Archive for Design
Jun8
Tags: Design
Written in Design | 2 Comments »
I’m probably a bit late on the band wagon here, as this was posted on Vimeo 4 months ago but this is a very interesting idea, which allows anyone to create comic
Unleash your creativity online with the award-winning online comic creator, Pixton.com.
Pixton started off as a pet project of Clive Goodinson launched in January 08, and has grown by word-of-mouth into a multilingual global community.
Go on Express yourself in a whole new way! Visit Pixton
Have you used Pixton before? If you have I’d love to hear what you think or see what your comic!
Mar24
Tags: Design, Tutorials
Written in Design | No Comments »
Just read a very interesting post on http://fortysevenmedia.com/blog entitled “A non-profit’s Guide to Websites“, I have to give kudos where kudos are due, not only are these guys extremely gifted at what they do but they also like to give back and practise what they preach.
The article covers 10 key steps in the guide;
- Evaluate your current website
- Design Usability
- The Importance of Great Content
- Good Icons and Photography
- Blogs
- RSS Feeds
- The Power of Social Media
- SEO – Search Engine Optimisation
- Getting Help
- Technical Stuff
I think there is are not only points to note for non-profits in this article but also alot of designers out there including myself. Check out the post here
And they went a step further with this little gem of a post on design creativity and a top 10 tips for creating kick “awesome” (may require a TM) websites;
- Think like a website
- Web typography
- Subtle effects
- Variations of the same color
- Grids aren’t evil
- Graphics and icons
- Details
- Beauty can’t be skin deep
- Design solves problems
- Code architecture
Head on over and check out their fantastic blog
Mar9
Tags: Design, Email, Re-design
Written in Design, Email, Standards | 1 Comment »
The guys a Campaign Monitor just posted a great article on their redesign process for their own email newsletter. A very interesting and useful article
Read the article here
Before starting the design process, I made the effort to re-read the big pile of design advice we’ve been handing out on this site for the last 4 years
.. It just shows everyone needs to go back to the drawing board every now and then
Please feel free to leave any feedback here
Mar31
Tags: Design, Wordpress
Written in Design, Wordpress | 4 Comments »
I have just upgraded to WP2.5 and bar a few minor mishaps
Maintanence Mode
I used Maintenance Mode in order to have a temporary splash page, this worked fine until all the new files were copied over and then I was unable to gain access to wp admin to upgrade. I renamed the MM plugin, ran the upgrade and all was then aok.
NexGen Gallery
NexGen Gallery required an upgrade which was a nice and simple one click operation as well as a number of other plugins all of which went well. I re-implemented the mods I made in NexGen and another hurdle was jumped.
Plugins
Finally a few of the plugins I had been using would no longer work e.g. advanced-admin-menus
.. apart from that the upgrade was seemless ..
Check back soon for my thoughts on WP2.5 but your comments are also more than welcome
Mar4
Tags: IE8, Standards
Written in CSS, Design, Standards | 1 Comment »
Microsoft has reversed its decision to make IE8 behave like IE7 unless specifically requested and will interpret web content in the most standards compliant way by default.
Background
Microsoft were to use a new site versioning feature in IE8; a meta tag which would be used to define which version of the IE rendering engine should be used:
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=8" />
This caused an outrage in standards groups because this statement stated IE7’s rendering engine would be used by default. This meant that IE7s poor rendering engine would be used unless the above meta tag was included in your web page.
Now Microsoft have done a U-turn and have stated;
There is a concrete benefit to Web designers if all vendors give priority to interoperability around commonly accepted standards as they evolve
It seems Microsoft have taken on what the developer community have been saying / shouting which is a complete turn around compared to their usual strategy to ignore. Even there long term goals are now going in the right direction
Long term, we believe this is the right thing for the web. Shorter term, leading up not just to IE8’s release but broader IE8 adoption, this choice creates a clear call to action to site developers to make sure their web content works well in IE.
Hopefully this new strategy will filter down to other Microsoft products and a standardisation harmony will follow ..
You can read more in the following press release entitled Microsoft’s Interoperability Principles and IE8 and more on the reason for the change – Microsoft Expands Support for Web Standards
