Links of the Week 7
July 24th, 2009 — 2 Comments
Photoshop tutorials, taming IE6, open source fonts, Typekit and doctypes for designers.
The 32 Best Photoshop Tutorials Of July 2009
A collection of the best Photoshop tutorials posted this month.
Definitive Guide to Taming the IE6 Beast
Lately there have been a number of sites popping up lately that are calling for the death of IE6 but this article goes the opposite way and demonstrates little tips and tricks that will help you code in everyone’s most hated browser.
The League of Moveable Type
High quality, open source fonts available for use with @f0nt-face with the goal of improving typography on the web.
First impressions of Typekit
The opposite end of typography on the web is Typekit. Basically it is a method of using @font-face with chosen commercial fonts. The fonts are loaded in by javascript and hidden from the users in such a way that the font can’t be stolen. It’s certainly something to keep your eye on as it looks very promising.
Doctypes, for Designers
Simple explanations of what the different doctypes are and how they behave.
Read more...Links of the Week 6
July 17th, 2009 — No Comments
Look outside for inspiration, site map css, animate a curtain using jQuery, better password inputs and Pixel Perfect.
Looking outside to gain inspiration
The From the Couch guys encourage a very simple idea to go outside to gain inspiration. I know it works for me because some of my best ideas come from when I go out for a walk. Wether it’s to or from work, during your lunch break or even just at the weekend, go outside and be inspired.
SlickMap CSS
Site maps tend not to get much attention when it comes to design so this is a very simple way to make a drab site map look good and interesting.
Animate Curtains Opening with jQuery
A very creative use of jQuery simulating a theatre style curtain opening and closing. Certainly a tutorial that will make you smile.
Better Password Inputs, iPhone Style
Ever since Jakob Nielsen’s controversial comments about not masking web passwords, I immediately thought of the way the iPhone handled passwords and up pops Chris Coyier, right on cue!
Pixel Perfect
This is one for all you perfectionist. Pixel Perfect is a Firefox plugin (requires Firebug) that allows you to overlay a design over the top of a site development.
Read more...Links of the Week 5
July 10th, 2009 — No Comments
Icons for Interaction
John Hicks, the designer of the original Firefox logo and the MailChimp, shares his slides from his @media talk. A must read.
HTML 5 and CSS 3: The Techniques You’ll Soon Be Using
Now that XHTML 2 is disappearing here’s a tutorial that will show you how we’ll be coding with HTML 5 in the near future.
30 Most Influential People In Web Design
A great list of the most influential people in the web design industry. I follow most of them on Twitter and you should too.
12 Excellent Social News Sites for Web Designers
It’s not exactly hard to find web design blogs, articles or tutorials but these sites do a good job of bringing them to you.
Color and Typography in Good Design
Colour and Typography are key components of web design so here is a run-down of how to use them well.
Read more...Links of the Week 4
July 3rd, 2009 — 3 Comments
Colorotate
A very fancy 3D colour picker. Need I say more? Well worth checking out.
HTMLIPSUM
Yet another great project from Chris Coyier. It’s a collection of HTML elements pre-populated with Lorem Ipsum text. Could be a time saver.
Fontex
Hand picks free fonts for you to use in projects as you see fit.
HTML Entity Character Lookup
Have you ever struggled to remember what the HTML code for ampersand or for a specific currency symbol? I know I have so I’ll be making this my first stop next time.
Why Designers Should Learn How to Code
I firmly believe that web designers should learn to code CSS if they’re not already, so anything I see out there that backs that backs up my view is a plus.
Read more...Links of the Week 3
June 26th, 2009 — No Comments
Users Place More Weight on Design
An interesting piece about how users are getting used to good visual design and how they are turning away from sites with “poor visual presentation”.
Advanced Form Styling & Functionality
A fantastic screencast by Chris Coyier about some advanced form design techniques using jQuery. A must for anyone, not just web form design geeks such as myself.
Apple vs. Microsoft – A Website Usability Study
A very interesting study by Dmitry Fadeyev of Usability Post, who goes into detail of the major design differences of two major computer companies and sees who comes out on top.
Styling your Lists: 20+ Brilliant How to’s and Best Practices
Lists are often neglected when it comes to design, at least compared to other elements yet it is important that they are designed well or you can lose the benefits that lists can bring.
12 Tips For Designing an Excellent Checkout Process
A great post by Smashing Magazine pointing out some of the key techniques when designing a checkout process. Most of these tips could also be used in general web design too.
Read more...Links of the Week 2
June 19th, 2009 — 1 Comment
CSS3 Exciting Functions and Features: 30+ Useful Tutorials
Any designer/developer keeping up with the times must know how to use CSS3 to their advantage so familiarise yourself with this extensive list of tutorials.
Full Screen Image Gallery Using jQuery and Flickr
Very cool use of jQuery and Flickr.
The Do’s & Don’ts of Modern Web Design
Very simple idea but anything that highlights best practices and techniques that you shouldn’t use in web design is great. Each post is a very brief summary of the topic with a link to a full external article.
Usability Post
One of the best blogs about usability out there. Posts generally look at existing designs used on other sites and say what works and what doesn’t work. A good number of quality posts that you’ll learn a lot from.
Sliding Boxes and Captions with jQuery
Great little tutorial demonstrating some very simple but cool effects using jQuery. Check out the demo page to see them in action.
Links of the Week 1
June 12th, 2009 — 3 Comments
Iconfinder
If you’ve ever had trouble finding the perfect icons for a project then Icon Finder will almost certainly find one for you. You can even limit the pixel size by using the handy slider at the top of the search results page.  Make sure that you check the license to see what usage rights you have by clicking on the info button on any icon. Bookmark it now!
Taking the Guesswork out of Design
As usual, an excellent post from the top minds at A List Apart. Make sure you read it.
Web Design from the Gut
Nishant Kothary talks us through the redesign of MIX Online and the ups and downs of how they got to the what you see now. It’s always interesting to see how other designers work and their thinking behind their decisions, so may sure you check it out.
How to Set Up a Killer WordPress Testing Environment Locally
A great way to get WordPress setup on a Mac. Don’t worry, you can do the exact same on Windows too.
What is Vertical Align?
Handy, underused CSS technique for getting icons lined up just the way you want them.
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