goal is to “create a good user experience.” It’s not specific, directly measurable, actionable, relevant or trackable. Thus, it will create disagreement and disorganization, sending many projects into chaos. However, we can avoid this by using S.M.A.R.T. goal-setting criteria when defining user and business goals. By Dickson Fong

CSS3 Flexible Box Layout Explained

The flexible box layout module — or “flexbox,” to use its popular nickname — is an interesting part of the W3C Working Draft. By Richard Shepherd

How Metrics Can Make You A Better Designer

User analytics are what you might get from Google Analytics, KISSmetrics or Mixpanel. They tell you things like which pages users have viewed the most, which call-to-action buttons they’ve clicked, and how many tasks they’ve performed while using your product. They can also show you where people drop out of critical flows, such as registration and purchasing. By Laura Klein

Improving The Online Shopping Experience, Part 2

Great tips looking at ways to enable customers to make the decision to buy and to guide them through the check-out process. By Lyndon Cerjo

Content Prototyping In Responsive Web Design

A content prototype is an HTML-and-CSS-based fluid-grid prototype, consisting of layout and typography, that consists of the project’s actual content. Its greatest usefulness may be in determining where to apply media queries to make the Web design responsive. By Ben Callahan

Conversation Techniques For Designers

This creation of visual artifact is widely regarded as our most effective means of communicating thought through a product. However, creating a product takes more than just documentation, and much of it is communicated not visually, but verbally. By Darren Geraghty

The Whys And The Hows Of Textures In Web Design

Due to its frequent misuse, its benefits have long been overlooked. Texture can bring a website together, but should not be the main focus. By Jon Savage & Simon H.

A Quick Look Into The Math Of Animations With JavaScript

There is a lot of math in the visual things we do, even if we don’t realize it. If you want to make something look natural and move naturally, you need to add a bit of physics and rounding to it. By Christian Hellmann

Improve The User Experience By Tracking Errors

It’s easy to see your top-visited pages, navigation patterns and conversion metrics using visitor-tracking tools like Google Analytics. However, this data doesn’t show the roadblocks that users typically run into on your website. By Lara Swanson

Resizing: Fixed, Fluid, or Responsive Layouts

A fluid or liquid layout is designed with percentage-​​based widths, so that the container stretches when you resize the browser window. By Jason Beaird

Beauty vs. Function: On Redesigning

The thought of producing the best possible design, either from scratch or redesigning something, gives jitters to the heart of many designers. Even professionals in the field can’t quite balance beauty and function. By Rean John Uehara

When is the Perfect Time to Redesign Your Website?

Very rarely will the people who visit your site return because of your website’s design. Their only priority is finding the content, information, or product they want and it’s important that your site has what your customer is looking for. By Salman Saeed

6 terrible web design trends

Here‘s an eleven-year-old article discussing the web’s worst design mistakes. By Mathew Carpenter

How a content management system can ruin your search engine positions

A content management system (known as a CMS) is a facility that allows a user to manage text, images, etc on their web site without having any web design skills. By Texelate

How to add a good contact form to your website

Contact/enquiry forms are the lifeblood of a lead generation website. If you can’t get enquiries the website is pretty much useless. This blog post simply outlines how to add a good contact form to your website. By Texelate

Should you disclose your web design budget?

The web design budget is of great interest to both parties involved. The client wants to know how much it will cost his or her business and the web designer wants to know whether it’s viable to take the job on. By Texelate

Make your text easy to read

It’s much easier to read a book than it is to read text on a website. Website visitors tend to be impatient and scan quickly through content. As a website owner you want to make your site’s content as easy to read as possible. So here are some points detailing how to make your website’s text easy to read. By Texelate

Dark and Powerful Web Designs – 22 Superb Examples

When choosing the color palette for your website, it’s important to make sure it gives that exact feeling you want to pass on to your readers. It also needs to fit in with the rest of your concept. By Reencoded

4 Creative Ways to Attract More Visitors to Your Website

Taking a website from zero to a few hundred or even a few thousand visitors a month is not easy, but it's eminently doable -- as long as you recognize a harsh truth about the Internet:

The online world is an attention economy. Attention is finite, and therefore scarce. So if you want people to pay attention to you, you need to earn it. By Mark McGuinness

Sideways headers

How to make header tags rotated 90-degrees and align along the left of a blog of content rather than at the top. By Chris Coyier

Fold out popups

The trick with using hidden checkboxes/radio buttons, the :checked pseudo class selector, and adjacent sibling (~) combinators really enables some neat functional possibility with pure CSS. By CSS-Tricks

Project Management Apps for Freelancers and Designers

Managing client projects is a major requirement for efficiency and for creating a positive experience for clients. Regardless of whether you freelance, work for a small agency, or work for a large agency, there are a lot of details and communication involved in client projects. Having an efficient system for managing those projects is essential. By Vandelay Design

Design Trend: Ribbons, Badges and Banners

If you browse around many websites, especially design galleries, you’ve probably noticed the trends of using elements like ribbons, badges, and banners in web design. Ribbons with a 3D look are especially popular right now. By Vandelay Design

Showcase of Sketches and Doodles in Web Design

Using a hand-drawn style of design is one way to create an interesting web design that visitors will remember. There are a lot of different approaches to using doodles and sketches, and in this post we’ll showcase examples for your own inspiration. By Vandelay Design

Mobile First (book) Release Date

 

Mobile First is a short but information-packed book that makes the case for why Web sites and applications should increasingly be designed for mobile first. By Luke Wroblewski

Why Separate Mobile & Desktop Web Pages?

As use of mobile devices continues to skyrocket across the globe, we're seeing more ways to tackle the challenge of creating great Web experiences across multiple devices. But which approach is right for any given project? By Luke Wroblewski

30 Beautiful Clean and Simple Web Designs for Inspiration

Beautiful typography, strategic use of colors and graphics, and obstruction-free aesthetics devoid of visual clutter are a few of the characteristics shared among web designs that are clean and simple. By Jacob Gube

Breaking The Rules: A UX Case Study

Design guidelines aren’t one size fits all. Sometimes you can improve a process by breaking a few rules. The trick is knowing which rules to break for a particular project. By Laura Klein

From Monitor To Mobile: Optimizing Email Newsletters With CSS

HTML email has a reputation for being a particularly tough design medium. So tough, in fact, that many designers regard coding and testing even the simplest email design to be almost as bad as fixing display quirks in Internet Explorer 6, and only slightly better than a tooth extraction. By Ros Hodgekiss

New Approaches To Designing Log-In Forms

 

For many of us, logging into websites is a part of our daily routine. In fact, we probably do it so often that we’ve stopped having to think about how it’s done… that is, until something goes wrong: we forget our password, our user name, the email address we signed up with, how we signed up, or even if we ever signed up at all. By Luke Wroblewski

The Semantic Grid System: Page Layout For Tomorrow

 

CSS grid frameworks can make your life easier, but they’re not without their faults. Fortunately for us, modern techniques offer a new approach to constructing page layouts. By Tyler Tate

How To Become A Web Design Expert

Have you ever wanted to take a client by the collar, shake them around vigorously and demand that they take you seriously because you are the expert? If so, you are not alone. By Paul Boaq

The UX Of Long-Term Relationships

Taking a customer from like to love. By Des Traynor

The Lost Art Of Design Etiquette

 

The great divide between designers and developers is well documented. Designers complain when developers would rather backgrounds not have any images. Developers gripe when given a Photoshop document with missing fonts. If those were the only problems we face, we’d be thrilled. By Dan Rose

Optimize Images With HTML5 Canvas

Images have always been the heaviest component of websites. Even if high-speed Internet access gets cheaper and more widely available, websites will get heavier more quickly. By Sergey Chiluyonok

Elements Of A Viral Launch Page

Google+, Hipster, Connect.me and Instagram! They all hit a gazillion users in no time at all — and you can even read all about it in everyday media today. This is every product creator’s dream. By Simon Schmid

Reliable Cross-Browser Testing, Part 1: Internet Explorer

In a perfect world, cross-browser testing would be straightforward. We would download a legacy version of a browser, run it, and be able to instantly test our pages and scripts without a single care in the world. By Addy Osmani

A Primer on A/B Testing

Data is an invaluable tool for web designers who are making decisions about the user experience. A/B tests, or split tests, are one of the easiest ways to measure the effect of different design, content, or functionality. By Lara Swanson

Making up Stories: Perception, Language, and the Web

Storytelling is a buzzword with lots of different interpretations. Either the internet is killing stories, or it’s the best thing to happen to them since the printing press.

 By Elizabeth McGuane/Randall Snare

30 Beautiful Clean and Simple Web Designs for Inspiration

Beautiful typography, strategic use of colors and graphics, and obstruction-free aesthetics devoid of visual clutter are a few of the characteristics shared among web designs that are clean and simple. By Jacob Gube

Top 10 Mobile Web Development JavaScript Frameworks

Creating web apps and sites for the Mobile Web has its own sets of challenges and techniques. From UIs optimized for fingers instead of mouse cursors to the bandwidth limitations that most portable personal devices have, developing for mobile devices requires a paradigm shift for those of us who’ve traditionally created products aimed at desktops. By Jacob Gube

How To Build A Better Web Application For Your Business

Are you fed up with hearing about yet another Silicon Valley Web application built with fairy dust and funded by magic pixies? If so, this post is for you. By Paul Boag

Mastering Photoshop Techniques: Layer Styles

Layer Styles are nothing new. They’ve been used and abused again and again. Despite their ubiquity, or perhaps because of it, many designers do not yet realize the full potential of this handy menu. Its beauty lies in our ability to create an effect and then copy, modify, export, hide or trash it, without degrading the content of the layer. By Thomas Giannattasio

Web Governance: Becoming an Agent of Change

What is web governance? That’s a difficult question to answer, because business language is slippery and organizations and modern web management are complex. By A List Apart

Web Strategy: A Definition

In order to be effective, a Web strategy should address not just how an organization will address the wants and needs of its customer or user base, but also how the organization will make that user experience happen operationally. By Welchman Pierpoint

Web Content Strategy: Sites vs Apps

Website content should be easy to read. Your eyes should easily scan through the text and end the article with little effort or eyestrain. By Contentini

Engaging Readers with Compelling Web Content

The inverted pyramid. Who, what, where, when, why and how. These are some of the things my editors harped on back when I was a cub reporter learning the ropes of journalism. By Derek Smith

60 Effective Examples of Call to Action Buttons

Creating an effective website is highly detrimental in the success of a business. In any type of online businesses, the websites act as a tool of communication between the company and the customers. Thus, the action buttons play a major role in making the website successful one. By Designmodo

40+ Websites with Unusual Navigation

Navigation is the most important part of a website without which no website can effectively operate. Achieving unique navigation that effectively fulfills its purpose is nearly akin to climbing Mount Everest. Having a unique navigation with perfect functionality makes the website easy to navigate, thus ensuring a better users experience. By Aquil Akhter

Showcase of Web Design In Argentina

Argentina is a melting pot of races and cultures, and its people have developed a complex identity. Tango, political passion and soccer are just some of the features of this South American country’s make-up. By Marilina Maraviglia

The Best Email Newsletters for Designers

The web/graphic design community includes a huge number of active blogs that post articles, tutorials, inspiration, and other types of content. Design blogs are a part of the daily routine for many designers, but there are also several quality email newsletters that cover topics related to design and development. By Vandelay Design

Designers Using Freebies to Grow Their Business

With so much competition out there, freelance designers are always looking for new ways to stand out from the crowd. Some designers have used free resources to build their reputation. By Vandelay Design

Restaurant Websites: Inspiration and Options

Restaurants that use their websites effectively are able to have a significant impact on their business. Whether it is allowing customers to view menus and specials, find a location, make reservations, sign up for a mailing list, or place an order online, there are a lot of ways that restaurants can benefit from a website. By Vandelay Design

25 Ecommerce Websites for Your Design Inspiration

Ecommerce websites can be one of the more challenging types of websites for designers. There is a lot that needs to be considered and the design decisions can have a significant impact on the effectiveness of the website at converting visitors to customers. By Vandelay Design

50 Fireworks Tutorials for Designers

Although Fireworks doesn’t get as much attention as Photoshop, for web designers it can be as good or a better tool for many tasks as compared to Photoshop. By Vandelay Design

Showcase of Patterns in Web Design

Patterns can be used in web design as a visual focal point, or they can be used subtly to add character to a design. The use of subtle patterns is very popular at the moment. In many cases subtle patterns are used on backgrounds instead of a flat, solid color or a heavy texture that might dominate the design. By Vandelay Design

40 Dribbble Shots for Mobile and UI App Design Inspiration

Mobile designers have become more prominent in today’s extensible web. iOS and Android apps have flooded the markets and earned a lot of money for some small development studios. The smartphone era has taken off with a huge buzz, and now app designers and developers are in high demand. By Jake Rocheleau

Resize Images in a Post with jQuery, and turn it into a plugin

If you own a blog, chances are you post pictures in your posts once in a while. Likewise, you have probably encountered the problem of resizing the pictures so that they fit in the post. By Alexandre Smirnov

30 Interesting 404 Pages

A 404 error page shows up when user tries to browse to a web page that doesn’t exist anymore. The link may be broken, moved, or never existed. In this post are 30 interesting 404 pages for your inspiration. By Brant Wilson

30 Free And High Quality Fonts

Great listing of 'free' fonts. By Brant Wilson

35 Beige Websites

Various site using beige as its background color. By Brant Wilson

4 Money Saving Tips That You Should Follow

Some great money saving tips when running your business. By Rochester Oliveira

Essential E-Commerce Website Features: Tips and Examples

There are many different approaches you can take when designing an e-store. However, you might notice that effective e-commerce websites have certain site features that are absolutely critical to the shopper’s experience. By Mohammad Moradi

How to Develop Your Website’s Tone of Voice

How to define the distinction between tone of voiceand voice itself. By Ailsa Patridge

Designing For Android

For designers, Android is the elephant in the room when it comes to app design. As much as designers would like to think it’s an iOS world in which all anyones cares about are iPhones, iPads and the App Store, nobody can ignore that Android currently has the majority of smartphone market share and that it is being used on everything from tablets to e-readers. In short, the Google Android platform is quickly becoming ubiquitous, and brands are starting to notice. By Dan McKenzie

Best Practices For Designing Websites For Kids

Designing websites and related media for kids presents plenty of opportunities for Web designers. Openings are available at many businesses and schools, as well as through parents and kids themselves, giving designers many ways to find work on electronic and print projects that appeal to kids. By David Morrison

My Favorite Programming Mistakes

Some great insight to programming mistakes by Paul Tero

Inside Google’s User Experience Lab

Marcin Wichary’s fascination with the relationship between humans and machines began at an early age. As a boy in Poland, he was mesmerized by the interaction between arcade patrons and the video games they played. By Dan Redding

Picking A Mobile Support Strategy For Your Website

The number of people browsing the Web from a mobile device has more than tripled since 2009, and it is sure to continue growing, with browser platforms such as iOS and Android offering mobile browser support that is almost identical to what we have come to expect from a desktop experience. By Matt Lawson

Behind The Scenes Of Nike Better World

Perhaps one of the most talked about websites in the last 12 months has been Nike Better World. It’s been featured in countless Web design galleries, and it still stands as an example of what a great idea and some clever design and development techniques can produce. By Richard Shepherd

Learning To Use The :before And :after Pseudo-Elements In CSS

If you’ve been keeping tabs on various Web design blogs, you’ve probably noticed that the :before and :after pseudo-elements have been getting quite a bit of attention in the front-end development scene — and for good reason. By Louis Lazaris

Email Newsletters Worth Subscribing To

Staying on top of the most recent developments in your craft takes time, especially when you have to scan websites daily for articles and news worthy of your attention. By Stephan Poppe

Seven Guidelines For Designing High-Performance Mobile User Experiences

A positive first impression is essential to relationships. People look for trust and integrity, and they expect subsequent encounters to reflect and reinforce their first impression. The same principles apply to brands and their products. Design plays an important role in building lasting relationships with end users and, thus, in supporting the brand’s promise. By Ivo Weevers

Create An HTML/CSS Mobile Web App Using Sencha Touch

The world of mobile app development is quickly becoming a crowded and complicated space, especially for those outside of the development niche. “Which development platform should I use?” “Do I go native or Web-based?” “Which devices should I plan for?” “Can I build my mobile website by hand or should I use a pre-built package?” The questions are endless. By Jen Gordon

Lessons Learned: Productivity Tips For Running A Web Design Business

It didn’t work out as you expected, did it? The freelance life was supposed to give you more time with the family and free you from that incompetent boss. You even thought you might be better off financially. Instead, you’re working longer hours and under constant stress, worrying about various aspects of your business. By Paul Boaq

Responsive Web Design Techniques, Tools and Design Strategies

Responsive design continues to get a lot of attention, but considering how different it is from the “traditional” way of designing websites, it can be a bit overwhelming for those designers who have yet to try it. By Smashing Magazine

The Generalists In The Web Design Industry

In recent years there has been a move away from generalist Web designers to specialists such as content strategists, user experience architects and front-end coders. Where once there was a single job, there are now many, with ever-narrower spheres of responsibility. By Paul Boaq

What Web Designers Can Learn From Video Games

Games are becoming more Web-like, and the Web is becoming more game-like. If you need proof of this, you have only to look at Yahoo Answers. By Anne Sallee Miles

CSS3 Bling in the Real World

All you disco-dancing designers out there (no more anticipation of alliteration) have been loving the new features CSS3 provides for making websites look cool in an easier, less hackish, and more straightforward fashion. By Chris Mills

The UX of Learning

While many desk-shackled students may wish they were napping rather than enduring yet another monotonous lecture, learning is by no means confined within the classroom. By Tyler Tate