Simulate Realism with CSS3
February 16th, 2010 — 35 Comments
CSS3 is here to make our lives easier as web designers and developers. While it’s not something we can always rely on heavily for layout purposes just yet, we can use it to enhance certain aspects of our designs by spending a considerably less amount of time doing so.
However, CSS3 has not been created for the sole purpose of making it easier and quicker to create a website but also so we can create much better sites than we ever could with CSS before. Here are a few examples of how CSS3 can improve the web.
Read more...Code a Backwards Compatible, One Page Portfolio with HTML5 and CSS3
January 25th, 2010 — 51 Comments
HTML5 is the future of web development but believe it or not you can start using it today. HTML5 is much more considerate to semantics and accessibility as we don’t have to throw meaningless div’s everywhere. It introduces meaningful tags for common elements such as navigations and footers which makes much more sense and are more natural.
This is a run through of the basics of HTML5 and CSS3 while still paying attention to older browsers. Before we start, make note of the answer to this question. Do websites need to look exactly the same in every browser?
View Demo | Download Files (.zip)
How to Create a Theme Development Environment for a Live WordPress Site
January 11th, 2010 — 47 Comments
Any good website owner knows that they need to be constantly looking at ways to improve their site even through small little tweaks. If you’re using WordPress you’ll notice that it isn’t easy to create a development version without creating a separate installation. Of course, you can make changes directly on a live WordPress site but that isn’t recommended for anything other than minor tweaks.
With the help of an excellent plugin for WordPress called Theme switch and preview, this tutorial will allow you to easily switch between the live site and development versions using two different themes on the same installation of WordPress. We’ll do this by creating a bar at the top of the page which will clearly show you if you’re viewing the live theme (what everyone else sees) or the development theme with a link to switch between the two.
While there may well be a Worpdress plugin that does everything below, it’s much more rewarding and satisfying to create your own solution.
Read more...Four Different Ways of Implementing Twitter on your Site
October 26th, 2009 — 17 Comments
Twitter has become one of the most popular forms of social media in use on the web today and it has been widely adopted by web designers and developers alike. There are many ways of integrating Twitter onto your site.
By integrating Twitter with your site, you can get a community discussing your brand or service which doubles up as a great way of promotion. Here is a look at some of the most useful and interesting methods to get you started.
Read more...Advanced Photoshop Techniques that you may not be aware of
October 22nd, 2009 — 73 Comments
Photoshop is one of the most widely tools used for web design. Most web designers don’t use all of the great things that Photoshop can do. It’s easy to get stuck in your ways but instead you should be looking to further improve your skills and learn new techniques to improve your web design work, work flow and productivity.
The following are advanced Photoshop techniques that can help with your day to day use of Photoshop.
Read more...How to Design Buttons to Help Improve Usability
September 10th, 2009 — 60 Comments
Buttons can play a big part in how visitors interact with a website. They come in varying shapes, sizes and styles but there are a few things to consider when designing buttons:
- Use of Icons
- Look and Feel
- Behaviour
- Importance
- Consistency
Use of Icons
Using icons as part of buttons can help improve usability by providing a visual aid making it more obvious to the user as to what function the button provides. Below are examples of buttons incorporating icons and shapes to do just that:
7 Very Simple Tips and Tricks for getting More out of WordPress
August 27th, 2009 — 45 Comments
WordPress is a very powerful blogging and CMS tool but as with all content management systems it needs tweaking to meet certain needs. Here are seven things you can do to get more out of WordPress with very little effort.
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